Prohibit Regulatory Actions on USCIS Forms
USCIS should amend its regulations to stop automatically incorporating all form instruction changes into its regulations, bypassing notice and public comment procedures.
USCIS requires employers and applicants for immigration benefits to use forms that it creates to collect information.[i] Along with these forms, USCIS publishes detailed instructions that explain to applicants how they must fill out the form and the types of information or evidence that must be provided. USCIS’s regulations currently assert that all form instruction changes are incorporated into the regulations themselves.[ii] The clause allows the agency to evade a slew of federal statutes and presidential directives including the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Regulatory Flexibility Act, Executive Orders 12866 and 13563, and OMB Circular A-4.[iii] It allows the agency to effectively change its regulations with only minimal notice under the Paperwork Reduct
Prohibit Regulatory Actions on USCIS
Forms
USCIS should amend its regulations
to stop automatically incorporating all form instruction changes
into its regulations, bypassing notice and public comment
procedures.
USCIS requires employers and applicants
for immigration benefits to use forms that it creates to collect
information.
1 Along with these forms, USCIS
publishes detailed instructions that explain to applicants how they
must fill out the form and the types of information or evidence
that must be provided. USCIS s regulations currently assert
that all form instruction changes are incorporated into the
regulations themselves.
2 The clause allows the agency to
evade a slew of federal statutes and presidential directives
RFEs 2020: 40%
A 2005 USCIS policy memorandum prohibits issuing RFEs “for a broad range of evidence when, after review of the record so far, only a small number of types of evidence is required” because it concludes broad‐brush RFEs “overburden our customers, over‐document the file, and waste examination resources through the review of unnecessary, duplicative, or irrelevant documents.”[i] USCIS will often create “template” RFEs that generally describe issues that can come up, but the memorandum tells adjudicators not to “‘dump’ the entire template in [an] RFE; instead, the record must be examined for what is missing, and a limited, specific RFE should be sent.”
Let L-2 and E Spouses Work without an Employment Authorization
Document
USCIS should expressly authorize employment for L-2 and E
spouses without requiring the spouse to apply for an employment
authorization document.
The L-1 visa category allows multinational companies to transfer
certain skilled foreign employees to the United States, such as
managers, executives, and skilled workers with specialized
knowledge. The E visa allows similar categories of foreign
nationals from countries where the United States has a treaty
of commerce and navigation to carry out substantial trade
(E-1), develop and direct the operations of a business (E-2), or
perform services in a specialty occupation if from Australia (E-3).
Let L-2 and E Spouses Work without an Employment Authorization Document
USCIS should expressly authorize employment for L-2 and E spouses without requiring the spouse to apply for an employment authorization document.
The L-1 visa category allows multinational companies to transfer certain skilled foreign employees to the United States, such as managers, executives, and skilled workers with specialized knowledge. The E visa allows similar categories of foreign nationals from countries where the United States has “a treaty of commerce and navigation” to carry out substantial trade (E-1), develop and direct the operations of a business (E-2), or perform services in a specialty occupation if from Australia (E-3). The law entitles the spouses of these workers to derivative status,[i] and it requires that USCIS “authorize the alien spouse to engage in employment in the United States and provide the spouse with an ‘employment authorized’ endorsement or other appropriate work