Length of Immigration Applications Increased Significantly

[Greg.D.]

Sorry, I could not find a calmer article discussing this, but this one caused me to look at the new I-485 form (the old ones were meant to expire in Dec 2018, the new ones 6/30/2019).

Some questions on the new one:

1. Have you ever been arrested, cited, charged, or detained for any reason by any reason by any law enforcement official (including but not limited to any U.S. Immigration official or any official of the U.S. Armed forces or U.S. Coast Guard)?

2. Have you EVER committed a crime of any kind (even if you were not arrested, cited, charged with, or tried for that crime)?

The second of the two examples I put up there is definitely a minefield.

https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-admin-doubles-immigration-form-length-says-itll-take-no-more-time-do-0

 

Increased complexity and ambiguity may increase need to hire an attorney. No comment re whether or not it will speed things up or slow them down:

 

 

Admininistration Doubles Immigration Form Length, Says It’ll Take No More Time to Do

 

The Trump administration has quietly made immigration more difficult for people seeking to immigrate to the United States. It has increased the length of immigration applications significantly. Since January, it has increased the length of 15 immigration forms, yet at the same time, it claims that most of these forms will take no more time to complete. The table below presents a list of all of the forms that the new administration has increased since

January and how long each administration estimated the forms would take to complete.

 

 

Collectively, immigration forms have doubled in length, but key forms like the I-485 to adjust to permanent residency were tripled. The I-130 to sponsor a relative increased sixfold. U.S. citizens will need to fill out nine times as many pages to sponsor a spouse as they did last year. It’s a monsoon of bureaucracy.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Greg.D. (see edit history)

[wawster]

Holy moley!

 

This is going to impact a lot of folks heavily. It's also going to impact folks like us in trying to help others who are going through the process.

I know this goes through cycles, but this is a bad downturn, IMHO.

[Muscley_Love]

The i-130 is 12 pages long, but at least 2 or 3 of them at the end are not really applicable in all cases.

 

How has the i-130 increased?

[Randy W]

The i-130 is 12 pages long, but at least 2 or 3 of them at the end are not really applicable in all cases.

 

How has the i-130 increased?

 

from Greg's post above

 

 

The I-130 to sponsor a relative increased sixfold.

 

but that increase was due to consolidation of multiple forms into the I-130 for the petitioner, and the I-130a for the intending immigrant - dated 2/27/2017

 

See Advice needed on I-130, new Form I-130A

 

For the I-485

 

 

 

06/26/17. Starting 08/25/2017, we will only accept the 06/26/17 edition. Until then, you can use 01/17/17 edition. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the form and instructions.

[Greg.D.]

The thing about the new I-485 when adjusting from the K-1, which is now a very different form from the old one, is you can be denied a green card AFTER you've married and maybe even had a baby. And, if you did AP and background check (for CCP issues) en route to your K-1, you have to do it again and, presumably, could fail a test that you passed before.

 

So, I'm confounding two things: AOS and CCP background check, but together they make K-1 a much less attractive option (and still more expensive, too). I-485, starting in Section 8, has 4 pages of questions most of which are about prostitution, terrorism, spying, human trafficking - but many, which are aimed at finding criminal activity, could trip up a well-intentioned applicant.

[ktmracer]

It looks like it could be back to the "Black Hole Days"