On December 16, the Trump Administration issued a newly enlarged travel ban restricting the entry of nationals of 20 new countries (as well as the Palestinian Authority) and cutting back on exceptions included in the prior ban.  With this expansion, roughly 1 in 5 people seeking to immigrate to the USA legally are now barred from doing so and hundreds of thousands more seeking non-immigrant visas to visit or reside temporarily will now be unable to do so.

Because the travel ban restricts entry, it will not impact those who are currently present in the US.  Be advised, however, that in November, USCIS put in place a blanket pause on the approval of ALL immigration benefits for nationals subject to the earlier June travel ban.  This  suspension applies to all benefits, including visa petitions, green-card applications and citizenship oath ceremonies.

With the 20 new countries added to the travel ban, this means that hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise qualify to obtain, maintain or change their status under current immigration laws and procedures — are now in limbo, as are their family members or employers who may seek to sponsor them.

This post originally appeared in Immigration Impact and we thank them for this information.

More detail: https://discuss.ilw.com/articles/articles/601826-article-president-trump-expands-his-travel-ban-what-you-need-to-know-by-aaron-reichlin-melnick-for-immigration-impact