How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting immigration procedures?

Most of us are aware of the uncertainty that many non-immigrant foreigners have when they cannot return to their countries of origin as a result of the pandemic that is plaguing us, due to the fact that there are no outbound flights to those places and surely also in these circumstances. So extraordinary they will not have the resources or enough money to face it, so many of these foreigners will see their tourist visas expire or they will see their work stay or student exchange permits among others expire, which could jeopardize their right to your stay to someone who is temporarily in this country.

As an example, we can say that for the renewal of a Permit to Stay, the non-immigrant foreigner would have to pay $ 370 for form I-539, an amount that was obviously not budgeted.

But what is the current policy or response to this?

Until now there has been no pronouncement by the immigration authorities on this matter; It is known that the extension of status or Visa can be done online since only the activities with the public were directly suspended but all other activities continue the same.

On the other hand, the American Immigration Lawyers Association filed a lawsuit against the Immigration Agency USCIS before the Federal Court of Columbia, requesting that they order a temporary suspension of expirations of Visas, Work permits and any other benefits of Foreigners. who are in the country with a non-immigrant visa, whether they are tourists, students or foreign workers.

If you need more information on this subject, do not hesitate to call us or if you wish, you can contact the USCIS Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services to find out your immigration situation by visiting the website.
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/uscis-response-coronavirus-2019-covid-19