U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published a press release advising anyone who has filed Form I-130 (“Petition for Alien Relative”) with a U.S. embassy since July 2006 that they do not need to re-file these petitions.  The confusion stems from a January 2007 State Department announcement that certain requirements of the “Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act” precluded them from accepting additional petitions to process.  

U.S. citizens who live abroad may continue to file new petitions with a nearby USCIS international office.  A list of offices and the countries they service can be found at www.uscis.gov.  For additional instructions on the I-130, visit www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-130.pdf.  

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U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo [R-CO], perhaps the most vocal proponent in the U.S. House for stricter immigration laws, has found himself distantly trailing other Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential race, the Rocky Mountain News of Denver reports.  In a Los Angeles Times survey of 165 Republican National Committee members were asked about their favorite and least favorite candidates for the 2008 GOP presidential Nomination.  When asked for their first choice for a nominee, Tancredo was given 1 percent approval, the lowest among Republican candidates.  It the category of candidates they “refused to support,” Tancredo got 6 percent of the vote, making him third behind Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. John Hagel of Nebraska.  

Tancredo has become reputable for supporting the strictest initiatives in immigration reform.  The Tribune of Denver reports that earlier this year, Tancredo received attention for seeking the deportation of individual undocumented immigrant families, including Jesus Apodaca, a high school senior who had to pay out-of-state tuition to attend the University of Colorado, despite being raised in the state, because his family immigrated illegally.  

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association reports that U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone has announced the immediate resumption of non-immigrant visa services at the American Embassy in Freetown . Immigrant Visas are still processed in Dakar and Diversity Visas (DV) are still processed in Abidjan . The Ambassador noted that nonimmigrant visa application procedures have changed since 1997 when the Embassy last processed visas, including the requirement that applications be submitted on the internet in accordance with the U.S. Government’s worldwide requirements. Other changes include making visa interview appointments via the internet instead of queuing at the Embassy, and paying the visa application fee at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank in Freetown in advance of the appointment.

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