{"id":58373,"date":"2020-08-26T20:13:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T00:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=58373"},"modified":"2020-08-26T20:29:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T00:29:59","slug":"uscis-furlough-nado-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=58373","title":{"rendered":"USCIS Furlough-Nado UPDATE!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Sharknado-kill-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58374\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Sharknado-kill-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Sharknado-kill-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Sharknado-kill-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Sharknado-kill.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>GOOD NEWS<\/strong>: USCIS has agreed to call off its planned furlough of 13,500 employees which had been scheduled for this weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BAD NEWS:<\/strong> In exchange for this, the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously agreed to let USCIS raise the premium processing fee from $1440 to $2500 for O and P petitions and cancel the outside contractors who help process and intake petitions, thereby slowing down standard processing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There has, as yet, been no announcement of when\nthe higher premium processing fee will go into effect. As with the other recent\nfee increases, USCIS will be required to go through a regulatory processes\nwhereby they will ask for public comment, ignore that, and then raise the fee\nanyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, just in case you&#8217;re not following along:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>USCIS got into this financial mess was because its policies resulted in fewer people filing petitions and, therefore, less revenue.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>It stamped its foot and threated furloughs and slowdowns unless it got $1.3 billion dollars by August 30. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>They knew that they were never likely to get $1.3 billion from an administration that would prefer them just to shut down completely. &nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>So, USCIS has agreed to cancel the furloughs in exchange for being allowed to slow everything down anyway with the expectation that this will force people to pay for premium processing, and then raise the premium processing fee so that fewer people can afford it, thereby resulting in even fewer people filing petitions. &nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On a related note, historians have recently unearthed a photo of the skeletal remains of Ken Cuccinelli, the Acting (\u201cillegally\u201d) Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services taken just prior to when Trump poured rabid squirrel blood into his tomb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"601\" height=\"329\" src=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Head-Up-Ass-Skeleton.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Head-Up-Ass-Skeleton.jpg 601w, http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Head-Up-Ass-Skeleton-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\" style=\"grid-template-columns:23% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"146\" height=\"144\" src=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/GG-Arts-Law-Logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58376\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><strong>GG Arts Law provides a comprehensive range of legal services and strategic support for the performing arts, including: Artist Visas, Taxes, and Touring; Rights &amp; Licensing; Negotiations &amp; Representation; Contracts; Business &amp; Non-Profit Organization &amp; Management; Project Management; and Strategic Consulting &amp; Planning.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"background-color:#3400a3\" class=\"has-text-color has-background has-text-align-center has-large-font-size has-very-light-gray-color\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ggartslaw.com\">VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>THE OFFICIAL LEGALESE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>THIS\nIS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\npurpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal\nadvice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific\ncircumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders,\npast-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation\nbefore drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a\nnasty or threatening email to someone, filing a lawsuit, or basically doing\nanything that may in any way rely upon an assumption that we know what we are\ntalking about. <\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:34px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=58373\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GOOD NEWS: USCIS has agreed to call off its planned furlough of 13,500 employees which had been scheduled for this weekend. BAD NEWS: In exchange for this, the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously agreed to let USCIS raise the premium processing fee from $1440 to $2500 for O and P petitions and cancel the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[872,873],"tags":[4603,4606,1962,2338],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58373"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58373"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58384,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58373\/revisions\/58384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}