White House and congressional negotiators are discussing steps that officials say could potentially fill detention centers and halt the apprehension of migrants at the border.
We need everyone to Tell Senators: Do NOT trade asylum for emergency funding. Currently, a bipartisan group of Senators are negotiating a deal to pass funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan in exchange for extreme, permanent changes to U.S. immigration and asylum law. This tradeoff would destroy refugee protections for people seeking safety and increase chaos at the US-Mexico border. We need your help to urge Senators to reject bad-faith deals meant to make it impossible to seek safety in the U.S. and deport people back to danger. Here is a call-in script that you can use to contact your senators to reject bad-faith deals meant to make it impossible to seek safety in the U.S. and deport people back to danger.
USCIS Expands myProgress to Form I-485 and Form I-821
On Nov. 21, we announced the availability of myProgress (formerly known as personalized processing times) for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, and Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status. myProgress will initially only be available for family-based or Afghan special immigrant Form I-485 applicants.
Applicants with a pending Form I-485 or Form I-821 can now log in to their USCIS online account to view confirmation of completed steps and estimated wait times until the next step in their case processing is completed, including:
Confirmation that the application was received;
Movement of the application through preprocessing and adjudicative steps; and
The case decision.
This is an important step in our efforts to improve the experience of the people we serve, increase transparency in adjudications, and reduce Contact Center wait times.
myProgress updates will be available for applications filed online or for paper-filed cases later linked to a USCIS online account using an online access code. Visit our How to Create a USCIS Online Account webpage for instructions on linking a paper-filed form to a USCIS online account.
All applicants and petitioners must still use the Check Case Processing Times webpage to determine eligibility to file an Outside of Normal Processing Times service request.
For more information on myProgress, see the full announcement. We will hold outreach activities to ensure applicants, petitioners, and interested parties are familiar with myProgress.
The BEAD Plan is for the physical extension of Broadband into every house, we heard from Dr McLaughlin regarding the Digital Equity Plan which is focused on 8 marginalized communities’ in NH and on Language, Culture, Wealth etc.
You can find the draft BEAD Plan here along with how to submit your comments:
You are subscribed to the announcements from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC). See the latest updates here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor
November 17, 2023. The Departments of Labor and Homeland Security Publish Rule Increasing the Number of H-2B Visas Available in Fiscal Year 2024
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Homeland Security (DHS) have published a temporary final rule (TFR) increasing the numerical limitation on H-2B nonimmigrant visas to authorize the issuance of no more than 64,716 additional visas for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 positions to employers that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested under the cap increase. Of the 64,716 visas available, up to 44,716 are limited to H-2B returning workers, and up to 20,000 are reserved for nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica. The TFR provides additional protections for U.S. workers, flexibility for foreign workers, and additional recruitment requirements for certain employers.
In support of this rule, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has posted the new Form ETA-9142-B-CAA-8 and the accompanying instructions. The TFR requires an employer to attest, among other things, to the fact that it is suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested under the cap increase. This attestation must be submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) along with Form I-129, in support of an H-2B application subject to the H-2B cap. DHS will not accept any H-2B petitions under provisions related to the FY 2024 supplemental numerical allocations after September 16, 2024, and will not approve any such H-2B petitions after September 30, 2024. The attestation is also available on the Forms page of the OFLC website at: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/forms.
PLEASE NOTE: The TFR requires employers with a certified start date which is 30 or more days prior to the submission of their visa petition to USCIS to engage in additional recruitment of U.S. workers. Employers required to conduct additional recruitment must provide OFLC with the case number for each temporary certification which will be used in support of a visa petition to USCIS concurrently with their placement of new job orders with the State Workforce Agency. Employers who must conduct this concurrent notification requirement are encouraged to notify OFLC National Processing Center by sending an email to H2Bsupplementalvisas@dol.gov, and including the words “H-2B TFR 2024 Recruitment” followed by the unique temporary labor certification case number in the subject line of the email.
Enter to Win a Gift Basket Supporting Local Vendors – Spread the Word!
Dear Community Partners,
As we work to complete our 2023 Greater Nashua Community Health Assessment (CHA), we continue to promote a community survey to gather data from the Greater Nashua Region. The goal of this survey is to gauge people’s perception of health in their communities. All of the data collected from this survey will be used in the 2023 Greater Nashua CHA that will be published in the winter on our Interactive Data Dashboard.
The overarching goal for the CHA is to engage community members, identify emerging issues, and set the foundation for future programming in the Region. Conducting a CHA allows us to gain a better understanding of the health concerns and needs of our community by identifying, collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information on the community’s assets, strengths, resources, and needs.
We are encouraging all members of our community to participate in this survey. We would like to continue to invite you as community partners to both take the survey and share on your social media platforms and website. Please help us to spread the word!
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today a change in the filing location for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, when filed with Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, as part of efforts to increase efficiency by reducing USCIS’ footprint at the service centers, digitizing the process, and reducing costs.
Important Information On Nov. 13, 2023, the filing location for newly filed Forms I-140 filed at the same time with Form I-907 will change from USCIS service centers to USCIS lockboxes.
This change in filing location does not apply if you are filing Form I-907 for a currently pending Form I-140, or if you are filing Form I-140 with an associated application (such as Form I-765, Form I-131, or Form I-485). We will soon announce filing location changes for these forms, but at this time, they should be filed with the service centers, as listed on the Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker page.
At this time, the lockboxes will reject any Form I-907 filed with a Form I-140 that has an associated Form I-131, Form I-485, or Form I-765. These types of Form I-907 requests should continue to be filed with service centers as listed on the Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker page.
Where to File Starting Nov. 13, 2023, please use the following addresses when mailing Form I-140 and Form I-907 together to USCIS. Starting Dec. 13, USCIS will reject any Form I-907 filed with Form I-140 that is received at the previous service center address.
USCIS Elgin Lockbox
U.S. Postal Service (USPS): USCISAttn: Premium I-140 P.O. Box 4008 Carol Stream, IL 60197-4008
FedEx, UPS, and DHL deliveries: USCIS Attn: Premium I-140 (Box 4008) 2500 Westfield Drive Elgin, IL 60124-7836
Report includes new efforts to strengthen migrant worker protections
WASHINGTON – Today, in the White House H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce report, the U.S. Department of Labor joined the Department of Homeland Security, Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development to announce new efforts to strengthen protections for workers in the H-2B program, who are vulnerable to exploitation by their employers.
Each agency involved in the task force is committed to key actions aimed at improving the safety and security of all workers under the H-2B program and ensuring American workers are not disadvantaged when employers use the visa program. These actions include better protecting workers engaged in labor disputes, addressing exploitation during recruitment, sharing resources with workers to inform them of their rights, enhancing data sharing and participating in a new working group dedicated to H-2 workers’ rights.
The announcement is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s whole-of-government approach to ensuring our most vulnerable workers know their rights, are protected from abuse at the hands of their employers and can advocate for themselves at work.
“The H-2B program has been plagued by worker exploitation for too long,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “The Biden-Harris administration is committed to protecting H2-B workers from abuse and with this report, we’re taking a whole-of-government approach to protecting these vulnerable workers, which will also help ensure they are not used to undercut labor standards for domestic workers. We look forward to working with our sister agencies across the federal government to implement these recommendations and work towards better protecting every worker in America.”
The White House Taskforce report announces more than a dozen action items to be taken across the federal government to advance protections for H-2B and, in select cases, H-2A workers. Partnering with the White House, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Labor will:
Reduce workers’ vulnerability to exploitation from labor recruiters and employers by using enhanced information collection from other agencies, making it easier to prevent and enforce against exploitation by recruiters.
Empower workers by identifying and developing resources designed to provide workers with information about their rights under H-2 programs and disseminating information widely, including through MigrantWorker.gov and through additional task force agency channels.
Leverage existing data to increase transparency and reduce the vulnerability of H-2 workers through interagency data sharing, which will improve outreach and streamline responses to labor law violations.
Participate in a new interagency H-2 Worker Protection Working Group to guide the implementation of deliverables described in the task force report.
One of the city’s goals is to provide residents with affordable and fair housing. Unfortunately, can still be a prevalent issue.
Take the Survey
The survey consists of questions about personal housing experiences, safety, affordability, accessibility, conditions of homes and neighborhoods, and possible changes that can be made to improve housing. To take the survey, please visit:
Realice la encuesta en español La encuesta consta de preguntas sobre experiencias personales de vivienda, seguridad, asequibilidad, accesibilidad, condición de viviendas y vecindarios, y posibles cambios que se pueden realizar para mejorar la vivienda. Para realizar la encuesta en español, por favor visita:
A pesquisa consiste em perguntas sobre experiências pessoais de habitação, segurança, preços acessíveis, acessibilidade, condições das casas e bairros e possíveis mudanças que podem ser feitas para melhorar a habitação. Para responder à pesquisa em português, acesse:
One of the city’s goals is to provide residents with affordable and fair housing. Unfortunately, housing discrimination can still be a prevalent issue. Housing discrimination occurs when someone is treated unequally when trying to buy, rent, sell, or finance housing because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, or sexual orientation. For more information, contact Nashua Regional Planning Commission at (603) 417-6570 or via email: kathyk@nashuarpc.org
