According to a recent report in The Hill, a few Democratic lawmakers are confident we have a president willing to use executive authority to further loosen the waiver of inadmissibility process, even while Congress gingerly inches forward on a framework for comprehensive immigration reform.  “Four million of the undocumented are people who overstayed their visas to stay with family.  So that would be, I think, an area in which there’s a great deal of executive authority that he could deal with” said Rep. Raul Grijava (D-Ariz.), who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

This is wishful thinking, a rogue cannonball across the channel to the fortress on the right from the fortress on the left.  But the statement does telegraph current high-level discussion of potential administrative action loosening the stateside waiver process, if Congress gets bogged down in stonewalling and acrimony and the president becomes so inclined.

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On August 2, 2012, USCIS posted the following update on their website regarding new centralized procedures for filing I-601 or I-212 waivers of inadmissibility from abroad.  Applicants abroad who have been determined to be inadmissible for immigrant visas and K or V nonimmigrant visas must now file with the USCIS lockbox at the Nebraska Service Center.  The sole exception applies only to residents of Mexico, who continue to have the option of filing waivers of inadmissibility at the USCIS Field office in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.

Notice Regarding USCIS Centralized Filing for Waivers of Inadmissibility

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent this bulletin at 08/02/2012 04:13 PM EDT

Since June 4, 2012, individuals outside the U.S. who have been found inadmissible for certain visas by a U.S. consular officer and seek to waive an inadmissibility ground should no longer apply for a waiver at their foreign location, but should file requests directly to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by mailing the application to a USCIS Lockbox facility in the United States.  This change only affects situations where individuals outside the U.S., who have been found inadmissible for an immigrant visa or a nonimmigrant K or V visa, must file their waiver applications.  These waiver applications are adjudicated at the USCIS Nebraska Service Center (NSC).

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