• Ethan Baron
• PUBLISHED: March 17, 2020 at 3:54 p.m. | UPDATED: March 18, 2020 at 3:30 a.m.
• Categories:Business, California News, Economy, Latest Headlines, Nation & World, News, Politics, Technology

Applicants for the H-1B visa hoping to accelerate their submissions by paying extra for premium processing won t be able to obtain that service when this year s application period opens April 1, federal authorities announced.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration has temporarily suspended premium at the start of each H-1B application season since 2017.

The agency said the move, for applicants subject to the annual cap on new visas, would help us to reduce overall H-1B processing times.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/17/h-1b-premium-processing-suspended-for-upcoming-visa-application-season/amp/

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4905563002

We're seeing confusion, despair and even suicide after Trump rule on aid to immigrants
The Trump administration says coronavirus tests and treatment won't count against 'aliens' as a public charge. But how many will risk seeking care?
RANIA AWAAD | OPINION CONTRIBUTOR | 10 hours ago

Two days after President Donald Trump announced a rule last August that made immigrants ineligible for residency and citizenship if they relied on government benefits, a 28-year-old Iranian asylum seeker died by suicide. His county-based social worker in Northern California later told me that Rouzbeh, who went by Adam, had confided in her that his suicidal thoughts stemmed from this new "public charge" rule. Despite reassurance from his family and social worker, he said it made him feel unsafe.

Adam, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, believed that he would likely be extradited back to Iran on account of accessing public mental health services for his depression, not speaking English well and accumulating a large debt from an emergency hospital visit all examples listed in the new rule as potential reasons to deny immigrants American citizenship. Complicating matters, extradition would mean a one-way trip back to the very conditions Adam was trying to escape by seeking asylum. Iran is one of the 13 countries listed in Trump s now expanded travel ban.

As it turns out, refugees and asylum seekers are exempt from the expanded public charge rule. Adam's unfortunate misinterpretation highlights the confusion surrounding this new policy. And he wasn't the only one. As I was helping plan a community healing event after Adam's death, two other families reached out to our team. That was how we discovered there were three suicides by a refugee or asylum seeker from the same county following Trump's public charge announcement.

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article241196746.html

When immigration officials rolled out their public charge rule last month, people who were sick were deemed a burden to the U.S. and their health conditions were counted against them when applying for a green card.

Late Friday, however, part of that changed at least when it comes to coronavirus, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced. Any immigrant who gets tested or treated for the virus will not be negatively impacted.

U.S. Travel Ban Extended to United Kingdom and Ireland Over Coronavirus

https://time.com/5803261/trump-travel-ban-united-kingdom-ireland/

I have two middle names which has proven to be a challenge to live with here in the US.... So now I want to drop one of the middle names, does that count as a name change? Nothing changes other than 1 of my 4 names disappeares. Can I do this change in connection with filing for naturalization (online?)?