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What's New

  • Fraud in the Refugee Family Reunification (Priority Three/P-3) Program  
    The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has recently posted a new Fact Sheet of findings of a DNA sample testing of refugee cases due to reported fraud in the P-3 program, particularly in Kenya.  See PRM web site fact sheet for details.
  • Updated Information Available on Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Benefits:
    The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) recently updated its reference chart on immigrant eligibility for federal benefits. The chart explains immigrant eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and other federal benefits. The chart is available on the NILC website.  In addition, NILC has updated its article, “Overview of Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs” .  
  • USCIS Announces New Edition of Form N-648 - Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions:
    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revised Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions, to further clarify the requirements for the exception and the basis for preparing a medical certification for applicants and medical professionals. The new edition of Form N-648 was made available on www.uscis.gov on Nov. 3, 2008. After Dec. 15, 2008, USCIS will no longer accept older editions of Form N-648. See USCIS letter for more information and details.
  • SSI Extension for Refugees Signed Into Law: 
    Refugees and other humanitarian immigrants, whose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits were available only during a seven-year time period, may receive SSI for at least two additional years. Under a new law effective today, October 1, 2008, humanitarian immigrants whose SSI was cut off or who were denied SSI due to the expiration of this time period should contact the Social Security Administration  immediately to apply for the extension. The new law provides a third year of benefits for humanitarian immigrants who have a naturalization application pending at the end of the two-year extension. The extensions of SSI eligibility expire in the year 2011 under a sunset provision in H.R. 2608, "The SSI Extension for Elderly and Disabled Refugees Act.  See the  SSI Extension FAQ page and visit the National Immigration Law Center  web site for more details.
  • 2008 Refugee Summit - Speaker Handouts Available Online! 
    Powerpoint presentations and handouts provided by Workshop and Plenary speakers at 2008 Refugee Summit are now available online.  The material is available in portable document format (PDF) and posted on the Refugee Summit web page.   Next Summit is planned for Spring of 2010. 


Items previously posted on this page, will be relocated to our " Archives - What's New " web page or if applicable, will be posted on the " Resources and Information " page.


NOTE:  Some links above are to documents in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (pdf) that can only be viewed and printed using the free  Adobe Reader.