Yesterday, the White House announced that the Travel Ban in effect since Sat. for nationals from 7 designated countries would not be applicable to U.S. permanent residents. This is welcome news after the uncertainty caused by the EO and its implementation. Further bad news for nationals from the 7 designated countries, the USCIS has confirmed that it has stopped the processing of all petitions and applications submitted with the exception of N-400 (naturalization application). Processing will resume only after the ban has been lifted. Yesterday’s report of an expansion of the banned country list to include additional countries remains unconfirmed but, not denied.