July 2018 Visa Bulletin – EB-3 China Retrogression; EB2/3 India Advance Notably
The U.S. State Department has just released the July 2018 Visa Bulletin which is the tenth Visa Bulletin for the FY2018 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the significant retrogression in EB-3 China which means that EB-2 China gets back to be more advanced than EB-3 China and, at least temporarily, puts an end to [...]
USCIS Changes Policy on Unlawful Presence Trigger for F, J and M Nonimmigrants
Update (May 3, 2019): The Policy Memorandum has been blocked by a preliminary injunction. In a Policy Memorandum dated May 10, 2018 and effective as of August 9, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is changing the way it treats non-immigrants who are in the U.S. on F, J and M status and, specifically, when such non-immigrants either complete/stop [...]
USCIS Completes Data Entry and Receipting of H-1B Cap Petitions for FY2019
Many of our readers are aware that as of April 6, 2018, USCIS had received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual H-1B quota (total of 190,000 cap applications). As USCIS has been issuing receipt notices for the H-1B cap cases which are being selected for processing, we wanted to provide an update as to how [...]
June 2018 Visa Bulletin – No Employment Movement Except Four Days Advancement for EB-2 India
The U.S. State Department has just released the June 2018 Visa Bulletin which is the ninth Visa Bulletin for the FY2018 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the lack of any movement in all EB categories with the exception of EB-2 India which advances only by four days (!). […]
Restoring H-1B Status Following H-1B Petition Denial Without Travel Abroad
It is not a secret that the last several month have brought a great increase in the rate of RFEs and denials on H-1B petitions – mainly focusing on the specialty occupation and right to control issues. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the rate of denials and in a number of cases H-1B workers have [...]
What to Expect During a USCIS Biometrics Appointment?
Many USCIS immigration benefits require the collection of biometrics information from the applicant at an USCIS Application Support Center (ASC). The collection of biometrics is a routine part of the application process and in most cases involves taking digital fingerprints, photo and signature. Which Types of Applications Require Biometrics? At this time biometrics are generally required for some types of [...]