USCIS Starts Rulemaking Process to Take Away H-4 EAD Work Authorization
After months of speculation and discussion, USCIS has taken the initial steps in the rulemaking process in order to take away the H-4 EAD work authorization for certain H-4 spouses which had been available since 2015. It should be noted that this is an initial step in the rulemaking process and until and unless a new rule is [...]
January 2018 Visa Bulletin – EB-3 India Advances Slightly; Slow Movement in EB-2 India/China
The U.S. State Department has just released the January 2018 Visa Bulletin which is the fourth Visa Bulletin for the FY2018 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the continued anemic forward movement in EB-2 India/China and EB-3 India. EB-3 China continues to have a more favorable cutoff date than EB-2 China which creates favorable conditions for EB-2 [...]
New USCIS Policy Creates I-140 Revocation Notice Rights to AC21 Porting Beneficiaries; Requires Proactive AC21 Porting Filing
In a November 11, 2017 Policy Memorandum, USCIS has formally adopted a recent AAO decision in Matter of V-S-G Inc. and has provided guidance on its impact on AC21 beneficiaries where the underlying I-140 immigrant petition is being revoked. The new policy memorandum states that beneficiaries who have properly ported their green card process to a new employer under AC21 [...]
Wage Level I RFEs: How Helpful are Third-Party Professor Opinions?
USCIS has been very active and relentless in raising the Wage Level I issue in many thousands (if not tens of thousands) of requests for evidence (“RFE”) since June 2017. It has become evident that a successful Wage Level I RFE response must balance very carefully the complexity (or the “specialty occupation”) vs. the entry-level nature of the position. [...]
December 2017 Visa Bulletin – Extremely Slow Forward Movement; EB-3 China Favors Downgrading
The U.S. State Department has just released the December 2017 Visa Bulletin which is the third Visa Bulletin for the FY2018 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the extremely slow forward movement in EB-2 India/China and no movement in EB-3 India. EB-3 China continues to have a more favorable cutoff date than EB-2 China which creates favorable [...]
USCIS Changes Deference Policy for I-129 Extensions: Raises the Bar for Approvals
In an October 23, 2017 Memorandum, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") has issued a Policy Memorandum which eliminates the current practice of giving deference to prior approvals when adjudicating Form I-129 petition renewals where the petitioner, the beneficiary and the material facts of the petition remain unchanged. This affects all I-129 petitions extensions, including H-1B, L-1, O-1 and [...]