Along with the USCIS filing fee increase which went into effect on November 23, 2010, USCIS has revamped the guidelines, criteria and application process for filing fee waivers. While granting a waiver is still in USCIS's sole discretion, the process and qualifications are now more transparent. Which Forms are Eligible for a Fee Waiver? A [...]
On November 23, 2010, the pre-announced increase in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") filing fees went into effect. All applications and petitions filed must now include the new and correct filing fee, or the filings will be rejected. We have written in the past about the need of this fee increase and our [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of November 26, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 50,400 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 2,600 over the past two weeks). Similarly, as of November 26, there were 18,400 H-1B visas filed subject to [...]
One of our major practices is the processing of employment-based permanent residency applications, most of which require an ETA 9089 PERM labor certification. As a result, we handle a number of PERM labor certifications filings, appeals and other related matters. Our office has been receiving an increasing number of inquiries about possible increase in PERM [...]
What is BALCA? The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) is an administrative body which reviews mainly denials of PERM labor certification cases but it also handles a number of Department of Labor review cases. With respect to PERM denials, BALCA is the appellate body which reviews appeals for PERM denials. BALCA currently has [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of November 12, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 47,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,000 over the past week). Similarly, as of November 12, there were 17,400 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the December 2010 Visa Bulletin which is the third Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. As anticipated and as we wrote recently, following our meeting with Charles Oppenheim, there is not much movement across the employment-based categories. EB India, for example, does not see any movement this month. [...]
Our office has established a reputation as one of the premier practices for handling appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. The AAO processing times are published monthly, at [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of November 5, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 46,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,200 over the past week). Similarly, as of November 5, there were 17,200 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
Our office handles a substantial number of ETA Form 9089 - Permanent Labor Certification ("PERM") applications and we are closely monitoring the current PERM processing times not only for the benefit of our clients but also to be able to predict longer-term trends in PERM processing. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided an update [...]