The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced yesterday that for the fiscal year 2011 (FY2011) which ended September 30, 2011, ICE has deported a record number of individuals. In FY 2011 ICE's Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations removed 396,906 individuals — the largest number in the agency's history. Of these, nearly 55 percent or [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of October 14, 2011, USCIS has received approximately43,300 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 2,300 over the previous week). Similarly, as of October 14, there were 19,500 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of October 7, 2011, USCIS has received approximately41,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 4,700 over the previous two weeks). Similarly, as of October 7, there were 19,100 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
Our office has established a reputation as one of the leading practices for handling appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only 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 the [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the November 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the second Visa Bulletin for the FY2012 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the significant forward movement in EB-2 India and China and the forward movement in FB1. Summary of the November 2011 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based [...]
Many of our clients and readers are asking us on updates regarding the Department of Labor's (DOL) prevailing wage determination process. We are happy to report that according to DOL reports and according to our first-hand experience, prevailing wage determinations are issued and they are (slowly) starting to return to normal. Background on the DOL [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of September 23, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 36,300 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 4,100 over the previous two weeks). Similarly, as of September 23, there were 17,700 H-1B visas filed subject to [...]
The Department of State has announced that as of August 26, 2011, the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai would resume processing of H and L visa stamp applications. The earliest appointments available were for September 6, 2011 and as of today, the Consulate is in normal processing mode. Earlier this year, in March, the Mumbai Consulate [...]
The Department of State will open the DV-2013 Diversity Visa (a.k.a. “green card”) lottery on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. The entries for this year’s lottery must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Tuesday, October 4, 2011, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Saturday, November 5, 2011. Applicants may access [...]
In a September 2011 audit report on the use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) by H-1B temporary workers, the Office of Inspector General (OIC) claims that a substantial percentage of H-1B cases may involve some amount of irregularity or fraud. OIG based its review on a random sample of 200 H-1B cases from the 38,546 [...]