The USCIS has released an updated version of Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. The form now includes additional eligibility codes in connection with the recent interim rule regarding Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension. Please read the full article for more details about this form revision.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a report about the green cards obtained by foreign nationals during 2007. The report provides breakdown by preference category and sub-category, by type of petition, by country of origin, and by U.S. state of residence. Please open the full article to read the report.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed a new rule which would require airlines and certain ships to collect biometric information from departing non-U.S. citizens. This proposed rule comes to supplement the already established entry biometric procedures. The main difference would be that while the current entry biometrics are taken by the U.S. border agents, the departure biometrics would be taken by the airlines and then transmitted within 24 hours to DHS. Read the full article for more details on this new rule.
Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. It may be interesting to note that offices in United States consume enough paper every year to build a 10-foot high, 6,815 mile-long wall of paper (this is enough to build a paper fence between New York and Tokyo). We, at the Capitol Immigration Law Group, are committed to being environmentally friendly office and are working on eliminating unnecessary paper from our practice. Please read the full article to learn what we do to be a "green" law office.
The USCIS announced late last week that it would permit F-1 students who have properly filed H-1B petitions in April and have their petition selected during the random lottery to request a change of status processing in lieu of consular notification. Please read the full article for details on the procedure.
The Washington Post published today an article about the H-1B visa program and how its benefits and problems affect immigrants, employers and American workers. The article is fairly short but it compresses the feelings of the three major stakeholders in the H-1B visa program debate. The U.S. Employers The H-1B program was designed to help U.S. companies [...]
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Over the past few days we have been asked on numerous occasions - what happens to my OPT when my H-1B is approved? Can I withdraw my H-1B? The answer is 'Yes', but you must act quickly and with the cooperation of the employer sponsoring the H-1B visa. Read the full article for more details.
The May 2008 Visa Bulletin is out. Among the employment-based visa numbers, unfortunately, there was only a slight forward movement for most categories. The most notable movement was for employment-based third preference category (EB-3) for all countries except China, India, Mexico. The priority date for such EB-3 workers moved from July 2005 to March 2006. EB-3 Mexico and EB-3 Philippines moved to July 2002 and March 2006, respectively. EB-2 China and EB-2 India moved slightly forward; unfortunately this movement was very minor, only by a month, to January 2004 for both.
USCIS had released a preliminary count of the H-1B applications filed during the period between April 1 and April 7, 2008. There are 163,000 H-1B petitions and more than 31,200 of those were for the advanced degree category.