There has been a considerable amount of discussion, excitement and, unfortunately, some incorrect rumors over the past few weeks regarding possible changes to the way employment-based immigrant visas are allocated. Our office has been receiving many requests to comment on and speculate on what may happen with the proposed legislation. To avoid fueling rumors, we [...]
USCIS has issued an alert that a number of key online systems will be unavailable due to system maintenance from Friday, December 2nd at 7pm (EST) until Monday, December 5th at 9am (EST). As a result, there will be no access or service to the following USCIS online systems and tools: Check My Case Status [...]
Many of our readers are aware that as of November 22, 2011, USCIS has received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual H-1B quota. All cap-subject new H-1B petitions received by USCIS on or after November 23rd will be rejected. Throughout the entire H-1B cap season, our office was providing weekly [...]
The U.S. Department of State has announced that all U.S. embassies and consulates will expedite the processing of F-1 student visa stamp applications to ensure that qualified foreign students are able to begin their studies on time. According to the Department of State, the maximum wait for a student visa appointment (for all posts) is [...]
Throughout the H-1B cap filing season (which opened back in April), we have been providing updates on the available H-1B cap numbers. Over the past few weeks, we have been also issuing alerts (on our website, via our newsletter and through our twitter and facebook pages) on the upcoming H-1B cap limit. Partially as a [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As November 14, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 56,300 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 7,100 over the previous two weeks). Similarly, as of November 14, there were 20,000 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the December 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the third 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 (four and a half months) and the continued forward movement in FB1. Summary of the [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of October 28, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 49,200 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 3,000 over the previous week). Similarly, as of October 28, there were 20,000 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
The Department of State (DOS) has announced that effective December 1, 2011, the U.S. Consulate in Chennai will become the only acceptance center in India for all applications for intra-company transfers under the blanket L category. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and U.S. Consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad will no longer accept or [...]
Due to the significant number of PERM-based green cards and H-1B work visa applications (including the required Labor Condition Application, or LCA), our office constantly monitors developments at the Department of Labor (DOL) which controls the review of PERM and LCAs. As of October 5, 2011, DOL has shared some important statistics about their processing [...]