USCIS has announced that effective Tuesday, May 11, 2010, it would issue redesigned U.S. Permanent Resident Cards (also known as "green cards.") The redesign is mainly driven to incorporate new security features to deter counterfeiting, tempering and document fraud, generally. Features of the Redesigned Green Card Among the main features of the redesign: secure optical [...]
Last week we discussed the recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on unauthorized aliens. Today, we discuss the companion CRS report, analyzing the permanent residency admissions to the U.S. Both reports are helpful in providing some current information on the state of the U.S. immigration system and on the conflicting priorities which are likely to [...]
The June 2010 Visa Bulletin was released earlier today by the State Department. The ninth visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings gradual forward across most employment-based categories except EB-2 India (no change this month, for the third month in a row). The State Department added another country to the list of oversubscribed countries [...]
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided an update on the current PERM processing dates as of April 30, 2010. They are as follows: Regular processing: July 2009. DOL is processing PERM applications with priority dates in July of 2009. This suggests that there is very slight forward movement for regular PERM processing. Accordingly, regular [...]
The Congressional Research Service ("CRS") has released two recent reports which seek to analyze the extent of undocumented aliens in the U.S. and on the permanent residency ("green card") programs. In a series of articles, we will comment on the CRS reports with this article focusing on the unauthorized aliens in the U.S.. Both reports [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of April 27, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 16,500 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a weekly increase of 475). Similarly, as of April 27, there were 6,900 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap [...]
Late spring and early summer are generally busy period for recent foreign college graduates as far as employment immigration is concerned. On one hand, foreign college graduates are either applying for their initial term OPT, their 17-month STEM extensions (if they qualify) or their H-1B work visas. Our office fields many questions from prospective or [...]
We have written and reacted previously on developments related to immigration reform here in Washington, DC (March 12, 2010 and March 18, 2010). Our articles developed a fair amount of comments, excitement and hope. However, the uncertainty and the current political climate here in Washington may make comprehensive immigration reform a rollercoaster ride. In comments [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of April 22, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 16,025 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a weekly increase of 2,425). Similarly, as of April 22, there were 6,739 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap [...]
Many foreign nationals, employers or their attorneys have had to deal with the USCIS' National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at one point or another - possibly for a simple status check, to request expedite processing of an application, to inquire about a missing document or on another matter. We hope that this brief guide to [...]