Our office is getting reports from clients, readers and colleagues from other firms that there is an alarming trend in recent PERM Labor Certification application denials due to an overly broad education requirement. Specifically, DOL denies PERM applications, usually after an audit, with the stated reason that the "educational requirements are too broad, and thus, [...]
USCIS has released an updated set of processing statistics for petitions filed under the fifth employment-based preference category (EB-5) for foreign investors. It is interesting to note that the number of I-526 applications (for initial EB-5 green card) have more than doubled compared to 2010 (4,156 compared to 1,955) while the approval rate has remained [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has announced the creation of a separate office which would be tasked with overseeing the EB-5 immigrant investor program. Yesterday, July 18, 2012, USCIS Director Mayorkas announced that his agency has and will continue to increase the number of staff dedicated to the EB-5 immigrant investor program. This [...]
In a recent report the National Foundation for American Policy (which claims to be a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to public policy research on trade, immigration, education, and other issues of national importance) has analyzed the USCIS rates of issuing requests for evidence (RFE) and denials of L-1 and H-1B petition over the past several [...]
USCIS has released an interesting report from its field offices on the processing times and statistics of N-400, Application for Naturalization, filings for the fiscal years 2010 through 2012 (or, October 2011). Number of N-400 Applications The report breaks down, for each field office processing N-400 applications, the number of receipts, approvals, denials and pending [...]
USCIS has provided some interesting statistics relating to the processing of Form I-140 petitions for classification of foreign nationals under the employment-based first (EB-1) category. The statistics reflect the number of receipts, approvals, denials and RFEs issued during a fiscal year and are helpful in understanding general EB-1 adjudication trends. The EB-1 Statistics Texas Service [...]
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 [...]
In addition to the numerous inquiries on filing a new I-140 when a previous I-140 is pending on appeal, our office handles a number of such new I-140 filings. Pursuant to USCIS guidance, a previously approved labor certification which was timely used to file an I-140 can, in many circumstances, be subsequently used to file [...]
During a recent AILA conference, the Vermont Service Center (VSC) Director Dan Renaud told the audience that the performance review structure for adjudicating officers has recently changed. Pursuant to the new performance review structure, officers get credit for issuance of Requests for Evidence (RFES), in addition to issuing approvals and denials, under the previous performance [...]