We would like to remind our clients and readers that the Department of State DV-2011 Diversity Visa (a.k.a. “green card”) lottery is currently open but is scheduled to close at noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), on Monday, November 30, 2009. If you are planning to submit a DV-2011 entry, please do so well before the [...]
This question arises often in the context of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers who seek to enter the U.S. under VWP while their visa application (for H-1B, for example) has been “delayed” by the U.S. consulate. Under VWP, a nonimmigrant alien applicant for admission to the U.S. under VWP must indicate on Form I-94W and on [...]
The H-2B filing period for fiscal year 2009 (FY2009) has been reopened by USCIS due to insufficient applications filed under the cap. Accordingly, USCIS accepts immediately new H-2B petitions under the FY2009 cap for starting work date before October 1, 2009. FY2009 H-2B Numbers Are Under the Quota On January 7, 2009, USCIS announced that it has [...]
We have reported previously on the Department of State’s (DOS) efforts to introduce an electronic form (DS-160) for submitting nonimmigrant visa (NIV) application at its consulates around the world. The goal is to have DS-160 replace the paper forms currently used for NIV applications at all U.S. consulates. The DS-160 online NIV application form is being [...]
We wrote last week about the “grim” predictions by Charles Oppenheim (who is with the Department of State) about the future of the visa numbers for green card employment-based preference categories. We have received many comments and reactions from readers and clients and we share many of the concerns raised following Mr. Oppenheim’s comments. We read [...]
During the annual AILA conference, Mr. Charles Oppenheim of the Department of State Visa Office (he is the person who is largely involved in the movement of visa numbers) provided some thoughts and predictions on the movement of visa numbers for the remainder of the fiscal year 2009 (FY2009 the end of which is September [...]
The July 2009 Visa Bulletin was released today. Unfortunately, as expected, the only change is the EB-2 China category which changed from February 15, 2005 to January 1, 2000. All other categories remain unchanged. Here is a summary of the July 2009 Visa Bulletin: EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged for all categories except [...]
We have been receiving a number of inquiries from prospective clients who are interested in switching to F-1 student visa status using a Form I-20 issued by a English as Second Language (”ESL”) school or a community college. In our experience, USCIS (if the change of status is requested from within the U.S.) or the [...]
The June 2009 Visa Bulletin was released today. Unfortunately, the only change is the EB-2 India category which changed from February 15, 2004 to January 1, 2000. All other categories remain unchanged. Here is a summary of the June 2009 Visa Bulletin: EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged for all categories except as noted [...]
We wrote last week about the April 2009 Visa Bulletin and the significant retrogression of the visa numbers in EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) category. It is important to note that the April 2009 Visa Bulletin retrogression for EB-3 will be applied immediately, as opposed to as of April 1, 2009 (see last sentence of [...]