The U.S. State Department just released the January 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the fourth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year and first for the calendar year. The major headline in the upcoming month's bulletin is the major retrogression in family-based visa numbers, accompanied by the continued slow forward movement across the employment-based categories. [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the December 2010 Visa Bulletin which is the third Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. As anticipated and as we wrote recently, following our meeting with Charles Oppenheim, there is not much movement across the employment-based categories. EB India, for example, does not see any movement this month. [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the November 2010 Visa Bulletin which is the second Visa Bulletin for the new FY2011 fiscal year. As anticipated and as we wrote recently, following our meeting with Charles Oppenheim, there is not much movement across the employment-based categories, while some family-based categories have notable forward movement. Summary of [...]
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided an update on the current PERM processing dates as of August 31, 2010. Most notable is the decreased processing time for regular PERM applications -- down to 4-5 months now. The processing times are as follows: Regular processing: May 2010. DOL is processing PERM applications with priority dates [...]
» Update 10/27/2011: See the more recent October 26, 2011 predictions by Charles Oppenheim. Yesterday our office attended a American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) discussion session here in Washington, DC with Charles Oppenheim. Mr. Oppenheim is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State. For many, he is [...]
The August 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The eleventh visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some substantial forward movement in the EB-2 India category which had not moved for the past few months. Also, there is some gradual forward across all EB-3 employment-based categories. Summary of the August [...]
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 [...]
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 May 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The eighth 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 second month in a row). A notable movement can be seen in the EB-3 India category where the [...]