There is a more recent version of this article. Please see our most recent report from Mr. Charles Oppenheim. Our office just came back from a 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, [...]
A few days ago, on December 29, 2011, the USCIS Ombudsman has issued a report and set of recommendations urging USCIS to take proactive steps to ensure clear, consistent and predictable standards are applied to immigrant visa applications under the first employment-based preference category (EB-1) for aliens with extraordinary ability (EA). Background on the Current [...]
The Department of State ("DOS"), in an "urgent" alert dated as of September 15, 2011, has advised that due to heavy demand in the employment-based immigrant visa categories, DOS has reached the Fiscal Year 2011 annual limit of employment-based green cards. DOS/USCIS to Stop Approving EB Immigrant Visas Until October 1 As a result of [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the May 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the eighth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the forward movement in EB-2 India (after eight months of no movement) and the continued (but slow) slow forward movement in FB2A (after few [...]
A recent update from USCIS and Charles Oppenheim at the Department of State (the person who is responsible for the Visa Bulletin and visa number allocations) should provide some hope to applicants in some categories, but most notably to the EB-2 India category. Low EB-1 Demand to Cause Visa Number Spillover to EB-2 USCIS has [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the April 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the seventh Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the slow forward movement in FB2A (after few significant backward movements), the significant retrogression in the FB1 preference visa numbers, accompanied by the continued [...]
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 [...]
» 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 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 [...]