Our office continues to handle an increasing number of naturalization and citizenship applications so it is interesting to share with our clients and readers some recent numbers on the citizenship statistics for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY2009). During FY2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) received 743,715 applications for naturalization (in comparison to the 1,046,539 during [...]
Many of our readers and clients are aware of the recent developments with respect to the "border security bill" passed by Congress and recently signed by President Obama into law (Public Law 111-230). What Are the New H-1B and L-1 Filing Fees? Effective immediately, Public Law 111-230 requires the submission of an additional fee of [...]
The September 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The last visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some forward movement across all categories, with the exception of EB-3 India. Summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB) Below is a summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin with [...]
The July 2010 Visa Bulletin was released earlier this afternoon by the State Department. The tenth 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 [...]
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 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 [...]
The National Visa Center (NVC) has released numbers and statistics on the immigrant visa numbers pending at NVC. The information is as of November 1, 2009. It is important to note that these numbers reflect immigrant visas which have chosen "consular processing" and not adjustment of status (I-485) applications filed from within the U.S. Also, [...]
In a November 2009 AILA meeting, Mr. Charlie Oppenheim, who is Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division at the Department of State (or also known as the person who determines the visa bulletin dates), has indicated some ways in which the visa bulletin numbers will move over the next few months. Mr. Oppenheim’s [...]
The January 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The fourth visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 and the first for the calendar 2010 does not bring much movement. For many categories, the only forward movement is in the 1-2 months range. Here is a summary of the January 2010 Visa [...]
A recent report by Open Doors, a member of the Institute of International Education provides some numbers and statistics about the foreign students currently in the U.S. According to the report, there are more than 670,000 foreign students in the U.S. – an increase of about 8% over the past academic year. This rate of growth [...]