In a shift in policy, the CDC has announced that effective Decemeber 14, 2009, the HPV vaccine will no longer be required for immigrants applying for immigrant visa or adjusting their status from within the U.S. Background About the Required Vaccinations Under Section 212(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), any alien who seeks admission [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of November 6, 2009, USCIS has received approximately 54,700 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 900 in a week). USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. U.S. Masters Degrees Quota Reached As we mentioned [...]
Two weeks ago we wrote about the USCIS Ombudsman recommendation to modify the LCA/H-1B filing process to avoid negative consequences associated with delayed LCAs. As a response, USCIS just announced a temporary change in policy pursuant to which it will temporarily accept H-1B petitions filed without Labor Conditions Applications (LCA) that have been certified by the [...]
The December 2009 Visa Bulletin was released today by the State Department. The third visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 does not bring much movement. In fact, the only movement in the EB categories is a one week only forward movement in EB-3 India. All other categories, including EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) remain [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of October 30, 2009, USCIS has received approximately 53,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,000 in a week). USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. U.S. Masters Degrees Quota Reached As we mentioned [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of October 25, 2009, USCIS has received approximately 52,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, USCIS has received sufficient number of petitions for aliens with advanced degrees and [...]
The November 2009 Visa Bulletin was released by the State Department. The second visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 does not bring much movement. The slight forward movement can be observed in EB-2 and EB-3 China and in EB-3 India. All other categories, including EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) remain unchanged. Here is a [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of Friday, September 25, USCIS has received approximately 46,700 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, USCIS has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, [...]
The Department of State opens the DV-2011 Diversity Visa (a.k.a. “green card”) lottery. The entries for this year’s lottery must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Friday, October 2, 2009, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 30, 2009. Applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) at [...]
USCIS has released a schedule of the inventory of pending Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status. The statistics are fairly recent - as of August 25, 2009 - and are very helpful to understanding the relative queue positions for adjustment of status applicants. How Can I Determine My Place in the AOS Queue? An AOS application’s preference [...]