After the significant forward movement in many of the family-based preference categories in the fall, the government has received a significant number of I-130 family-based immigrant petitions in a number of preference categories. In an effort to process these pending I-130 petition in a more efficient manner, in November 2010, USCIS transferred approximately 36,000 I-130 [...]
Our firm handles a fair amount of appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. About the AAO The AAO is an appeals office which handles appeals of certain decisions made by [...]
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 [...]
The increasing unemployment rate inevitably affects foreign nationals living and working in the U.S. on a work visa. We have been happy to help many clients over the past months who have either been laid off or have decided to seek a better opportunity to attend school by changing their status to F, J or [...]
Our firm handles a fair amount of appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. About the AAO As a short preliminary background matter, the AAO is an appeals office which handles [...]
The Nebraska and Texas Service Centers (NSC and TSC, respectively) have informed that they will start issuing denials on pending I-485 upon denial of the underlying I-140 petition. Until now, USCIS has a policy from a Memorandum of Feb. 28, 2003 from William R. Yates, “Procedures for Concurrently Filed Family-Based or Employment-Based Form I-485 when the [...]
As part of our regular USCIS-related filings, we receive requests for evidence (”RFES”) on a number of occasions. Such RFES are standard practice and often are unrelated to the substance of the petition - for example, requesting clear copies of the lastest Form I-94 card. It is our practice to ensure that each petition filed [...]
After USCIS suspended temporarily the I-140 premium processing service on July 2, 2007, we have been constantly fielding questions on when the temporary suspension would end. Over the past few weeks there was increased speculation that premium processing for Form I-140 would resume. Earlier this week, USCIS confirmed that in fact premium processing for I-140 [...]