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 U.S. State Department just released the January 2012 Visa Bulletin which is the fourth Visa Bulletin for the FY2012 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the significant forward movement in EB-2 India and China (by nine and a half months) and the continued forward movement in FB1. Summary of [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the December 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the third Visa Bulletin for the FY2012 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the significant forward movement in EB-2 India and China (four and a half months) and the continued forward movement in FB1. Summary of the [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the October 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the first Visa Bulletin for the FY2012 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the significant forward movement in EB-2 India and China and the forward movement in FB1. Summary of the October 2011 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based [...]
USCIS has provided some interesting statistics relating to the processing of Form I-140 petitions for classification of foreign nationals under the employment-based first (EB-1) category. The statistics reflect the number of receipts, approvals, denials and RFEs issued during a fiscal year and are helpful in understanding general EB-1 adjudication trends. The EB-1 Statistics Texas Service [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the September 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the final Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the lack of any movement in the EB-2 China and EB-2 India categories, which have moved significantly over the past few months. Also, FB2A [...]
USCIS just released the information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of July 15, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 20,500 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 3,100 over previous three weeks). Similarly, as of July 15 , there were 12,800 H-1B visas filed subject to [...]
As many of our readers and clients are aware, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) provides some tools for applicants to obtain case processing information. The online case status check is one of them. In addition, USCIS posts each month a schedule of the standard processing times for most of the types of cases [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the August 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the eleventh Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the continued significant forward movement in EB-2 China, EB-2 India, Other Workers and FB2A categories. Summary of the August 2011 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the July 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the tenth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the substantial forward movement in EB-2 China, EB-2 India, Other Workers and FB2A categories. Summary of the July 2011 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB) [...]