The Department of Labor (DOL) has released the most recent annual report for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC). Even though the report was recently released, it is for the 2012 fiscal year (FY2012) which covered the period between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012. While we understand that the relevant period is [...]
We wish to remind our readers and clients that a new fee goes into effect starting on September 8, 2010 for Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) registration. ESTA is a required pre-travel registration for Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers to the U.S. About the Fee The fee will be in the amount of $14.00 [...]
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 [...]
The Federal Register has published a rule (73 FR 77729, 12/19/08) pursuant to which nationals of the following countries can apply for H-2B visas: Argentina; Australia; Belize; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; Chile; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Indonesia; Israel; Jamaica; Japan; Mexico; Moldova; New Zealand; Peru; Philippines; Poland; Romania; South Africa; South Korea; Turkey; Ukraine; United Kingdom. It should be noted that individuals already holding H-2B visas are not affected by this rule.
USCIS has released some numbers about the student and exchange visitor visa programs. As of December 31, 2008, there were 1,046,468 active nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors and their dependents. Out of this number, there were a total of 722,272 active F or M students and 94,027 dependents. There were 179,408 J-1 exchange visitors and 50,761 [...]
The visa-free travel to the U.S. for certain nationals of Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea is now effective. The final rule admitting these countries to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) has been published. One note for nationals of these seven countries who wish to travel to the U.S. under VWP - [...]
The annual green card lottery, DV-2010, opens today at noon eastern time. The deadline for submission is noon, eastern time, on Monday, December 1, 2008. Although early application does not increase the chances of being selected, we have seen in the past years the lottery site overloaded with web traffic in the last days or [...]
The Department of Labor has released the PERM processing statistics for the first two quarters of its Fiscal Year 2008. The report indicates that there were 44,090 PERM applications received, there were 12,600 cases certified and, as of March 23, 2008, there were 28,000 cases pending. Read the full article for details.
Earlier in February, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification at the Department of Labor released its official FY 2007 data covering cases processed under the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM). The PERM data provides an insight into the level of demand for U.S. jobs in different industry sectors and geographic areas.