USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of Friday, June 26, USCIS has received approximately 44,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, USCIS has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, [...]
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 [...]
USCIS has announced that, in conjunction with FBI, it has met its goal of eliminating the FBI National Name Check Program backlog. The goal was to achieve a performance (which can actually be sustained going forward) of completing 98 percent of name checks requests submitted by USCIS within 30 days and the remaining 2 percent within [...]
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 [...]
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 USCIS announced today (April 8, 2009) that within the first five business days, it received almost half the petitions needed to meet the FY2010 cap and has received just short of the 20,000 needed to reach the master’s cap. This means that there will be no general H-1B lottery this year for both master’s [...]
The filing window for Fiscal Year 2010 (starting October 1, 2009) cap-subject H-1B petitions opened today. All of the cap-subject H-1B filings filed by our firm were successfully delivered at their respective USCIS service centers. Our first impression was that FedEx's service was very reliable and all H-1B filings were delivered early in the morning [...]
The Government Accountability Office (”GAO”) has published a report, “Actions Needed to Address Vulnerabilities in Process for Granting Permanent Residency” which reviews the process of security review of applications for legal permanent residency. GAO’s recommends that USCIS establish a timetable for addressing the deficiencies noted in the report and establish procedures that would require some [...]
An article in today’s Washington Post reports on the contract USCIS has signed with IBM to overhaul the way USCIS handles documents. As many of our clients know or have experienced first-hand, the agency’s pre-computer-age paper filing system is extremely frustrating. The current system incurs $100 million a year in archiving, storage, retrieval and shipping [...]
This week brought some good news from USCIS and FBI regarding the significant decline in the number of pending FBI name checks for individuals seeking immigration benefits in the U.S. We have a number of clients who are directly impacted of such FBI security delays and we have heard numerous stories about significant processing times. [...]