The Department of State ("DOS"), in an "urgent" alert dated as of September 15, 2011, has advised that due to heavy demand in the employment-based immigrant visa categories, DOS has reached the Fiscal Year 2011 annual limit of employment-based green cards. DOS/USCIS to Stop Approving EB Immigrant Visas Until October 1 As a result of [...]
A recent update from USCIS and Charles Oppenheim at the Department of State (the person who is responsible for the Visa Bulletin and visa number allocations) should provide some hope to applicants in some categories, but most notably to the EB-2 India category. Low EB-1 Demand to Cause Visa Number Spillover to EB-2 USCIS has [...]
The Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) is a centralized processing facility for petition-based nonimmigrant visa programs and for the Diversity Visa program (also known as "green card lottery"). Located in Williamsburg, Kentucky, KCC serves a variety of important functions affecting many visa applicants and foreign nationals who are selected under the Diversity Visa lotttery. There are [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the April 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the seventh Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the slow forward movement in FB2A (after few significant backward movements), the significant retrogression in the FB1 preference visa numbers, accompanied by the continued [...]
In early January we wrote about a USCIS proposal to create a pre-registration system for new H-1B cap cases in order to make the H-1B cap application process more efficient and to eliminate waste associated with H-1B cap petitions which are filed on or shortly after April 1st (when the H-1B cap filing window opens) [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the March 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the sixth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the major (additional) retrogression in family-based second A preference visa numbers, accompanied by the continued slow forward movement across the employment-based categories. The retrogression [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the February 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the fifth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year and first for the calendar year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the major retrogression in family-based visa numbers, accompanied by the continued slow forward movement across the employment-based categories. [...]
We were among the first to report and send bulletin alerts last Thursday of the upcoming January 2011 Visa Bulletin major retrogression in most of the family-based preference categories. Our office has been inundated with inquiries from existing and new clients not only on the steps that should be taken over the next couple of [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the January 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the fourth Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year and first for the calendar year. The major headline in the upcoming month's bulletin is the major retrogression in family-based visa numbers, accompanied by the continued slow forward movement across the employment-based categories. [...]
» Update 10/27/2011: See the more recent October 26, 2011 predictions by Charles Oppenheim. Yesterday our office attended a American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) discussion session here in Washington, DC with Charles Oppenheim. Mr. Oppenheim is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State. For many, he is [...]