Our office has received confirmation from AILA and from E-Verify that in certain cases, E-Verify would not verify employment authorization for an employee who is working for an employer under H-1B portability and where the employee previously held H-1B status but has since held an intervening status. For example, an employee holds H-1B status but [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the November 2010 Visa Bulletin which is the second Visa Bulletin for the new FY2011 fiscal year. As anticipated and as we wrote recently, following our meeting with Charles Oppenheim, there is not much movement across the employment-based categories, while some family-based categories have notable forward movement. Summary of [...]
» 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 [...]
The U.S. State Department just released the October 2010 Visa Bulletin which is the first Visa Bulletin for the new FY2011 fiscal year. As always, the first Visa Bulletin for the fiscal year is anticipated to suggest possible trends of movement of the visa numbers over the next months, especially following the past Visa Bulletins' [...]
We have clients and our office handles a number of U.S. visa applications submitted in Canada. Accordingly, we wish to report on a new appointment service for all U.S. visa applicants in Canada, which becomes effective on September 1, 2010. As of September 1, 2010, all services -- including calling for information and scheduling an [...]
The September 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The last visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some forward movement across all categories, with the exception of EB-3 India. Summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB) Below is a summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin with [...]
The August 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The eleventh visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some substantial forward movement in the EB-2 India category which had not moved for the past few months. Also, there is some gradual forward across all EB-3 employment-based categories. Summary of the August [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of July 2, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 24,200 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of only 700 over the week). Similarly, as of July 2, there were 10,400 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
Each year, the Department of Homeland Security is required by law to provide to Congress a report on the characteristics of the H-1B specialty occupation workers. The report for fiscal year 2009 (FY2009) which covers October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009 was released recently. The report is interesting because it covers partially the period [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of June 11, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 22,200 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of only 1,400 over a two-week period). Similarly, as of June 11, there were 9,400 H-1B visas filed subject to [...]