In a Memorandum of Understanding, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is one step closer to adding Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania as Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries. This comes after DHS signed similar agreements with Estonia and Latvia earlier in March 2008.
The USCIS and the FBI announced yesterday, April 2nd, a joint plan to eliminate the backlog of name checks pending with the FBI. The plan will look at the age of the pending name check and prioritize accordingly.
A proposed rule is under review which would allow F-1 visa holders to obtain optional practical training (OPT) for 17 months (compared to 12 currently) and which will be a great relief to F-1 visa holders seeking to obtain H-1B or other labor immigration status after completing their studies.
We have received some inquiries from clients regarding the FedEx service disruption and how it may affect the H-1B filings. We wanted to address the issue and hopefully allow concerned H-1B petitioners that the disruption should not affect their petition.
With the H-1B filing date upon us, we have seen an increased amount of inquiries from companies, press organizations, legislative and not-for-profit entities seeking comments on the upcoming H-1B work visa lottery and the broader economic impact of the current labor immigration landscape. Please contact us if you need comments from immigration attorneys who specialize in labor immigration.
The annual H-1B filing season starts tomorrow, April 1st, and employers and employees who have applied for an H-1B visa are hoping for low numbers of applications. Unfortunately, preliminary sources suggest that even though the U.S. economy is slowing down, there are many sectors which are still running strong and the demand of H-1B visas is expected to be as strong as ever.
USCIS has released an interim rule which sets some guidelines on accepting H-1B cases for the upcoming fiscal year.
The State Department just released its April 2008 Visa Bulletin and it brings some good news and relief to EB2 India applicants - the cutoff date for EB2 India has moved from “unavailable” to December 1, 2003. See the full April 2008 Visa Bulletin.
A new report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) indicates that major US companies experience severe shortages of skilled labor. According to the report, major U.S. technology companies today average more than 470 U.S.-based skilled job openings. NFAP surveyed postings for U.S.-based jobs that require at least an undergraduate degree for 500 companies [...]
Effective March 5, 2008, all applicants for re-entry permits and refugee travel documents must provide biometrics (fingerprints and photographs) as part of the application process. The significance of the revised procedure is that all applicants must submit to biometric processing after they file Form I-131 and before they leave the country. The new Form I-131 [...]