With a very few exceptions, an in-person interview with USCIS adjudicator is a required step in the review process for all employment and family I-485 adjustment of status and all N-400 naturalization applications. An interview is required for many [...]
Beginning June 10, 2019, New Zealand has been added as an E visa treaty country which makes its nationals eligible to obtain the E-2 treaty investor (and the E-1 treaty trader) visa classification (see Public Law 115-226). Spouses and unmarried [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the July 2019 Visa Bulletin which is the tenth Visa Bulletin for the FY2019 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is [...]
Our readers and clients who have been involved in the H-1B program and especially over the last 12+ months must have experienced or at least heard about the "specialty occupation" requests for evidence (RFE) which have been and continue to be issued by USCIS. Our office has been receiving and handling numerous such RFEs [...]
Our readers and clients who have been involved in the H-1B program over the last couple of years (and especially those participating in the H-1B cap filing season) must have experienced or at least heard about the Wage Level I requests for evidence (RFE) which have been and continue to be issued by USCIS. [...]
Many of our readers are aware that as of April 5, 2019, USCIS had received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual fiscal year (FY) 2020 H-1B quota (total of 201,000 cap applications). USCIS has just announced that as of May 17, 2019 they have completed the intake process and the [...]
Beginning May 1, 2019, Israel has been added as an E visa treaty country which makes its nationals eligible to obtain the E-2 treaty investor visa classification. Spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age of such treaty investor and employees are also eligible for the E-2 classification. About the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the June 2019 Visa Bulletin which is the ninth Visa Bulletin for the FY2019 fiscal year. The headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is significant retrogression in EB-1 India and the extremely slow [...]
A district court judge for the Middle District of North Carolina has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, effective immediately, enjoining USCIS's memo titled "Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J, and M Nonimmigrants," (see our article and analysis on the initial memorandum) originally issued on May 10, 2018, and updated on August 9, 2018, that [...]
Starting May 2019, CBP is introducing some minor changes to the I-94 number format by making them alphanumeric. I-94 numbers are 11 digits long and until now they only contained numbers; however, starting this month, CBP is starting to use alphanumeric I-94 numbers. At this time the length will still be 11 characters [...]
