The H-1B season is well underway and we have received the first “official” updates on the FY2013 cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 2 for both the Vermont and California Service Centers. As of April 9, 2012, USCIS has received approximately 17,400 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. Similarly, as of April 9, there were [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the May 2012 Visa Bulletin which is the eighth Visa Bulletin for the FY2012 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the significant retrogression in EB-2 India and China, the continued forward movement in FB-1, the possibility of a cutoff date for EB-2 ROW [...]
The H-1B season is well underway and there are some “unofficial” updates on the FY2013 cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 2 for both the Vermont and California Service Centers. As of April 4, 2012, USCIS has received approximately 17,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. Similarly, as of April 4, there were approximately 5,000 [...]
We have written extensively over the past few weeks about the upcoming retrogression in the EB-2 India and China categories. So, it should not come as a surprise that the Department of State has confirmed what we have anticipated and expected for a couple of weeks -- namely, that the Department of State has "internally" [...]
Effective April 13, 2012, the Department of State is changing the visa processing fees. Some of the fees will increase, while some will decrease. For example, the fees for most nonimmigrant visa applications and Border Crossing Cards will increase. On the other hand, all immigrant visa processing fees will decrease (some by a substantial amount). [...]
One of the most popular U.S. work visas, the H-1B, will start accepting filings for new H-1B employment on April 2. Pursuant to each yearly H-1B quota, new H-1B filings can be filed on April 1 (April 2nd this year because April 1st is a Sunday), at the earliest, for a starting date of employment [...]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released its report on the numbers of unauthorized immigrants residing in the U.S. as of January 2011. The report makes a notable change in the methodology and also takes into consideration the 2010 Census data. The DHS report, perhaps unsurprisingly, indicates that an estimated 11.5 million unauthorized immigrants [...]
Created in 2002, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is used to track and monitor foreign students (F-1 visa holders) and exchange visitors (J-1 visa holders), as well as their accompanying dependents (F-2 and J-2 visa holders). While SEVIS has streamlined many formerly cumbersome data reporting requirements and improved information accuracy, there are [...]
Only a day after we published our own predictions for the outlook of EB-2 India and China cutoff dates over the next few months, Mr. Charles Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State and also known as the person responsible for the Visa Bulletin cutoff dates [...]
In a recent report the National Foundation for American Policy (which claims to be a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to public policy research on trade, immigration, education, and other issues of national importance) has analyzed the USCIS rates of issuing requests for evidence (RFE) and denials of L-1 and H-1B petition over the past several [...]