Our office has established a reputation as one of the premier practices for handling appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. The AAO processing times are published monthly, at [...]
The Pew Hispanic Center has released its most recent report on the unauthorized immigrant population. As of March 2010, there were an estimated 11.2 unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., a number unchanged from the year prior. This lack of change follows two years of decline from a high of an estimated 12 million in 2007. [...]
Many of our readers are aware that as of January 26, 2011, USCIS has received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual H-1B quota. All cap-subject new H-1B petitions received by USCIS on or after January 27 will be rejected. Throughout the entire H-1B cap season, our office was providing weekly [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of January 21, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 62,800 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 2,100 over the last week). Also, as of December 24, the U.S. Masters cap (with its 20,000 limit) has [...]
USCIS has released a schedule of the inventory of pending employment-based Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status. The statistics are very recent - as of January 5, 2011 - and are very helpful to understanding the relative queue positions for employment-based adjustment of status applicants. How Can I Determine My Place in the AOS Queue? [...]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a January 2011 report on the H-1B program. The GAO has produced a a comprehensive, 118-page, report which is intended to provide guidance to Congress with respect to amending or tweaking parts of the H-1B program. The conclusion of the report is that certain reforms are needed for [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of January 14, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 60,700 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 2,000 over the last week). Also, as of December 24, the U.S. Masters cap (with its 20,000 limit) has [...]
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. [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of January 7, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 58,700 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,500 over the last week). Also, as of December 24, the U.S. Masters cap (with its 20,000 limit) has [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of December 31, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 57,300 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,500 over the last week). Also, as of December 24, the U.S. Masters cap (with its 20,000 limit) has [...]