The June 2010 Visa Bulletin was released earlier today by the State Department. The ninth visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings gradual forward across most employment-based categories except EB-2 India (no change this month, for the third month in a row). The State Department added another country to the list of oversubscribed countries [...]
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided an update on the current PERM processing dates as of April 30, 2010. They are as follows: Regular processing: July 2009. DOL is processing PERM applications with priority dates in July of 2009. This suggests that there is very slight forward movement for regular PERM processing. Accordingly, regular [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of April 27, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 16,500 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a weekly increase of 475). Similarly, as of April 27, there were 6,900 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap [...]
Late spring and early summer are generally busy period for recent foreign college graduates as far as employment immigration is concerned. On one hand, foreign college graduates are either applying for their initial term OPT, their 17-month STEM extensions (if they qualify) or their H-1B work visas. Our office fields many questions from prospective or [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of April 22, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 16,025 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a weekly increase of 2,425). Similarly, as of April 22, there were 6,739 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap [...]
Many foreign nationals, employers or their attorneys have had to deal with the USCIS' National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at one point or another - possibly for a simple status check, to request expedite processing of an application, to inquire about a missing document or on another matter. We hope that this brief guide to [...]
Our office has fielded numerous calls from a number of foreign nationals who are in the U.S. temporarily and whose departure plans have been disrupted by the infamous Icelandic volcano ash. For many in the U.S. whose departure travel arrangements were closely related to their I-94 expiration date, the disruption and delay in departure travel [...]
Our office handles a fair amount of 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. About the AAO The AAO is an appeals office which handles appeals of certain decisions [...]
USCIS released the second “official” FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of April 15, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 13,600 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a weekly increase of only 100). Similarly, as of April 15, there were 5,800 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. [...]
On March 25, 2010, the Department of Labor ("DOL") held a stakeholders telephone conference to discuss DOL operations generally, and address PERM, iCERT prevailing wage and other specific areas. We are happy to share some interesting pieces of information from DOL. PERM Processing. With respect to PERM processing, DOL has made efforts to decrease its [...]