We have clients and our office handles a number of U.S. visa applications submitted in Canada. Accordingly, we wish to report on a new appointment service for all U.S. visa applicants in Canada, which becomes effective on September 1, 2010. As of September 1, 2010, all services -- including calling for information and scheduling an [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 27, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 34,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,000 over the past week). Similarly, as of August 27, there were 13,000 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 20, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 33,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a substantial increase of 4,200 over the past week). Similarly, as of August 20, there were 12,600 H-1B visas filed subject to [...]
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 [...]
Many of our readers and clients are aware of the recent developments with respect to the "border security bill" passed by Congress and recently signed by President Obama into law (Public Law 111-230). What Are the New H-1B and L-1 Filing Fees? Effective immediately, Public Law 111-230 requires the submission of an additional fee of [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 13, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 29,700 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,200 over the past week). Similarly, as of August 13, there were 12,300 H-1B visas filed subject to the [...]
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 6, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 28,500 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of only 3,200 over the past three weeks). Similarly, as of August 6, there were 11,900 H-1B visas filed subject [...]
The September 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department. The last visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some forward movement across all categories, with the exception of EB-3 India. Summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB) Below is a summary of the September 2010 Visa Bulletin with [...]
On Tuesday, July 20th, AILA filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) seeking the release of records concerning agency policies and procedures for the H-1B visa program. AILA had attempted to obtain these documents under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request which had been denied [...]
We have previously written extensively about the January 2010 Neufeld Memorandum and the recent lawsuit challenging its validity. We wanted to provide some recent updates on the case as it is of great interest to many of our clients and readers. On June 25, 2010, the government filed a Memorandum in Opposition to the complaint. [...]