Most of our clients and readers remember the summer of 2007 when USCIS raised the filing fees for certain services by a substantial amount (in all fairness, USCIS decreased the fees for certain services) (see the archived May 29, 2007 USCIS press release). One of the motivating forces behind this fee increase was the collection [...]
The Department of Labor has provided an update on the current PERM processing dates as of July 31, 2009. They are as follows: Regular processing: November 2008. Unfortunately, there is no movement in comparison to the April 30, 2009 report which also reported November 2008, resulting a net additional delay of three (3) months for regular [...]
The increasing unemployment rate inevitably affects foreign nationals living and working in the U.S. on a work visa. We have been happy to help many clients over the past months who have either been laid off or have decided to seek a better opportunity to attend school by changing their status to F, J or [...]
Holders of F (student), J (exchange visitor) or M (student) status in the U.S. are subject to certain requirements in order to maintain a valid status and be entitled to the benefits of their status (e.g. OPT, visa revalidation, etc.). With the beginning of a new academic year, we have been advising a number of [...]
The October 2009 Visa Bulletin which is the first visa bulletin for the new FY2010 fiscal year was released earlier today by the State Department. This October 2009 Visa Bulletin has been widely expected not only to see the EB-3 category go back to some availability of visas but also to use the movement in [...]
There has been quite a bit of legal activity in connection with the Bush administration executive order requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees as well as current employees directly working on a contract. Rule Goes Into Effect on September 8, 2009 On August 26, 2009, a U.S. [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of Friday, August 28, USCIS has received approximately 45,100 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, USCIS has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, [...]
In a memorandum dated August 6, 2009, Donald Neufeld, the Acting Associate Director for USCIS Domestic Operations Unit provides new guidance and amends USCIS policy with respect to review of Form I-140 successor-in-interest (”SI”) amendments. The goal of the new guidance is to update (the dated) USCIS policy in light of changing business realities with [...]
By nature, consulting companies often send their employees to work at a third-party’s worksite and perform services onsite. When filing H-1B work visa petitions for their workers, many consulting or third-party worksite companies have faced an increasing number of requests for evidence (”RFES”) requesting information about the duties of the employee, itinerary of work and [...]
USCIS released updated information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of Friday, August 14, USCIS has received approximately 45,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, USCIS has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, [...]