As many of our readers and clients are aware, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) provides some tools for applicants to obtain case processing information. The online case status check is one of them. In addition, USCIS posts each month a schedule of the standard processing times for most of the types of cases [...]
The USCIS Ombudsman office has released their 2011 report to U.S. Congress, as required by law. About the USCIS Ombudsman Office The USCIS Ombudsman office was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and was tasked to assist individuals and employers in resolving problems with USCIS. The Ombudsman's office addresses individual case inquiries and [...]
It may seem like an April Fools Day joke at first sight, but apparently it is not. The Texas Service Center has been issuing and emailing premium processing receipt and approval notices for I-140 cases filed as far back as April 2010. Example of I-140 Email Notice The emails (delivered on April 1, 2011) look [...]
In late January 2011, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they would begin testing their new Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) tool. About VIBE VIBE is a tool designed to enhance USCIS’s adjudications of certain employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant petitions such as I-140 and I-129. VIBE uses commercially available data to validate [...]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") has proposed a change to the relevant regulations requiring all employers who wish to file for an initial H-1B cap petition to preregister with USCIS. The proposal is for an electronic registration program for petitions subject to numerical limitations for the H-1B nonimmigrant classification. In the future, other classifications [...]
Our office is often approached and asked to assist in obtaining the return of original documents submitted to USCIS as part of a petition or an application. Normally and for most types of documents, USCIS accepts a copy of the original document in lieu of the original. Unless specifically instructed and required, only clear copies [...]
Along with the USCIS filing fee increase which went into effect on November 23, 2010, USCIS has revamped the guidelines, criteria and application process for filing fee waivers. While granting a waiver is still in USCIS's sole discretion, the process and qualifications are now more transparent. Which Forms are Eligible for a Fee Waiver? A [...]
On November 23, 2010, the pre-announced increase in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") filing fees went into effect. All applications and petitions filed must now include the new and correct filing fee, or the filings will be rejected. We have written in the past about the need of this fee increase and our [...]
We wrote earlier in the summer about USCIS' plans and proposed rule to increase certain filing fees. The final rule was published a few days ago in the Federal Register and the new increased filing fees are set to go into effect on November 23, 2010. Increases (and a few decreases) in USCIS Filing Fees [...]
Our office continues to handle an increasing number of naturalization and citizenship applications so it is interesting to share with our clients and readers some recent numbers on the citizenship statistics for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY2009). During FY2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) received 743,715 applications for naturalization (in comparison to the 1,046,539 during [...]