U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it is revising the civics test for the naturalization application, which was last done in 2009. According to USCIS, the purpose of the revision is to ensure that it continues to accurately test the applicant’s knowledge and understanding of U.S. history, government, principles, and values.
Read MoreThe U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last week that seeks to end the backlogs for green cards by eliminating the per-country cap for employment-based immigrants and raising the existing per-country cap from 7% to 15% for family-based immigrants. The elimination of per-country caps would benefit Chinese and Indian nationals in particular, who face three to ten year delays in obtaining green cards based on employment.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its August 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was significant retrogression in most categories this month. Employment-based category 1 (EB-1) for most nationals retrogressed by nearly two months, while for Chinese nationals it retrogressed by ten months, and there was no movement for Indian nationals. For the employment-based category 2 (EB-2), most nationals retrogressed by nearly two and a half years, while Chinese nationals advanced by two months, and Indian nationals advanced by only eight days. Lastly, the employment-based category 3 (EB-3) for most nationals retrogressed by nearly three years; Indian nationals retrogressed by three years and six months, but Chinese nationals moved forward by six months.
Read MoreUSCIS announced this week that it will begin redistributing pending naturalization and permanent residence applications from heavily back-logged field offices, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, to field offices with smaller backlogs in order to minimize the wide disparity in processing times among the USCIS field offices. This means you could be called in for your interview at an office that is outside your area of residence.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its July 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was little movement in most categories this month. For the EB-1 category, Chinese nationals advanced by 75 days while there was no advancement for EB-1 Worldwide and Indian nationals. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by three months while Indian nationals advanced by only five days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by three months and 17 days, while Indian nationals did not advance, and Philippine nationals are now current.
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its May 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was very little movement in most categories this month. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by one month while there was no movement for Chinese and Indian nationals. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by forty-four days while Indian nationals advanced by only three days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by twenty-one days, while Indian nationals advanced by nine days, and Philippine nationals advanced by three months.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its April 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was very little movement in most categories this month. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by one month while there was no movement for Chinese and Indian nationals. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by three months while Indian nationals advanced by only three days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by twenty-four days, while Indian nationals advanced by one month, and Philippine nationals advanced by three months.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its March 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, movement in all categories has slowed down. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by one month while Chinese and Indian nationals advanced by only fourteen days. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by three months while Indian nationals advanced by only three days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by seven days, while Indian nationals advanced by one month, and Philippine nationals advanced by four months.
Read MoreU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that applicants who have a pending affirmative asylum application with USCIS can now check the status of their applications online at uscis.gov/casestatus. Only asylum applicants with an application pending with USCIS will be able to use this new feature to check their case status online. It will not cover defensive asylum applicants whose cases are pending in immigration court.
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