The Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin can be difficult to understand. All those dates and charts and categories are confusing. But knowing how to read the Visa Bulletin is important if you are seeking permanent residence in the United States so you can understand how long you will have to wait before you finally have your green card. The following explanation is specifically for individuals going through the permanent residence process based on employment.
Read MoreUSCIS held a call last week on September 6, 2018, to publicly explain its updated policy on when it could deny petitions or applications without first issuing a Request for Evidence (“RFE”) or Notice of Intent to Deny (“NOIDs”). The new policy took effect this week on September 11, 2018, and will apply to applications and petitions received by USCIS on or after September 12, 2018.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has released its October 2018 Visa Bulletin. October 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year so all the immigrant visa categories benefit from new visa numbers. As a result, all categories will experience significant advancements, some as many as four to six years.
Read MoreUSCIS announced today that it will temporarily suspend premium processing for most H-1B petitions filed at the Vermont and California Service Centers beginning September 11, 2018. USCIS expects that the suspension will last until February 19, 2019.
Read MoreUSCIS has clarified that STEM OPT extensions are available to international students who will work at a site other than the employer’s principal place of business. USCIS updated its website on Friday, August 17, with this clarification.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its September 2018 Visa Bulletin. As to be expected in the last month of the fiscal year (the new fiscal year begins on October 1), several categories are no longer current and other categories have experienced significant retrogressions.
Read MoreA recent report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) confirms that the USCIS has exponentially increased the number of requests for evidence (“RFE”) it has issued for H-1B petitions and denials of L-1 petitions this past year as a result of the Trump administration’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order. Notably, for H-1B petitions, the RFE rate jumped from 17.3% in Q1 (under the Obama administration) to 69% in Q4 2017.
Read MoreDuring a stakeholders teleconference yesterday, USCIS confirmed that processing times for Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, would continue to slow down as the agency intensifies its efforts to identify marriage fraud. Previously, I-751s were adjudicated within a year, but processing times are now reaching up to 20 months.
Read MoreThe Department of State (DOS) has issued its August 2018 Visa Bulletin. Most notably, the Employment-Based (“EB”)-1 category for all nationals worldwide (except for China and India) is no longer current and has retrogressed to May 1, 2016. EB-1 for Chinese and Indian nationals had no movement. EB-2 and EB-3 worldwide remains current. EB-2 for Chinese nationals advanced by two months, but there was no movement for EB-2 Indian nationals. EB-3 for Chinese, Indian and Philippine nationals also moved forward.
Read MoreThe enforcement priorities of the Trump administration when it comes to U.S. immigration continue to intensify. Late last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) released guidance, expanding the range of cases in which it can initiate removal proceedings.
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