Posts in Nonimmigrant
Premium Processing Becomes Available for Pending H-1B Cap Cases

USCIS announced today that premium processing will become available for pending H-1B cap cases as of Monday, January 28, 2019.  Employers who have received requests for evidence (RFEs) for pending H-1B cap petitions should include their RFE reply with their request for premium processing.

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How Congressional Representatives Can Help with Immigration Cases

Many people don’t know that US Senators and Representatives can assist with immigration cases.  In fact, members of Congress usually have one or more staffers liaising with the federal agencies that are responsible for immigration processing and enforcement, including US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), and the US Department of State (“DOS”).  Although the Congressional members cannot force the agencies to make a particular decision or reverse a denial, they can put a spotlight on a case by their involvement.

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E-Verify and the Federal Government Shutdown

Although the US federal government has partially shut down as of December 22, 2018, due to the President’s inability to sign a spending bill, most immigration-related processes remain operational at USCIS, DOL, and the State Department.  However, USCIS has announced that E-Verify and E-Verify services are inaccessible. Several policies have been implemented to ease the burden on both employers and employees.

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Litigation over H-4 EAD Resumes

Recent third party intervention has ensured that litigation over the H-4 EAD will move forward.  Immigration Voice, a group representing high-skilled foreign nationals, filed a Motion to Intervene with the federal court where the case has been pending (“held in abeyance”) since March 2017 due to government delay.  That motion was granted on December 17, 2018, and the Court has ordered the case to move forward. Opening briefs are due in January 2019.


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January 2019 Visa Bulletin Released

The Department of State (DOS) has issued its January 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was very little movement in most categories this month.  EB-1 for all nationals advanced by three months.  There was no movement for the EB-2 category, except for Chinese nationals which advanced by one month. EB-3 for Chinese and Indian nationals remained unchanged, while Philippine nationals advanced by another week.

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USCIS Clarifies that Change in Worksite for L-1A Managers Does Not Require an Amendment Petition

The Administrative Appeals Office (“AAO”) of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) released a decision earlier this week, ruling that USCIS had improperly revoked the L-1A status of an international manager whose employer had not filed an amendment petition to reflect a change in the manager’s worksite.  The AAO agreed with the employer, an IT consulting services company, that an amendment petition was not required because the managerial job duties remained essentially the same for purposes of L-1A classification and the change in worksite was not “material.”

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