It's that time of the year again!  The registration period for this year's H-1B visa lottery runs from Wednesday, March 1 at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST to Friday, March 17 at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST. We highly recommend registering early on during this period so there is time to accommodate any system glitches or crashes before the registration period closes on March 17. If you would like us to assist you with the H-1B registration process, please contact us by Friday, February 24, at the latest so we can help you get set up and confirm eligibility for H-1B classification.

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President Biden has approved a two-year extension of Deferred Enforced Departure (“DED”) for certain residents of Hong Kong currently in the United States, and an expansion of DED to Hong Kong residents who arrived in the United States after the initial grant of DED was announced on August 5, 2021.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reached a settlement agreement last week in which USCIS has agreed to adjudicate H-4 and L-2 extension and EAD applications on Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, when these forms are filed with the Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker in H-1B and L-1 status.

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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its February 2023 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there is almost no movement in priority dates for employment and family-based categories in February. The only category to have any movement is the F-1 category for Mexican nationals for which the priority date advances by almost five months. All other family-based categories remain the same. 

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Beginning January 30, 2023, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all pending and initial I-140 Immigrant Petitions for Multinational Executive and Manager (EB-1C) and I-140 Immigrant Petitions for National Interest Waivers (EB-2 NIW).

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed an increase in most of its government filing fees due to significant budgetary shortfalls.  USCIS also plans to change the premium processing time from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.  

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced new programs for the safe, orderly, and lawful migration of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans to the U.S. similar to the humanitarian programs implemented for Venezuelans and Ukrainians in response to the surge in irregular migration at the southern border.

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USCIS has implemented a new policy to automatically extend the validity of green cards for lawful permanent residents who apply for naturalization. Upon filing for naturalization on Form N-400, the green cards will be extended for two years beyond the original expiration date.

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Due to ongoing civil war and unsafe country conditions in Yemen, the Department of Homeland Security has announced the extension and redesignation of Yemen for Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) to September 3, 2024. TPS for nationals of Yemen was previously set to expire on March 3, 2023.

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Due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases in China, travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau will need to show a negative COVID-19 test or documentation of recovery in order to board flights to the United States effective January 5, 2023. 

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