Each year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for setting federal poverty guidelines, which are used to determine whether an individual or family qualifies for certain government benefits. These guidelines are important in the immigration context, particularly with respect to...
Murthy Law Firm founder and president, Sheela Murthy, was in India in January 2016. A meeting was scheduled for the 22nd. Accompanied by team members from the firm's liaison office in Chennai, Murthy met with the Chief of the Nonimmigrant Visa Section, Lindsey L. Rothenberg,...
The Murthy Law Firm receives a number of inquiries from foreign nationals whose visa foils ("stamps") have been revoked by a U.S. consulate following a conviction, or even just an arrest, for driving under the influence (DUI), driving while intoxicated (DWI), or a related criminal...
Under a deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as of November 25, 2015, all passports are required to meet machine-readable standards. Foreign governments are not required to accept passports that do not meet these standards. This includes Indian passports issued with validity...
As many MurthyDotCom readers are aware, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed regulation, on December 30, 2015, aimed at improving the employment-based immigration process. While many have focused on the portion of this proposal covering I-140 based employment authorization documents (EADs) -...
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal regarding an injunction that is preventing the implementation of President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) February 2016 Visa Bulletin was issued on January 8, 2016. This latest visa bulletin provides advancement of the final action (FA) cutoff date in the employment-based, second preference category for India, consistent with earlier predictions. Meanwhile, the date of filing...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a policy memorandum updating guidance on the approval of immediate relative spousal petitions after the death of the U.S. citizen spouse in cases where the widow/er has remarried. The memo, and the related revisions to the USCIS Adjudicator's...
Answer It is important to get immigration guidance and criminal representation. The consequences depend, to a large extent, upon the maximum possible sentence allowed for the charge in the particular state. In some locations, a conviction for shoplifting makes one removable (i.e. deportable) and inadmissible. In...
The USCIS has improved their website with the addition of a virtual assistant named Emma. This is an effort to facilitate the public's ability to navigate the USCIS WebSite and gain access to general immigration information. Named after Emma Lazarus, author of the poem at...
