The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) charges a fee to individuals who obtain immigrant visas at U.S. consulates abroad. This fee covers processing costs, including the cost to produce the individual's permanent residence card ("green card"). In response to requests from stakeholders, the USCIS has...
Because of a political fight at the federal level related to the annual budget, there is a possibility that the U.S. government will be forced to temporarily shut down, starting October 1, 2015. Such shutdowns are rare and there still is a chance that it...
The Murthy Law Firm has learned about a significant procedural change for nonimmigrant (temporary) visa applications at U.S. consulates in India. More specifically, this shift in procedure relates to the online DS-160 form, which typically must be completed prior to scheduling an appointment to apply...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an explanation regarding signature waivers for permanent resident cards (i.e. green cards). This is in reference to situations in which a form I-551 (commonly, a "green card") bears the notation signature waived, rather than the green card...
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on June 15, 2015, in Kerry v. Din, a case that involved the doctrine of consular nonreviewability. Consular nonreviewability protects the decisions of U.S. consular officers, including approvals and denials of visa applications, from review by U.S. courts....
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced that all visa-issuing embassies and consulates are fully functioning, as of June 26, 2015. This marks the end of a worldwide shutdown of visa issuance that began on June 9th. The DOS estimates that the accumulated backlog of visa...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) is making significant progress toward resolving the technical problems that were preventing visa issuance. As of this writing, 39 consular posts are reconnected to the biometric clearance system. The list of these consulates, which include Chennai, New Delhi and...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) reports that progress has been made toward restoring the visa issuance systems. DOS updates state that 22 consular posts have been reconnected to the biometric data processing system, and work continues to reconnect more consular posts.The most recent update...
A technical failure at a U.S. Department of State facility in the United States has now resulted in visa "stamps" being unavailable worldwide. As a result of this technical failure, U.S. consulates are unable to conduct the required security checks of visa applicants - a...
As previously explained, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has temporarily suspended premium processing for certain H1B petitions, from May 26 through July 26, 2015. In announcing the suspension of this service, the USCIS noted that this would only apply to cases "…requesting an extension...
