For the seventh year in a row, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has approved 10,000 U visa petitions, the maximum allowed by law per year under this category. The U visa is reserved for victims of certain types of crime who cooperate with...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the March 2016 Visa Bulletin this afternoon. In the final action (FA) chart, the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India moves forward by ten weeks, to October 15, 2008. EB2 China moves up by five months, to August...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) provides visa bulletin insights each month through Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division. The information from Mr. Oppenheim for February, which was released later than usual, includes a discussion about the DOS visa applicant wait...
The rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on December 30, 2015, entitled Retention of EB1, EB2, and EB3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers, includes a number of different provisions. While parts of the proposed rule are disappointing,...
For many years, the Murthy Law Firm has addressed questions regarding the interpretation of a "same or similar" occupational classification for job portability in the permanent resident (green card) process. This is a key concept in the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21),...
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) -...
On January 23, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional three months to complete its review, and possible incorporation, of public comments for its proposed, revised STEM OPT regulation, which was previously...
As previously discussed on MurthyDotCom, the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in December 2015 included provisions that increase an already hefty filing fee for H1B and L-1 petitions filed by companies that meet certain requirements. As of December 18, 2015 - the date the bill...
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. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has several options for travelers to provide feedback, compliments, and/or complaints about the agency's employees. If a problem arises with a CBP officer, there are mechanisms for reporting the problem in person to a supervisor, as well as...
