In the latest defeat of efforts toward positive immigration reform, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act failed to pass the Senate on December 18, 2010. This marked the last chance to pass immigration benefits measures during the 111th Congress. The DREAM...
International travel is quite common in December and January each year. Many foreign nationals see the holiday season as a good time to visit family abroad. Some of the important matters that must be considered with regard to international travel are outlined here for the...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posts processing information online. This is itemized by each service center and for each field office, based on case type. While this is helpful, further explanation is provided here to aid MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers in understanding the...
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memorandum regarding the importance of social networking sites in fraud detection was recently disclosed. This memo discusses the use of social networking sites by Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) officers in investigating potential abuses of U.S. immigration...
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 (S. 3932) was introduced in the Senate on September 29, 2010. The bill is sponsored by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NY) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). While Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) has been claimed as a priority for many years,...
Many of the success stories we share with MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers involve unusual cases that come to our firm. Likewise, the case discussed in this article is unusual, as it involves corrections at the port of entry (POE) necessitated by an H1B visa stamped...
The beginning of each fiscal year marks the start of another U.S. Department of State (DOS) diversity visa (DV) "green card" lottery opportunity. The start of fiscal year 2011 (FY11) on October 1, 2010, means that it is time to begin another lottery cycle for...
Individuals undergoing the immigration process often have a keen and sophisticated grasp of some rather complex aspects of their cases. The priority date is one fundamental, vitally important element in these cases, however, for which an understanding appears to be somewhat illusive. A basic primer...
President Barack Obama signed a law on August 13, 2010, that increases funding for U.S. border security by $600 million. The funding for this increase in security will be paid for, in part, by substantially increasing the fees that some employers must pay when filing...
The USCIS held a public teleconference today, August 19, 2010, to outline some of the details regarding the new fee increase contained in the 2010 Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. The USCIS plans to issue written guidance shortly and is continuing to consider some of...
