The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the January 2021 Visa Bulletin. Unfortunately, there is very little movement from the December 2020 Visa Bulletin. All cutoff dates listed refer to the dates in the final action chart (i.e., "Chart A"), unless otherwise specified. There...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has again extended the response time flexibility, initially announced on March 30, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This flexibility applies to applicants and petitioners responding to any of the following, issued from March 1, 2020 through January...
Congress must pass a spending bill to extend government operations before 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, December 19, 2020, or else a temporary shutdown of the federal government will go into effect. This would be the fourth shutdown of the Trump Administration. Annual Budget Process and History...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a statement this week, acknowledging delays in issuing receipt notices for cases filed at USCIS lockbox facilities. The USCIS attributes these delays to a significant increase in recent filings, along with a reduced processing capacity caused by...
President Trump has issued an executive order to close all executive departments and agencies, which includes the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on December 24, 2020. These offices will also be closed on December 25, which is Christmas day, a federal holiday. Copyright © 2020,...
President-Elect Joseph R. Biden has announced that he will nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to serve as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If he is confirmed by the Senate, Mayorkas, who immigrated from Cuba, would be the first Latino and the first...
This evening, a federal district court ordered the Trump Administration to fully reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA is a program created by the Obama Administration that provides certain protections and benefits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United...
Today, a federal district court held that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) violated the Administrative Procedures Act in issuing regulations that failed to go through the normal rulemaking process.The DOL rule was published on October 8,...
Answer There have been widespread reports of delays with receipts being issued for I-140s and I-485s filed at USCIS lockboxes. If your filing fee check has been cashed, this is a good indication that the USCIS is processing your case. And, if you get the cancelled...
Answer No, the 60-day flexibility being provided by the USCIS does not cover H1B extensions. Your employer could make a nunc pro tunc requests (i.e., Request that the USCIS approve the extension request even though you were out of status at the time of filing.) But,...
