The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, Charles Oppenheim, often issues visa bulletin explanations and predictions, following the release of the monthly visa bulletin. Mr. Oppenheim had hoped to provide updated short-term predictions in the January 2019 Visa...
Congress must pass a spending bill to extend government operations by midnight of December 21, 2018, or else another temporary shutdown of the federal government will go into effect. This would be the third shutdown of 2018.The crux of the current budget dispute revolves around...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has expanded its Information Services Modernization Program to more field offices. The Detroit and Los Angeles field offices recently were added to the program, which aims to end self-scheduled InfoPass appointments and steer applicants towards online information. The...
Congress has passed a short-term bill to fund the federal government for two weeks. The federal budget is now extended through December 21, 2018. This bill also extends various immigration programs for the same time period, including the employment-based, fifth preference (EB5) regional center program.Congress...
On December 3, 2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would establish a registration requirement for cap-subject H1B petitions (i.e., petitions filed in the H1B "lottery"). The proposed rule is intended to reduce the costs associated with...
Most federal agencies will be closed on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 for a national day of mourning to commemorate the death of former President George H.W. Bush. Few specifics have been provided, but this closure appears to apply to all federal offices and non-essential federal...
On Monday, December 3, 2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is scheduled to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register that, if enacted, would require employers filing cap-subject H1B petitions (i.e., petitions filed in the H1B lottery) to pre-register. The...
As stakeholders are no doubt aware, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Trump Administration has taken a narrow view of the educational requirements that are permitted for a position to be considered a specialty occupation for H1B purposes. Specifically, the USCIS has...
This evening, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, effective November 19, 2018, implementation of the policy memorandum on the issuance of notices to appear (NTAs) is being expanded to include various additional categories of foreign nationals. More specifically, the NTA memo may...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released updated instructions for civil surgeons regarding medical screening for tuberculosis (TB) for applicants for permanent residency, otherwise known as green card applicants. The new instructions replace the tuberculin skin test (TST) as the initial tuberculosis...
