Representatives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently revealed to members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that USCIS adjudicators have been "… testing social media review in adjudications." They further indicated that the agency is reviewing social media as part of...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) strictly enforces the requirement to file the optional practical training (OPT) application within 30 days of the date the designated school official (DSO) enters the OPT recommendation into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The Murthy...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, on May 12, 2016, the agency will begin to adjudicate H1B cap cases filed requesting premium processing. This is consistent with the earlier statement by the USCIS, indicating that the 15-calendar-day processing period for these...
Last night, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced completion of the H1B cap lottery selection process. Receipt of more than 236,000 H1B petitions was reported, compared to fewer than 233,000 cap-subject petitions filed last year. The USCIS has not provided a breakdown of...
As of the time of this writing, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has not yet announced the completion of the H1B random lottery process for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). The Murthy Law Firm, however, has already started to receive electronic receipt notices for...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the H1B cap limit for fiscal year 2017 (FY17) has been reached. This applies to both the 65,000 regular H1B cap limit as well as the 20,000 advanced degree (masters) cap exemptions.As the H1B case...
On March 18, 2016, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued the finalized policy memorandum on determining whether a new job is the same or similar in the context of a job change pursuant to the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act (AC21)....
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rule in December 2015, entitled Retention of EB1, EB2, and EB3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers. As indicated in our January 8, 2016 NewsBrief, I-140 EAD Proposal is Limited and Restrictive,...
The Murthy Law Firm is pleased to report that we resolved an incorrect fraud finding that had kept an H1B worker from returning to the United States for two years. The issue came to light when this individual went to Canada to renew his H1B...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule that became effective on February 16, 2016, which provides a few revisions to several nonimmigrant visa categories and one immigrant visa category. More specifically, the revisions impact the H1B1 (specialty occupation professionals who are citizens...
