The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a smartphone app to assist those who are studying to take the civics portion of the naturalization test. The app, which is called USCIS: Civics Test Study Tools, is available for both Apple and Android devices. Background One...
As of Monday, July 24, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed accepting requests for premium processing for certain cap-exempt H1B petitions. As explained in the USCIS news release:Premium processing will resume for petitions that may be exempt from the cap if the...
The January 17, 2017 regulation for employment-based applicants includes a provision to allow for up to a 10-day grace period both before and after the work authorization period for certain foreign nationals in E-1, E-2, L-1, or TN status. These grace periods have also long...
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Maslenjak v. United States, rejecting an argument by the Trump Administration that a person can be denaturalized based on a false statement made during the naturalization process, regardless of its materiality. Rather, the court held...
On June 14, 2017, the Murthy Law Firm received the first few packages containing H1B filings returned as not having been selected in the fiscal year 2018 (FY18) random H1B lottery. More than a month has elapsed since the firm last received any new H1B...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum on May 23, 2017 that adopts the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision in Matter of A-T- Inc. The adopted decision serves to instruct USCIS personnel that, for purposes of determining whether a person qualifies...
By law, there is an annual limit of 65,000 new H1Bs that may be approved each year, not including the 20,000 available under the advanced-degree exemption (i.e. master's cap) and those filed for cap-exempt employment. As the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) typically...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released April 20, 2017 guidance on how international students, particularly those in English language study and STEM OPT extension programs, will be affected by the loss of accreditation of institutions previously recognized by the Accrediting Council for Independent...
Designations for temporary protected status (TPS) for nationals of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will be terminated on May 21, 2017. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is also recommending that the TPS designation for Haitian citizens be terminated in January of 2018. Background on...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has issued a warning in relation to a recent trend in telephone scams. The OIG warns that criminals are calling prospective victims and altering the caller ID number to appear as though...
