The U nonimmigrant category provides immigration benefits to foreign nationals who have been the victims of certain serious crimes. These individuals may be able to obtain immigration benefits under the U nonimmigrant category by assisting U.S. law enforcement in its efforts to prosecute the perpetrator/s...
The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Vermont Service Center (VSC) has announced a pilot program to use two-sided printing for certain types of notices. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce costs and waste. Stakeholders should be careful to review both the...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided instructions regarding the process for renewing enrollment in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA provides temporary immigration relief to eligible undocumented foreign nationals who entered the United States as children. Beneficiaries of the program...
On May 19, 2014, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a notice to seek comments, for a period of 60 days, on proposed changes to the notice of entry of appearance as attorney or accredited representative (G-28 form). A G-28 must be properly completed...
On Monday, June 2, 2014, the Murthy Law Firm received our first batch of returned H1B filings for cases that were not selected in this year's H1B lottery. More than two weeks have passed since our firm last received any new receipt notices for H1B...
Maria Odom, the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, gave a presentation on various immigration issues on May 21, 2014. The setting was a meeting of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Washington D.C. Chapter, which was attended by several attorneys...
A U.S. federal district court recently ruled on a case involving an issue that is a vital component of every H1B petition. The H1B classification is only appropriate for positions that qualify as "specialty occupations." In the case at hand, CareMax Inc. v. Eric Holder,...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hosted a teleconference on April 24, 2014, to discuss the coming expansion of the Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) to include certain L1A petitions. The ASVVP program, which began in July 2009, is designed to verify...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revises application and petition forms from time to time. These changes are often tied to new legal and procedural requirements, or efforts to enhance security and/or efficiency. A recent change was made to the application for naturalization (form...
On April 10, 2014, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed the fiscal year 2015 (FY15) lottery process for both advanced degree (or master's) cap and regular H1B cap cases. However, many employers, potential H1B workers, and family members are still anxiously awaiting the...
