The U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that they have formalized a partnership to facilitate information sharing between the agencies. This interagency cooperation is being undertaken with the stated goal of protecting U.S. workers and combating fraud...
In light of the Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Ruzuku, which directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to accept sibling-to-sibling DNA tests as probative evidence to be considered in determining whether a qualifying family relationship exists, the U.S. Department of...
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a court order on October 27, 2017 to enjoin (i.e. prevent) the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) from refusing to certify requests for certification of military or naval service (form N-426) for MAVNI (Military Accessions...
Effective immediately, the U.S. Mission to Turkey is resuming limited visa services for nonimmigrants at the U.S. embassy and consulates in Turkey. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Mission to Turkey, this was done following assurances made by the Government of Turkey related...
On October 23, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum affecting most nonimmigrant workers. This new policy memorandum rescinds a 2004 policy memo and portions of a 2015 policy memo that gave deference to previously approved petitions. The new policy...
Most months, Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division for the U.S. Department of State (DOS), provides visa bulletin explanations and predictions. The information for the November 2017 Visa Bulletin includes updated short-term predictions, as well as a vexing revelation regarding why...
Effective immediately, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) filing address for a petition for a nonimmigrant worker (form I-129) will be determined based on the state where the petitioning employer's primary office is located. This is a change from the previous policy, which required...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Texas Service Center (TSC) is still denying advance parole (AP) applications (form I-131) for applicants who travel abroad before their AP applications are approved. As previously reported, this is contrary to the longstanding practice by the USCIS to...
The entry period for the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) diversity visa (DV) lottery has been restarted, effective October 18, 2017, due to technical difficulties that arose with the registration system. Anyone who registered for the DV lottery October 3, 2017 through October 10, 2017 must...
A key requirement of the employment-based, fifth preference (EB5) immigrant visa category is that the foreign national investor be able to clearly and thoroughly document the lawful source of the investment funds. The sourcing of the investment funds can be quite tedious, and is oftentimes...
