On April 7, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the H1B cap for fiscal year 2018 (FY18) was reached. The USCIS then completed the H1B lottery selection process on April 11, 2017. Some 199,000 petitions were filed this year, which is...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that only the cutoff dates in the 'final action' (FA) chart of the May 2017 Visa Bulletin may be used for purposes of applying for adjustment of status. This applies to both employment-based and family-based cases....
President Trump has announced his intentions to nominate Lee Francis Cissna to serve as the new Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Mr. Cissna currently serves as the Director of Immigration Policy for the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department...
As expected, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) entitled Buy American and Hire American. The ‘hire American’ section of the EO has no direct impact on existing immigration laws. Rather, it directs various executive agencies to "propose new rules and issue new guidance …...
President Trump is expected to sign an executive order (EO) today that is being dubbed the "buy American, hire American" order. The 'hire American' portion of the EO aims to rein in the hiring of foreign national workers, especially via the H1B program. The EO...
This afternoon, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced completion of the H1B cap lottery selection process. The USCIS reported receipt of 199,000 H1B petitions, which is down from the 236,000 cap-subject petitions filed last year. The USCIS has not provided a breakdown of...
As of January 17, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires most new employment-based I-485 adjustment of status applications to be accompanied by an I-485 supplement J. Supplement J may also be submitted to request that the USCIS port a pending I-485 to...
Effective April 15, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will begin allowing stakeholders to submit documents electronically, via the PERM case management system (CMS), for labor certification (LC) cases, "while the application is pending review and up to 30 calendar days after the notice...
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a policy memorandum, on March 31, 2017, that addresses whether the position of computer programmer qualifies as a "specialty occupation" for H1B purposes. The memo rescinds a December 22, 2000 memo that instructed USCIS adjudicators to generally...
The May 2017 Visa Bulletin was released this afternoon. In the final action (FA) chart, India sees virtually no movement, with the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category holding steady at June 22, 2008, and the employment-based, third preference (EB3) category inching forward by a single...
