The rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on December 30, 2015, entitled Retention of EB1, EB2, and EB3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers, includes a number of different provisions. While parts of the proposed rule are disappointing,...
Under a deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as of November 25, 2015, all passports are required to meet machine-readable standards. Foreign governments are not required to accept passports that do not meet these standards. This includes Indian passports issued with validity...
For many years, the Murthy Law Firm has addressed questions regarding the interpretation of a "same or similar" occupational classification for job portability in the permanent resident (green card) process. This is a key concept in the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21),...
As many MurthyDotCom readers are aware, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed regulation, on December 30, 2015, aimed at improving the employment-based immigration process. While many have focused on the portion of this proposal covering I-140 based employment authorization documents (EADs) -...
On January 23, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) an additional three months to complete its review, and possible incorporation, of public comments for its proposed, revised STEM OPT regulation, which was previously...
As previously discussed on MurthyDotCom, the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in December 2015 included provisions that increase an already hefty filing fee for H1B and L-1 petitions filed by companies that meet certain requirements. As of December 18, 2015 - the date the bill...
On Friday, April 1, 2016, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H1B cap-subject case filings for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). April 1st may seem a long time from today, but employers and potential H1B workers would be wise to begin the...
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal regarding an injunction that is preventing the implementation of President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...
This series of articles has been updated. Please find the updated version of Part 3....
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) February 2016 Visa Bulletin was issued on January 8, 2016. This latest visa bulletin provides advancement of the final action (FA) cutoff date in the employment-based, second preference category for India, consistent with earlier predictions. Meanwhile, the date of filing...
