Effective July 26, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will only accept the latest version of the report of medical examination and vaccination record (I-693 form). This version of the form can be identified by the revision date of March 30, 2015 (written...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) August 2015 Visa Bulletin contains some unexpected changes in the employment-based, third preference (EB3) category. EB3 India advances by four months, while EB3 China retrogresses severely. Employment-Based, First, Fourth, and Fifth Preferences (EB1, EB4, & EB5) The EB1 and EB4 categories...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced this morning that acceptance of premium processing requests for H1B extension of status petitions would resume, effective today, July 13, 2015. Any premium processing requests for H1B extensions received before July 13, 2015 will be rejected.The USICS...
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, pursuant to the individual liberties protected by the constitution of the United States, all U.S. states must permit same-sex marriages. Although this case did not directly deal with immigration law, it nevertheless serves to expand...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the August 2015 Visa Bulletin today. The employment-based, third preference (EB3) category for those born in India moves ahead faster than predicted, advancing by four months to a cutoff date of June 1, 2004. EB3 China, on the...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated Nepal for temporary protected status (TPS) in the wake of devastating earthquakes that occurred in April and May 2015. Nationals of Nepal who "…have been both 'continuously physically present' and 'continuously residing' in the United States since...
The option for qualifying H-4 spouses to apply for employment authorization documents (EADs) began May 26, 2015. Although it was widely expected that it would take several months for the first approval notices to arrive, the Murthy Law Firm is happy to report that at...
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on June 15, 2015, in Kerry v. Din, a case that involved the doctrine of consular nonreviewability. Consular nonreviewability protects the decisions of U.S. consular officers, including approvals and denials of visa applications, from review by U.S. courts....
As of June 15, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) discontinued the online filing option for the application to extend / change nonimmigrant status (I-539 form). These changes were implemented due to USCIS updates to both the I-539 and the notice of entry...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced that all visa-issuing embassies and consulates are fully functioning, as of June 26, 2015. This marks the end of a worldwide shutdown of visa issuance that began on June 9th. The DOS estimates that the accumulated backlog of visa...
