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. Department of State (DOS) has released the June 2014 Visa Bulletin. As predicted, the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category retrogresses for all countries of chargeability, as has the employment-based, third preference (EB3) category for all countries, save India. EB3 China was hit especially...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the June 2014 Visa Bulletin. As expected, the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category for spouses and (unmarried, minor) children of lawful permanent residents retrogresses by more than a year for all countries of chargeability. Also, the...
In light of the rising popularity of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently issued a press release to remind F-1 and M-1 students of some important rules pertaining to foreign students enrolling in online classes. Although F-1 and...
On May 6, 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release that provides details on the proposed rule that would allow certain H-4 spouses to obtain employment authorization. This rule, which will soon be published in the Federal Register, would allow H-4 spouses...
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...
Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control Unit at the U.S. Department of State (DOS), recently provided expectations for cutoff date movement for the remainder of fiscal year 2014 (FY14). There is no one better positioned than Mr. Oppenheim, as the chief of the...
Many F-1 students on optional practical training (OPT) are the beneficiaries of H1B petitions filed against the fiscal year 2015 cap. Some of these F-1 students have learned, or will learn shortly, that they are among the lucky ones whose H1B petitions were selected in...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, as of January 2014, more than half a million employers are participating in the E-Verify program. E-Verify allows employers to verify online whether an individual is legally authorized to work in the United States. The increased...
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...
