As reported in the MurthyDotCom NewsBrief, Fiscal Year 2014 Visa Bulletin Predictions (25.Oct.2013), the Chief of the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division made a number of predictions regarding how much (or little) cutoff date movement in the employment-based categories...
The U.S. government is in a state of partial shutdown as of October 1, 2013 due to an inability to obtain congressional agreement on appropriations. As of October 1st, the Department of Labor iCert system is unavailable. This system is used for both PERM labor...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for October 2013 is the first visa bulletin for fiscal year 2014 (FY14). Under this bulletin, the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category retrogresses in October, while the employment- based (EB) categories are largely stagnant. Visa Bulletin Summary Family-Based,...
As predicted, the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category for spouses and children of lawful permanent residents (LPRs, or "green card" holders), will retrogress in October. This category became current in August 2013 and remains current through September 30, 2013. The U.S. Department of State...
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival's program (DACA) marked its one-year anniversary on August 15, 2013. Although the program has obviously not resolved many of the problems this nation faces regarding its population of undocumented foreign nationals, DACA has at least provided substantial benefits to...
The anxiously-awaited September 2013 U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin, which is the final visa bulletin for fiscal year 2013 (FY13), contains good news for the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category and the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India. There are also...
It is fairly common for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to transfer a designated type of case internally in order to achieve a better workload balance. However, while the USCIS may view such case transfers as routine, this sometimes causes concern among foreign...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing issues pertaining to the availability of immigration benefits to same-sex spouses. Similar to the FAQs recently published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as discussed in the NewsBrief, Clarification...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for September 2013 advances the cutoff date in the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India by more than five months, to June 15, 2008. Movement in the employment-based, third preference (EB3) category is even more substantial....
On July 26, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new and more detailed answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on how immigration benefits based on same-sex marriages will be addressed following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor. These...
