The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has signed a settlement agreement with a group of F-1 students affected by long delays in processing of optional practical training (OPT) and 24-month STEM OPT extension applications. The settlement agreement potentially benefits the entire class of OPT...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the September 2021 Visa Bulletin, which is the last visa bulletin for fiscal year 2021. All cutoff dates listed refer to the dates in the final action chart (i.e., Chart A), unless otherwise specified. The U.S. Citizenship...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering a rule, which could be published as soon as next month - September 2021 - that would establish new benefit requests eligible for premium processing, consistent with the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA). Assuming the regulation...
This afternoon, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, effective August 12, 2021, the validity period of a report of medical examination and vaccination record (form I-693) will temporarily be extended from two years to four years. Per the announcement, the USCIS may...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires foreign nationals to submit biometrics in-person at an application support center (ASC) before granting certain categories of immigration benefits. After the USCIS schedules the biometrics appointment, if the individual fails to attend and does not take any...
Foreign nationals frequently are confused by the specific instructions found in certain denial decisions issued in response to their immigration filings. The standard language used by these government agencies is often wrongly perceived as either requiring or recommending specific action. The terminology discussed here is...
This morning, attorneys at the Murthy Law Firm began to receive notifications from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicating that additional registrations submitted for the fiscal year 2022 (FY22) lottery had been selected. These notifications give the petitioning employers from August 2, 2021...
With the ongoing pandemic, there have been severe backlogs in immigrant visa processing at U.S. consular posts. The overwhelming majority of consular posts still have limited capacity to process immigrant visas. Due to the delayed visa interviews during the pandemic, the National Visa Center (NVC)...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will accept resubmitted fiscal year 2021 (FY2021) cap-subject H1B petitions that were rejected or administratively closed solely based on the petitioning employer requesting a start date after October 1, 2020. The USCIS had taken...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently held its monthly YouTube program with Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division. During the program, Mr. Oppenheim answered various questions submitted by stakeholders, mainly related to predictions for the September 2021 Visa Bulletin, which...
