The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the H1B cap limit for fiscal year 2022 (FY22) has finally been reached. This applies to both the 65,000 regular H1B cap limit as well as the 20,000 advanced degree (masters) cap exemptions.The USCIS had...
Ur M. Jaddou, the Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), recently announced the agency's new mission statement. The Trump Administration had previously changed the USCIS mission statement to shift the agency's attention toward enforcement, rather than providing immigration services. This mission statement...
For many years, the EB2 India category consistently had a cutoff date more favorable than its EB3 counterpart. Since October 2020, however, there has been some back-and-forth, with the EB3 India cutoff date surging ahead of EB2, then EB3 stalling and the EB2 cutoff date...
H1B cap filing season is nearly upon us, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) again will use the electronic registration system, which was first implemented in March 2020. Below are answers to several frequently asked questions sent by both foreign nationals and prospective...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the March 2022 Visa Bulletin. The employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for foreign nationals born in India continues to advance, while the other categories largely remain stagnant. All cutoff dates listed refer to the dates in the...
A U.S. federal district court has approved a preliminary settlement agreement for former students of the University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ), a fictitious university created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2012. Following the closure of UNNJ in 2016, the DHS...
The Biden Administration has announced several immigration actions being taken to attract and retain science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent in the United States. The goal of these actions is to make the United States a more attractive option for students studying STEM and...
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a report, criticizing the USCIS for not effectively managing the U visa program. In the report, the OIG proposes five recommendations for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has posted guidance for transferring the underlying basis of a pending adjustment of status (AOS) application (form I-485). This process, more commonly referred to as interfiling, is the method I-485 applicants use to "upgrade" or "downgrade" between the...
This is the second in our two-part NewsBrief on extended travel by U.S. permanent residents ("green card" holders). Here we provide additional information regarding when such travel is acceptable and when it can be regarded as an abandonment of U.S. permanent resident status. Also addressed...
