Similar to the policy announced this past fall for O-1/O-2 consultations, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is now accepting negative P consultations directly from labor unions. The measure is presumably to prevent fraud in the P-1, P-2, and P-3 petition process. Background on P...
On Friday, April 5, 2019, the USCIS announced that it had received sufficient filings for regular H1B cap subject cases for fiscal year 2020 (which will begin October 1, 2019). In essence, the USCIS confirmed that they had received more filings than the 65,000 regular...
Most months, Charles Oppenheim, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, provides visa bulletin explanations and predictions. Following the release of the April 2019 Visa Bulletin, Mr. Oppenheim provides some updated information on what to expect in the...
This evening, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that premium processing of H1B cap petitions requesting a change of status will begin on May 20, 2019. This means that, within 15 calendar days of May 20, the USCIS will take some adjudicative action...
Since 2018, the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman has seen an increase in requests for assistance with cases related to delayed adjudications of employment authorization documents (EADs). In order to gather more information on how these delays are impacting U.S. employers and...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has added an online submission option for two immigration forms: the application for certificate of citizenship (form N-600), and the application for citizenship and issuance of certificate under section 322 (form N-600K). Form N-600 is used to obtain...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that premium processing for H1B petitions being filed for the fiscal year 2020 cap (i.e., H1B lottery) "…will be offered in a two-phased approach." The first phase will be for cap-subject petitions being filed requesting a change...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the April 2019 Visa Bulletin. All cutoff dates referenced refer to the dates in the final action (FA) chart, unless otherwise specified. Visa Bulletin Summary Employment-Based, First Preference (EB1) Category The cutoff dates for India and China in the EB1...
Under the Trump Administration, a troubling trend has emerged with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that evidences a radical reinterpretation of regulations regarding the use of curricular practical training (CPT) and optional practical training (OPT) by F-1 students in certain circumstances. The USCIS...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, beginning Tuesday, March 12, 2019, premium processing service again will be made available for all H1B petitions. Premium processing provides a guarantee that the USCIS will take some adjudicative action on the H1B petition within...
