We at the Murthy Law Firm have received some recent questions about proposed legislative changes to the H1B and L-1 programs. Specifically, there are concerns regarding legislation that was introduced on April 23, 2009 by U.S. Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Grassley (R-IA). Known...
Special immigrant religious workers are currently able to petition for permanent residence in two distinct categories. One category is for those who enter the United States to carry on the vocation of minister in a religious denomination. The other category is for those who have...
International Medical Graduates (IMGs), who are completing their graduate medical training in the H1B classification, and who seek to undertake employment with U.S. employers in H1B classification, must be mindful of the applicability of the H1B numerical cap. When moving from a cap-exempt H1B to...
California Service Center (CSC) views and clarifications on various immigration matters and procedures were provided to American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on January 28, 2009. This summary of the highlights of that report, including the 30-day timeline to respond to Requests for Evidence (RFEs), transfer...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that a sufficient number of H2B filings has been received for the second half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. As long-time MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may recall from articles including, Overview: H2B Temporary Workers (Sep 14,...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a public notice in the Federal Register on December 19, 2008, announcing changes in the completion of the J-1 Visa Waiver Recommendation Application Form (DS-3035). Beginning February 1, 2009, all applicants will be required to complete and submit...
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Service Center Operations / ISD Committee (SCOPS) recently released answers to questions posed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) service centers. These questions were from a meeting on August 20, 2008. Some of the questions addressed the "sunset"...
Immigration laws contain protections against employer retaliation and termination in situations where an employee has disclosed violations of the labor condition application (LCA) requirements or cooperated with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in investigations of such violations. The LCA is part of the H1B...
The California Service Center (CSC) of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held a liaison meeting with representatives of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on August 6, 2008. During the meeting, the CSC addressed several questions of general importance submitted by AILA members....
The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) released a decision upholding the denial of an EB1 (extraordinary ability) petition in which the employer failed to demonstrate that the sponsored foreign national had extraordinary ability in a particular field. (Please note that the extraordinary ability petition is exempt...
