William Barr, the U.S. Attorney General, recently certified a decision on a case, Matter of Castillo-Perez, in which he ruled that a foreign national who has two or more convictions for driving under the influence (DUI) is presumed to lack "good moral character" (GMC). A...
This evening, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that "it has completed a successful pilot testing phase and is implementing the registration process in the next H1B lottery."The USCIS will open the initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020. No...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently finalized the rule adding a small fee to the H1B registration system for employers seeking to file cap-subject H1B petitions for fiscal year 2021 (FY21). Per the final rule, an H1B employer will need to pay a...
As previously reported on MurthyDotCom, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new proposed rule on Thursday, November 14, 2019, outlining significant increases for many U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) filing fees. The increases will result in a weighted average increase of...
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 December 2019 Visa Bulletin, Mr. Oppenheim updates predictions for some of the employment-based categories, as well...
On October 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) updated the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) to define the clearly approvable standard in the context of L-1 visa applications filed under a petitioning company's blanket L-1 petition. The FAM now provides that "clearly approvable" means...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the December 2019 Visa Bulletin. In December, movement in most categories is limited. China sees gradual advancements in the employment-based, first and second preference (EB1 and EB2) categories, while India sees little to no progression in any...
Effective December 2, 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is implementing a stricter, more formalized fee waiver policy. The USCIS justified this policy change by noting that the agency is almost entirely funded by fee revenue, and fee waivers cost the agency hundreds...
On October 24, 2019 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has begun producing a new travel document with new security features that will serve in place of permits to reenter the United States (form I-327, commonly referred to as "reentry permits")...
This evening, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a proposed rule to increase filing fees for most types of applications and petitions. It would also add a number of new fees and change certain other immigration benefit request requirements. The proposed rule is...
