Generally, a foreign national is limited to a maximum duration of stay of six years in H1B status. The law, however, provides a few exemptions to this limitation. Depending on the circumstances, an individual may qualify to extend status in one- or three-year increments beyond...
In 2004, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed the continued validity of an approved change-of-status petition with a future start date, when a person travels abroad after such approval but reenters the United States before the future start date is reached. This clarification...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced two accommodations being made related to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the USCIS again has extended the response time flexibility, initially announced on March 20, 2020. Second, the USCIS has made permanent the policy that allows all...
The U.S. consulates in India have recently altered the method for a visa applicant to appear for a follow-up appointment following a 221(g) refusal. The new process appears to be an improvement over the prior method, which required the applicant to schedule the follow-up appointment...
The use of domestic workers, such as live-in maids or nannies, tends to be less common in the United States than it is in many other parts of the world. Foreign nationals planning to come to the United States, in addition to U.S. citizens living...
There are questions commonly on the minds of many MurthyDotCom readers regarding the effect of reentry into the United States on H1B or L-1 workers who also have approved advance parole (AP) based on a pending application to adjust status (form I-485). The law pertaining...
Foreign nationals may be deemed ineligible for admission (i.e. inadmissible) to the United States for a variety of reasons. Common grounds of inadmissibility include the following: medical grounds, criminal grounds, and immigration violations (including fraud or material misrepresentation in connection with an immigration benefit). In...
The ongoing pandemic has made movement in the monthly visa bulletin even harder to predict than normal. Moreover, while the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can be painfully slow in adjudicating I-485 applications, some of these applications are unexpectedly approved rather quickly. This unpredictability...
With the summer travel season upon us, many readers of MurthyDotCom are planning long-awaited trips abroad to visit family and friends. Not in their plans is a problem with the expiration date on the I-94 arrival / departure card upon returning to the United States....
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it has received sufficient filings to reach the cap for the additional H2B visas made available to returning workers. Since the number of petitions received in the first five business days of filing exceeds the...
