The U.S. Department of State (DOS) April 2016 Visa Bulletin is now available. The backlogged employment-based, second preference (EB2) and employment-based, third-preference (EB3) categories for India and China have minimal advancement in the final action (FA) charts. There is no movement in the dates for filing...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released the latest charts detailing the number of employment-based (EB) adjustment-of-status applications (form I-485) that are pending with the agency. The charts break down the number of pending I-485s by country of chargeability, EB category, and priority date...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the April 2016 Visa Bulletin this afternoon. In the employment-based categories, there is no change from last month in the dates for filing (DF) chart. As for the final action (FA) chart, the movement is extremely limited.The employment-based, second...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rule in December 2015, entitled Retention of EB1, EB2, and EB3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers. As indicated in our January 8, 2016 NewsBrief, I-140 EAD Proposal is Limited and Restrictive,...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) March 2016 Visa Bulletin shows further advancement in the employment-based, third preference (EB3) worldwide category. The final action (FA) cutoff date in the employment-based, second preference category for India also advances, but at a slower pace than in recent...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the March 2016 Visa Bulletin this afternoon. In the final action (FA) chart, the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India moves forward by ten weeks, to October 15, 2008. EB2 China moves up by five months, to August...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) provides visa bulletin insights each month through Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division. The information from Mr. Oppenheim for February, which was released later than usual, includes a discussion about the DOS visa applicant wait...
For many years, the Murthy Law Firm has addressed questions regarding the interpretation of a "same or similar" occupational classification for job portability in the permanent resident (green card) process. This is a key concept in the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21),...
As many MurthyDotCom readers are aware, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed regulation, on December 30, 2015, aimed at improving the employment-based immigration process. While many have focused on the portion of this proposal covering I-140 based employment authorization documents (EADs) -...
There are two strategies commonly used by those with pending adjustment-of-status (form I-485) applications to make job changes without disrupting their respective cases. One option is to argue that the move is to a same or similar job, thus qualifying for portability purposes under the...
