With the ongoing backlog in the employment-based, third preference (EB3) category, many people look forward to using the strategy commonly referred to as an EB3-to-EB2 "upgrade." The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently confirmed a long-term favorable policy, which facilitates this strategy. It was...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has audited a significant percentage of PERM labor certification (LC or labor) cases since early 2012. The incidence of PERM audits became noticeably higher around February 2012. As explained here for the benefit of MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers, many...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently announced major changes to nonimmigrant and immigrant visa fees. These fees are charged to applicants who apply for visas (sometimes referred to as visa "stamping") at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. These new fees became effective April 13,...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has confirmed that the limit on immigrant visa numbers for fiscal year 2012 (FY12) has been reached. This information was communicated to USCIS on April 11, 2012, and was expected, based on the Murthy Law Firm's earlier communication with...
Developments in the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India and China in late 2011 / early 2012 generated both excitement and disappointment for many EB2 candidates. The rapid forward movement of cutoff dates in the visa bulletin for EB2-eligible candidates from India and China...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is continuing improvement efforts on the immigrant waiver application process. The USCIS published an April 2, 2012 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register, as a required step toward instituting such changes. Waiver for Unlawful Presence Changes proposed...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the May 2012 Visa Bulletin. As expected, based upon an earlier DOS announcement, the May Visa Bulletin has a retrogressed cutoff date of August 15, 2007. This was discussed in DOS Issues New EB2 Cutoff Projection (23.Mar.2012)....
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has changed the paper used for Form I-797C, Notice of Action, effective April 2, 2012. The Form I-797C is now printed on plain bond paper, rather than the special paper previously used. The purpose of this change is...
MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers were alerted on March 29, 2012 in our news item DOS Confirms Lack of Enough EB2 India / China Visa Numbers, that the U.S. Department of State (DOS) had internally retrogressed the EB2 India and China cutoff dates. The retrogression will...
Long-time readers of MurthyDotCom and the MurthyBulletin have read previously about nunc pro tunc (NPT) reinstatement of status. The most common example of an NPT filing involves reinstating an H-4 spouse who does not realize that an H-4 request for extension of status (EOS) requires...
