Answer On November 21, 2019, a new regulation will go into effect that raises the minimum investment amount for EB5 cases to $1.8 million, or $900,000 if the investment is made in a targeted employment area (TEA). A TEA is a rural area or area of...
In early June 2019, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began rolling out the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system, a cloud-based system, which is replacing iCERT. On June 10th, OFLC started accepting applications for prevailing wage...
Answer To file for one's I-485 with another employer, a new PERM and I-140 would normally be required. But the approved I-140 still provides some benefits.Generally speaking, once an I-140 has been approved, the priority date can be used for any other I-140 filed on behalf...
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 August 2019 Visa Bulletin, Mr. Oppenheim discussed some of the higher-than-normal demand in various categories, and...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is scheduled to publish in the Federal Register a final rule related to the employment-based, fifth preference (EB5) immigrant investor program that will dramatically increase the minimum investment requirements, among other changes. The final rule will apply only...
Answer The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 (i.e., H.R.1044) is a bill that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, but it is not law. To become law, the U.S. Senate would need to pass the bill, and then it would need to...
Answer One MUST be in the United States to file an I-485. If one is not, s/he must apply for a green card through consular processing with the U.S. Department of State at a U.S. consulate. The employer may need to file form I-824 to convert...
On July 10, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1044, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019. If passed into law, the bill would eliminate the per-country cap on employment-based green cards, and increase the per-country limit for family-based categories. While this news...
The August 2019 Visa Bulletin has been released by the U.S. Department of State (DOS). There are some notable retrogressions in employment-based (EB) categories, with EB3 India moving to January 1, 2006 and EB2 and EB3 all other countries retrogressing to January 1, 2017 and...
Answer In general, if the I-485 was filed before the child turned 21 years of age, and within one year of the priority date becoming current, the child would be protected by the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). However, there are a number of additional factors...
