The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an initiative intended to encourage bright international students to study in the U.S. The initiative, entitled Study in the States, sets forth the goals of examining and improving upon existing student and exchange visitor programs. The most...
On September 19, 2011, the Murthy Law Firm began receiving "courtesy copies" of case approval notices (Form I-797C) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), rather than the "original" approval notices (I-797A or I-797B). This is at variance with long standing procedures, and was...
In an unexpected and encouraging move, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an initiative on August 2, 2011, to encourage immigrant entrepreneurs and start-up companies to the United States. This USCIS initiative will be especially helpful to people from countries like India and...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) made a March 15, 2010 announcement of its intent to begin certifying U visa applications on behalf of victims of certain crimes. This is a major change in the processing of U visa applications. Prior to this change, U...
President Obama signed a continuing resolution on October 1, 2009, temporarily extending funding for the Conrad 30 program for physicians, the non-minister immigrant religious worker category and EB5 immigrant investor pilot programs until October 31, 2009.Regular readers of MurthyDotCom may recall that these programs were...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reinstated premium processing for Nonimmigrant Religious Workers (R-1s), effective July 20, 2009. The premium, expedited processing option was suspended since November 28, 2006, based on concerns of fraud. The premium processing service for R-1 petitions will be limited...
Special immigrant religious workers are currently able to petition for permanent residence in two distinct categories. One category is for those who enter the United States to carry on the vocation of minister in a religious denomination. The other category is for those who have...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that a sufficient number of H2B filings has been received for the second half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. As long-time MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may recall from articles including, Overview: H2B Temporary Workers (Sep 14,...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a public notice in the Federal Register on December 19, 2008, announcing changes in the completion of the J-1 Visa Waiver Recommendation Application Form (DS-3035). Beginning February 1, 2009, all applicants will be required to complete and submit...
The USCIS has announced an increase in the allowable period of admission for foreign nationals using the Trade-NAFTA (TN) status. This status is available only to Canadian and Mexican citizens. The TN status was previously issued in one-year increments, with no limit on the number...
