The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released a fact sheet outlining the strategy that is used by its Entry / Exit Transformation (EXT) Office, which was created in May 2013. The goal of the EXT Office is to "accurately verify who arrives and to...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a checklist now being utilized by officers to evaluate trade NAFTA (TN) applications. This is an apparent response to concerns over inconsistencies in decision making on cases requesting admission in the TN category. TN for Canadian and Mexican Professionals The...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has confirmed that the U.S. consular posts in Canada have an extremely limited number of appointments available this summer for third-country nationals (TCNs) applying for nonimmigrant visas. To that end, the DOS is urging visa applicants, other than Canadian...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the July 2014 Visa Bulletin. The most significant movement is a nearly four-year leap forward in the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for Indian nationals. While this movement is not unexpected, it is still welcome news for many...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for July 2014 contains long-awaited good news for the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India. The EB2, India, cutoff date advances to September 1, 2008, effective during the month of July 2014.This forward movement was anticipated,...
On June 9, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow against hopes for a favorable interpretation of family unity-related provisions within U.S. immigration law. The Court held that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) had authority to narrowly interpret key protections offered by the...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that medical examinations required as part of the permanent residence ("green card") process will have a validity limit of one year. This became effective on June 1, 2014. Those with long-pending adjustment of status (AOS) applications...
Maria Odom, the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, gave a presentation on various immigration issues on May 21, 2014. The setting was a meeting of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Washington D.C. Chapter, which was attended by several attorneys...
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) experienced a massive "crash" of its computer systems in April 2014. The EOIR announced, however, that it has been able to recover all of the data, and that portions of its system are once again operational. EOIR Computer Systems Crash,...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed regulatory change related to the country-specific specialty occupation professionals categories, E-3 (for Australians) and H1B1 (for citizens of Chile and Singapore). These changes would provide some clarification regarding the work authorized nature of these categories. Immigration Benefits...
