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...
Answer Yes! Once the I-140 is approved, if the PD is not current, the person would be eligible for the additional 3-year H1B extension, cap-exempt. There is no need to bank away part of the initial H1B time, etc, in this situation. This is different from...
Answer No, there is no such requirement for permanent residents. In fact, technically, GC holders aren't supposed to have to show a passport when returning to the United States. But, obviously, that is not a good idea ...
Answer GCs are always for future employment. So, yes, if the PD is current, the I-485 could be filed based on a future employment letter. However, it is best to get some advice as to the likelihood of success in such cases - and the steps...
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) -...
Answer If a person is not the primary, it does not matter. If one is the primary beneficiary, s/he COULD work part time, but (assuming this is an employment-based case) the GC job offer must be for a full-time position. Therefore, it could be that the...
Answer If the RFE is the standard I-485 RFE, asking for an employment verification letter, the current, AC21-based employer can provide the letter. This assumes that the current employment meets the AC21 requirements. It does not matter that the work started without an AC21 filing. AC21...
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...
Answer Premium processing is not available for an H-4 application. Likewise, premium processing is not an option for an EAD application. It may be possible to submit an H1B petition for premium processing and file an H-4 COS/EOS (along with the EAD application) with the H1B....
