It was recently announced that, beginning February 1, 2013, a $165 Immigrant Visa DHS Domestic Processing Fee (USCIS Immigrant Fee) will be collected by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This fee only applies to green card applicants who are applying for immigrant visas...
Over the past several decades, foreign nationals have been the founders of some of the most successful companies in the United States. Despite the well-documented immigrant entrepreneurial drive, however, U.S. immigration law is often not particularly welcoming to foreign nationals who wish to start their...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for January 2013 is now available. The cutoff date movement is consistent with earlier predictions. The cutoff date for the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India is unchanged. The January 2013 Visa Bulletin is summarized here...
At the Murthy Law Firm, cases often come to our attention when a seemingly minor oversight or discrepancy causes enormous immigration problems for a spouse. Some of these difficulties may even render such a spouse ineligible for nonimmigrant status or for the green card. Below...
During the holidays there is generally a rise in retail reports of shoplifting. This may be attributable to the overall increase in shopping during the holiday season, when storekeepers must be particularly watchful. Store displays at this time of year may also prove especially tempting...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the Visa Bulletin for December 2012, and cutoff date movement is consistent with earlier predictions. As expected, the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category remains stagnant for India. The December Visa Bulletin includes predictions for upcoming visa bulletins....
Questions have arisen surrounding some recent applications for adjustment of status (I-485) cases filed for derivative (dependent) beneficiaries. The receipt notices issued for some of these cases reflect the date of the I-485 filing in place of the correct priority date. The USCIS has explained...
The audit process is used by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to confirm that employers are complying with PERM requirements and that the attestations in PERM labor certifications are correct. Cases are sometimes selected for audit at random. In other cases, the DOL targets...
As explained in our MurthyDotCom NewsBrief, Murthy Takes Action: Comments to DOL on Proposed LCA (21.Sep.2012), the DOL proposed an overhaul of the labor condition application (LCA) contents on July 9, 2012. Based upon legal restrictions as to LCA content, as well as concerns about...
As readers were advised in our NewsBrief, Visa Bulletin Predictions for EB2 (25.Oct.2012), several Murthy Law Firm attorneys attended a meeting regarding U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin information and predictions for fiscal year (FY) 2013. The meeting was with Charles Oppenheim, the Chief of...
