Employers continue to weather ongoing economic problems in the United States, as well as immigration-related scrutiny, which has increased over the past few years. As U.S. companies consider their projections and proposals for 2012, their attention should also turn to matters that can facilitate smoother...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for November 2011 has been released earlier than expected. The cutoff dates for the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India and China move to November 1, 2007, effective in November 2011.This is remarkable, as it opens...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Diversity Visa (DV) "green card" lottery for fiscal year 2013 (FY13) registration period will close on November 5, 2011. Interested applicants need to submit their online entries by 12 noon, Eastern Time (U.S.), November 5, 2011, to have a...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued an announcement dated September 15, 2011 stating that all employment-based (EB) visa numbers for fiscal year 2011 (FY11) have been utilized. This means that no more immigrant visa numbers are available in the EB categories until October 1,...
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...
The H1B cap for fiscal year 2012 (FY12) continues to have numbers available, as of this writing. The volume of filings for FY12 has been light. The latest U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) statistics on H1B usage is always available via MurthyDotCom, on the...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the October 2011 Visa Bulletin, the first in the federal government's 2012 fiscal year (FY12). The most remarkable development, effective in October, is the substantial forward movement in the employment- based, second preference (EB2) category for India...
On October 27, 2011, certain surviving spouses of U.S. citizens will run out of time to pursue permanent residence ("green card") as widows or widowers based upon a change to U.S. immigration law that occurred in October 2009. As explained here for the benefit of...
At the Murthy Law Firm, we continue to receive inquiries as to the current status of the delays in prevailing wage determinations (PWDs) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). As of this writing, the DOL has made no new announcements; in particular, there has...
In Part I (26.Aug.2011) of this NewsBrief, MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers were informed of August 2, 2011 policy announcements from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), intended to facilitate immigration benefits for foreign national entrepreneurs. That article discussed the potential use of the H1B...
