Word comes directly from Murthy Law Firm attorneys attending the 2014 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Conference, in Boston, that the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is planning to implement a slew of system changes over the next few years. While most of 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. government has brought federal criminal charges against a college president for abusing foreign students. The charges allege that the president of Cathedral Bible College, Mr. Reginald Miller, demanded the students work long hours for very little pay, threatening to revoke the F-1 status...
In light of the rising popularity of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently issued a press release to remind F-1 and M-1 students of some important rules pertaining to foreign students enrolling in online classes. Although F-1 and...
Many F-1 students on optional practical training (OPT) are the beneficiaries of H1B petitions filed against the fiscal year 2015 cap. Some of these F-1 students have learned, or will learn shortly, that they are among the lucky ones whose H1B petitions were selected in...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, as of January 2014, more than half a million employers are participating in the E-Verify program. E-Verify allows employers to verify online whether an individual is legally authorized to work in the United States. The increased...
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) recently released a quarterly report on the statistical data in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The report provides interesting and useful insight on the demographics of international students in the United States, and a comparison between...
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued an extensive report in February 2014 regarding the oversight of the optional practical training (OPT) program for F-1 and M-1 foreign students. In the report, the GAO concludes that there is a need for additional risk assessment and...
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a public notice on February 6, 2014 reconfirming that unpaid internships are a permissible form of employment for foreign nationals in F-1 status engaged in initial optional practical training (OPT). This statement was issued in response to...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently made permanent a visa interview waiver program that was initiated as a temporary, pilot program in January 2012. This program allows some individuals seeking renewals of previously issued visas to have their applications adjudicated without having to attend...
