The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in the broadest sense, provides any person with the right to request access to information and records from any federal government agency. There are many ways that filing a FOIA request can help resolve long-pending immigration cases, but there...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy manual was updated on July 26, 2017, to now require that nearly all naturalization applicants provide biometrics, regardless of age. Prior to this, those applying to become U.S. citizens who were 75 years of age or older,...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new version of the application to register permanent residence or adjust status (form I-485). Effective August 25, 2017, the USCIS will only accept the new version of the I-485, which lists an edition date of 06/25/2017...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a smartphone app to assist those who are studying to take the civics portion of the naturalization test. The app, which is called USCIS: Civics Test Study Tools, is available for both Apple and Android devices. Background One...
As of Monday, July 24, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed accepting requests for premium processing for certain cap-exempt H1B petitions. As explained in the USCIS news release:Premium processing will resume for petitions that may be exempt from the cap if the...
The January 17, 2017 regulation for employment-based applicants includes a provision to allow for up to a 10-day grace period both before and after the work authorization period for certain foreign nationals in E-1, E-2, L-1, or TN status. These grace periods have also long...
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Maslenjak v. United States, rejecting an argument by the Trump Administration that a person can be denaturalized based on a false statement made during the naturalization process, regardless of its materiality. Rather, the court held...
On June 14, 2017, the Murthy Law Firm received the first few packages containing H1B filings returned as not having been selected in the fiscal year 2018 (FY18) random H1B lottery. More than a month has elapsed since the firm last received any new H1B...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum on May 23, 2017 that adopts the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision in Matter of A-T- Inc. The adopted decision serves to instruct USCIS personnel that, for purposes of determining whether a person qualifies...
By law, there is an annual limit of 65,000 new H1Bs that may be approved each year, not including the 20,000 available under the advanced-degree exemption (i.e. master's cap) and those filed for cap-exempt employment. As the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) typically...
