The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has the discretion to grant special consideration for various immigration benefits during times of natural disaster, civil unrest, or other adverse conditions in a foreign national's home country. To that end, in the wake of a series of...
Officials with the U.S. Department of State (DOS) met with representatives from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on April 15, 2015, to discuss various topics related to visas. Some of the key issues discussed included visa revocations, misrepresentations by minors, and immigrant visa wait...
Many are still anxiously awaiting the outcome of petitions filed against the fiscal year 2016 (FY16) H1B cap. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced completion of the lottery selection on April 13, 2015, followed by completion of the data entry process on May...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a news alert this afternoon, noting that the agency has "…completed data entry of all fiscal year 2016 H1B cap-subject petitions selected…" in the lottery. The USCIS "…will now begin returning all H1B cap-subject petitions that were not...
On March 24, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a long-awaited L1B draft guidance memorandum that outlines the elements of the L1B category and primarily focuses on a discussion of the "specialized knowledge" requirement. The L1B category has been plagued by very...
A group of former employees of Southern California Edison have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to try to block the new regulation that is scheduled to allow qualifying H-4 spouses to apply for employment authorization documents (EADs). While news of...
Beginning May 1, 2015, stakeholders must begin using a revised version of the H classification supplement (form I-129), which specifically asks whether the beneficiary of the H1B petition has an ownership interest in the petitioning employer. This disclosure requirement is related to U.S. Citizenship and...
On April 13, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the completion of the H1B random lottery process for fiscal year 2016 (FY16). As previously noted, the total count of about 233,000 greatly exceeded the cap limits, and was substantially higher than the approximately...
On April 13, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced completion of the H1B cap lottery selection processes. The USCIS reported receipt of almost 233,000 H1B petitions, well in excess of the limits of 65,000 for the regular cap and 20,000 advanced-degree exemptions...
The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) released a precedent decision today, April 9, 2015, requiring employers to file amended H1B petitions for changes in employment location. The AAO determined that amended H1B petitions are required when employers move H1B workers to locations not listed in their...
