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...
The U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India, has announced the resumption of interviews for H and L visa applicants. The Consulate reopened the appointment schedule for all H and L applicants on August 26, 2011. The first appointments are being scheduled for September 6, 2011. Background: Temporary...
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...
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas recently announced policies intended to allow the utilization of current immigration categories by foreign national entrepreneurs in a more expansive manner. These announcements were...
The Murthy Law Firm has started to receive Prevailing Wage Determinations (PWDs) from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) as of August 24, 2011. This is newsworthy, as the DOL had ceased processing such requests in July, as explained in our NewsBrief, DOL Not Issuing...
Visa denials for H1B workers in the IT consulting industry continue to be commonplace. Many applicants arrive for their visa appointments at U.S. consulates fully prepared, with documents in support of their H1B visa applications, yet they still face administrative processing delays and refusals. For...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is not issuing Prevailing Wage Determinations (PWDs) as of this writing. The PWD is a required step in the PERM labor certification (LC) process, and the DOL stopped issuing them in July 2011. Thus, the entire system for initiating...
The ever-present problems presented by the visa adjudications process at U.S. consulates around the world - and particularly in India - are well known to many of our readers. At these consulates, the issuance of section 221(g) visa refusals to those working as IT consultants...
Anyone who has dealt with immigration issues in connection with the H1B petition and status has likely heard references to a ten-day "grace period" afforded to H1B nonimmigrants at the conclusion of the authorized period of stay. There is no automatic ten-day grace period in...
In an unexpected and encouraging move, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an initiative on August 2, 2011, to encourage immigrant entrepreneurs and start-up companies to the United States. This USCIS initiative will be especially helpful to people from countries like India and...
