On October 23, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum affecting most nonimmigrant workers. This new policy memorandum rescinds a 2004 policy memo and portions of a 2015 policy memo that gave deference to previously approved petitions. The new policy...
Most months, Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division for the U.S. Department of State (DOS), provides visa bulletin explanations and predictions. The information for the November 2017 Visa Bulletin includes updated short-term predictions, as well as a vexing revelation regarding why...
Effective immediately, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) filing address for a petition for a nonimmigrant worker (form I-129) will be determined based on the state where the petitioning employer's primary office is located. This is a change from the previous policy, which required...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Texas Service Center (TSC) is still denying advance parole (AP) applications (form I-131) for applicants who travel abroad before their AP applications are approved. As previously reported, this is contrary to the longstanding practice by the USCIS to...
The entry period for the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) diversity visa (DV) lottery has been restarted, effective October 18, 2017, due to technical difficulties that arose with the registration system. Anyone who registered for the DV lottery October 3, 2017 through October 10, 2017 must...
A key requirement of the employment-based, fifth preference (EB5) immigrant visa category is that the foreign national investor be able to clearly and thoroughly document the lawful source of the investment funds. The sourcing of the investment funds can be quite tedious, and is oftentimes...
In August 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would expand the use of in-person interviews for adjustment-of-status (form I-485) applicants in employment-based cases. Following the announcement, however, there remained a few lingering questions as to precisely whom this rule change would...
Form I-765, which is used to apply for an employment authorization document (EAD), now provides the option for the applicant to simultaneously apply for a Social Security number (SSN). In an announcement released on October 2, 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) explains...
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy memorandum regarding the definitions of affiliate and subsidiary for the purposes of H1B filing fee determinations. The policy is being instituted to clarify a previously ambiguous portion of the American Competitiveness and Workforce...
This morning, a federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump Administration from enforcing the travel ban issued by executive order on September 24, 2017. This version of the travel ban was to apply to citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Chad, Yemen, and North Korea,...
