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...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the September 2011 Visa Bulletin. This is the final Visa Bulletin for the federal government's fiscal year (FY) 2011. The employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for India and China will remain unchanged in the month of September...
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 U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently conducted a second random lottery to select "winners" of the 2012 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery. The DV 2012 new "winners" have been finalized and posted. All DV 2012 applicants must check the official lottery website in order to...
Sheela Murthy met with Arun K. Singh, the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), and Datta Palsargikar, the Minister of Community Affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. The DCM shared updates the DHS had given the Indian government regarding the ICE raid on UNVA.Ms....
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...
As was reported in our NewsFlash posted on MurthyDotCom July 28, 2011, (University of Northern Virginia: F-1 Students Must Read!) the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has begun proceedings to terminate the SEVP certification of the University of Northern Virginia (UNVA). According to a...
A number of inquiries have come into the Murthy Law Firm from individuals who have received eMail communications from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. These eMails asked for confirmation of information provided in connection with past H1B visa interviews, regarding employment verification and...
