Most months, Charles Oppenheim, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, provides visa bulletin explanations and predictions. Following the release of the March 2019 Visa Bulletin, Mr. Oppenheim has provided a couple of updated predictions. Minimal Movement Expected in...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will permanently close its field office in Moscow on March 29, 2019, because of a significant decrease in workload. The office will be open to the public and will accept applications only until February...
As the H1B cap season for fiscal year 2020 (FY20) draws near, more and more inquiries are coming into the Murthy Law Firm from employers and foreign nationals who want to know whether an individual may be the beneficiary of more than one H1B cap-subject...
Yesterday, the proposed regulation to terminate the program that allows certain H-4 spouses to obtain employment authorization was submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This is one of the required steps in the formal rulemaking process, and signals that the...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the March 2019 Visa Bulletin. All cutoff dates referenced refer to the dates in the final action (FA) chart, unless otherwise specified. Visa Bulletin Summary Employment-Based, First Preference (EB1) Category The cutoff dates in EB1 for India and China move...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, beginning Tuesday, February 19, 2019, premium processing will resume for all H1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018. Premium processing provides a guarantee that the USCIS will take some adjudicative action on the...
President Trump indicated today that he will sign a spending bill that funds the federal government through September 30, 2019, despite the fact that it does not include the funding he demanded to build a wall on the U.S. / Mexico border. The bill will...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the final rule on January 30, 2018 for H1B cap-subject petitions. The new regulation makes a procedural change for the USCIS, which should result in an increase in the percentage of foreign nationals selected in the lottery...
A federal district court judge in New York has blocked the Trump Administration from adding a controversial question regarding citizenship status on the 2020 census. The Administration claims the question is needed in order to protect minority-voting blocs. Critics, however, argue that the question is...
Based on information that the Murthy Law Firm has received in recent months, it appears that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is now conducting site visits based on pending H1B petitions. While the site inspection program has been in place since 2009, until...
