Under the Trump Administration, a troubling trend has emerged with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that evidences a radical reinterpretation of regulations regarding the use of curricular practical training (CPT) and optional practical training (OPT) by F-1 students in certain circumstances. The USCIS...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, beginning Tuesday, March 12, 2019, premium processing service again will be made available for all H1B petitions. Premium processing provides a guarantee that the USCIS will take some adjudicative action on the H1B petition within...
The policy regarding overseas travel, while an I-131 application for advance parole (AP) is pending, has been updated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Effective immediately, the USCIS will not deny a pending I-131 renewal based on overseas travel by the applicant, as...
A proposed bill, introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, would eliminate the per-country limits on employment-based (EB) immigrant visa categories, and lift the limit for family-based (FB) categories. If passed into law, it would transform the backlogs in the...
The application to extend / change nonimmigrant status (form I-539) is undergoing several significant changes. Effective March 22, 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will only accept the updated version of the form. In addition, a new supplement, form I-539A, will be released,...
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...
