economy
Introduction: Immigration has been a longstanding pillar of the United States, shaping the nation's identity and contributing significantly to its economic growth. While debates around immigration policy can be divisive, recent articles highlight the positive effects that immigrants have on the US economy. From driving innovation to filling
dhs
The USCIS Stabilization Act, passed on October 1, 2020 established the current premium processing fees and the authority for the Department of Homeland Security to adjust the premium fees on a biennial basis. While USCIS has not used this authority to change the new Premium Processing fees after they were
Employment Visas
The Department of State released the new Visa Bulletin for January 2024 just yesterday. This blog post will try to provide a summary of any movement in this bulletin of relevance. Before getting to the summary of the current bulletin, here is a little bit about what the Visa Bulletin
Employment Visas
The Visa Bulletin is like a monthly newsletter for immigrant visas. It tells us whether family and employment-based categories are current or backlogged. The Department of State (DOS) and USCIS team up to publish it every month. It's has two charts: the Final Action Chart (shows priority dates
Employment Visas
Below is a recap of what the October 2023 visa bulleting showed in terms of movement in all categories. It should be noted that this is the first visa bulletin for the new 2024 fiscal year. A. FINAL ACTION DATES AND DATES FOR FILING FOR FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCE CASES Family based
Immigration
Florida has enacted two new anti-immigration bills in the last couple of weeks - Senate Bill 264 and Senate Bill 1718. In summary, Senate Bill 264 says the following: - Mandates that a foreign principal may not directly or indirectly own, have a controlling interest in, or acquire agricultural land
Adjustment of Status
DOS released the March 2023 Visa Bulletin a couple days ago and has indicated that new possible backlogs could be down the road and also appeared to remove some possible backlogs as well. First, last month the Department of State indicated that the Family Based 2A category (spouses and minor
economy
In looking at news reports over the last several weeks, several jumped out at me. A couple discussed immigration and social security, and several more discussed immigration and education spending. These are two very different issues, but both are being impacted by immigration - both those coming with documentation and
Fees
Earlier this month USCIS issued a proposed rule increasing prices of filing fees for an assortment of employment-based and other applications. Before discussing the actual increases, it is essential to remember that, as of now, this is a PROPOSED rule, not a final rule. There will be a 60-day comment
National Interest Waiver
Today USCIS announced that it would expand premium processing for National Interest Waiver application to ALL pending and ALL initial applications starting January 30, 2023. To remind you, premium processing for the National Interest Waiver (or the EB13) costs $2500 and USCIS will process the application within 45 calendar days.
economy
While reviewing immigration news this week, two articles jumped out at me. Both were about the importance of immigration to the US economy. The first was in Yahoo! Finance and reported on a press briefing by the Secretary of Labor on the November Job Numbers. During this briefing, he (the
Backlog
The December 2022 Visa Bulletin was released today. In the new bulletin, the Department of State has determined that the EB-2 category needs to be backlogged somewhat because of demand. As a reminder, the EB-2 category includes employer-sponsored applications for positions that require an Advanced Degree (Master's or