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&
immigration reform
Forbes recently published an excellent article looking at efforts to reform the US Immigration system and make it more like the Canadian system. For those who are not familiar with the Canadian system, they have a point-based system designed to bring in those with skills needed in Canada. In
F-1
On August 19, 2022, the Department of Education announced that it would no longer recognize the "Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools" (ACICS) as an accrediting agency. This will affect Immigrants in several ways, depending on where they are in their course of study. First, for those
Employment Visas
The Department of State, in the November 2022 Visa Bulletin, included the following in its list of possible future changes in the visa bulletin: Increased demand in the Employment Second category may necessitate the establishment of a worldwide final action date in the coming months to hold number use within
National Interest Waiver
On September 15, 2022, USCIS launched the third phase of expanding its premium processing service. For those who do not recall, premium processing allows you to pay USCIS more money for them to process your case faster than usual. Premium processing is only available for certain cases and, until earlier
National Interest Waiver
USCIS will be implementing the second phase of its planned expansion of its premium processing service starting August 1, 2022. For those who are unaware, Premium processing is a service provided by USCIS that allows you to pay an extra fee to get your application adjudicated quicker (in many cases
National Interest Waiver
Today USCIS announced implementation dates for the expansion of premium processing to the EB-2 NIW and EB-1 Multinational Professional categories. However, before giving the implementation date, it is important to remember that this will ONLY apply to EB-2 NIW filed with USCIS BEFORE June 1, 2021, and
Backlog
USCIS will issue a temporary final rule providing that the automatic extension period applicable to expiring EADs for certain renewal applicants who have filed Form I-765 will be increased from up to 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on their EADs. This increase
USCIS
The biggest take away from this months Visa Bulletin is that there was little, if any movement for any category, except some forward movement for India EB–2 cases. See Below for details. Family Based Visa Dates FB1 - Adult Children (unmarried) of US Citizens: This category stayed at Dec 1,
Immigration
USCIS has majorly reconfigured how it is handling I-485s based upon I-140s. For all I-485s based upon I-140s EXCEPT Employment Based Category 4 cases (religious workers and some other special immigrants), USCIS is transferring the I-485 cases from the Texas Service Center and the Nebraska
EAD
AILA today reported that USCIS has added 22 new files of study to the STEM designated degree program list. AILA stated: On January 21, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it updated the STEM Designated Degree Program List to add 22 qualifying fields of study and a corresponding