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
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 those
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-
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,
Backlog
Is there a possibility that congress may be able to pass immigration reform soon? Democrats are making a big push to do so, but there margin is extremely slim (1 Senator), so how can they get this done? What the Democrats are trying to do is using the budget process
Biden
While President Biden submitted his legislation to overhaul the US Immigration system to Congress on his first day in office, the actual text of the bill was not released initially primarily because Congress has not actually introduced the bill in Congress as of yet. At this time, even thought the
H-1B
For those interested in the difficulties that companies and individuals went through over the past 4 years in terms of getting and renewing H-1Bs, a good article has come out on Forbes Magazine and on its website (link here). First, why are H-1Bs important and how do they
Covid-19
The incoming administration has issued an order halting the implementation of all proposed rules that are not yet final for 60 days (so until March 20, 2021). This includes the DOL wage change rules as well as the USCIS changes to the H-1B process (see a description of these
DOL
Just this week, USICS and DOL issued new final rules that will take effect in 60 days. Before getting into the details of the rules, it is important to note that the new Biden administration has stated that it will halt implementation of new rules for at least 60 days
Executive Orders
Yesterday, on the last day that the executive orders limiting the entry of Immigrants and Non-immigrants were in force, the President extended both orders through March 31, 2021. The orders limited US Consulates and Embassies' ability to issue immigrant visas and certain non-immigrant visas, including H-1Bs,
F-1
There are many pitfalls for those in F-1 status. Some of which I have talked about before. I want to discuss two potential pitfalls that have been in the news recently: The creation of a fake University by ICE to ensnare F-1 violators; and, Day 1 CPT. First,