Interviews and Appointments USCIS is officially scheduled to reopen its offices on June 4 and USCIS will begin resuming interviews and biometric appointments. USCIS will first send out notices to applicants and petitioners with previously scheduled appointments and interviews. As USCIS begins to reopen, the number of available appointments and interviews that they are scheduling […]
USCIS announced that it will be seeking funding from Congress to help with a budget deficit it is experiencing as a result of a decrease in filings for immigration benefits. USCIS has indicated that to make up for the additional funding being sought from Congress that they intend to add a 10% surcharge to all […]
UPDATE April 22, 2020 President Trump this evening signed an executive order banning the issuance of green cards to foreign nationals who are outside of the country. The order is effective as of 11:59 p.m. eastern daylight time on April 23, 2020. The order excludes persons in the U.S. who are adjusting their status. If […]
On December 18, 2019 both Senator Durbin and Senator Lee announced on the Senate floor that they had reached a bipartisan agreement to move S.386/HR1044 forward. While not officially presented yet, the unofficial draft of the proposed legislation as outlined by both Senator Durbin and Senator Lee in their speeches yesterday provides what we see […]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it is implementing the registration process in the next H-1B lottery. Employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for the fiscal year 2021 cap, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee. Employers seeking H-1B workers […]
The Homeland Security Department today issued a proposed rule titled “U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements”. The proposed rule is open for comment until December 16, 2019 after which it can be implemented. The good news is that for NIW petitions the fees may actually […]
The Visa Bulletin for November was just released and the priority dates have not changed from October. For EB1 petitioners the priority date for China is September 1, 2017 and remains March 15, 2017 for India. All other countries are still July 1, 2019. For EB2 all countries except China and India remain “Current” and […]
The U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York issued an injunction against Trumps Public Charge Rule. The injunction prohibits USCIS from requiring any forms that require additional public charge information. The proposed “New” I-485 and the New I-944 were going to require additional information relating to the receipt of public assistance and […]
A few minutes ago Senator David Perdue blocked “Unanimous Consent” in the Senate. As mentioned in our previous blog, it only takes one Senator to block unanimous consent. This means that Senate Bill 386 did not pass unanimous consent and must be debated prior to moving on to a vote of the Senate, unless unanimous […]
The October Visa Bulletin was issued today and the applicable filing dates for EB-2 Adjustment of Status for most countries are now current and the EB-1 priority dates, while still not current, have also moved forward considerably. Additionally, USCIS just announced that it will be using the “Dates For Filing” chart (as opposed to the […]
