The U.S. Department of State has announced that annual visa limits for fiscal year (FY) 2024 have been reached for the following employment-based categories: EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EW (other workers), EB-4, and EB-5 unreserved....more
On Monday, September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), working in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced publicly that all available immigrant visas in the...more
Each month, federal immigration authorities publish a list of dates informing immigrant visa applicants when they should expect to be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to government officials. This...more
Information regarding priority date retrogression, CBP stampless entry and increased DOL processing times are included in this month’s edition of Immigration Insider....more
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs’ May 2023 Visa Bulletin shows a trend of backlogs and slowdowns in the employment-based immigrant visa or green card process. The final action dates for multiple...more
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has released the Visa Bulletin for April 2023. The new Visa Bulletin reflects an ongoing trend of backlogs and slowdowns in the visa process, in stark contrast to the...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that it will accept employment-based I-485, adjustment of status applications, based on the U.S. Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin’s “Dates for Filing”...more
On January 12, 2023 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the implementation of the final phase of the premium processing expansion for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2...more
With the recent retrogression of employment-based priority dates for the EB-2 and EB-3 India and mainland China categories, many families with dependents nearing the age of twenty-one may be concerned about the impact...more
Earlier this year, federal immigration officials announced concrete measures to reduce the massive backlog of petitions and applications currently pending at the agency’s National Service Centers – but has this promise been...more
October 1, 2023 marked the start of the federal government’s fiscal year 2023 (FY 2023), with the Department of State (DOS) October Visa Bulletin taking effect the same day. What is sure to be disappointing to many is the...more
Attainment of an immigrant visa - colloquially known as a “Green Card” - is the ultimate goal for many foreign nationals temporarily residing in the U.S. Having a green card means finally doing away with frequent visa...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been making significant efforts to prevent the loss of available employment-based visa numbers for Fiscal Year 2022, as we reported in July. The good news is that the...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its Policy Manual to expand acceptable evidence under the published material criteria for EB-1 Extraordinary Ability and Outstanding Researcher/Professor...more
In an announcement sure to be welcome news for employers, federal immigration officials recently released new instructions permitting certain employment-based green card applications to “change lanes” into another category,...more
For the first time, USCIS has advised people with a pending green card application of its documentary requirements for transfers between employment-based classifications and issued an alert regarding the process...more
Because Congress limits how many green cards can be issued annually, the Department of State (DOS) releases a visa bulletin every month establishing the cut-off dates per preference category and country for the upcoming...more
On September 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the Visa Bulletin for October 2021, which showed minor advancement on priority for backlogged filings of employment-based (EB) immigrant visa (green card)...more
The November Visa Bulletin has been published by the Department of State. The Bulletin dates for filing remain the same for most employment-based and other categories, with some advancement for final action dates. ...more
Often times, the first question asked by employment-based Green Card beneficiaries during an initial strategy consultation is, “How long until I have my Green Card in hand?” While the answer varies depending on the particular...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has started returning H-1B petitions to employers whose cases were not selected in the recent H-1B lottery selection process. The USCIS reported that a total of 195,000 H-1B...more
In a shocking move late Friday afternoon, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued a revised October 2015 Visa Bulletin that supersedes the Visa Bulletin originally published on September 9, 2015. The most dramatic changes...more
On September 9, 2015, the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security, acting through United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced that they were significantly revising Visa Bulletin procedures....more
A new category of “filing” cutoff dates has been introduced to allow for earlier filing of adjustment of status applications and immigrant visa applications. The US Department of State (DOS) has released its October 2015...more
The U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Visa Bulletin sets out per country priority date cut-offs that regulate when an individual can begin the final phase of the lawful permanent residence (“green card”) process, either...more