Your resource for all things immigration.
As of today, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will resume accepting premium processing requests for H-1B extensions. Any premium processing request for H-1B extensions received prior to July 13, 2015 will be rejected. Continue reading “USCIS Resumes Premium Processing Service for H-1B Extensions”
Effective July 7, 2015, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City will no longer process E visa applications. Continue reading “DOS Alert: U.S. Embassy in Mexico City Will No Longer Process E Visas”
And so it begins. After more than 50 years of icy relations, Jeffrey DeLaurentis (a U.S. diplomat at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana) delivered a note from President Barak Obama to Cuban President Raul Castro restoring diplomatic relations. Continue reading “Bienvenidos a Habana”
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) recently released an alert advising employers that green cards do not always have a signature. For example, USCIS will waive the signature requirement for children under the age of consent or individuals who are physically unable to provide a signature. Continue reading “I-9 Update: Green Cards Do Not Always Have a Signature”
On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, the Department of Homeland security designated Nepal for Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for a period of 18 months, effective June 24, 2015 through December 24, 2016, based on the conditions resulting from the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, and the subsequent aftershocks. As a result, eligible nationals of Nepal residing in the United States may apply for TPS with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”). Continue reading “Update on Temporary Protected Status”
On June 12, 2015, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (the “Bureau”) first announced that a hardware failure on June 9 had led to technical problems with overseas passport and visa systems. The hardware failure had halted the flow of security clearance requests from the overseas posts to the State Department’s Consular Consolidated Database (“CCD”). Continue reading “Client Alert: Visa and Passport Delays Expected to Continue Through Next Week”
Maria del Carmen Ramos, partner in Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick’s Tampa office, recently commented to Law360 on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kerry v. Din. Maria observed that the decision is sure to disappoint most immigration practitioners: Continue reading “Maria del Carmen Ramos Comments on Recent Immigration Ruling”
Determining when is appropriate to pay an honorarium to a foreign national on a visitor’s visa often presents a conundrum. Our immigration system is nothing short of complicated with its alphabet soup of visas, but paying a foreign national also presents tax implications. Continue reading “When Is Paying an Honorarium Permissible?”
Maria del Carmen Ramos, an immigration partner in our Tampa office, has received an AV® Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell after an extensive and confidential peer review by members of the Bar and Judiciary. As part of its legal review process, Martindale-Hubbell periodically and randomly conducts reviews on all lawyers in its directory in two key ways: (i) conducting reviews on randomly selected attorneys/judges and (ii) by surveying names of legal professionals that lawyers can nominate as references. Continue reading “Maria del Carmen Ramos Receives an AV® Peer Rating”
As previously reported, a group of former employees of Southern California Edison (who claim they were laid off and replaced by H-1B workers) filed a lawsuit in the United States District for the District of Columbia against the administration challenging the H-4 final rule on the grounds that the rule exceeds DHS’s authority and directly contradicts certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended, in Save Jobs USA vs. U.S. Dep’t. of Homeland Security, Civil Action No. 1:15-cv-615. Continue reading “Alert: Preliminary Injunction is Denied–H-4 EAD Program Moves Forward”