Your resource for all things immigration.
The new “two-pronged” priority date system announced recently by the U.S. State Department appears, thus far, to promise more of the same for foreign nationals in historically over-subscribed visa categories. Continue reading “New System, Same Result”
Earlier this month, USCIS, in coordination with the Department of State (“DOS”), announced that it was revising the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored preference adjustment of status applications. Continue reading “Not So Fast! Department of State Releases Updated Visa Bulletin for October 2015”
According to the U.S. Department of States’ Report of the Visa Office 2014, below following is a ranking of the top EB-5 countries ranked according to the number of EB-5 visas issued in the 2014 fiscal year. Continue reading “Top Twelve EB-5 Countries by US Immigrant Visa Issuance”
The devil is in the details. J-1 program sponsors need to be aware of upcoming changes by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) to the J-1 program. Specifically, beginning January 5, 2015, J-1 program sponsors will be required to (i) undergo annual management reviews of their internal controls and of a statistically valid sampling of their J nonimmigrants files by independent auditors, and (ii) file annual reports with DOS. Continue reading “New J-1 Program Requirements Mandate Annual Audits and Reports to Department of State”
Late last week, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an in-country refugee/parole program for minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Continue reading “U.S. Rolls Out New Refugee/Parole Program for Certain Central American Children”
This week, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released additional changes to its Reciprocity Table following President Barack Obama’s announcement of a new, reciprocal 10-year visa policy between the United States and China. Continue reading “Extensions of Visa Validity Periods for Chinese Nationals”
No one can really predict the future. But as analysts will tell you, we can learn a lot from the past and watching current trends. This is especially true when it comes to immigration, which is in a state of constant flux. Continue reading “More EB-5 Predictions”
In September 2014, we predicted the EB-5 visa category would retrogress sometime in the 2015 fiscal year. After all, Form I-526 filings have increased by over 500% over the last five years. And the EB-5 category for Chinese nationals became unavailable at the end of the 2014 fiscal year. Our hunch was confirmed by the Department of State (DOS) recently, when Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the DOS, predicted that the EB-5 immigrant visa category would retrogress as early as May 2015, but definitely sometime during the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Continue reading “Retrogression Alert Issued for EB-5 Category”