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”
Each month, the Department of State (“DOS”) publishes current immigrant visa availability information in its Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date. Continue reading “USCIS and DOS Attempt to Clarify Increasingly Complex Visa Bulletin Situation”
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”
Effective September 24, 2015, USCIS will suspend final adjudication of employment-based Adjustment of Status Applications. Continue reading “USCIS Suspends Final Adjudication of Employment-Based Adjustment Applications Until October 1, 2015”
Despite the fact that parts of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration currently are being challenged in court, the administration is moving forward with its promise to modernize our antiquated immigration system. Continue reading “Moving Into the 21st Century”
The Department of State has released its Visa Bulletin for May 2015 and, as predicted back in October 2014 by Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, Charles Oppenheim, the EB-5 category will retrogress for nationals of China. The cut-off for processing will be May 1, 2013. The cut-off date for a foreign national is established by the filing date of the I-526 Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur and is shown on the receipt notice in the “Priority Date” box. As such, Chinese nationals who wish to adjust their status to legal permanent resident in May 2015 must have a priority date of May 1, 2013 or earlier. Continue reading “EB-5 Retrogresses By Two Years in May 2015 for Nationals of China”
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) recently released the April Visa Bulletin. Continue reading “April Visa Bulletin Released”
When President Barack Obama first addressed the nation to unveil his Immigration Accountability Executive Actions, the media and the internet were in a frenzy to see who could get the story out first. Despite the fact that many of the specifics of the planned executive actions were unclear or not yet finalized, legal experts and analysts all across the country were discussing the potential consequences or effects on national security and the economy as a result of the estimated millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States who stood to benefit. Continue reading “The Devil is in the Details: What Employers and Businesses Need to Know About the President’s Executive Actions on Immigration”
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”