Friday 03rd of September 2010 02:46:50 AM
Immigration Law Professionals
Welcome to our site. The Capitol Immigration Law Group is a boutique law firm specializing in labor and family immigration law. Because we focus and specialize in immigration law, we can better understand our clients' needs, apply our broad experience, do so efficiently and by showing the level of dedication only a small law firm can provide. Our core competencies and experience include work visas, green cards, visa portability, work authorization, travel documents, consular processing, naturalization and citizenship, corporate compliance and policy management and more.
Our clients include non-U.S. nationals from more than 30 countries, start-up businesses and Fortune 100 companies. We have provided immigration law solutions to clients from the software, telecommunications, engineering, aviation, legal, finance, and many other industries.
Our Mission | Our Pledge | Our Fees | Free Initial Consultation | Practices | Profiles | Testimonials
News and Recent Articles
We have clients and our office handles a number of U.S. visa applications submitted in Canada. Accordingly, we wish to report on a new appointment service for all U.S. visa applicants in Canada, which becomes effective on September 1, 2010.
As of September 1, 2010, all services — including calling for information and scheduling an appointment — will be provided for no additional cost, with no requirement that applicants pay phone charges or PIN numbers to access such services. Starting September 1, 2010, applicants will visit CSC Visa Information Services to either obtain information online or via telephone on how to start their application for a U.S. visa at a consular section in Canada.
For those U.S. visa applicants who have already scheduled an appointment or paid their MRV fee, the U.S. Embassy in Canada has some specific instructions.
In a report released yesterday, the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center provides a revised estimate of the unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. According to the report, the annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005.
This significant decline has contributed to an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S.-to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007, according to the report.
The data is obtained mainly through U.S. Census data. It is interesting that the most significant decrease in the population of unauthorized immigrants has been among those who come from Latin American countries other than Mexico. From 2007 to 2009, the size of this group from the Caribbean, Central America and South America decreased 22%. The numbers of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico (which accounts for about 60% of all unauthorized immigrants) peaked in 2007 at 7 million and has since remained mainly unchanged. The study notes that the inflow of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has decreased, which seems to suggest that unauthorized immigrants from Mexico have settled in the U.S. and are not going back even in an economic crisis.
The recent decrease in the unauthorized population has been especially notable along the nation’s Southeast coast and in its Mountain West, according to the new estimates. The number of unauthorized immigrants in Florida, Nevada and Virginia shrank from 2008 to 2009. Other states may have had declines, but they fell within the margin of error for these estimates. These states have been severely affected by the housing crisis which resulted in a significant decrease in construction jobs.
The report estimates that over the past two years, the annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants is 300,000 per year, down from about 550,000 per year between 2005 and 2007.
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 27, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 34,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,000 over the past week). Similarly, as of August 27, there were 13,000 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap which has 20,000 limit (an increase of about 400 over the past week).
H-1B Quota Trends – Slight Upward Trend in Regular Cap Filing
The numbers, as reported over the past week, show a decrease over the substantial 4,000 increase in the number of regular filings over the week of August 20th. However, last week’s increase of 1,000 still marks a slight upward trend in the number of regular cap H-1B filings.
H-1B Quota Expected to be Reached in March or April 2011
With the current pace of filings, or about 1,000 regular H-1B cap filings per week and 400 master’s cap per week, we estimate that the H-1B cap would be reached in 28-30 weeks, or somewhere in March or April of 2011.
We wish to reiterate our caution to potential H-1B employers and employees that as the U.S. economy is seen to recover and grow, it is possible that the pace of H-1B filings will increase.
We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics. In the meantime, if you are considering filing a cap-subject H-1B petition as part of the FY2011 quota, please contact us as soon as possible — it is never too early to file a cap-subject H-1B petition.
USCIS released the weekly FY2011 information on the numbers of cap-subject H-1Bs filed since April 1. As of August 20, 2010, USCIS has received approximately 33,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (a substantial increase of 4,200 over the past week). Similarly, as of August 20, there were 12,600 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap which has 20,000 limit (an increase of only 300 over the past week).
H-1B Quota Trends – Is the Substantial Regular Cap Filings Increase a One-Time Event?
The numbers, as reported over the past week, show a reversal of the recent trends of minor weekly increases. During the past week there was a substantial increase in the number of regular cap H-1B filings — over 4,000 in a week which is drastically bigger than any the filings over the previous weeks.
It is difficult to estimate the reason for this increase but it is most likely due to the fee increase imposed on certain H-1B filings. We suspect that a number of companies wanted to file before they were subjected to the new significant H-1B filing fee. We will monitor next 1-2 weeks’ H-1B numbers to understand whether this increase was indeed a one-time opportunity to file before the fees were raised or there is a longer-term trend of increased regular-cap H-1B filings.
We wish to reiterate our caution to potential H-1B employers and employees that as the U.S. economy is seen to recover and grow, it is possible that the pace of H-1B filings will increase.
We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics. In the meantime, if you are considering filing a cap-subject H-1B petition as part of the FY2011 quota, please contact us as soon as possible — it is never too early to file a cap-subject H-1B petition.
Our office handles a fair amount of appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases.
About the AAO
The AAO is an appeals office which handles appeals of certain decisions made by USCIS field offices and regional procssing centers. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires that all AAO decisions be made available to the public. As a result, AAO decisions are accessible in reading rooms at USCIS headquarters here in Washington, DC and at field offices. Also, some (but not all) AAO decisions are available online.
Current AAO Processing Times
USCIS has released the average processing times for cases pending at the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) as of August 1, 2010. Overall, there is not much change in comparison to the July 1, 2010 report.
Among the most notable AAO processing times:
- H-1B appeal takes 13 months (increase by one month compared to July 1, 2010);
- I-140 EB1 Extraordinary Ability takes 7 months (no change), Multinational Manager or Executive takes 15 months (no change) while EB1 Outstanding Professor or Researcher category takes 6 months (no change);
- I-140 EB2 (Advanced Degree) takes 24 months (no change) while EB2 (NIW) takes 7 months (increase by one month); and
- I-140 EB3 Skilled Worker takes 25 months (increase by one month) while EB3 Other Worker takes 20 months on appeal (decrease by three months).
Read the full AAO Processing Times report.
2010 H-1B Quota
Major Practices
Free Initial Consultation
Client Testimonials
April 27, 2010. I had the pleasure of being the client of attorney Michailov. I have found Mr. Michailov to be extremely professional, reliable and courteous. Mr. Michailov was always accessible and provided fast replies via email/skype to my many questions and timely updates on the correspondence received from USCIS. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the quality of his service and will always recommend him.
» More client testimonials...
Tools
Check Your USCIS Case Status
Weekly Newsletter
Subscribe Now | Read Past Issues
Client Extranet
Client Login | About
