Annual Statistics on Green Cards

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics has released its annual U.S. Permanent Residents: 2008 report.   The report provides a summary of the approvals of the various types of legal permanent resident (LPR) petitions.  According to the report, in 2008, a total of 1,107,126 persons became LPRs.  Of these, 58% already lived in [...]

Information About the (Possible) H-1B Lottery

Many of our clients have asked us whether there will be a lottery during this year’s H-1B filing season and if there will be one, how the lottery would work. Amid difficult economic times and increasing jobless rate, it is expected that the H-1B applications this year will be less than they were in April [...]

Current PERM Processing Dates/Times

The Department of Labor has provided an update on the current PERM processing dates.  Unfortunately, delays in PERM processing still remain (we wrote about these in the past:  1 | 2 | 3).  During the Spring 2009 AILA conference, DOL has provided some updates on the current PERM processing dates.  They are as follows:

No audit: [...]

Department of Labor Upgrades to PERM System Postponed

We have mentioned previously in some of our articles the planned replacement of the current PERM and LCA filing systems.  Although the replacement of these two systems does not necessarily affect employees and employers as much as it affects immigration attorneys (as immigration attorneys prepare these filings most often), it is helpful to monitor the [...]

More Clarifications on H-1B for TARP Companies

USCIS has released a memorandum, dated March 20, 2009, which provides additional clarifications about H-1B sponsorship by companies which are recipients of TARP funds.  We have written extensively about these restrictions earlier this year but there were still questions outstanding.  This USCIS guidance should provide final clarify on the subject.
The restrictions apply to any Labor [...]

DOJ Releases FOIA Guidelines Favoring Disclosure and Transparency

The Department of Justice has released a new set of Freedom of Information Act (”FOIA”) guidelines that direct all executive branch departments (DHS and USCIS including) to apply a presumption of openness when administering FOIA.
The new FOIA guidelines address both application of the presumption of disclosure and the effective administration of the FOIA across the [...]

AAO Processing Times Report

USCIS has released the average processing times for cases pending at the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) as of March 18, 2009.
Among the most notable AAO processing times:

H-1B appeal takes 13 months (compared to 14 months when last reported in January 2009);
I-140 EB1 Extrordinary Ability and Multinational Manager or Executive categories both take 9 months while [...]

USCIS Releases a New I-9 Employer Handbook

USCIS has released an updated Employer Handbook, Instructions for Completing Form I-9.  The new handbook describes in detail the requirements imposed by Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.  Note that the new handbook contains procedures which should be used only on or after April 3, 2009.

Last Call for Cap-Subject H-1B Applications Before April 1

The cap-subject H-1B filing season opens on April 1 which is only 9 business days away.  Although the demand for H-1B visas is expected to be lower this year than previous years, it is expected that the demand for H-1B visas will still exceed the available H-1B visa numbers and it is very possible that there will be a five-day filing window and a lottery.

Read more on Last Call for Cap-Subject H-1B Applications Before April 1…

Additional Points About the April 2009 Visa Bulletin and EB-3

We wrote last week about the April 2009 Visa Bulletin and the significant retrogression of the visa numbers in EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) category.  It is important to note that the April 2009 Visa Bulletin retrogression for EB-3 will be applied immediately, as opposed to as of April 1, 2009 (see last sentence of [...]