Some of our clients and readers are aware that in March 2012, the U.S. Embassy in India introduced the Interview Waiver Program (IWP) which allows eligible individuals to apply for certain types of visa without being interviewed in person by a U.S. consular officer. Under this program, holders of B, J-2, H-4, L-2, C, D [...]
Our office has established a reputation as one of the leading practices for handling appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. The AAO processing times are published monthly, at the [...]
After the recent devastation throughout the U.S. east cost caused by Hurricane Sandy, our office is receiving a number of inquiries by foreign nationals regarding relief options and alternatives in various U.S. immigration situations. USCIS has also indicated that they would provide relief in a number of situations understanding that a disaster may affect the [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the December 2012 Visa Bulletin which is the third Visa Bulletin for the FY2013 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the lack of movement in EB-2 India and the possibility of a cutoff date for EB-5 China being introduced in a few [...]
We would like to remind our clients and readers that the Department of State DV-2014 Diversity Visa (a.k.a. “green card”) lottery is currently open but is scheduled to close at noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), on Saturday, November 3, 2012. If you are planning to submit a DV-2014 entry, please do so well before [...]
In the past, USCIS had been somewhat flexible with student status and filing for employment optional practical training work authorization (OPT). More recently, USCIS has been closing those gaps and enforcing the eligibility requirements and filing deadlines more strictly. With this more stringent and literal implementation of the rules, it is imperative that foreign students, [...]