It is only Tuesday and this week has already been full of immigration proposals. After yesterday's announcement for a blueprint for a comprehensive immigration reform, today a group of Senators has released an actual draft bill which picks up where yesterday's proposal left off with respect to employment-based immigration. Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah, Amy [...]
Our office handles a substantial number of ETA Form 9089 – Permanent Labor Certification (“PERM”) applications and we are closely monitoring the current PERM processing times not only for the benefit of our clients but also to be able to predict longer-term trends in PERM processing. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided an update [...]
Earlier today, a group of eight U.S. Senators released a proposed framework for a comprehensive immigration reform. The document signed off by Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York, John McCain of Arizona, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Marco Rubio of Florida, Michael Bennet of [...]
Many of our readers follow closely our (and others') reports of the monthly Visa Bulletin which provides cutoff dates for those immigrant visa (green card) applicants who are current and have immigrant visa numbers available (i.e. their actual permanent resident “green” card is assigned an available number and can be issued). The past few [...]
The start of the new year is a perfect time to assess corporate compliance with U.S. immigration laws. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and the Department of Labor (“DOL”) increase their number of company audits and fines each year, it is important for employers to perform annual audits of their employment law and immigration [...]
New documents have been released recently in the prolonged lawsuit by the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center, on behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”), regarding USCIS’ procedures and predetermined indicators of potential fraud in the H-1B process. (For a detailed review of the lawsuit and associated documents see). Legal History In 2005, [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the February 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the fifth Visa Bulletin for the FY2013 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the lack of movement (again) in EB-2 India. Many have been looking forward to this Visa Bulletin in order to gauge [...]
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 [...]
The Department of State ("DOS") has announced and launched an online system which allows applicants who have cases pending with DOS to check the status on their applications. The system works for both Immigrant Visa (IV) and Non-Immigrant Visa (NIV) applications filed/pending at either the National Visa Center (NVC) or at a U.S. Consular Section [...]