AC21 has offered much needed relief to many immigrants in the past, and is even more critical now when hundreds of thousands of people filed I-485 Adjustment of Status applications, but are facing severe visa retrogression for the coming years. AC21 makes it possible to start a new job and career when needed or desired, [...]
Last week, the Homeland Security Department has ordered U.S. border agents, "effective immediately", to verify that every international student who arrives in the US has a valid student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained by the Associated Press. This decision came after it was discovered that a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar [...]
In today’s shrinking world, where international travel is nearly as common as domestic travel, lawful permanent residents often find themselves defending their status at ports of entry. This FREE webinar will cover the steps that LPRs must take both to maintain their permanent residence and to preserve continuous residence for naturalization purposes. It will also [...]
On May 8, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) released a summary and assessment of efforts taken during the first year of its Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) initiative. Launched in February 2012 in Silicon Valley, the EIR initiative brought together startup experts and USCIS immigration experts to work collaboratively to streamline pathways for a [...]
Yesterday, May 8, 2013, the Congressional Budget Office ("CBO") released an updated report to Congress analyzing the current immigration population in the United States. The report is interesting not only in the context of the ongoing debate on the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) bill which is currently in Congress but also to get a [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the June 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the ninth 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 and the very significant forward movement in the EB-3 category for most countries (with [...]
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 [...]
Many of our readers and clients are already aware and are using the new Form I-9, but it is worth sending another alert to remind that the revised Form I-9 (revision date 03/18/2013) becomes the only acceptable version after May 7, 2013. Please see our recent alert about the changes to the Form I-9. Among [...]