USCIS Updates Policy Manual Clarifying Physical Presence Requirement for Asylees and Refugees The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently updated its Policy Manual to clarify that BOTH asylees and refugees must have been physically present in the United States for one year at the time the Immigration Officer adjudicates…
It’s that time of the year again. The H-1B cap season for FY 2024 will soon be in full swing. USCIS has just announced that the H-1B initial registration period for the FY 2024 cap is scheduled to open at noon ET on March 1, 2023 and will remain open until noon ET…
Today, January 12, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is implementing the final phase of its expansion of premium processing for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 immigrant classifications. Who does this phase apply to? This phase applies to new (initial)…
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas break with your families. In this blog post, we share a new update from the State Department regarding the continuation of its interview waiver policy for certain nonimmigrant visa types. In a new announcement, the Secretary of State has…
In this blog post, we cover the release of the December Visa Bulletin 2022 and what you can expect for employment based and family preference categories during the upcoming month of December. The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers for that…
In this blog post, we share with you the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs next year. By law, DHS has the authority to update the eligible countries lists at any time by publishing a notice in the Federal Register,…
Our readers will be happy to know that the Department of State has released a new update in the month of October on the status of worldwide consular visa operations. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a period of uncertainty and created tremendous backlogs at the Consular level. As most of you…
In this blog post, we cover the release of the November Visa Bulletin 2022 and what you can expect for employment based and family preference categories during the upcoming month of November. The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers for…
We hope you are having a wonderful end to your week. In this blog post, we bring you some of the most highly anticipated news from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Yesterday, September 15, 2022, USCIS announced the third phase of the expansion of premium processing service for…
In this blog post, we cover the release of the October Visa Bulletin 2022 and what you can expect for employment based and family preference categories during the upcoming month of October. The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers for…