On September 9th the Department of State and USCIS jointly announced new procedures that will allow family-based and employment-based applicants stuck in immigrant visa backlogs to apply for an immigrant visa (adjustment of status) before their priority date becomes current and an immigrant visa becomes immediately available to them. These…
In order to apply for permanent residence, a relative or American employer must file an immigrant petition on your behalf. Family-sponsored and employment-based petitions are subject to visa limitations unlike petitions filed by immediate relatives who are US citizens. Immediate relative petitions remain unlimited and are always available. This means that…
USCIS has published statistics concerning the volume of Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals applications received from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2015. In fiscal year 2012 USCIS accepted 152,424 applications out of 157,819 applications received. That year, 5,395 applications were rejected during initial intake. 1,685 applications were approved during…
The American Immigration Lawyers Association will be hosting a free workshop on September 19, 2015 at various sites around the country. The workshop will be providing assistance to lawful permanent residents who are eligible for naturalization. Each year, at sites across the country, AILA attorneys and other stakeholders provide assistance…
In order to alleviate the workload received by the Vermont Service Center, USCIS recently announced that some cases normally processed at the Vermont Service Center will be transferred to the California Service Center. Cases that may be affected include I-130 petitions for alien relatives and I-751 petitions to remove the…
In this blog we are answering 5 of your frequently asked questions in detail. Please remember that every case and every story is different and unique. You should not compare your situation to anyone else’s. We hope that our answers will provide you with further guidance while you embark on…
It is our pleasure to provide our readers with newly released statistics published by the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification concerning the processing status of the PERM program and Prevailing Wage Determinations. The PERM graphic provides a breakdown for the review of applications certified during FY 2015…
National Visa Center Blunders On July 30th the National Visa Center sent out a notification confirming reports that applicants had been receiving letters or emails from the NVC on July 29, 2015. These letters and/or emails stated that applications would be terminated or that their applications were in the process…
We would like to inform our readers that on July 21, 2015 the Department of Homeland Security issued a policy memorandum which provides guidance to employers and H-1B applicants regarding when to file an amended or new H-1B petition following the case law, Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC, 26 I&N Dec. 542…
It is our pleasure to introduce our readers to Associate Attorney Yingfei Zhou, Esq who joined our firm in 2012. Attorney Zhou is an active member of the California State Bar, the New York State Bar, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Ms. Zhou practices primarily on employment-based and investment-based…