Aliens who married or had children before the date of obtaining permanent residency can possibly confer “following-to-join” benefits to their family members. Due to this process, spouses and children will be able to receive green cards quickly. “Following-to join” is not family based immigration, but is similar to a child/spouse…
The U.S. Department of State released the new visa bulletin for July 2010 on June 10, 2010. For the month of July, the EB-1 category remained current for both Chinese and Indian nationals. In the EB-2 category, cut-off dates stayed the same for Chinese nationals (November 22, 2005), but moved…
This is a summary from AILA. The following immigration-related bills were introduced into the House of Representatives and the Senate in March and April: E-Verify Loan Origination Act of 2010 (H.R. 4744) Introduced by Rep. Marchant (R-TX) on 3/3/10 Summary: Amends the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act and the…
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2010 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates…
A United States Permanent Resident Card, known informally as a green card (due to the color of some earlier variants), is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States of America. Green card also refers to an immigration process of becoming a…
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued report on legislative developments in visa policy over the past 20 years and analysis of statistical trends in visa issuances and grounds for exclusion. The conventional wisdom is that the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, prompted a substantive change in U.S. immigration policy…
The Department of State just released the new visa bulletin for April 2010 on March 12, 2010. EB-1 category is current for the month of April 2010. For mainland Chinese nationals, the cut-off date progressed from July 8, 2005 to August 22, 2005 in the EB-2 category. For Indian nationals,…
Consular processing has undergone rapid and systemic changes during the past five years, and the rate and scope of change does not appear to be slowing. Enhanced security checks and inter-agency data sharing—among a massive wave of other changes—makes consular processing a daunting task that ensnare many unsuspecting visa applicants…
What a great initiative introduced recently. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today introduced legislation to drive job creation and increase America’s global competiveness by helping immigrant entrepreneurs secure visas to the United States. The StartUp Visa…
The Department of State has released the new visa bulletin for February 2010 on January 8, 2010. USCIS has reported last month that the EB-1 category was still current for all countries. In the EB-2 category, cutoff dates for mainland Chinese nationals progressed one month from April 1, 2005 to…