The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has announced on January 14, 2010 that a new online prevailing wage system for PERM and H-1B will be launched on January 21, 2010. This is a big change in DOL’s practice regarding the prevailing wage determination system. For the past decade, prevailing…
According to CNN, America could be facing a nursing shortage that will worsen exponentially as the population grows older. The problem: Baby boomers are getting older and will require more care than ever, taxing an already strained nursing system. Barry Pactor, international director of global health care for consulting company…
The Department of State has just released the new visa bulletin for January 2010 on December 10, 2009. Last month, the EB-2 category for both mainland Chinese and Indian nationals remained unchanged from the November visa bulletin. In addition, the EB-1 category stayed current for worldwide applicants. Cut-off dates in…
So we thought the new ntroduction of ICERT was bad, listen to this upcoming change. In accordance with its PERM labor certification regulations, the Department of Labor (DOL) has provided notice that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center (NPWHC) will receive and process…
USCIS recently released an excellent FAQ about the visa wait times, and the reasons why it takes so long to immigrate under the preference system. I still think that with time, things will get even worse. In order to keep families from being apart for years, Immigration reform must address…
The HIV ban removal will be remembered as a historic decision, through this final rule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), amended its regulations to remove “Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection” from the definition of communicable disease of…
A Blog reader called me the other day and wanted to know when his priority date will become current. His I-485 adjustment was filed in August 2007 when visas opened up for 30 days, and since that time retrogressed. The applicant is from India and like many others in his…
The U.S. State Department has officially released information about this year’s DV-2011 green card lottery, which begins on October 2, 2009. Don’t wait too long and sign on the registration process by reading through this year’s instructions. For those of you who were curious, the DV-2011 list of ineligible countries…
The State Department has advised AILA liaison that due to the large number of approvals issued in the past few weeks, employment-based visa numbers are no longer available for this fiscal year that concludes on September 30, 2009. This affects all categories of employment based immigrant visas. Numbers will become…
Employers and potential employees (and some immigration lawyers) are very confused when it comes to H1B visa numbers this year. The major reduction in the number of filings for H1B petitions has risen questions from employers regarding whether there is a set closing date for filing H1B cap petitions for…