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…
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break and wish you a prosperous new year ahead. We kick off the new year with some important updates in the world of immigration. Today, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officially announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that…
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…
Welcome to the start of a brand-new week. In a recent announcement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Carrier Liaison Program, revealed that United States visas issued at all U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide will now have a new look. Foreign nationals seeking to visit, work, or remain temporarily…
We kick off the Thanksgiving week with some exciting news. Recently, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) met with representatives from the Department of State to address some issues of concern relating to several different immigration topics. We provide a summary of the questions asked and responses from the Department…
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,…
In this blog post, we bring you some unfortunate news. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it will no longer recognize the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) as an accrediting agency. Sadly, this means that certain F-1 student visa applicants will be impacted by this…
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…
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! In this post, we bring you the latest H-1B lottery news. Today, August 23, 2022, USCIS announced that the computer-generated H-1B lottery has been fully completed to select enough petitions to meet the H-1B regular cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption for fiscal year 2023. With this…