To qualify for a national interest waiver (NIW) pursuant to INA §203(b)(2)(B)(ii), a physician must commit to working for a total of five years as a full-time clinical physician either at a facility operated by the Veteran’s Administration or in an HHS-designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA)/Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA).…
Recently USCIS provided EB-5 statistics provided for a stakeholder engagement meetig, including information on service-wide receipts, approvals, and denials of I-526s and I-829s; the number of approved EB5 Regional Centers by fiscal year. The statistics reveal an increase across the board in all EB-5 related filings including I-924 applications for…
Fewer undocumented immigrants stopped for traffic violations will face deportation, under newly unveiled changes to a prominent immigration enforcement program. Known as Secure Communities, the program compels state and local law enforcement officers to enter the fingerprints of anyone they detain into a federal database. Federal immigration officials can cross-reference…
On February 22, 2012, USCIS held an Information Summit on its recently instituted Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) initiative. This past week, USCIS released an Executive Summary on the Information Summit. Several principle themes were addressed at the summit, which the EIR Tactical team will work on addressing in the months…
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Arizona v. United States today. This case concerns Arizona S.B. 1070, and in particular, the four parts that have had immigrants and many others in an uproar. Most of the oral arguments today concerned the part of the law requiring state officials…
The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according…
In an effort to decrease waiting times at our port of entries, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations (CBP) has recently enacted a pilot program at the International Bridge at the Sault Ste Marie port of entry. The hope of this program is to bring vehicles to…
This is a recent update. The State Department announced that the annual limit in the EB-2 category for China-mainland born and India has been reached. The State Department notified USCIS on April 11, 2012, that no further visas for those categories would be authorized. This is the “additional corrective action”…
A special Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program announced last August to reduce the massive backlog of pending matters by identifying those that could be dismissed or put on hold has resulted in the closure of 2,609 cases, according to government data covering the period up to the end of…
I have been saying for many years that the visa system is unfair for foreign artists. Take the story of Seny Daffe. Daffe was granted a visa that allows culturally unique artists entry to the U.S. In Burlington, he joined the African dance company Jeh Kulu, where he taught drumming.…