Another victory for our office appealing a tough H1B denial, consistency pays eventually. This article was prepared by attorney Ekaterina Powell from our office. H-1B is a “specialty occupation” work visa. Traditionally, occupations in law, medicine, sciences and engineering are considered specialty occupations. However, the statute and the regulations contain…
Immigration services scams are getting so sophisticated that fraudsters now advertise online with websites that perfectly mimic those of official government agencies, federal officials said Thursday as they rolled out a nationwide awareness campaign meant to combat such practices. Officials from several federal, state and local agencies, as well as…
A few updates for our Italian Investor clients, Effective December 1, 2011, all E visas applications will be processed in Rome. Therefore, all new E1 Visa and E2 visa applications submitted after December 1, 2011 should be sent to the E Visa Section in Rome following the directions on the…
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act (HR 3012), legislation introduced several months ago by Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). The bill eliminates per-country caps on employment-based green card numbers and increases the per-country limit on family-based green cards from 7 percent to 15 percent.…
Sad Sad Story, but this is our reality. A talent illegal-immigrant student in Texas killed himself the day after Thanksgiving and left letters saying he felt trapped by his lack of opportunities. High school senior Joaquin Luna, 18, of Mission, shot himself in the bathroom of his house on Friday.…
A recent article on Ars Technica has shed some light on an important issue going on in the U.S., the ability to get work visas. Some of the Silicon Valley’s most important companies, including Intel, Google, and Yahoo, were cofounded by immigrants. Yet America’s ponderous immigration system makes it difficult…
The EB-5 Category is an excellent opportunity for many foreign nationals to become permanent residents of the United States. In the U.S. so far this year almost 3,000 Chinese citizens have applied for investor visas, up from 270 in 2007. That’s 78 percent of the total applicant pool for this…
OK so game is over for 2011, next filing is April 2012. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of Tuesday, November 22, the 65,000 H-1B cap for fiscal year 2012 has been exhausted. USCIS previously confirmed that it had exhausted the 20,000 cap for employees with advanced…
OK so the cap will be met by next week, we are certain now. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, as of November 18, 2011, it has received approximately 61,800 H-1B petitions counting towards the congressionally-mandated 65,000 limit. USCIS previously confirmed that it has received 20,000 H-1B petitions…
Great News for our Russian clients and Blog Readers. Secretary of State Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov exchanged diplomatic notes during their November 19, 2011, meeting in Bali on the new agreement on visas announced on July 13, 2011. This exchange of notes advances the visa agreement one step…