Business Immigration Insights

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the January Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month.

• China: EB-1 advances three and a half months to December 15, 2016, EB-2 creeps ahead one month to August 1, 2015, and EB-3 stalls at June 8, 2015
• India: EB-1 also advances three and a half months to December 15, 2016, EB-2 freezes at April 1, 2009, and EB-3 remains ...

An H-1B cap registration proposal has been in the works since 2011, but it may have been President Trump’s Buy American and Hire American (“BAHA”) executive order that finally created the right climate to push the proposal as far as it has now come.  In its proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on December 3, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) describes two major changes it seeks to implement to the H-1B cap selection process, beginning in 2019.

First, the proposed rule requires employers to submit a registration within a specific timeframe for each ...

As mentioned in our December Visa Bulletin post, the employment-based first preference (EB-1) category remains backlogged for all countries. Despite previous expectations, it appears that the backlog is here to stay. The Department of State’s Charlie Oppenheim recently told the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that the Final Action dates for the EB-1 category would reach June 1, 2018 (for all countries except China and India) within the next eight to twelve months. If this prediction proves true, the EB-1 category will never become current this fiscal year ...

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the December Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month. Contrary to projections announced in the September Visa Bulletin, the EB-1 category will NOT return to current in December. In fact, despite some insignificant forward movement, unprecedented backlogs will continue in this category for all countries ...

The US Department of Labor (USDOL) has published its statistics for fiscal year 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018. The USDOL certified the majority of the 119,776 labor certification (PERM) applications processed in the last fiscal year. Of the 24,052 applications still in process with the USDOL as of the end of the fiscal year, 64% were still in analyst review and 25% were in audit review. The majority of PERM applications were for: computer and mathematics occupations; positions in California and Texas; positions in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services or ...

UPDATE: In November, USCIS will accept EB I-485 applications based on the Department of State’s Dates for Filing chart.

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the November Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

• China: EB-1 freezes at June 1, 2016, EB-2 advances six weeks to May 15, 2015, and EB-3 halts at June 1, 2015
• India: EB-1 remains at June 1 ...

On October 3, 2018, California U.S. District Judge Edward Chen granted a preliminary injunction in the case of Ramos v. Nielsen, preventing the Department of Homeland Security from terminating Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador (scheduled to end on 9/9/19), Haiti (7/22/19), Nicaragua (1/5/19), and Sudan (11/2/18).  The injunction remains in place until the Court lifts it or the lawsuit ends.

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the October Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

• China: EB-1 jumps forward more than four years to June 1, 2016, EB-2 rebounds to April 1, 2015, and EB-3 continues to speed past EB-2 and moves to June 1, 2015
• India: EB-1 jumps forward more than four years to June 1, 2016, EB-2 moves ahead two years to March 26 ...

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will terminate the temporary protected status (TPS) program for nationals of El Salvador on September 9, 2019.  Employment authorization documents (EADs) held by qualifying individuals that expired on March 9, 2018, were automatically extended through September 5, 2018, providing applicants time to apply for new EADs valid through the termination date.

Because the USCIS has been unable to process EAD extension applications in a timely manner, DHS has further extended the expired EADs through March 4 ...

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the suspension of premium processing for FY2019 H‑1B cap cases, announced on March 21, 2018, has been extended until possibly February 2019.

USCIS also announced that effective September 11, 2018, premium processing will be suspended for H‑1B cases filed at the Vermont and California Service Centers, except for:

1. H-1B petitions filed by cap-exempt petitioners or by petitioners who will be employing beneficiaries at qualifying cap-exempt institutions, entities, or organizations; or