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This category is updated daily on interesting U.S. immigration news pertaining to family immigration, employment immigration and other immigration issues. The updates are meant to quickly keep our readers aware of the ever changing immigration laws and all the related aspects. For more information check our entire website on specific topics. Note that this blog does not cover all aspects of immigration news.

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USCIS Post Updated Forms.

USCIS posted updated editions to the following forms: • Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. New edition dated 03/11/16. Previous editions dated 11/04/15, 02/13/15, 05/27/08 or later, also accepted. • Form I-924, Application For Regional Center Under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program. New edition dated 04/27/16. • Form I-924A, Supplement to Form I-924. New edition dated 04/27/16. • Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker. New edition dated 04/25/16. We will also accept the 10/08/14, 04/04/13 and 10/07/11 editions. • Form I-612, Application for Waiver of the Foreign Residence Requirement (under…Read More Breaking News

Seven Things Consulting Companies should consider in hiring OPT students.

With the coming of the new rules on STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT), many students and employers are wondering whether they should actually hire students on OPT or not. This article covers some specific situations as they relate to employers especially consulting companies. The article includes but is not limited to their business model and whether they might encounter issues regarding hiring OPT work permit holders. Note that this article does not cover every single issues related to the OPT but it only tries to give a perspective on the OPT employment. First…Read More Breaking News

Revised Guidance for SEVIS Workarounds and STEM OPT Transition 

May 5 2016 - "After consultation with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is revising its guidance on the handling of 24-month extensions of optional practical training (OPT) to include special instructions for students whose: Post-completion OPT ends before May 23, 2016, and Eligibility is based on a prior science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)degree USCIS and SEVP developed special filing instructions for a limited number of students who become eligible on May 10, 2016 for a STEM extension based on a prior degree or for…Read More Breaking News

Employers May Submit Inquiries If Extension of Status/Change of Employer Petition Has Been Pending for 210 Days or More

On April 21, 2016, USCIS began allowing petitioners who filed Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, requesting an extension of status or change of employer to submit an inquiry after their petition has been pending for 210 days or more. This inquiry may be based on the petition being outside of normal processing times. Employers: If your Form I-129 petition has been pending for at least 210 days, you may submit an inquiry by calling the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 (TDD for deaf and hard of hearing: 1-800-767-1833). When asking…Read More Breaking News

End Client letter Nightmare – H1B Consulting Companies Beware!

May 9 2016 - Today a company in the Silicon Valley was indicted for H1B Fraud, one of the issues which was mentioned in the complaint is that: According to the indictment, the defendants submitted to the government, or caused to be submitted, H-1B visa application materials stating that the foreign workers named in the applications would be placed at specific companies in the United States.  However, according to the indictment, those companies either did not exist or never intended to receive the foreign workers named in the defendants’ applications.  For example, the…Read More Breaking News

June 2016 Visa Bulletin – The Big Retrogression and the “Trump Effect”

May 9 2016 - The June 2016 Visa Bulletin is a 'horror' situation for many Indians who were hoping that there will be some movement forward on the June 2016 Visa Bulletin. Not only we did not see an EB India movement forward, we saw a colossal retrogression. Some people have qualified it as the "Trump Effect". Looking back at all the problems Indian students and Indian immigrant workers are facing, we can only concur that there is some sort of Trump Effect affecting the thousands of employment based categories. As you can…Read More Breaking News

A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program

This is a report from the Congressional Research Service on the EB5 investor program. The program allows some investors to obtain a perament residence in the United States. Summary The immigrant investor visa was created in 1990 to benefit the U.S. economy through employment creation and an influx of foreign capital into the United States. The visa is also referred to as the EB-5 visa because it is the fifth employment preference immigrant visa category. The EB-5 visa provides lawful permanent residence (i.e., LPR status) to foreign nationals who invest a specified amount…Read More Breaking News

Beware of Immigration Scammers!

May 2 2015 - It has been to our attention by many callers that they are receiving a call from someone claiming to be from immigration.  The voice is appearing with a caller ID of "911" telling people that if they don't pay $5000 or $10,000, they will be immediately deported.  Please note that all those callers are scammers trying to get money from poor immigrants knowing their fear. First of all the government does not call this way.  Second, there is a process before someone is deported. If you are victim of…Read More Breaking News

USCIS completed the H1B 2017 lottery today.

USCIS announced on May 2, 2016, that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2017 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in our computer-generated random process. USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected. Due to the high volume of filings, USCIS is unable to provide a definite time frame for returning these petitions. USCIS asks petitioners not to inquire about the status of submitted cap-subject petitions until they receive a receipt notice or an unselected petition is returned. USCIS will issue an announcement once all the unselected…Read More Breaking News

OPT Denials especially based on the 30 day Rule

Recently there has been a surge in OPT denials because of some of the reasons below: 1. OPT filed not meeting the 30 day rule 2. OPT denied because of CPT 3. OPT denied because of transfer of  SEVIS 4. OPT denied because DSO did not properly update SEVIS. 5. OPT denied because form I-765 not properly filed. The video below covers the issueRead More Breaking News

There are nearly 1.2 million international students with F (academic) or M (vocational) status studying in the United States

ICE releases quarterly international student data F, M students up 6.2 percent compared to March 2015; Number of certified schools down 3 percent ICE releases quarterly international student dataICE releases quarterly international student dataICE releases quarterly international student data WASHINGTON — There are nearly 1.2 million international students with F (academic) or M (vocational) status studying in the United States according to the latest "SEVIS by the Numbers," a quarterly report on international student trends prepared by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland…Read More Breaking News

Couple Indicted for $20 Million Visa Fraud Involving Indian Workers

Press Release from United States District Attorneys Office - Eastern District of Virginia. ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Raju Kosuri, 44, and Smriti Jharia, 45, of Ashburn, as well as four co-conspirators, were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and visa fraud, among other charges. According to the indictment, Kosuri, his spouse Jharia, and their co-conspirators have fraudulently applied for more than 800 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program.  Since 2008, and at much greater scale since 2011, Kosuri has built a staffing…Read More Breaking News

The E3 Visa for Australians

The non-immigrant E3 Visa was created by the REAL ID Act of 2005 : It is the “Reciprocal Visas for Nationals of Australia.”   There are 10,500 E-3 visas allotted annually to qualified individuals. Though the E-3 Visa is classified in the same category as E-1 (treaty trader) and E-2 (treaty investor) visas, E-3 visas share some similarities with H-1B Visas (workers in a specialty occupation). Therefore, the E-3 Visa can be understood as a slight hybrid between the two categories, and the E-3 visa has unique traits such as: An E-3 candidate…Read More Breaking News

Immigration Relief for Those Affected by Severe Earthquakes

USCIS offers immigration relief measures for people affected by natural disasters, such as the severe earthquakes that recently occurred in Ecuador, Japan and Burma. These measures may be available upon request: * Change or extension of nonimmigrant status if you are currently in the United States, even if the request is filed after your authorized period of admission has expired; * Re-parole, if you were previously granted parole by USCIS; * Expedited processing of requests for advance parole documents; * Expedited adjudication of requests for off-campus employment authorization for F-1 students experiencing severe…Read More Breaking News