Employment Based Green Card
March 2014 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 India Remains Unchanged (DOS Prediction)
U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the March 2014 Visa Bulletin which is the sixth Visa Bulletin for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. Under the Employment Based (EB) category, cutoff dates for EB-2 India remain at November 15, 2004 though cutoff dates for EB-3 India have moved forward by couple of weeks to…
Read MorePending H-1B Extension Does Not Grant Lawful Status
On November 7, 2013, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a decision that underscores the distinction between “period of authorized stay” and “status”. We are providing a summary of the decision for the benefit of our readers. In Matter of Ivica Trupcevic, a foreign national (beneficiary) originally entered the United States on an F-1…
Read MoreInstructions for Rescheduling ASC Appointment
Upon receiving an application for an immigration benefit, the USCIS notifies the applicant to appear at the nearest Application Support Center (ASC) to provide it with the biometrics information. Though there is no specific timeframe for scheduling of the biometrics appointment, most biometrics appointments are scheduled within 30-90 days of filing of application. It is…
Read MoreDepartment of Labor Stakeholder Meeting: PERM Updates
On December 12, 2013, Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) held a stakeholder meeting in which stakeholders from American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA), Council for Global Immigration (CGI), and American Bar Association (ABA) were present. This is an overview of some of the issues discussed…
Read MoreSocial Networking Sites are viewed by USCIS
We want to remind our readers about an undated memorandum by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding the importance of social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Google+, etc.) in fraud detection. The memo talks about narcissistic tendencies amongst user of social network sites to have a large group of “friends” which may result in a…
Read MoreFebruary 2014 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 & EB-3 Advances for Most Countries but India
U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the February 2014 Visa Bulletin which is the fifth Visa Bulletin for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. The cutoff dates for Employment-Based second preference (EB-2) and for Employment-Based third preference (EB-3) for all counties except India and Philippines have moved by two months. The cutoff dates for EB-2…
Read MoreRecent USCIS Telephone Scams
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in recent weeks have learned of a new telephone scam targeting USCIS applicants and petitioners. Scammers are using a technique called “Caller ID spoofing” to display a misleading or inaccurate phone number in a recipient’s Caller ID. The scammer poses as a USCIS official and requests personal information (such…
Read MoreDOMA Ruling and Immigration Benefits for Same-Sex Partners
With the overturn of Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex partners of U.S. Citizens and permanent residents are now entitled to same immigration benefits that were earlier available only to opposite-sex couples. Some of the notable immigration benefits that the same-sex partners are now eligible to includes: Fiancé Visa, Marriage Visa, Adjustment of Status, Immigrant…
Read MoreSeptember 2013 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 & EB-3 (India) Advances
U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the September 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the last Visa Bulletin for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. The cutoff dates for Employment-Based second preference (EB-2) India has moved to June 15, 2008 and for Employment-Based third preference (EB-3) India has moved to September 22, 2003. The worldwide, China,…
Read MoreJune 2013 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 India Remains Unchanged
U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the June 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the ninth Visa Bulletin for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. As expected, the cutoff dates for Employment-Based second preference (EB-2) India has not moved and it continues to remains at September 1, 2004. The EB-2 China on the other hand has…
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