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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on January 3, 2023, that would increase the cost of benefit request fees for immigration and naturalization benefits. It states that these fees would enable USCIS to provide...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it updated its policy to allow for the automatic extension of Legal Permanent Residence Cards (known as Green Cards) for lawful permanent residents who apply for naturalization. This hugely impactful...
The United States Department of State (DOS) issued its December bulletin which indicates that there will be a worldwide cutoff for the EB-2 category. The bulletin also notes the increased demand this year and the number use of the EB-1, while the total numbers...
The highly skilled workers here in the U.S. using H-1B visas fill a critical need in the labor market, particularly in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. The relatively low number of visas issued (85,000) with no adjustments in recent years...
In 2018 we wrote about how the Trump administration filed a suit to stop the implementation of the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), which allowed some startup founders to stay in the U.S. for 30 months or longer to grow their businesses. The administration...
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it reached its initial registration quota of H-1B registration selection, which is commonly known as the H-1B lottery. There were 483,927 registrations (which was a one-year increase of...
In March, we wrote about the start of the H1-B application season. The good news is you heard back from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), but instead of an approval letter and the okay to move forward, it is a Request for Evidence (RFE)....
Those in line for getting or renewing a Green Card often need to pay attention to Visa Bulletins sent out monthly. These announcements can help applicants track changes in protocols, regulations or deadlines. It will say that a green card is now available to...
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its rules and guidance to clarify how it evaluates whether an applicant qualifies for a O-1 nonimmigrant visa for "persons of extraordinary ability." The changes focus on STEM fields (STEM is an...
The US Citizen and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security adopted many temporary policies to address the challenges that many experienced during the pandemic. It has once again done so as those flexibilities expired. In some cases, the changes...