On Monday, August 12, 2019, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that clearly defines the long-standing public charge inadmissibility law. According to section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the government must at a minimum consider a for...
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services's (USCIS) director, Ken Cuccinelli, announced on August 9, 2019 that agency will close all of its international field offices except for seven. Currently, USCIS has 20 field offices worldwide, including in major cities such as London, Seoul and Frankfurt. The only remaining offic...
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) unit of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has officially launched on-site inspections of the STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) employment of certain F-1 trainees. The purpose of these on-site inspections is to review employer compliance with STEM OPT regul...
On July 24, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a that made significant changes to the . The final rule will become effective on November 21, 2019. As the first significant revision of the program since 1993, the final rule makes the following changes: Raising the mi...
As noted in a , the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a revised Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and a new Form I-539A, Supplemental Information for Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status in March 2019. Starting on March 22, 2019, USCIS began to only accept the...
According to the , H-1B denials have skyrocketed since fiscal year (FY) 2015. Analyzing data from , NFAP found that denial rates for new H-1B petitions have quadrupled between FY 2015 and FY 2018, and the trend is increasing for the first quarter of FY 2019. Increased Denials of Initial H-1B Petitions ...
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its August 2019 Visa Bulletin. Most notably, there is a significant backlog worldwide for EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3. EB-1-Worldwide: China: Priority date of July 1, 2016 (Regression of 312 days) India: ...
On July 10, 2019, the House passed a bill that would eliminate the per-country cap on green cards, which would mean that the amount of time any new applicant waits for a green card would be equalized, regardless of where the applicant was born. Under current regulations, the green card cap limits a maximum of 7% of total employmen...
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal to impose a fee on employers who register for the H-1B cap starting next year. Under current rules, an employer that submits an H-1B cap petition is subject to the following fees: Form I-129 filing fee: $460 H-1B Training and Education Fee:...
The Department of State is now requiring visa applicants to disclose five years of social media and contact history. These new questions related to social media use, prior email addresses, and prior phone numbers have been added to the Forms DS-160 and DS-260, the online nonimmigrant and immigrant visa applications. The questions ...
