U.S. Alerts

Employment Fourth Preference Certain Religious Workers (SR): Pursuant to the continuing resolution signed on December 10, 2016, the non-minister special immigrant program expires on April 28, 2017. No SR visas may be issued overseas, or final action taken on adjustment of status cases, after midnight April 27, 2017. Visas issued prior to this date will

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 17, 2017, that employers who used Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, downloaded between November 14 and November 17, 2016, should review the forms to ensure that their employees’ Social Security numbers appear correctly in Section 1. The agency said there was a glitch when the revised

The U.S. Congress passed a one-week stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown and the expiration of the EB-5 regional center program. The continuing resolution will keep the U.S. federal government open through May 5, 2017, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue to accept Form I-526 petitions based on investments through EB-5

The last two years, USCIS received record breaking H-1B Cap petitions, receiving 233,000 for FY 2016 and 236,000 for FY 2017. The fear of anticipated changes under the Trump administration may explain the 37,000 petition decrease. President Trump has made immigration enforcement and reform one of his key promises, including a significant overhaul to the

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will also not be counted towards the congressionally mandated FY 2018 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: Extend

USCIS announced that starting on April 3, 2017, they will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions. This suspension may last up to 6 months.[1]  Currently, under regular processing, it can take six months or longer for an application to be reviewed. The Premium Processing Service provides expedited processing for certain employment-based petitions and

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7, 2017, that it has received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2018. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap.[1] U.S.