U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reinstated its guidance to immigration officers to defer to prior nonimmigrant petition approvals when adjudicating petition extension requests, if the facts and parties remain the same. The agency announced today that it has rescinded its…
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will continue to implement the ban on “non-essential” travel across U.S. land borders and ferry travel with Canada and Mexico through May 21, 2021, according to a set of notifications to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register. The restrictions…
According to the State Department’s May Visa Bulletin, final action cutoff dates for issuance of an immigrant visa will be as follows: EB-1: All countries, including China and India, will remain current in May.EB-2: China and India will both advance by three…
On April 8, the State Department updated its policy on categories of visa applicants eligible for national interest exceptions (NIE) from the regional COVID-19 travel bans in effect for Brazil, China, Iran, Ireland, the Schengen Area, South Africa, and the United Kingdom…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that it is extending until May 31, 2021 its relaxed enforcement of the normal requirement to physically inspect the original documents presented by new hires during the I-9 process and thus allow eligible employers…
A Trump-era presidential proclamation suspending the entry of certain foreign nationals in the H-1B, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 categories, and their dependents, is set to expire today. The nonimmigrant proclamation had been in effect since June 24, 2020, and was initially scheduled…
USCIS has announced that the annual limit for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 H-1B cap employment has been met and the lottery selection process has been completed. Sponsoring employers and their attorneys have been notified of the selection results and are now able…
The H-1B cap registration period has now closed. USCIS will accept no further cap registrations against the FY 2022 quota. What’s next: the cap lotteries In the coming days, the agency will conduct two selection lotteries to choose the beneficiaries…
In its ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS is further extending its 60-day deadline extension policy for responses to various agency actions to June 30, 2021. The accommodation will continue to be available to stakeholders responding to or filing the following: Requests for…
To be eligible to file an adjustment application in April, foreign nationals must have a priority date that is earlier than the date listed below for their preference category and country. USCIS has again chosen the Final Action Dates chart for…