The Department of Homeland Security announced today that the United States and Mexico are temporarily restricting all non-essential travel across its borders. “Non-essential” travel includes travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security…
USCIS announced today that due to the COVID-19 crisis, the agency is immediately suspending premium processing services for all I-129 and I-140 petitions. Requests for premium processing that were mailed before March 20, but have not yet been accepted by USCIS, will be rejected.…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 National Emergency announced by President Trump on March 13, 2020, they will accept all benefit forms and documents with reproduced original signatures, including the Form I-129, Petition…
The first H-1B cap registration period has now closed. USCIS will accept no further cap registrations against the FY 2021 quota. What’s Next? The Cap Lotteries In the coming days, the agency will conduct two selection lotteries to choose the…
For the first time since Canadian Confederation in 1867, Canada and the U.S. are closing the joint border to most travelers as they fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Department of Homeland Security announced the border closure today.…
Employment-Based Priority Date Cut-offs for April 2020 To be eligible to file an employment-based adjustment application in April, employer-sponsored foreign nationals must have a priority date that is earlier than the date listed below for their preference category and country. After…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will temporarily close its local field offices and Application Support Centers (ASCs) and suspend in-person services, effective immediately, to help slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The suspension is expected to remain in…
Additional U.S. Embassies and Consulates have cancelled nonimmigrant and immigrant visa appointments in light of the COVID-19 virus. Some are reportedly also issuing preliminary refusal notices (known as “221(g) notices”) on pending applications, with plans on revisiting these applications once…
The FY 2021 H-1B cap registration period will close on Friday, March 20, at 12:00pm EDT. Employers and their immigration counsel will have until this time to draft, review, e-sign and submit their registrations to the agency. To date, the…
USCIS announced today that it is temporarily suspending premium processing for FY 2021, but will resume the service in a two-phased approach starting no later than May 27, 2020, for certain H-1B cap filings. Petitioners filing FY 2021 cap-subject H-1B petitions…