USCIS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are extending the joint agency pilot program for Canadian citizens seeking L-1 nonimmigrant status under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through April 30, 2020. Last year, the USCIS California Service Center and…
CBP headquarters has issued a directive to the field to cease adjudicating L-1 "extensions or renewals." It is CBP's belief that L-1 "extensions/renewals" are not to be adjudicated at CBP ports of entry and preclearance sites for those seeking admission…
A new Presidential Memorandum directs the Department of State (DOS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to recommend ways to reduce the number of B-1 and B-2 visitors who overstay their authorized period of admission in the United States, including those who…
Effective May 1, 2019, a treaty investor agreement (E2 Visa) has been signed between the United States and Israel will become effective. Pursuant to the treaty, Israeli citizens will be able to apply for an E2 visa at the U.S.…
CBP updated its website with a notice informing stakeholders that beginning in May 2019, I-94 numbers will no longer be solely numeric. In replacement of the current 11-digit numerical format, CBP announced that in May 2019, I-94 numbers will be…
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a July 2018 district court decision that temporarily blocks the State of California from enforcing several provisions of the Immigrant Worker Protection Act (AB 450) which seek to penalize employers who allow immigration enforcement agents to…
The Department of State posted the visa bulletin for May today. See https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2019/visa-bulletin-for-may-2019.html for the visa bulletin for May 2019. USCIS advised that it will accept adjustment of status petitions for employment-based adjustment of status petitions for May based upon…
On April 10, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated regular cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption for fiscal year (FY) 2020. After completing the random selection process for the…
USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap for fiscal year 2020. USCIS will next determine if we have received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the…
USCIS has launched an H-1B Employer Data Hub to provide information to the public on employers petitioning for H-1B workers. The data hub is part of our continued effort to increase transparency in employment-based visa programs by allowing the public to…