News

The EB-3 and EB-5 Unreserved immigrant visa categories are immediately unavailable and will remain so through the remainder of fiscal year 2024, which ends September 30, 2024. USCIS should nevertheless continue to accept EB-3 and EB-5 Unreserved adjustment of status…

As of August 1, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) was conducting analyst review for PERM applications filed in July 2023 or earlier, and processing audited cases with priority dates of December 2022 or earlier. DOL is working on standard…

The Final Action date for EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers will retrogress by one year, to December 1, 2020, for all countries, except for EB-3 China and India, which are unchanged. The Final Action date for EB-3 Other Workers will…

USCIS selected an additional 13,607 unique beneficiaries in the second round of the FY 2025 H-1B cap lottery. As a result of the second drawing, the overall selection rate of unique beneficiaries increased to approximately 29%, from approximately 26% after…

USCIS announced today that it has completed a second lottery of properly submitted FY 2025 H-1B cap petitions to meet the regular cap of 65,000. Employers and their counsel should review their H-1B registration accounts to determine whether they have received any…

Today USCIS announced that it plans to run a second lottery of properly submitted FY 2025 H-1B cap registrations to select additional unique beneficiaries. The additional lottery is taking place because USCIS did not receive enough H-1B cap petitions during…

The White House has designated Lebanese nationals for Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). The DED order blocks removal of certain Lebanese nationals from the United States for 18 months, and instructs the Department of Homeland Security to provide employment authorization to…

Consistent with the Venezuela National Assembly decree of June 25, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) webpages have been updated to reflect DHS recognition of a new ten-year auto-extension of…

The Department of Homeland Security has added an additional field to the list of academic degrees eligible for the F-1 STEM optional practical training (OPT) program. The STEM OPT program, which allows F-1 students with a qualifying STEM degree to hold…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended and redesignated Somalia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from September 18, 2024 through March 17, 2026.  The registration period for eligible individuals to submit initial TPS applications under the…

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security have announced that starting August 19, eligible applicants will be able to submit applications under the recently announced parole in place (PIP) program for certain undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. Further…

Next month, USCIS will accept employment-based adjustment of status applications from foreign nationals with a priority date that is earlier than the Final Action Dates listed in the State Department’s August 2024 Visa Bulletin. Employment-Based Priority Date Cutoffs for August…

The Final Action dates and Dates for Filing for India EB-2 and EB-3 will advance by one month in August. The Final Action date for EB-2 India will advance to July 15, 2012 and the Date for Filing to July…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has delayed to December 2024 the publication of a final rule implementing the second phase of its H-1B program modernization plan, which is expected to include the revision of key H-1B program terms and…

The Department of Homeland Security has extended and redesignated Yemen for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), from September 4, 2024 through March 3, 2026.  The initial registration period for new TPS applicants will run from July 10, 2024 through March 3,…

As of July 1, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) was conducting analyst review for PERM applications filed in June 2023 or earlier, and processing audited cases with priority dates of December 2022 or earlier. DOL is working on standard…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended and redesignated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from August 4, 2024 through February 3, 2026. The registration period for eligible individuals to submit initial TPS applications under the redesignation…

USCIS is extending through March 9, 2025 the validity of TPS EADs issued to TPS beneficiaries under the designations for El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan. The current auto-extension was set to expire on June 30, 2024. Impacted beneficiaries…

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security have announced two upcoming immigration relief programs intended to ease the pathway to permanent residence for certain undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens and facilitate transition to H-1B or other employment-based nonimmigrant…

Employers have just two more weeks to file petitions for foreign nationals selected in the FY 2025 H-1B cap lottery before the end of the filing period on June 30, 2024. It is not yet known whether USCIS will conduct…

The worldwide Final Action date for EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers will retrogress by almost one year in July. The Final Action date for EB-1 India will advance by eleven months. The Final Action dates for the remaining employment-based categories…

As of June 1, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) was conducting analyst review for PERM applications filed in May 2023 or earlier, and processing audited cases with priority dates of December 2022 or earlier. DOL is working on standard…

A proposed rule seeks to expand the $4,000 or $4,500 9-11 Response fee to include H-1B and L-1 extension petitions filed by employers subject to the law, instead of only requiring the fee for their initial and change of employer…

As of May 1, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) was conducting analyst review for PERM applications filed in April 2023 or earlier, and processing audited cases with priority dates of December 2022 or earlier. DOL is working on standard…

The Final Action dates for EB-1, EB-2, and EB-5 will remain unchanged in June. The Final Action date for EB-3 India will advance by one week. USCIS will honor Final Action dates for employment-based categories in June. The State Department…