Latest News

Adoption Alert (China) - September 29, 2009

On September 29, 2009, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Children's Issues issued an alert informing that: The  China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has announced that all prospective adoptive families will be required to work with a U.S. Hague accredited adoption service provider for both transition cases and Convention cases beginning December 1, 2009.  This will require all families to work with an agency that is both U.S.

USCIS Updates H-1B Count

As of September 18, 2009, approximately 46,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions had been received by USCIS and counted towards the H-1B cap. Approximately 20,000 petitions qualifying for the advanced degree cap exemption had been filed. USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits.

SCOPS Updates - 09/23/09

Filing I-824 together with the I-485 - The right thing to do when filing the I-824 is to file both the I-824 together with the I-485 or wait till the I-485 is approved. USCIS identifies the reasons as to why an I-824 is interfiled. However an I-824 should not be rejected or denied only because it is interfiled and the I-485 is not yet approved.
Note: If an I-824 is interfiled, it may not be approved at the same time as the I-485 and the I-485 processing times will apply.

State Dept. Proposed Rule for Modifying the Exchange Visitor Program

[Federal Register: September 22, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 182)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 48177-48190]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22se09-16]

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

22 CFR Part 62

[Public Notice: 6767]

RIN 1400-AC36

Exchange Visitor Program--General Provisions

AGENCY: United States Department of State.

ACTION: Proposed rule with request for comment.

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TSC Updates – 09/21/09

I-140 processing and adjudications - On an average TSC is completing around 9,600 I-140 adjudications per month. As of now the incoming I-140 volume is slightly less.  As of reaching its goal TSC is close to becoming current on all I-140s which includes the ones filed during 2007 summer. About 5000 stand-alone I-140s are still awaiting adjudication the backlog.