Through this I wish to record my appreciation for the services provided to me by the Law firm of Rajiv. I would like to thank Rajiv and his team member Charu for excellent work and prompt response to all my queries and getting my H1B1 approved.
Thanks and regards to Rajiv S. Khanna and his co-workers for the advice and professional work to get our Green Card. We started in Sep'99 and the approval came in Oct'01. It was RIR under EB2.
S2Tech is a global software development company with offices in St. Louis and Hyderabad, India. S2Tech provides customized software solutions to its diverse clients base. S2Tech has been working with Law Offices of Rajiv Khanna for the past four years. One of the core competency of Mr. Rajiv Khanna is leveraging information technology to provide BEST service to his clients. The following are some of the examples: 1. Domain name of immigration.com 2. Use of electronic e-mail to answer questions from his clients within one day. 3. Use of Adobe products to reduce/eliminate certain physical mailings and expedite information delivery to his clients. 4. Use of website to provide quick answers to frequently answered questions, provide status information from various centers, and build a community. 5. Send free newsletter to interested persons in an automated fashion. Even though technology is being used heavily, Rajiv Khanna is always accessible over the phone to his clients. It is just that clients like me who are crunched for time interact with him electronically. I would recommend Law Offices of Rajiv Khanna to all the busy entrepreneurs, fast growing companies, and all IT companies.
We were very impressed with Diane Lombardo. She was very prompt and responded to all our emails very quickly.
Choosing Rajiv Khanna's office for GC processing is one of the best decisions in my career. They did excellent job. They 've got my GC done in about 18 months. Appreciate the services of Rajiv, Leila, Diane and Vijay.
I received excellent service from Rajiv’s office. Rajiv and his staff stay on top of latest immigration issues. Rajiv was always available for advise on my case. My special thanks to Diane Lambardo, Suman, Leila Lehman, Pooja Sama and Mathew Chacko.
In my offer letter, they have mentioned if they sponsor H1b I need to work with them for 5 years. What happens if I change the company by down the road within these 5 years?
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
I got my H-1B denial on 02/20/2020. H1B expired date : 1/31/2020. I-94 expired date: 2/10/2020. H1B extension denial date: 02/20/2020. H1B filed date: 12/07/2019. H1B RFE date: 12/27/2019. H1B RFE replied date: 02/02/2020. How long can I stay ?
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
Can H-1B transfer happen in such case from company B? If yes then if this transfer is approved but previous H1b extension is not approved which is from company B will it impact my status in US? Can I work for company B still? Will there be any chance that I have to go to India and come back with stamped visa ?
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
I have been scheduled for my interview next month after cancellation of the first one. I took three trips outside the US, and one last more than 6 months but less than one year. I waited for more than 5years since my last entrance which is June 2013 before applying for citizenship. Should I be worried about my interview since I broke the continuity of residency?
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
My boyfriend is applying for his F1 Visa in July 2020 for fall semester 2020 for his MS in Finance at one of the US universities (deciding on which one right now). This is a question asked well in advanced so we are fully prepared.
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
On 10 March 2020, a Washington DC Federal Court overturned the USCIS highly restrictive
standards applied to the consulting industry. This decision has a major positive impact on the IT
industry.
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer held that the USCIS must not administer justice through random
memoranda and must, if it wishes to change the regulations, do so through a formal process. In
fact, the USCIS seems to have illegally targeted the IT industry (“special treatment”):
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it will reuse previously submitted biometrics in order to process valid Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, extension requests due to the temporary closure of Application Support Centers (ASC) to the public in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
USCIS has received enough electronic registrations during the initial period to reach the FY 2021 H-1B numerical allocations (H-1B cap). USCIS randomly selected from among the registrations properly submitted. USCIS intends to notify petitioners with selected registrations no later than March 31, 2020, that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration.
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it is adopting a measure to assist applicants and petitioners who are responding to requests for evidence (RFEs) and notices of intent to deny (NOIDs) dated between March 1 and May 1, 2020.
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, USCIS will accept all benefit forms and documents with reproduced original signatures, including the Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, for submissions dated March 21, 2020, and beyond.
Discussion Topics, Thursday, 5 March 2020
FAQ: Denial of a tourist/visitors/B visa 214(b) ||citizenship/naturalization trips of more than six months abroad || Time of stay and definition of a manager/executive employee for L-1A and EB-1C ||Transfer of H-1B while extension is pending ||What to do after an H-1B (or L-1) denial? ||Work duration and damages contracts under H-1B ||I do not have my final degree/diploma certificate/what should I do?
OTHER: Scheduling green card interview in a third country consulate || multiple H-4 extensions simultaneously ||AR-11 change of address filing, etc.,
Discussion Topics, Thursday, 19 March 2020
FAQ: EB-1C - What if my priority date does not become current before my L1A expiry? Should I file an H1B for safety? If I do, will I get moved from EB1 to EB2 ? Should my wife try for H1B ? Is there any maximum number of tries for H1B? If neither me nor my wife manage to get a H1B visa in the next 3 years, is it ok to exit the country and come back when EB1 priority date becomes current ? What visa will I come back with? || Loss of job/laid off during Covid/coronavirus times
OTHER: Moving from a cap exempt H-1B, extension etc. || Apply for an H-1B extension while another MTR is pending || Rejoining old employer after withdrawn I-140 || 60 days grace period for H-1B || Travel during EAD/AP renewal || H-1B transfer or AC21?
I am reporting here comments from and my responses to a member of our community, "Julissa," regarding whether or how she could apply for a green card herself if she has a Master's degree. Do note, if a set of new immigration laws gets passed, all this could change.
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas will help USCIS celebrate our nation’s 237th birthday as the agency welcomes more than 7,800 new citizens during more than 100 naturalization ceremonies across the country and overseas from July 1 to July 5.
Statement from Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano:
Immigration Reform 2013 Status
I wanted to give you quick overview of where we are as of today in the immigration reform effort. As you know the comprehensive immigration bill labeled S.744 was passed by Senate, and the voting in the Senate reflected what kind of support there is generally amongst the two parties (Senate and House of Republicans (House)) for this reform effort.
The composition of the Senate is currently 54 Democrats, one Independent and 45 Republicans. A total of 100 Senators. When the bill was voted upon, it was passed 68 to32. All Democrats voted for it, one Independent voted for it, but only 13 Republicans in the Senate voted for the bill. So less than one third (of Republicans voted for passage). This means that Democrats overwhelmingly support the reform, the immigration bill S. 744. But Republicans are not by any means, or in any way shape or form overwhelmingly or even in a majority in favor of the reform as it was proposed.
So, now bill has been passed the Senate. 68 to 32. It’s a good margin, but the problem situation in the House is totally different. The politics of the situation is that the Latino, Hispanic vote is becoming in proportion much larger. It is exponentially expanding. The Republicans leaders rightly believe that they must curry favor or must be considered a friend to the Hispanic industry of immigration. A lot of Republicans also believe that they have no incentive to pass an amnesty bill. One thing I would say that as far as reform of the legal immigration is concerned I don't think we have too much controversy about that. Both parties agreed that certain things need to be done, like we need skilled immigration professional. Special provisions for PhDs, physicians, people who have Master’s degrees, people with STEM degrees. We need all that and some way to remove the backlog, which is horrendous for many countries. For instance, India has nine to ten years of backlog waiting for a Green Card. So there is consensus among both parties on legal immigration. It is the amnesty part, the enforcement and border protection, which are the key areas of disagreement.
If you look on the Republicans composition, only 24 out of 234 House Republicans represent districts that have any appreciable numbers of Hispanic voters, more than 25 percent. So, only 24 out of 234. Where is the incentive for them to pass an immigration bill with amnesty? In fact, many of the Republicans come from districts that actually oppose amnesty. Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) was speaking in Lynchburg, Virginia yesterday and passions were really running high against the amnesty.
So in the House even if Democrats all get together, the problem is how do we move the reform forward. House is controlled by Republicans, 234 to 201. House Speaker, John Boehner (R-OH) has said that he won't bring the Senate bill up for a vote if he does not have the support of a majority of the House Republicans (known as Hastert Rule). He says, I will not even allow this Senate bill to be voted on in the House unless a majority of House Republicans support the bill. And if we look at the cross-section of the voting that occurred in Senate, less than one third of Republicans support. It’s not good sign to get that kind of support.
So, it appears at least at this stage that the Senate bill will have very tough time going through the House as today’s politics stand.
What are the options?
Four obvious options, the fourth option is very unlikely, which is House leadership brings up the the Senate bill up for vote.
There are four options, but again it’s important to understand what happens if there are two separate bills addressing some of the same areas or all of the same areas, and there are controversies among those bills, then it goes into something called “conference”. When we get into conference, the idea is representatives from Senate and the representative from House will meet together and they will iron out their differences. A lot of times if you want to effect the Senate bill, all you have to do is pass something in the House and then it goes into the conference where you can work on one bill or the other, agree, negotiate and then take the negotiated version back to both chambers for voting Senate and House. So, option number one is House passes its own bill or bills. Actually, here we are talking about comprehensive, some kind of comprehensive set of bills, then it goes for conference. Option two, the House passes any bill, it does not have to be comprehensive bill, something that effects or contradicts the Senate version again we go into conference.
Another interesting option and normally this would not be a really good option but here may be worth considering. I doubt it, but I am not a political pundit just a lawyer. House can actually vote on the Senate bill without the House Speaker’s support. If 218 house members vote for a discharge petition, which means we don’t care what the Speaker says, we are going to vote on this bill anyway. That means House Democrats need 17 votes from Republicans to get a discharge petition and vote on the Senate bill.
So, what are the four options again:
1. Comprehensive bill by House;
2. Any bill by House;
3. Discharge petition; and
4. House leadership brings up the Senate bill to vote which is unlikely.
Let us talk about a comprehensive bill. House had its own “Gang of Eight” people working on a comprehensive immigration bill. Their focus was a lot more on enforcement, on border security, etc. But then one of the Congressman, Raul Labrador (R-ID), quit. The now “Gang of Seven” still might produce a comprehensive House bill. If such a bill is produced, we will get into conference, negotiate and then finally vote on the negotiated bill. So number one is Comprehensive bill.
Number two is any bill. As I mentioned Rep. Goodlatte from Virginia, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has produced a series of immigration related bills. House Democrats do not like it because it’s a piecemeal approach and there are all kinds of very extreme positions taken by Bob Goodlatte that House Democrats feel are inimical or enemies of immigration reform. But one of the ways, this series of bills, could be just a device to force matters into conference. If any of these bills pass in the Republican controlled House, then we will all get into conference anyway, where we can negotiate based upon the Senate version of the bill and make changes to it and then go back with the compromise. So the passage of a series of extreme bills could be a way to force matter into conference.
Option three is a discharge petition. Discharge petition normally its considered to be very bad form. If a Republican votes for a discharge petition it’s disloyal, it’s considered to be bad form. But here, Speaker Boehner himself and many other leaders, who are perhaps more in tune with the needs of the time, have said that they want immigration reform. But it looks like there is very strong opposition from certain elements within the Republican Party, which is basically muting some of these more moderate or more aware. I would not call them moderate but more aware members of the Republican Party. So normally a Republican will not vote for a discharge petition, but here who knows. Maybe this is the choice.
The key date to watch is 10th July. On 10th July there will be conference, the House Republican conference, and they meet in the basement of the Capitol to decide how they want to move forward. So that's when we will hear about the final strategy. Once again, right now we don’t know which way House is going to go, but on 10th July we should have better idea of the direction.
I have used this firm for a number of years for H-1B visas. They are extremely professional and organized. And most recently I had an employee require H-1B status quickly due to a student visa heading toward expiration. We did the premium process through this group and the approval came back in much less than the 15 day turnaround time. That in itself should tell you everything you need to know. If you don't hire this group, you are doing yourself a disservice.