Discussion Topics, Thursday, 21 February 2019:
FAQ: H-1B Employer deducting money from salary || Getting a second job after green card approval || Filing employment based green card while living outside USA ||
Other: Converting pending cases to H-1B premium processing/H-4 EAD || I-485 EAD Advance Parole|| Filing N-470 || Getting H-1B extensions based on of I-140 approval of spouse || Three days out of status between H-1B approvals || H-1B remedy for non payment of wages due to government shutdown || Going from cap exempt H-1B to cap H-1B || Traveling on H-1B visa of previous employer||Filing employment based green card while living outside USA.
Number 27
Volume X
Washington, D.C
Effective immediately, USCIS will begin accepting copies of negative consultation letters directly from labor unions relating to a current or future P nonimmigrant visa petition. A consultation letter from a U.S. labor organization is generally required for petitions in the P visa classification, which covers athletes, artists, entertainers and their essential support personnel.
uidance Clarifies Agency Requirements for Petition
USCIS will resume premium processing on Tuesday, Feb. 19, for all H-1B petitions filed on or before Dec. 21, 2018. If you received a transfer notice for a pending H-1B petition, and you are requesting premium processing service, you must submit the premium processing request to the service center now handling the petition.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the second half of fiscal year (FY) 2019. Feb. 19, 2019, was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before Oct. 1, 2019. USCIS will reject new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after Feb.
PERM Processing Times (as of 1/31/2019)
I had an approved i140 from employer A for over a year. And my wife has her H4 and EAD approved recently (employer A).
In between, I switched to a new employer B and they have filed her H4 and EAD together with my H1b application. Currently her H4 & EAD is pending from employer B, but my H1b from employer B is approved. my i140 with employer B is not started yet but previous employer i140 was approved for more than 180 days. In this scneario, can the H4EAD approved with my previous employer A's i140 can still be used/valid?
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 parents are getting ready to file their N400 naturalization application online soon. Here is their situation :
They got their Green Card ( I sponsored them) in April 2013. They have made four trips to India , two of which were less than 32 days. However one trip in 2013-2014 was for 204 days but this trip is outside of the 5year look-back period now. They took another trip in in August 2014 ,returning in March 2015 for a total of 193 days outside. They had to stay back longer due an unexpected health issue when my mom had to undergo surgery. They have paid filed their tax returns as a resident for every year since getting their GC even-though they do not owe any taxes - they do have some passive income in India. They do live with me and while they have bank account there are not many transactions in it. Also they have medical coverage through ACA where they get premium assistance. Would 5 years of tax returns along with medical documents that show my Mom's diagnosis and surgery followed by physiotherapy be sufficient to overcome the presumption of abandonment of residence in US because they stayed about 13 days more than 180 during their trip in 2014-2015 ?
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.
The USCIS Contact Center is currently experiencing higher than normal wait times for callers to speak to a representative. While the center is working to resolve this, the center encourages you to use the online tools.
Our client received a decision denying his request for naturalization based on allegations that he failed to continuously maintain lawful immigration status since initial entry.
Changes will increase transaction security and reduce processing errors
WASHINGTON—On Feb. 25, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) expanded the fee payment system used in field offices to 16 additional offices:
USCIS denied our client’s Form I-485, alleging that the applicant failed to demonstrate eligibility for adjustment of status because a final disposition regarding a criminal charge under India’s Dowry Laws was not provided.
We recently filed an application for an EAD based on compelling circumstances for a client with a serious, debilitating medical concern. The applicant was on an H-1B status.
Recently, there was an ICE raid on students enrolled in University of Farmington, Michigan. I was temporarily enrolled for a year and half there (Feb 2017 - Nov 2018). I left USA on my own volition in May of 2018. The univ eventually terminated my SEVIS for non-payment in Nov 2018. I'm looking to apply for a tourist visa to USA. What potential issues might arise?
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.
First of all; I would like to thank the entire Team member who has worked in my case. Special Kudos goes to my case manager 'Aruna Marthi'; she did absolutely fabulous job to get me through this whole process. The time, and efforts you guys have given me the only reason of this case successful. Can you believe it, I got my whole process completed within 6 months and I-485 got approved in less than 2 months.
Thanks again for all of your efforts.
Regards:
BK
I am very thankful to Rajiv Khanna and his team of professionals for their work on my employer sponsored green card case. All of the people from the firm I had to deal with in the process were very nice, always responded to the numerous questions that I had on timely basis. On a couple of occasions, I needed somethings done really fast in order to catch a passport expiration date and another deadline and Law Offices of Rajiv Khanna were there for me, handling my paperwork in the fastest possible way as requested by me. With their help and probably some luck I was able to complete the whole green card process from start to finish in less than an year. This time also includes three months during which the ball was in my court, while I was gathering different documents for the I-140 and I-485. I am very happy with the services of The Law Offices of Rajiv Khanna and hope this message can bring them more business, which they deserve.
We thank Mr.Rajiv Khanna and his team, especially Bharathi and Ursula for their professionalism and diligence in handling our case. We have successfully got our H1B and H4 approvals. Thank you very much for the excellent service.
With best regards,
George and Teena
Dear Rajiv,
I would like to say my BIG "thank you" to the Mathew/Aruna team. I posted message early after my I 140 was flawlessly done. Now finally I and my family reached very important milestone - we received our Green Cards in the mail. What I can say - the excellent job of the Rajiv's team and a bit of luck I got the whole process PERM-EAD/AP-I140-I486 for a little bit more that 8 months. Not a single RFE. Not a single hiccup. That can only speak of how professional all the paperwork was prepared. I HIGHLY recommend Rajiv's company. If you want to put your fate in good hands, you can count on this company. Always with good advice, with excellent open communication channels and ready to get in action to serve better its clients.
Now that my journey reached its final destination and there are new prospective on the horizon, I will continue to spread the word about this excellent company –
The Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khana.
Good luck to every one.
Signing out.
Nick
: Dear Rajiv:
I really appreciate the diligent work that you and your team put into my case.
The fact that we didn't get any RFEs for my I-140 and I-485 petitions, in spite of having my previous I-140 petition and the MTR denied by USCIS, shows clearly that you know the way to present material to USCIS so that it doesn't leave any questions/doubts in their minds that we qualify to stay in this country. I believe this is the result of your analysis of each case meticulously and preparing the supporting documentation according to the nature of the case, rather than following a cookie cutter formula like lot of other attorneys. I have seen my previous attorney do it and lot of friends' attorneys doing this. The standard statements I have heard so many times... "We don't need to submit that document now. We can submit that if USCIS asks for it". Forget about sending the documents to USCIS, they don't even let us know that we may need a piece of document and ask us to have it ready. Everything seems to be reactive, rather than proactive. No wonder USCIS takes so long to process some applications. They have to ask for every piece of information and at some point, they might even deny the petition for lack of clear evidence.
For all people who are going through the long and painful process of getting GC, there is only one advise I would like to give. Try to have a highly experienced immigration attorney like Rajiv on your side from day one. It is really hard to correct the mistakes done by other attorneys later. A petition filed with all the necessary paperwork, in the correct form and order will save you from a lot of heartache later on. Even if your company doesn't reimburse for the expenses, it's worth paying for it from your pocket.
And Rajiv, I would like to make a small suggestion to your staff too. While both my I-140 petition (re-filing) and H-1B extension petitions were being processed at the same time (during Dec 05 - Jan 06 timeframe), when your staff asked for copies of the same documents multiple times, it was getting on my employers nerves. The rant I kept on hearing from my company's HR people was, 'we just mailed/faxed them that document last week. Why are they asking for another copy again?'. Members of different teams didn't seem to have any idea that another petition is being handled by a person in the same office and that those documents already exist in another folder in the same office. A few small notes tagged to the files or consolidation of documents for each client might make the experience even more pleasant.
Thank you so much for your help and attention. I wouldn't even think of going to any other attorney for any future immigration related work I might have.
Regards,
Ravi
My wife and I received our GC approval within 10 months for the whole process with Rajiv S. Khanna as our attorney. We are very impressive on the professionalism of Rajiv. He and Diane helped us at every point in the whole process. The application is so smooth that we never get any problem or in completion about the paperwork done under their guidance. Great thanks to Diane Lombardo, who is always available and is happy to respond to any questions. Also many, many thanks to Kumuda, Rita, Lakshmi and other staff members who are very co-operative and would return calls and emails promptly. We are really glad that we chose this Law firm. We are greatly pleased with the service provided by Rajiv and his staff on my GC application.
Ze
I got my PERM Labor certified in less than a week. Special Thanks to Mr. Vijay Durgam. They prepare and review the documentation very thoroughly, I always got the feed back from Vijay on my queries within 24 hours. Vijay was so patient to answer my queries during the process.
Many Thanks to everyone who helped me get my labor certified!
Dear Roopa, Pramita, Vani, and all those who handled my case,
I would like to thank you all for your efforts in documenting my case (RIR/EB2) in a professional manner that led to the approval of Labor Certification.
I sincerely thank Roopa for her prompt responses whenever I requested information. She was very efficient and made sure that I was updated whenever there was a update.
I hope that the team will do its best in the next steps as well.
Regards,
--Sajid
I would highly recommend the services of Rajiv Khanna for any immigration issues. They were successfully able to process my green card even though I had stopped working for the sponsoring company for about a year.