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Important Notice:  Effective April 1, 2018, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi will no longer process IR5, IR1, IR2, CR1, or CR2 visas.  The U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai will be your interview location if you are in process for an IR5 ( parent of a U.S. citizen), IR1/CR1 visa (spouse of a U.S. citizen) or IR2/CR2 visa (unmarried minor child of a U.S. citizen), AND your interview is scheduled on or after April 1, 2018.  Your letter from the National Visa Center will specify the location of your interview, along with further details about interview preparation.

Starting April 2, USCIS will destroy Permanent Resident Cards, Employment Authorization Cards and Travel Documents returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service after 60 business days if USCIS is not contacted by the document’s intended recipient to provide the correct address.

USCIS encourages applicants to report a change of address within 10 days of relocation using the procedures outlined at uscis.gov/addresschange.

April 03, 2018

Washington

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today ordered further review of the 2016 petition for recognition by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). The review is a direct result of action by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia remanding the case to the Secretary.

“As the court ordered, we will fairly consider all of the facts presented and make an appropriate determination on ACICS’s petition,” said DeVos.

USCIS has reached the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2019. USCIS has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap.

The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced the launch of the new website, E-Verify.gov. This is the authoritative source for information on electronic employment eligibility verification. E-Verify.gov is for employers, employees and the general public.

USCIS has received petitions for more than the number of visas available for fiscal year (FY) 2019 for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program. The cap for CW-1 visas for FY 2019 is 4,999.

As a result, USCIS will be conducting a lottery to ensure that it does not exceed the CW-1 cap. USCIS will randomly select petitions received between April 2, 2018 and April 13, 2018. If USCIS receives your petition after April 13, it will be rejected and will not be considered for this lottery.

On April 11, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2019.

USCIS recently updated the following USCIS form(s):

Update to Form G-325A, Biographic Information (for Deferred Action); dated 03/29/1804/12/2018 12:00 AM EDTUpdate to Form G-325A, Biographic Information (for Deferred Action); dated 03/29/18For more information, please visit Forms Updates page.

USCIS sometimes transfers cases between the five service centers in order to balance workload and promote timely processing. 

USCIS on April 16, 2018 transferred some of the Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver from the Nebraska Service Center to the Potomac Service Center.

For more details on Workload Transfer Updates please visit this link: https://www.uscis.gov/workload-transfers

The USCIS Policy Manual has been updated to clarify certain requirements for acquisition of U.S. citizenship for children born outside the United States and out of wedlock under sections 301 and 309 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Policy Alert is available here:

USCIS recently updated the following form.

Update to Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service; New Edition Dated 04/11/1804/19/2018 12:00 AM EDTUpdate to Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service; New Edition Dated 04/11/18.For more information, please visit  Forms Updates page.

E-Verify, the free system that allows employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States, will be unavailable from April 20 at 9 p.m. until April 22 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, while USCIS implements system enhancements. For more information on how the outage will affect the creation of E-Verify cases see the fact sheet on USCIS website.

Update to Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant; New Edition Dated 04/12/1804/20/2018 12:00 AM EDTFor more information, please visit Forms Updates page.

LOS ANGELES – This week, two immigration fraud perpetrators were sentenced to prison due to the considerable efforts of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Los Angeles Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit. Los Angeles FDNS immigration officers worked closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to resolve potential fraud, national security and public safety concerns, and to ensure exchange of current and comprehensive information. 

Are you seeking to adjust your status and become a U.S. permanent resident under a family-sponsored or employment-based preference immigrant visa? If you have not yet had a relative or employer file an immigrant visa petition on your behalf, please learn more about the Adjustment of Status Filing Process.

The USCIS Phoenix Lockbox facility is now accepting Form N-565, Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document.

As of April 18, the Nebraska Service Center no longer accepts this form and forwards N-565 applications to the Phoenix Lockbox.

With the transfer to a Lockbox facility, applicants may now pay the filing fee by credit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions.