Biden announces STEM changes for F-1, J-1, O-1A and National Interest Waivers
24 January 2022
Students in the following fields will be able to obtain STEM OPT extensions for 24 months:
Students in the following fields will be able to obtain STEM OPT extensions for 24 months:
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced updated guidance on adjudicating requests for “National Interest Waivers” regarding job offer and labor certification requirements for certain advanced degree professionals and individuals of exceptional ability. This includes discussing the unique considerations for persons with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and entrepreneurs.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today issued policy guidance clarifying how it evaluates evidence to determine eligibility for O-1A nonimmigrants of extraordinary ability, with a focus on petitions filed for individuals in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields, as well as how USCIS determines whether an O-1 beneficiary’s prospective work is within their area of extraordinary ability or achievement.
Discussion Topics, Jan 20, 2022 FAQs:
1. EB-1B for postdoctoral holder after a gap of several years in career 2. Date of birth and name corrections in birth certificate 3. COVID-19 delays in tourist/visitor extensions for B-2 holding parent and applying for their green card
1. My Son was born in February 2020 in the USA, where my wife is on an F1 visa working on OPT. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, I couldn't meet my son for two years. Kindly suggest to me the way forward to meet my son and wife. I also tried to travel on a tourist visa and F1 Visa. Unfortunately, I got both rejections. I'm an Indian taxpayer and an IT employee.
2. My brother is a US citizen, and he applied for our mother's green card. Everything is clear, all paperwork is done, but due to the pandemic, we are waiting for the interview date from March 2021. Do you have any information on how we get the date or how much time it will take?
3. My daughter is in Dallas, US, and under medical treatment. She is there with an IN40 visa. As a father, I want to be there during her medical urgency. How can I get a visa now to be with her in the US?
4. I am a US citizen currently in India. I am traveling back to the States in mid-February for two months and want to take my Indian-citizen senior citizen mother with me for that duration. Her last US tourist visa expired eight years ago. (She has an active Schengen visa on her passport) Is there a way she can get a short-term two-month visa to the US?
5. I stayed outside of the US for more than two years because of COVID-19. Am I eligible for naturalization? I came to the USA in August 2016.
*Please note that the queries have been put together and edited by the Economic Times to address similar questions at once and that the answers are clear and relevant to the audience.
1. My Son was born in February 2020 in the USA, where my wife is on an F1 visa working on OPT. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, I couldn't meet my son for two years. Kindly suggest to me the way forward to meet my son and wife. I also tried to travel on a tourist visa and F1 Visa. Unfortunately, I got both rejections. I'm an Indian taxpayer and an IT employee.
Note: For the NRI readers, The Economic Times has started an immigration helpdesk. A team of experts which includes Rajiv S. Khanna will address the most pressing issues. Please see the link below.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has updated the USCIS Policy Manual to reflect new guidance on how USCIS determines whether a case warrants expedited treatment. The new guidance is effective immediately.
This update:
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2023 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 1 and run through noon Eastern on March 18, 2022. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system.
If a GC holder applies for permanent residency in another country (say Canada or Australia) is that automatically considered an abandonment of the GC here in the US? I am getting a very good job offer in Australia and would like to go try it out for a few months to see if its a good fit.
FAQ Transcript:
The question here is can I have permanent residency in more than one country?
September 9, 2022:
Important FAQ from the USCIS about what to expect during this fiscal year #immigration
https://www.immigration.com/blogs/fiscal-year-2023-employment-based-adj…
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I have two approved I-140`s in EB-2 from two different companies with same A# on them. One with 2009 PD and other with 2011 PD. I am working for the company with 2011 PD . 2009 case was approved after the 2011 case so we could not port the date at the time of filing for 2011 case I-140. Now my question is do I need to file for amendment to port the 2009 date? Or am I eligible for filing I-485 without the I-140 amendment? Both I-140's are alive and employer did not withdraw any of them.
PD (priority date) date transfer is supposed to be automatic. We don’t have to do anything about it and it is my understanding what USCIS does is they do periodic sweeps in fact several times a month. They do a sweep like queries of their database and whoever is entitled to whichever priority date at the earliest they automatically assign that to you. So if you have one I- 140 approved earlier another I-140 going on or approved they will automatically assign you the earliest priority date to which you are entitled. That may or may not reflect in your approval though. So just because it does not reflect in your approval it doesn’t mean that you are not going to get the earlier priority date. You can confirm it by opening a service request. You can confirm by asking them your priority date.
Hence the answer is you are eligible for filing I-485 automatically when the 2009 date becomes current. All you have to do is attach a copy of the earlier approval notice with it along with the current approval and you should be fine.
I am working for company A, last three years. In order to file green card I need to use my current experience(3 years) as I don't have previous experience to prove. Can I leave the current job from company A, go to another company(company B) and work for few months in ( company B) and go back to my previous company(company A) so I can use the three years experience for GC process? How long I have to be out of company A to use that three years experience?
Answer is No, unless you meet the following requirements. If the job being offered to you as a Green Card job is more than 50% qualitatively different than the software engineer. If you join as a software engineer you got 3 years of experience then next job offered is Project Manager for example where more than 50% of your time spent in managing projects not a hands on architecture or development. Now you can use the experience you gained because job offered is different than the job you had before. There is common sense reason for it. When you joined this employer you had zero experience, after three years employer claims that they require 3 year experience for the same job. USCIS or DOL would want to know what changed that their requirement changed.