The travel bans necessitated by the COVID pandemic have created much flux and uncertainty. Synthesizing the information now finally available from various US government sources, it is clearer now that many intending travelers can seek and obtain an exemption from the ban under a series of provisions for a National Interest Exception (NIE).
You should be able to apply for an NIE to overcome the ban on travel to the USA if you meet any one or more of the following categories:
Number 55
Volume X
Washington, D.C
A. STATUTORY NUMBERS
This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during July for: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center.
They were really professional and fast while filing my H1B paperwork and everything went smoothly. The documents needed were checked thoroughly and the whole process was smooth. They responded immediately and gave updates quick
Release Date
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it will accept resubmitted fiscal year (FY) 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were rejected or administratively closed solely because the requested start date was after Oct. 1, 2020.
Discussion Topics, Thursday, June 24, 2021:
FAQ: Consequences of B-1/B-2 Visa Extension applied and leaving the USA || Changing Multiple Jobs While AOS I-485 is Pending - Consequences || I-129 Nunc Pro Tunc Request
Published by: The Economic Times - Date: June 29, 2021
Synopsis
Bear in mind that the travel ban requirements and exceptions are likely to keep changing based upon the state of the pandemic. Thus, before traveling, it would be prudent to check the latest developments on the consular websites.
For more on this article please see the attachment below.
Published by: The Economic Times - Date: June 30, 2021
Synopsis
A green card is considered to have been filed usually when an application for an immigrant visa (Form I-140) is filed with the USCIS. The majority of the green cards require preclearance from the US Department of Labor, referred to as labor certification or PERM petition.
For more on this article please see the attachment below.
Release Date
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a pilot program for accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, for U nonimmigrants filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.
USCIS recently updated the following USCIS form(s):
Authorization for Credit Card Transactions
04/23/2021 09:49 AM EDT
I cannot thank enough the Law Office of Rajiv S Khanna and my direct contact in this case Anna Baker for doing such a wonderful job in getting me approved for H1B classification within such a short period of time. Anna Baker has been a tremendous help with regard to the case and especially getting back to me on answering my questions at her earliest. Fee is very reasonable for the service I was provided. I would definitely recommend for any immigration issues and I myself look forward to taking care of my future immigration issues with the Law Office of Rajiv S. Khanna.
Anna Baker Great Job. I am very pleased.!!!
Very efficient, helpful and personal services. The process was made easier thanks to the professional staff. Thank You very much. I highly recommend their services.
My labor certification was done without any problem and the guidance I am getting for filing I-140,I-485 for me and my family members is excellent and I shall be grateful to Mr.Khanna and his team
There is no question that there might be a large number of good Attorneys around but Mr. Khanna and his superb team can provide what only a few can. That is honesty, excellent advise, easy accessibility to him and the rest of the team, fast work and over all results. I had experience with few attorneys and I can say without a doubt that he is the one and there is no need to look around. If you are looking for quality here it is.
I think you guys are bunch high quality legal experts on immigration. Thanks for your good works.
The service provided by your firm was excellent. Ms. Homa Naderi in particular was extremely hopeful and responded to my queries within an hour. Mr. Khanna too was easily approachable and provided excellent advise.
I am surprised and at the same time very happy to learn about the immediate processing of my LCA by the SESA (It took just one day to be precise.) I give full credit to Ms. Subha at Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna for this as she so carefully prepared my application form that the State labor department had no problems with it.
It has been a great experience working with your firm towards my green card process.
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 live in Bulgaria and I have a Master's Degree in Veterinary Medicine. My question is can I get a EB-2 visa if I work as a veterinary assistant in the USA ?
You can qualify for EB2 only if two conditions are met:
1. Your degree is equivalent to a U.S. advanced degree (a credentials evaluation service needs to assess that under proper standards); and
2. The job requires an advanced degree or equivalent experience.
1. Certification of Decisions to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO)
Purpose
This policy memorandum (PM) and accompanying revisions to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) guide officers on the proper use of the decision
certification mechanism described in 8CFR 103.4. This PM revises Subchapters 3.5, 10.7, 10.8, 10.14 and 10.18 of the AFM ;AFM Update AD13 -08.
Scope
Unless specifically exempted herein, this PM applies to and binds all U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS)employees
Team is very professional, very knowledgeable and experienced in the immigration process. Team has a check list on every step in the process. Team is very prompt in responding to the emails and to the calls. Team will never submit without checking the documents properly. All my approvals at every stage are without any RFE's. They are always on time in submitting the documents.
A special thanks to Richa Narang, Prerna Mehta, Bharathi Gajjala and great attorney Rajiv Khanna.