SCOPS Update – 07-13-2011
Filing location for concurrently-filed I-140/I-485 petitions
Filing location for concurrently-filed I-140/I-485 petitions
Correcting a mistake on the Form I-140
I have a brother here in US who is diagnosed with cancer. I would like my mom and brother who live in India to come and visit him. What type of visa should they apply for in India and how long will it take? On which visa can they come as soon as possible.
Tourist visa seems to be appropriate. Times vary by consulate and are usually very short -- often visa is issued the same day an application is made. You can also get an appointment for emergent reasons.
Discussion Topics, Thursday, October 28, 2021:
FAQ: Change of jobs with an approved I-140 from employer A and Reapplying PERM through B || Impact of reportees outside the U.S. or in third countries on L-1A and EB-1 petitions || Are L-1B visa holders eligible to work remotely? || Approved EB-2/EB-3: Interfiling/upgrading to EB-2 with employers A and B || Working outside the U.S. for four months with a recently issued green card || Documents needed by and anticipated questions for green card holders at the port of entry
As part of the credit card payment pilot program, the California Service Center is now accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, for petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, for O and P nonimmigrants.
Discussion Topics:
I was on L-1A and later switched to H-4 EAD 3 years back (working with the same Indian multinational company for 15+ years). I manage a large team here in the USA, and some of my reportees are in the U.K. Since the H-4 EAD extension is taking time, my company plans to move me to Canada for one year. As per the plan, I will be back to the USA on an L-1A visa, and then the company will file for my green card in the EB-1C category. I don't have any team in Canada, and I will mainly manage the same U.S. and U.K. team from Canada.
The USCIS will consider the broad range of your duties within the business context, including employees being supervised and managed in countries other than the USA (or Canada). In our experience, the USCIS looks at whether the benefit of the work you perform with your dispersed team flows to the petitioning employer and the corporate group, department, or division within the L-1/EB-1C equity/control relationship. But, of course, your particular facts need to be examined in context. So have your lawyers look at them very carefully.
Note: Where transcribed from audio/video, 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.
This is a question about after the return to normalcy from the pandemic. From an immigration perspective, are L-1B visa holders allowed to work remotely/work from home from within the U.S.? Does it matter whether the employee's house (where she will work from) is near the designated company office location or not?
And lastly, would you expect difficulty with getting the L-1B visa in the first place if the intention is to work remotely/from home (but within the U.S.)?
L-1B holders, unlike H-1B employees, are not geographically tied down. You can work from anywhere. Further, if you work and report in-house and not to a client, you should even be able to change locations without any amendments to your L-1B petition. Only L-1B visa holders who work at third-party sites are subject to certain limitations; the most important one is that you continue to be an "employee" under the company's control that petitioned for you. I can see no reason why the location should interfere with a visa at the consulate.
Note: Where transcribed from audio/video, 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 reviewed the recent lawsuit settlement where the USCIS has agreed to consider H-4 holders to be eligible to continue working while their timely filed EAD extension is pending. Unfortunately, the settlement seems to state that the right to work is only co-extensive with your I-94 duration. Therefore, you do not have the right to continue working for 180 days; only till your I-94 expires. While it is better than nothing, the settlement is not everything that we would like to see.
We successfully responded to an H-1B request for evidence (RFE), questioning the beneficiary’s maintenance of status. The beneficiary’s previous employer (Employer A) had submitted an H-1B extension. While the petition was pending the beneficiary’s nonimmigrant status expired. An RFE was subsequently received by Employer A, and following the filing of a comprehensive RFE response, the petition was denied.
We assisted petitioner, a public accounting firm, in filing an H-1B petition for beneficiary for the position of staff accountant. We received an RFE requesting additional evidence that the position qualified as a specialty occupation by satisfying at least one of the four qualifying criteria for a specialty occupation. In our lengthy response, we argued that the job duties, as detailed in the petition, and as compared with OOH’s job description for staff accountant not only comports with but goes beyond OOH guidance in its uniqueness and complexity.
We filed an H-1B extension for a specialized medical practice on behalf of a physician who had completed a fellowship in this specialty. We subsequently received a Request for Evidence questioning whether his position satisfied the requirements for a specialty occupation and questioning his current immigration status.
We were approached by an employer in the health and wellness industry to respond to an RFE (Request for Evidence) for an Operations Research Analyst. The RFE indicated that the job duties were vague, and did not allow Service to ascertain the minimum requirements for the position, or determine whether it constituted a specialty occupation. We responded with considerable detail, elaborating on the job duties and providing considerable context about the employer and the strict FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulations that they are required to operate under.
We assisted an employer in successfully responding to a Request for Evidence (RFE) received subsequent to the filing of an H-1B (specialty occupation worker) extension petition. The RFE requested additional information regarding the employer and the beneficiary’s qualifications. More specifically, the RFE questioned the evidentiary value of an education evaluation that was provided with the petition, requesting additional evidence regarding the qualifications of the college official who authored the evaluation.
We assisted a client company, who develops its own software products and provides related consulting services in filing an H-1B petition to employ a software developer. An RFE was issued requesting additional information regarding the employer, and additional documentation to show that the beneficiary was engaged in a valid curricular practical training (CPT) and was maintaining a full course study in a master’s degree program at a U.S. university at the time of filing.