The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin for August 2016 reflects a final action date of January 1, 2010*, for EB-4 visas for special immigrants from India.
If my visa is in an expired passport, what should I do?
If your Visa is in a passport that has expired or will expire within 6 months of the end of your U.S. visit, you will need to get a new passport. However, you do not need to apply for a new visa. Just bring both your NEW and passport with the valid visa to present to the CBP Officer when you arrive in the U.S.
*Note: Your ESTA is not a U.S. Visa. If you obtain a new passport, you are required to apply for a brand new ESTA. To re-apply visit esta.cbp.dhs.gov.
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Discussion Topics, Thursday, 14 July 2016:
FAQ: Priority date transfer across several companies; J-1 holder getting married to a US citizen; H-4 EAD when I-140 approved through a future employer; Automatic Visa Revalidation and H-1B amendments; Withdrawing I-485 AOS of spouse.
Other: Medicals RFE not received; Changing from H-1/H-4 to green card; Converting from H-1 to F-1 back to H-1; I-140 approved changing jobs; Pending I-140 EAD regulations; Mutiple green card petitions through future employers; Legal repercussions of deportation, N-400 record expunged, cannot obtain copies; US citizen applying for parent; Passport correction; H-1 company bankrupt; etc.
BALCA Appeal Times (as of July 18, 2016)
Bottomline: BALCA appeals take approximately 3.5 to 4 years from the date the appeal is filed.
- Appeals from PERM denials with BALCA office are currently taking about 3.5 - 4 years from date of docket
- Dockets are being completed within the same month that they are received
Just wanted to let people know that it IS possible to get the I-129f processed in an expedited basis.
I am from India and holding an Indian passport. I work for a IT company. I manage around 250 members.
One of the agencies are tied up with another EB-1 and EB-2 processing agency in USA and informed me that they can help in processing EB1-A visa (Self Petition).<br>
My questions are:<br>
1. Is there a category of Visa as EB1-A?<br>
2. If so, is there a possibility for self - petition? i.e. without an employer?<br>
3. If I file EB1-A, what is the waiting period? Approximate is adequate.<br>
4. Once I get the EB1-A visa, can I self apply for Green card or should there be an employer assisting to file for Green card?<br>
5. If I apply for Green card on an EB1 A, how long generally with it take?<br>
1. Yes. See: http://www.immigration.com/greencard/eb1-green-card/eb-1-extraordinary-…-
2. Yes, self petition is possible under EB-1A.
3. Usually, it takes appx a year for the whole process.
4. EB-1A IS a green card category. Nothing else is needed.
5. See 3 and 4.
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 Supreme Court’s 4-4 decision in United States v. Texas on June 23, 2016, does not affect the existing 2012 policy regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Individuals who meet the 2012 DACA guidelines may continue to come forward and file an initial or renewal request for DACA under those guidelines.
USCIS recently updated Form N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322. The new edition is dated 07/11/16. USCIS will also accept the 05/03/13 edition.
Discussion Topics, Thursday, 28 July 2016:
FAQ: Criminal record, affect on naturalization, other risks; Criteria for EB-1C, international managers and executives, impact of receiving benefits; Tourist/Visitors/B-2 visa denial 214(b); How long is an I-140 approval valid; Legalizing status; Change of work location after filing for naturalization N-400 - 90-day rule for domicile; Gap required on a B visa revisit.
Other: Student (M-1) Visa stamping, changing to F-1; N-600; Conflicting I-94 on H-1 extension and amendment; 221(g) on H-1 visa; Priority date transfer after I-140; J-2 EAD processing; Protecting H-1 holder's share in company, green card processing; H-1B transfer salary and reporting company; H-1B changing employers, etc.; spouse of green card holder issues; When to file I-140/AOS after PERM approval; Correcting records with CBP; Overstay on B visa alleged; etc.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will celebrate the 240th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and our nation’s birthday, by welcoming more than 7,000 new U.S.
Discussion Topics, Thursday, 30 June 2016:
FAQ: Can one work during H-4 EAD renewal; Can a green card applicant (sibling of US citizen) remain in USA while green card is processed; Proving ties to home country for tourist visa; Can I look for a job while EAD is still pending;
Other: Remedy against a US citizen spouse; entering USA on green card, how long must I work with employer, maintaining green card; H-4 visa stamping problems; CSPA protection; Getting status updates on PERM; Effect on visa stamping of 30-day gap in status; Revocation of I-140 and priority date; Applying for OPT while H-1 is pending; New visa required or not if I change H-1 employers; AC21 options for EB-1C executive/manager; 3 year extension of H-1 through a new company based upon I-140 approval; etc.
Hi, I want to leave a comment on my positive experience with LORK every time I reach out to the firm. I was a client of LORK when my green card was applied through my employer and they took utmost care of the case. Especially, I was one of the people that applied during July 2007 visa bulletin fiasco and the firm was very good at answering and responding to all of my repeated questions patiently. Since then, I have always reached out whenever I had a question on immigration matters and the staff always, always respond back to me promptly. Even though I was a client several years back, they still take care as if I am their current client. Greatly appreciate everyone at the firm and especially Mr Khanna for his due diligence, prompt responses and timely calls and great advice. Would love to do business with LORK again. thanks for all that you do to help our fellow Indians.
USCIS announced on July 8, 2016, that it has returned all fiscal year 2017 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in our computer-generated random selection process.
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible nationals of El Salvador (and those without nationality who last habitually resided in El Salvador) for an additional 18 months, effective
A child is born to a lawful permanent resident mother during her temporary absence from the U.S. What must the parent do to be able to bring their child back to the United States and obtain LPR status for him/her?
Children born during the temporary visit abroad of a lawful permanent resident (LPR) mother are classified as NA3.
· A child who meets the requirements of the NA3 classification is exempt both the passport and immigrant visa requirement when arriving in the U.S. for the first time.
· The child must apply for admission to the United States within two years of birth.
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.
I had my green card filed through my employer and got the opportunity to work directly with Lakshmi Kompella, one of the attorneys at the law firm and I couldn't have asked for a better person to handle my case. She was always available to take my calls and answer any of the multiple questions I had in great detail, and never failed to return my calls and emails whenever I was not able to reach her. My process went by really fast and I attribute that to the diligent work that Lakshmi and her team performed. I won't hesitate to recommend my friends and colleagues to this law firm for any of the services they provide.
USCIS generally process cases in the order they receive them. The link below provides you an estimate of how much time the office handling your case currently takes to process your type of application, petition, or request.
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.
It has been an amazing experience with my H1 transfer this time. I was getting RFEs in all the last 3 times when my H1B petition was filed, but this time, it got approved straight without an RFE in just 10 days of time with premium processing. This definitely indicates that the documentation done was very much detailed and complete. Apart from this, prompt communication is something that I really appreciate a lot. Thanks for all the support.