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Minimum Investments, Targeted Employment Area Designations Among Reforms

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published the U Visa Law Enforcement Resource Guide (PDF, 1.58 MB) to provide law enforcement and other certifying agencies with helpful information and best practices for the U visa certification process.

“A STEM-OPT employer must not assign, or otherwise delegate its training responsibilities to a non-employer third party such as the client’s employees,” explains Rajiv Khanna, Managing Attorney at Immigration.com

For more on this news please read the attached file.

The following immigration policy memorandum is now available on the Policy Memoranda section of the USCIS website:

Updated rejection criteria includes time-sensitive H-2A visa classification

As previously announced, on August 5, USCIS will begin rejecting Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, petitions that do not include the petitioner’s or applicant’s name and primary U.S. office address in Part 1 of the form.

Move ensures alignment with Executive Order 13767

Release Date: Aug. 2, 2019

10 Steps to Naturalization: Understanding the Process of Becoming a U.S. Citizen

To apply for naturalization, you will need to file Form N-400, Application for Naturalization. Below you will find a general description of the application process.

The H-1B program allows employers in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.

Transition aimed at increasing efficiencies, reducing backlogs

WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today plans to maintain operations at its international field offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, China; Nairobi, Kenya; and New Delhi, India. Previously, Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli directed the agency to continue operating in Guatemala City, Guatemala; Mexico City, Mexico; and San Salvador, El Salvador, as part of a whole-of-government approach to address the crisis at the southern border.

The last day the USCIS Seoul field office will be open to the public is Aug. 16, 2019.  Effective Aug. 17, 2019, the USCIS Seoul field office will no longer accept or process new Forms I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, or Forms I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative.  Therefore, the last date to file a Form I-600A or Form I-600 locally with USCIS Seoul is Aug.

Rajiv S Khanna, Managing Attorney at law firm Immigration.com, said, “Rate of denials have gone up across the board in all legal immigration cases, especially (relating to) H-1B visas. The government has created an environment where the responses for the RFEs have increased from 30-50 pages to 600-1,000 pages for an H-1B case. It has increased its own burden of processing cases and that’s why cases are taking much longer to process than they used to.”

For more on this news please read the attached file.

Regulation promotes self-sufficiency and immigrant success

USCIS has returned all fiscal year (FY) 2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in our computer-generated random selection process. On May 17, USCIS announced that it had completed data entry of all selected H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2020.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today issued policy guidance (PDF, 305 KB) in the USCIS Policy Manual to address its discretion to grant employment authorization to foreign nationals who are paroled into the United States, including those who are otherwise inadmissible.

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article: 

Did you get an email (PDF, 438 KB), a text message, or a postcard (PDF, 1.06 MB) from USCIS letting you know that you can file Form I-90 online? If you did, it should look like one of these examples.

Official communications sent by USCIS:

On Sept. 1, we will change the direct filing addresses for certain petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. The changes apply to the following cap-exempt H-1B petitions:

Release Date: Aug. 20, 2019

The Bridgeport resident pleaded guilty to arranging numerous fraudulent marriages so noncitizens could obtain Green Cards.

Today, Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement regarding a policy update Defining “Residence” in Statutory Provisions Related to Citizenship.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issues policy guidance on “residence” requirements for acquiring citizenship

Release Date: Aug. 28, 2019