News
Stateside Visa Renewal Pilot Program
In February, the Department of State said it would renew a program terminated in 2004to allow H-1B visa holders in the U.S. to renew the visa stamp in their passport withoutgoing to an American consulate overseas. No details have been announced in the pastfew months. Hopefully, this program will be...
The EB-5 investor green card process has been in effect for over 20 years. About a decade ago, it became very popular with people in China and more recently people born in India. Since then, many have applied, far more than the 10,000 visas that are available each year for...
More Visa Backlogs and Immigration Delays Ahead
It appears that soon the Visa Bulletin, which governs the allocation of immigrant visas, will backlog, even further, the cutoff date for employment based “EB-2” as well as possibly the EB-3 categories. The reason is twofold:There will be fewer unused visa numbers spilling down from the EB-1 category;There will be...
Clarification on H-1B Layoffs
The USCIS has finally provided some clarification about its policy on maintaining H-1B status for those who are laid-off/terminated. The rules provide that one has a grace period of up to 60 days in H-1B status after a layoff or other “cessation of employment.” While one is in the grace...
A student on an F-1 visa may now file an expedite request for the following workpermits:Pre-completion OPTPost completion OPT24-month STEM extensionThis expedite procedure is only available for already-pending I-765 applications untilApril 3, when the expedite rule will be expanded to also apply to new I-765 applications.The expedite request (Form I-907)...