On May 13, 2024, the State Department announced record breaking milestones including the issuance of a whopping 5.2 million nonimmigrant visas at U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide in the first half of fiscal year 2024 – more than any previous year over the same period. In the past six months…
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has published the June Visa Bulletin. In this blog post we breakdown the projected movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the month of June. USCIS Adjustment of Status For employment-based preference categories, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that…
If your case remains pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) beyond the posted processing times for your immigration benefit request, you may consider requesting assistance from the Ombudsman’s Office. What is the USCIS Ombudsman? The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman) helps individuals and employers…
New fraud prevention mechanisms applied to the H-1B program in fiscal year 2025 have led to a dramatic decrease in the number of eligible registrations for H-1B cap visas, plunging to almost 40% from the past year. These fraud prevention mechanisms were introduced with the final rule “Improving the H-1B…
As the 2024 U.S. presidential elections draw nearer, Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, have announced joint efforts to combat illegal border crossings. The two leaders have said that their administrations will take steps to decrease illegal border crossings by ordering their national security teams to cooperate. While…
In this blog post, we cover the newly released Immigrant Visa Backlog Report published by the Department of State. April’s report provides the latest data and statistics relating to the processing of immigrant visa applications at the National Visa Center. This data includes information about the number of documentarily complete…
If you’ve been a long-time follower of our blog, you’ll know that on January 29th the Department of State launched a pilot program giving certain H-1B applicants the ability to renew their visas without ever having to leave the United States. The State Department accepted applications for this pilot program…
If you are an EB-5 investor in a Regional Center project, you may be interested to learn of new information released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding Regional Center audits. In March 2022, with the passage of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, Congress implemented…
The long-awaited May 2024 Visa Bulletin has arrived! If you’d like to know all about the projected movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the month of May, we’ve got you covered. Highlights of the May 2024 Visa Bulletin Dates for Filing Chart For the family-sponsored preference categories, the Dates for Filing Chart…
This week we bring you new updates regarding the I-693 medical examination. On April 4, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that any Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that was properly completed and signed by a civil surgeon on or after November 1,…