Recent Blog Posts

H1B Update as of May 4th

Harun — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:31:00 GMT

On May 8^th, USCIS updated its count of FY2013 cap subject H1-B petitions.

As of May 4th, 32,500 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 13,700 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

H1B Update as of April 27th

Harun — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:32:00 GMT

On May 1^st, USCIS updated its count of FY2013 cap subject H1-B petitions. As of April 27, 2012, 29,200 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 12,300 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

Based on this demand, the H1bs will likely be gone sometime in June.

H1B Season Update as of April 24th

Harun — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:20:00 GMT

On April 24^th, USCIS updated its count of FY2013 cap-subject H-1B petitions and advanced degree cap-exempt petitions. As of April 20, 2012, 25,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 10,900 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

H1B Season Update after 2 Weeks of Filing

Harun — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:54:00 GMT

On April 19^th, USCIS updated its count of FY2013 cap-subject H-1B petitions and advanced degree cap-exempt petitions. As of April 13, 2012, 20,600 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 9,700 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

This is not a significant jump from the first week of filing. There were approximately 3,000 more on cap petitions and 4,000 on Master’s cap filings.

U.S. Department of State Update on Embassies Suspended or Offering Limited Visa Processing

Harun — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:16:00 GMT

U.S. embassies and consulates are sometimes forced to limit or, at times, suspend visa services because of natural disasters, civil unrest, war, and/or security concerns, among other reasons. The list below notes the U.S. embassies and consulates that currently provide limited visa services, locations where visa services are suspended, and countries that do not have U.S. embassies or consulates.

The list below does not include the following:

Holiday closures or very short-term suspensions of service for non-security reasons.
U.S. embassies and consulates at which we ordinarily do not provide a particular type of visa service. See our list of Visa Issuing Posts for a complete list of the visa services provided at each of our U.S. embassies and consulates.

Limited Visa Services

Visa Services Suspended

Countries That Do Not Have a U.S. Embassy or Consulate

H1B Season Update-22,000 H-1Bs in 3 Days

Harun — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:57:00 GMT

The USCIS has recently informed us that 22,323 cap-subject H-1B petitions have been received as of April 4, 2012. Approximately 25% of these cases are for U.S. advanced degrees. Based on this announcement, approximately 17,000 of the 65,000 “regular” H-1B cap-subject petitions have been filed and 5,500 “Masters” H-1B cap-subject petitions.

Last year, it took 3 months to reach this point. Based on last year’s demand, this year’s H1Bs visa may go as soon as June or the latest August.

Temporary Protected Status Designated for the Syrian Arab Republic

Harun — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:02:00 GMT

Due to the violent upheaval and deteriorating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 29^th that eligible Syrian nationals (and persons without nationality who last habitually resided in Syria) in the United States may apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

On March 23, 2012, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced her intent to designate Syria for TPS for eighteen months. The TPS designation for Syria is effective today and will remain in effect through September 30, 2013. The designation means that eligible Syrian nationals will not be removed from the United States, and may request employment authorization. The 180-day TPS registration period begins today and ends on September 25, 2012. Although the Federal Register notice erroneously states that TPS applications must be filed March 29, 2012 through September 30, 2013, USCIS will only accept applications filed through September 25, 2012. USCIS is working to correct the public information on the registration deadline date.

To be eligible for TPS, Syrians must meet all individual requirements for TPS, including demonstrating that they have continually resided and been continually physically present in the United States since March 29, 2012. All individuals who apply for TPS will undergo a thorough security check. Individuals with criminal records or who pose a threat to national security are not eligible for TPS and their applications will be denied. The eligibility requirements are fully described in the Federal Register notice and on the TPS webpage at www.uscis.gov.

Syria joins El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan as countries currently designated for TPS.

USCIS to Accept H-1B Petitions for Fiscal Year 2013 Beginning April 2, 2012

Harun — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:59:00 GMT

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 cap on Monday April 2, 2012. Cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct fee. USCIS will not rely upon the date that the petition is postmarked.

The congressionally mandated numerical limitation on H-1B petitions for FY 2013 is 65,000. Additionally, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals who have earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap.

USCIS will monitor the number of petitions received and will notify the public of the date on which USCIS received the necessary number of petitions to meet the H-1B cap. If the number of applications received exceeds the numerical cap, USCIS will randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the pool of petitions received on the final receipt date. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions that are not selected, as well as those received after the final receipt date.

Petitions for new H-1B employment are exempt from the annual cap if the beneficiaries will work at institutions of higher education or related or affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations. Petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries who will work only in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are exempt from the cap until December 31, 2014. Employers may continue to file petitions for these cap-exempt H-1B categories seeking work dates starting in FY 2012.

Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap also do not count towards the congressionally mandated H-1B cap.

EB-2 India & China Priority Date Update

Harun — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:34:00 GMT

Charlie Oppenheim, Chief, Immigrant Visa Control & Reporting in the State Department, provided AILA with further information on priority date movement in the EB-2 category for China-mainland born and India for the remainder of FY2012. When the May Visa Bulletin is published, the China and India EB-2 cut-off will retrogress to August 15, 2007. Demand is still increasing at a very high rate and must be checked to maintain numbers for natives of other countries. As for projections for the remainder of the year, it is too early to predict movement. USCIS has informed Mr. Oppenheim that they will continue to "preadjudicate" adjustment applications received through April. The "preadjudicated" cases will be held by the State Department in the "pending" demand file. That way, the cases will be ready in October, or earlier, if the current number use pattern changes, and they are needed at the end of this fiscal year to assure utilization of the full employment-based permanent resident visa allocation.

U.S. Embassy in London to Limit Processing during Summer Olympics

Harun — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:49:00 GMT

Visa services will be limited during July and August for all nonimmigrant visa categories. Therefore, the Embassy is encouraging applicants to apply for visas during the spring and early summer as appointment availability cannot be guaranteed. To facilitate this, they have opened up the appointment calendar through until the end of June. Appointments are scheduled through the Operator Assisted Information Service.

Travelers planning on entering the United States visa free under the Visa Waiver Program by air or sea carrier who do not have travel authorization approval under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), are encouraged to register now for summer travel, for if the registration denied, visas will be required.

The Visa Reissuance Program has been expanded to include H-1 visa applicants and their derivatives who are renewing a visa of the same classification that has expired in the last twelve months. Other qualifying criteria apply and can be found on our website at http://london.usembassy.gov/visa-reissuance.html. The Program continues to be available to O, P, J and C-1/D visa applicants. Please note that applicants must be physically present in the United Kingdom to utilize the Visa Reissuance Program and a consular officer reserves the right to request that an applicant appear in person for an interview after reviewing his or her application.

U.S. Embassy in Damascus Update

Harun — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:48:00 GMT

Due to the current situation in Syria, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus no longer accept I-130 petitions for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (which fall into the IR category). Please contact the Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit at Embassy Amman, the designated processing post for Syrian visa cases, at Amman-IV@state.gov to schedule an appointment to submit a petition. I-130 petitions that do not fall into the IR category must be filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the United States. There are no exceptions.

US citizen petitioners who are resident in Syria should email USCIS.Amman@dhs.govto make an appointment to file I-130 petitions in Amman for their Syrian relatives overseas.

All I-730 petitions Refugee/Asylee following to joins (Visas 92/93 beneficiaries) have been transferred to Embassy Amman. The USCIS office in Amman will take over these I-730 petitions. If your case was sent to or scheduled for interview at Embassy Damascus, your case has been transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Please contact them at Amman-IV@state.gov for further information. If you are unable to enter Jordan to attend your visa interview and wish to transfer your I-730 petition to another Embassy, you should contact that other Embassy and seek their concurrence on processing your case at their post. If they agree, that Embassy will communicate with Embassy Amman to arrange for the transfer of your I-730 file to their post.

If your visa case was scheduled for interview in Damascus, your visa case has been transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan for processing. Please contact them at Amman-IV@state.gov for further information.

DHS Proposals to Attract and Retain Highly Skilled Immigrants

Harun — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:45:00 GMT

As a part of comprehensive immigration reform, the President supports legislative measures that would attract and retain immigrants who create jobs and boost competitiveness here in the U.S., including creating a "Startup Visa," strengthening the H-1B program, and "stapling" green cards to the diplomas of certain foreign-born graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Together these actions would help attract new businesses and new investment to the U.S. and ensure that the U.S. has the most skilled workforce in the world. In the meantime, the Obama Administration is working to make improvements in the areas where we can make a difference.

As part of these ongoing efforts and in recognition of the one-year anniversary of the White House Startup America Initiative, the Department of Homeland Security today announced a series of administrative reforms which will be completed in the future. These reforms reflect the Administration's continuing commitment to attracting and retaining highly-skilled immigrants. These efforts are critical to continuing our economic recovery and encouraging job creation. In the State of the Union, President Obama noted that "Innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses." He also stated in his remarks in El Paso last May, "In recent years, a full 25 percent of high-tech startups in the United States were founded by immigrants, leading to more than 200,000 jobs in America." Echoing this, the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness stated in its recent report, "Highly skilled immigrants create jobs, they don't take jobs."

The initiatives below will serve to make the United States more attractive to highly-skilled foreign students and workers, thereby improving the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the world market and stimulating U.S. job creation:

Expand eligibility for 17-month extension of optional practical training (OPT) for F-1 international students to include students with a prior degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Allow for additional part-time study for spouses of F-1 students and expand the number of Designated School Officials (DSOs) at schools certified by DHS to enroll international students.

Provide work authorization for spouses of certain H-1B holders.

Allow outstanding professors and researchers to present a broader scope of evidence of academic achievement.

Harmonize rules to allow E-3 visa holders from Australia and H-1B1 visa holders from Singapore and Chile to continue working with their current employer for up to 240 days while their petitions for extension of status are pending.

Launch Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative.

President Obama Eases Visa Rules to Boost U.S. Tourism, especially for Chinese and Brazilians

Harun — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:25:00 GMT

The President announced that the Departments of State and Homeland Security are working together to improve and speed up the visa process for certain categories of travelers.

Since 9/11, the United States has developed an intensive, multi-layered visa screening process, including multiple biographic and biometric checks, all supported by a sophisticated global information technology network. We perform these checks on every visa applicant, without exception.

Under a new initiative, in select circumstances, qualified foreign visitors who were interviewed and thoroughly screened in conjunction with a prior visa application may be able to renew their visas without undergoing another interview. Eliminating interviews for these applicants will save them time and money and encourage them to choose the United States again as their tourism destination. It will also free our resources to interview more first-time applicants.

The pilot program will streamline visa processing for certain low-risk applicants, such as individuals renewing expired visas, or some categories of younger or older first-time applicants. We expect that this will benefit tens of thousands of applicants in Brazil and China; saving them time and money, and encouraging them to choose to visit the United States again. However, given that national security remains this Administration's highest priority, individuals identified as higher-risk will remain subject to interviews - in addition to the full screening and review all visa applicants receive.

For example, this will make it much easier for many Chinese tourists to renew their visas - a group that spends more than $6,000 per person, per trip, according to the Department of Commerce. Over the course of the year, this policy could open as many as 100,000 interview appointments for Chinese travelers applying for visas for the first time. That increase in tourism could support as many as 1,500 travel and tourism-related jobs.

Consular officers will continue to use their authority to interview any visa applicant as required for national security.

The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions

Harun — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:13:00 GMT

The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, Inda will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and U.S. Consulate in Mumbai will become the only acceptance centers in India for Immigrant Visas. The Immigrant Visa allows an individual to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis, as well as provides the immigrant the opportunity to work towards U.S. citizenship.

Examples of Immigrant Visa based petitions are those that work toward family reunification of parents, children and siblings. These petitions also include Fiancée and the unique employer category, where one's employer can petition for the individual and their dependents to immigrate to the United States.

This change affects only the locations for processing of Immigrant Visas; it does not change the law or policy for visa processing. Applicants currently in the process of petitioning for an Immigrant Visa may contact ChennaiIVU@state.gov for clarification on their status.

Filing locations for I-130 changes in January 2012

Harun — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:09:00 GMT

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has changed the filing locations for Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. Domestic Petitioners will mail their stand-alone I-130 applications to either the Chicago Lockbox or the Phoenix Lockbox, depending on where they reside in the United States. The new filing locations will be updated with the corresponding addresses on Jan. 1 on the Form I-130 Direct Filing Locations page. This effort will balance workloads between the two locations and provide more efficient and effective processing of Form I-130.

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