Latest Immigration News Update!

Questions and Answers regarding Employ American Workers Act and its effect on H-1B Petitions - March 20, 2009
The newly enacted Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) signed by President Obama is aimed to prevent companies from displacing U.S. workers when hiring H-1B workers if such companies received funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP"), or under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act. To know more about the impact of the EAWA has on our up-coming FY2010 H-1B petitions, see USCIS Q&As.

New Requirement for Hiring H-1B Foreign Workers for Companies that Receive TARP Funding - March 20, 2009
Washington - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that additional requirement for employers, who receive funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program or under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act, before they may hire a foreign national to work in the H-1B specialty occupation category.
Under this new legislation which was enacted to ensure companies receiving this funding do not displace U.S. workers, any company that has received funding and seeks to hire new H-1B workers is considered an "H-1B dependent employer" and must make additional attestations to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) when filing the Labor Condition Application (LCA). A new I-129F form will be revised and published to accommodate this requirement. For details, see USCIS update.

Name Checks Pending More than Six Months now Completed - March 4, 2009
As part of its joint plan with the FBI to completely eliminate the backlog of pending name checks, USCIS announced today that the backlog for FBI name checks pending more than six months has been cleared. Definitely a good news, hopefully decisions can be made more timely with our pending immigration applications and petitions.

February Visa Bulletin - February 2009
Click here to view the current bulletin.

Premium Processing Services Expanded for Certain Form I-140 Petitions - February 24, 2009
Begining March 2, 2009, premium process service will be available to Form I-140 alien worker petitions filed on behalf of alien beneficiaries who have reached or are reaching their limitation of stay in H-1B nonimmigrant status. See USCIS update

USCIS Urges H-2A and H2-B Petitioners to Use the New Form I-129 - February 4, 2009
USCIS announced today that H2A and H2B petitioners who participate in the relevant temporary worker programs should use the newly revised Form I-129 which contains the H Classification Supplement. See USCIS update.

January 2009 Visa Bulletin - January 2009
The Visa Bulletin for January 2009 has only few forward movements in family and some EB preference categories, no major changes.

USCIS Changes Filing Location for EB-5 Related Items - January 12, 2009
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that petitions and applications related to the Alien Entrepreneur (EB5) immigrant classifications and Regional Center Proposals under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program must be filed at the California Service Center (CSC). USCIS update.

December Visa Bulletin - January, 2009
Click here to view the current bulletin.

USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for Second Half of Fiscal Year 2009 - January 8, 2009
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H2B cap for the second half of Fiscal Year 2009 (FY 2009). See USCIS update for details.

USCIS Revises Direct Mail Program for the Application for Naturalization (N400) - December 23, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it is revising the Direct Mail Program for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400). Effective Jan. 22, 2009, non-milltary applicants must submit Form N-400 cases with the approciate Lockbox facilities for initial processing. The N-400 form instructions will be updated to reflect the new filing procedures. See USCIS update.

December Visa Bulletin Released - December, 2008
Click here to view the current bulletin.

USCIS Publishes Final Rule for Religious Worker Visa Classifications - November 26, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will make significant revisions to the special immigrant and nonimmigrant (R-1) religious worker visa classification regulations. The final rule will ensure the integrity of the religious worker program by establishing a requirement that employers submit a formal petition for temporary religious workers, and by providing for increased inspections, evaluations, verifications and compliance reviews of religious organizations. The rule also fulfill the recent Congressional mandate to issue final regulations to eliminate or reduce fraud in the religious worker program.

USCIS Processing Times Progressing Toward FY2009 Goals - November 11, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), committed to improving their services, has set a goal for the end of FY 2009 to reduce average processing time by an average of 20%. See FY2009 goals.

USCIS Increases Period of Stay for TN Workers - October 14, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased the maximum stay of TN workers from 1 to 3 years. Eligible TN nonimmigrants may now be allowed to receive extensions of stay in increment of up to 3 years instead of the prior maximum period of stay of 1 year. USCIS update

November Visa Bulletin Released - October 8, 2008
No major changes especially for employement based category. However, there are certain religious worker category is unavailable. Click here to view the current bulletin.

Requirement for Naturalization Abroad by Spouses of Members of the U.S. Armed Forces - October 2,2008
On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 into law. Part of that law is a new section 319(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which allows certain eligible spouses of members of the U.S. armed forces to naturalize abroad without traveling to the United States for any part of the naturalization process.

To be eligible for naturalization abroad, lawful permanent resident spouses of members of the U.S. armed forces, who live abroad on official military orders, must meet the requirements of either section 316(a) or 319(a) of the INA at the time of filing

Overseas Naturalization eligibility to certain children of U.S. Armed Forces Member - October 2, 2008
Under the latest amended immigration and Nationality Act, certain eligible children of the armed forces is allowed to become naturalized U.S. citizen without having to travel to the United States for any part of the naturalization process. See USCIS update.

USCIS reminds customers of program flexibilities - September 24, 2008
Given recent severe weather in the Caribbean, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) would like to remind customers of available services to non-immigrants who are in-status and complying with immigration laws.

Two Categories of Special Immigrant Religious Workers to Expire on 10/1/2008 - September 19, 2008
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds its customers that authorization for the non-minister special immigrant religious worker program will expire on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. Individual applying to serve in the two non-minister catgegories of the program must either adjust status to permanent residence or apply for, and be admitted with, an immigrant visa before October 1, 2008. For details, see USCIS update.

USCIS Issues remainder: Forms I-821 and I-765 - September 17, 2009
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) issued a remainder today that only the October 17, 2007 version of the Application for Temporary Status (TPS)(Form I-821) will be accepted. Additionally, only the May 27, 2008 or later version of the Application Authorization (Form I-765) will be acepted; USCIS will reject all applications using previous editions.

Frequently Asked Questions: Direct Mail Program Adds Form N-400 - September
15, 2008
Naturalization application has long been a lengthy process involving numerous processing steps and procedures. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has recently announced that it will centralize the initial N-400 naturalization application process, so naturalization applicants will deal with only one entity for this application type. This new centralized approach aims to improve efficiency for the govenment and the paying applicants, meaning faster and more efficient processing time.
All N-400 cases will be filed at the Lockbox except for those filed by a veteran, or an active member of the US Armed Forces, who is filing under section 328 oro 329 of the INA; or filed by the spouse of an active member of the US Armed Forces. See update.

Redesigned (NEW) Naturalization Test - September 9, 2008
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has completed a multi-year redesign of the naturalization test. The revised test, places more emphasis on the fundamental concepts of American democracy and the rights and responsibility of citizehnship and is aimed to encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify basic values that we all share as Americans. Naturalization applicants will begin taking the revised test on October 1, 2008.

Visa Bulletin for September 2008 - August 15th, 2008
The Department of Stated has released the latest September visa bulletin. Most dates remain pretty much unchanged except for EB2 which did move 2 month forward for China and India.

Projected Naturalization Processing Times Update! - Monday, August 11th, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) anounced that it will continue to make steady progress in reducing the significant number of naturalization applications it received last year. USCIS now anticipates that its estimated average processing time should reduce to 10-12 months nationally by the end of September 2008 - a great improvement from its estimated average processing time of 16-18 months first announced last year. USCIS update.

H2B Workers Visas Cap Reached! - Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the congressionally mandated H2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year 2007 has already been exhausted. Therefore, July 29, 2008 is the "final receipt date" for new H2B worker petitions requesting employment start date prior to April 1, 2009. All cap subject petitions that were received on July 29, 2008 will be subject to a computer generated random selection process. USCIS update.

US Mayors call for a stop to ICE raids and for immigration reform - Monday, July 21st, 2008

The U.S. Conference of Mayors held its annual meeting in Miami, Florida last month and passed this resolution, calling for comprehensive immigration reform which promotes the renunification of families, provides legal status with a path to earned citizenship, and a plan for current and future immigrant workers.

H-2B Count Update - Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

On July 7, 2008 USCIS updated the count of H-2B petitions received and counted towards the H-2B cap. As of July 7, 2008, 20,390 petitions have been counted towards the 33,000 cap for the first half of FY 2009.

August Visa Bulletin released - Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

The U.S. Department of State has published the Visa Bulletin for August 2008. There has been little or no movement for most categories, with the exception of EB-2, India and China categories, which have moved forward from April to June 2006!

New Citizenship Exam to take effect this October - Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

The new exam will take effect this October, however those that file for citizenship prior to October, 2008 will have the choice between the current and the new exam.

Some believe that this new exam is more difficult. Could you pass? MSBC has put together a multiple choice questionaire. Click here to test your knowledge. Note however, that natauralization applicants are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview.

FOIA Online Status Check Now Available - Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has launched an online service to provide customers a quick way to check the status of requests they have made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Customers will need to enter their assigned control number in order to receive an immediate online response on the status of their FOIA request. The response provided will be either "pending" and the position of the customer's request or "processed" with a listed processing date.

Link to the FOIA status check page, and the USCIS Update. (.pdf, 28.2KB)

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