Archive for the ‘Employment Immigration’ Category
USCIS Announces Two New Changes to H-1B Visa Procedures
An Effort to Increase H-1B visas Granted to Workers with a U.S. Master’s degree or Higher On January 31, 2019, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new changes to the H-1B process, one to take effect this year, the other to take effect in 2020. As background, USCIS gives out 65,000 H-1B visas […]
October Visa Bulletin Arrives: First Bulletin for the 2019 Fiscal Year
The October 2018 Visa Bulletin was dropped today. This is the most significant visa bulletin of the year since it represents the first visa bulletin for the new fiscal year (the federal fiscal year starts on October 1). Because 2019 visa allocations are available on October 1, there are significant jumps in each of the […]
EB-1 Green Card Category for India and China Retrogress Even Earlier This Year
As reported in the April 2018 Visa Bulletin, the EB-1 green card categories for India and China have retrogressed for the third straight year, but this time even earlier in the year. Last year, EB-1 China and India did not retrogress until June; this year it is retrogressing as of April 1. Another unfortunate change is […]
H-1b Math: What Are My Chances of Winning the Lottery in 2018?
When asking what are my chances of winning the H-1b lottery, most lawyers will respond with a non-scientific answer based on their own rough historic success rate in the lottery, and predictions on the upcoming number of applications. We often do not go into the math because most of us (lawyers) were scared to death […]
USCIS Resumes Premium Processing for Some H-1b Petitions
Premium processing is a service provided by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to ensure expedited processing of immigration petitions. For an additional filing fee of $1225, USCIS promises to make an initial decision on a case within 15 calendar days. If USCIS issues a request for evidence, they are allowed an additional […]
The Reality of “Getting in Line”
This piece is written by one of our paralegals, Maria, who as a documented immigrant, offers a perspective on the great difficulties faced by those who are undocumented. I am a documented immigrant. By some, I am praised because I “did things the right” way and didn’t “jump the line.” However, these statements are really short sighted and reflect an incomplete […]
A Look at Our Broken Guest Worker Program
Most people recognize that labor shortages are a major cause of a large undocumented population in this country, but the extent to which our broken guest worker program contributes to this problem is largely unknown. Our current non-agricultural guest worker program is limited to 66,000 guest workers annually, an exceedingly small number given the size of our economy and our labor needs. The […]
Proposed Immigration Bills: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Before our discussion below of recently proposed immigration bills, it is worth reviewing the process of how a bill (a proposed new law) becomes law. The fact of the matter is that, for better or for worse, our country’s founders made it very difficult to change the law (with few exceptions). Bills hit […]
Misconceptions about Undocumented Immigrants
Changing Trends in Immigration Our tumultuous political climate has once again brought immigration to its forefront. The heated issue, however, involves a myriad of misconceptions further complicating a very important, and very personal, discussion. The following data, largely gathered by the Pew Institute, provides relevant information challenging various notions that have colored the immigration […]
An Overview of the US Immigration System
The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) is the body of law currently governing immigration policy. Though very complicated, a starting point is to understand that we grant entry on either a permanent (legal permanent resident) or temporary (nonimmigrant) basis. Currently, there is a worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrant visas, with certain exceptions for […]