L. Francis Cissna, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), issued a letter on April 4, 2018, to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussing the agency's review of existing regulations, policies, and...
Topic: Immigration Updates
H-1B to EB-5: A Faster Road to Green Cards for Indian Nationals Part II
Part II: Source of Funds Issues What: Free Webinar Series When: May 30, 2pm ET Most Indian nationals working in the U.S. are highly skilled professionals. Yet in most instances, they deal with great difficulties at all stages of the U.S. immigration process. It starts...
Extraordinary Entrepreneurs Require Extraordinary Evidence: A Review of Recent Non-Precedent EB-1A AAO Decisions Under the Trump Administration
By David J. Wilks, Brooke Ireland and Stephen Yale-Loehr An international entrepreneur’s options for permanent residence are limited. The United States does not have a “start-up” visa. For many entrepreneurs, particularly those facing long backlogs in other immigrant...
Understanding Movement in the Visa Bulletin
For five months straight now (January 2018 to May 2018), the Visa Bulletin, published by the U.S. Department of State, has shown a cut-off date of July 22, 2014, for the China EB-5 category. What does this mean for Chinese investors with approved I-526s currently...
How to Avoid Losing Your Green Card in the Mail
An unfortunate reality for foreign nationals in the U.S. is that when a permanent resident case is finally approved, the green card document (formally known as an alien registration card) gets lost in the mail. To minimize the risk of losing your green card in the...
Reminder: SAVE Goes Paperless
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program issued a reminder that SAVE will become a fully electronic process. As of May 1, 2018, organizations must submit all verification requests electronically. SAVE will no longer process mailed submissions...
Attorney General Orders ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy for Improper Entries at Southwest Border; President Issues Memo on ‘Catch and Release’
On April 6, 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum directing federal prosecutors along the southwest border of the United States to adopt a "zero-tolerance policy for all offenses referred for prosecution under [8 U.S.C.] section 1325(a)." Later...
ICE Raids Meat-Packing Plant in Tennessee in Largest Single Workplace Raid in a Decade
In the largest single workplace raid in a decade, federal authorities arrested 97 people at a Tennessee meat-processing plant on immigration and other charges. Of those, 86 were reportedly arrested on civil immigration charges; 32 were released without explanation and...
USCIS Launches E-Verify Website
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently launched a new website, www.e-verify.gov. USCIS called it "the authoritative source for information on electronic employment eligibility verification." The website is intended for employers, employees, and the...
USCIS Completes H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2019
On April 11, 2018, USCIS announced that it had used a computer-generated random process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master's cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2019. USCIS said it...
