The Department of State released the June 2025 Visa Bulletin and USCIS has confirmed they will accept the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based Adjustment of Status applications. The Final Action Dates chart notes...more
The Department of State released the February 2025 Visa Bulletin and USCIS has confirmed they will accept the more modest Final Action Dates chart for employment-based Adjustment of Status applications. The Final Action Dates...more
The Employment-Based First Preference (EB-1) immigrant visa category is designed to attract top and critical talent to the U.S. This category includes individuals with extraordinary abilities in fields such as science, arts,...more
The U.S. Department of State has announced that annual visa limits for fiscal year (FY) 2024 have been reached for the following employment-based categories: EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EW (other workers), EB-4, and EB-5 unreserved....more
On Monday, September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), working in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced publicly that all available immigrant visas in the...more
Each month, federal immigration authorities publish a list of dates informing immigrant visa applicants when they should expect to be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to government officials. This...more
Earlier this year, federal immigration officials announced concrete measures to reduce the massive backlog of petitions and applications currently pending at the agency’s National Service Centers – but has this promise been...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been making significant efforts to prevent the loss of available employment-based visa numbers for Fiscal Year 2022, as we reported in July. The good news is that the...more
In an announcement sure to be welcome news for employers, federal immigration officials recently released new instructions permitting certain employment-based green card applications to “change lanes” into another category,...more
On September 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the Visa Bulletin for October 2021, which showed minor advancement on priority for backlogged filings of employment-based (EB) immigrant visa (green card)...more
According to the Department of State, demand for immigrant visas (green cards) remains high as COVID-19 continues to disrupt and delay appointments at U.S. consulates abroad. With an estimated 100,000 unused employment-based...more
President Joe Biden has rescinded Presidential Proclamation 10014, the prior administration’s ban that suspended the issuance of certain green cards overseas and barred entry into the United States of certain groups of...more
Under the current immigration system, annual quotas limit the number of available, employment-based permanent residence visas (green cards). ...more
Is it a significant achievement to make it onto a national sports team? Would winning a top-ten spot in a European championship constitute an award for excellence? Would being one of a duo who were U.S. junior ice dance...more
The H-1B visa is an employer-sponsored nonimmigrant visa for highly skilled workers in so-called “specialty occupations". Specialty occupations are those which require the minimum of a US bachelor’s degree or foreign...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has started returning H-1B petitions to employers whose cases were not selected in the recent H-1B lottery selection process. The USCIS reported that a total of 195,000 H-1B...more