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News & EventsDHS May Publish Proposal to Rescind H-4 Employment Authorization
Since March 2015, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) program for spouses of H-1B beneficiaries (H-4) has been in place, offering H-4 spousal work authorization. However, in early 2017, the Trump Administration announced its intentions to review and reconsider...
DHS Announces Changes to the H-1B Cap
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted for public inspection a final rule that will make significant changes to the H-1B cap process. As mentioned in a previous article, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services...
USCIS Opens Premium Processing for Pending FY 2019 H-1B Cap Cases
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will be resuming premium processing services for pending FY 2019 H-1B cap cases starting on Monday, January 28. Since April 2, 2018, premium processing had been suspended for FY 2019 H-1B...
Temporary End to the Partial Government Shutdown
The United States Senate and House of Representatives passed a spending measure that temporarily ended the partial government shutdown through February 15, 2019. As mentioned in previous articles, a handful of immigration functions were affected by the partial...
USCIS Launches Online Fee Calculator to Curb Incorrect Fee Payments
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has launched a new Online Fee Calculator to provide assistance in calculating fee amounts when filing forms with USCIS using an agency lockbox facility. A list of forms that are processed at USCIS lockbox...
February 2019 Visa Bulletin Issued
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its February 2019 Visa Bulletin. Most notably, there were steady advancements for all priority dates. EB-1-Worldwide: China: Priority date of February 8, 2017 (Advancement of 56 days) India: ...
Other Immigration Impacts of the Government Shutdown
As the federal shutdown continues, most immigration functions remain operational. In a previous article, we noted which functions of USCIS were affected by the shutdown. Until the U.S. Congress and President Trump reach an agreement on the unresolved portions of the...
iCERT Operational Again After Malfunction
On January 1, 2019, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) iCERT system experienced a malfunction following an unprecedented surge in H-2B temporary labor certification filings on the first day of the program's semi-annual filing period. After being offline for several days,...
Impacts of the Government Shutdown on USCIS
As of today, the United States is still under a partial federal government shutdown due to the fact that an fiscal year budget has not been agreed upon. However, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)'s fee-funded activities are not affected....
USCIS Updates Advance Parole Information on Website
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its website to address international travel and pending Form I-131, Advance Parole, renewal applications. Form I-131, Advance Parole is used to apply for a re-entry permit, refugee travel...