Greg Richardson, Acting Director of the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) held a question and answer conference with AILA regarding requests for expediting biometrics and advance parole. Due to processing guidelines mandated by USCIS Headquarters, the NSC is unable to expedite biometrics and advance parole because the filings that were made to the NSC had to … Read more
Nanny and Domestic Worker Immigration Options
February 11, 2010 The US Department of Labor issued the final rule for the H2A visa program. The new rule ensures that U.S. workers in the same occupation working for the same employer, regardless of date of hire, receive no less than the same wage as foreign workers; provides more transparency by creating a national … Read more
On July 1, 2009 the Department of Labor (DOL) mandated that all LCA filings must be filed through the iCert portal and that individual officers would review filings prior to certification. While estimated processing times were initially 7 days, human error and other systemic problems resulted in filing taking three weeks or longer. Because USCIS … Read more
USCIS has just announced that as of December 21, 2009, they have received sufficient H1B visa petitions to meet the 65,000 general cap. Petitions received on December 21 will be subject to a random drawing and petitions received after December 21 will be rejected. USCIS will continue to accept non-cap subject H1B petitions for FY … Read more
Representative Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) has introduced a new bill for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the House on December 15, 2009. Representative Gutierrez issue the following press release in celebration of the bill This bill is not complicated. What we need to do – right now — is not complicated. Our nation’s immigration policy … Read more
Under 8 CFR 214.2(o)(2)(i) and 8 CFR 214.2 (p)(2)(i), O and P petitions may only be filed by a U.S. employer, a U.S. agent, or a foreign employer through a U.S agent. Both the O and P regulations provide that if the beneficiary employee will work concurrently for more than one employer within the same … Read more
PERM labor certification processing remains abysmally slow at the the Department of Labor. The DOL recently touted a6% improvement (11% to 17%) in PERM adjudications without 6 months of filing. This means that the DOL is now able to issue a decision (approval or denial) in 17% of cases within 6 months. The vast, vast … Read more
As of December 12, 2009, USCIS has received 62,900 H-1B Visa petitions and are only 2,100 away from hitting the 65,000 H1B Visa cap for FY2010. USCIS representatives have confirmed the uptick in applications and have indicated that the cap will be met very soon. USCIS also confirmed that there is weak demand for visas … Read more
Current regulations provide for 65,000 H1B Visas to be made available for fiscal year 2010. Fiscal year 2010 or FY2010 covers the period of October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010. There are exceptions such as the 20,000 visas reserved for Master’s degree holders but the majority of applicants will fall under the general 65,000 … Read more