USCIS announced today that they are once again extending their flexibility in responding to agency requests, expanding on their previous announcement from back at the end of March. The flexibility now applies to any RFEs, NOIDs, NOIRs, etc. received between March 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021, and extends the response deadline an additional 60 days[…]
After months of uncertainty, USCIS confirmed today that, for the time being, it has managed to avoid furloughing nearly 70% of its workforce, at least through the remainder of this fiscal year (so through September 30th). While this is welcome news in the short term, the announcement also comes with warnings that the agency had[…]
The September 2020 Visa Bulletin was released yesterday. Nothing major to report this month as they was very little (if any) movement in most categories. However, this is not entirely unexpected as September is the last month of the fiscal year and most visa numbers are used up by then. We should expect to see[…]
The August 2020 Visa Bulletin was recently released. EB1 India has continued to see significant movement each month for the past 3 months, providing much needed relief in a severely backlogged category. Other employment-based categories saw significant movement as well. Commentary: August 2020 For all countries except India, China, Philippines, and Mexico:[…]
USCIS is up to its old tricks again. It truly boggles the mind how they can announce a policy under the guise of providing “flexibility” when the reality is that their actions will negatively impact many thousands of people and provide additional anxiety and turmoil in their lives. Today, USCIS announced that they are removing[…]
In the wake of the ITServe victory, part of USCIS’ settlement with the plaintiffs in that case was that the agency agreed to rescind its “Contracts and Itineraries Requirements for H-1B Petitions Involving Third-Party Worksites” memo (commonly known as the third party placement memo) from 2018. That memo provided USCIS the justification to give a[…]
The July 2020 Visa Bulletin was released yesterday. This month again saw the final action date for EB1 India move forward significantly, advancing another 334 days after advancing 312 days the previous month. Hopefully the coming months continue the progress of this severely backlogged category. Otherwise, no major anomalies to report. Commentary: July[…]
The June 2020 Visa Bulletin was released earlier today, marking another month with a late release date. Nevertheless, this month saw significant movement in the EB1 India category for the first time in what feels like forever. EB1 All Countries being current has allowed unused visa numbers in that category to be allocated to EB1[…]
USCIS announced today that they are extending their flexibility in responding to agency requests, expanding on their previous announcement from back at the end of March. The flexibility now applies to any RFEs, NOIDs, NOIRs, etc. received between March 1, 2020 and July 1, 2020, and extends the response deadline an additional 60 days beyond[…]
USCIS announced today that they are tentatively planning to re-open their offices and resume in-person services on June 4, 2020. For most cases, USCIS will automatically reschedule any interviews, ceremonies, appointments, etc. that were affected by the office closures. It remains to be seen whether this re-opening date will get pushed back. Copied from[…]