Many MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers have struggled with immigration issues created due to differences between the U.S. educational system and the educational systems of their respective home countries. This is a common complexity for those from countries, such as India, the United Kingdom, and Canada,...
President Obama signed a continuing resolution on October 1, 2009, temporarily extending funding for the Conrad 30 program for physicians, the non-minister immigrant religious worker category and EB5 immigrant investor pilot programs until October 31, 2009.Regular readers of MurthyDotCom may recall that these programs were...
The New York State Attorney General's Office announced the shutting down of three New York businesses that had been providing fraudulent immigration legal services. Details can be found in an August 20, 2009 press release. This is reported to MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers to raise...
An International Medical Graduate (IMG) educated in a country such as India faces an immigration hurdle because, unlike in the United States, s/he does not have to hold a bachelor's degree as a prerequisite to admission to medical school. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...
Special immigrant religious workers are currently able to petition for permanent residence in two distinct categories. One category is for those who enter the United States to carry on the vocation of minister in a religious denomination. The other category is for those who have...
California Service Center (CSC) views and clarifications on various immigration matters and procedures were provided to American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on January 28, 2009. This summary of the highlights of that report, including the 30-day timeline to respond to Requests for Evidence (RFEs), transfer...
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Service Center Operations / ISD Committee (SCOPS) recently released answers to questions posed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) service centers. These questions were from a meeting on August 20, 2008. Some of the questions addressed the "sunset"...
MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers were provided with information on the National Interest Waiver (NIW) option for international medical graduates (IMGs) in our August 29, 2008 article, NIW for Physicians Completing J-1 Waiver Service. In contrast, the labor certification-based permanent residence (green card) option for IMGs...
As reported in last week's MurthyBulletin, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin holds some very good news in the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category for nationals of certain countries. The cutoff dates for India and China were advanced in excess of two years...
The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) released a decision upholding the denial of an EB1 (extraordinary ability) petition in which the employer failed to demonstrate that the sponsored foreign national had extraordinary ability in a particular field. (Please note that the extraordinary ability petition is exempt...
