The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently designated an Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision on L1A functional managers as binding precedent. The case involved a small U.S. subsidiary of a large Japanese company. The AAO found that, in order to determine whether a person...
On March 18, 2016, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued the finalized policy memorandum on determining whether a new job is the same or similar in the context of a job change pursuant to the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act (AC21)....
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has issued an alert regarding an intermittent technical problem in the PERM labor certification (LC) system. This glitch causes information to disappear from the completed PERM form ETA 9089 after online submission. PERM Section K Information Mishaps The PERM LC process...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) provides visa bulletin insights each month through Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division. The information from Mr. Oppenheim for February, which was released later than usual, includes a discussion about the DOS visa applicant wait...
This afternoon, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the February 2016 Visa Bulletin. Once again, there is no change in the dates for filing (DF) chart for the employment-based categories. But, there is some forward movement in the final action (FA) chart.For India, the employment-based,...
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has been considering the steps needed to improve the PERM labor certification (LC) process. These efforts are a response to President Obama's executive action seeking to improve the immigration process. The OFLC, which is part of the U.S....
The PERM labor certification application must state the sponsoring employer's minimum educational and/or experience requirements for the offered position. Thus, complications arise if the foreign national beneficiary gained all or a part of the required experience for the position while employed by the green card...
Because of a political fight at the federal level related to the annual budget, there is a possibility that the U.S. government will be forced to temporarily shut down, starting October 1, 2015. Such shutdowns are rare and there still is a chance that it...
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) issued a decision on August 17, 2015 addressing whether an incorrect heading in an online advertisement was a valid reason for denying the PERM labor certification. In Matter of SDG Post Oak, BALCA held that an advertisement...
In a recent Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) decision, BALCA agreed with the employer that a handwritten date noted on a printout of an advertisement for a job satisfies the employer's requirement for documenting dates of the ads on the company's website. As...
