The USCIS has announced an increase in the allowable period of admission for foreign nationals using the Trade-NAFTA (TN) status. This status is available only to Canadian and Mexican citizens. The TN status was previously issued in one-year increments, with no limit on the number...
Form I-765, which is used to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), has changed and the new form must be used as of May 27, 2008. This follows a change in the same form I-765 on April 8, 2008. Since many MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin...
Misprinted I-94 cards, used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in early 2008, are causing problems with Social Security number issuance. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), CBP received approximately one million I-94 arrival-departure cards that were missing the first digit. They utilized...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) responded to questions regarding green card renewals, expediting N-400 applications, and I-551 (temporary evidence of permanent resident status) stamps during the April 2008 National Stakeholder Meeting. Clarification on these matters is provided here for the benefit of MurthyDotCom...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on May 9, 2008, entitled, Period of Admission and Stay for Canadian and Mexican Citizens Engaged in Professional Business Activities - TN Nonimmigrants (PDF 65KB). This rule proposes to extend...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held a stakeholder meeting on January 29, 2008, the details of which were released recently. Questions were answered on receipting frontlogs and case backlogs, processing times, special circumstances in naturalization cases, religious worker cases, and other immigration matters....
The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) recently dismissed the appeal of a petition for a Special Immigrant Religious Worker, finding that the beneficiary could not demonstrate that she had two years of paid employment prior to filing the petition. The AAO denied the petition for employment...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued an announcement (PDF 40.6KB) that extends the suspension of premium processing services for religious worker (R-1) petitions for another six months, until July 8, 2008. A previous six-month suspension of such premium processing services was announced...
On February 2, 2005, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued a Final Rule in the Federal Register that changes some of the fees the DOS charges for certain processes. The rule is effective as of March 8, 2005.The rule adds the $500 Fraud Prevention...
On December 20, 2001, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of two bills that grant work authorization to spouses of persons with "E" and "L" status. On September 5, 2001, these bills (H.R. 2277 and H.R. 2278) were passed by the U.S. House of Representatives....
