The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a significant change in filing procedures. The March 24, 2006 announcement advised that, effective from April 1, 2006, all I-129 Petitions should be filed with the Vermont Service Center (VSC) and all I-140 Petitions should be...
Under their current regulations, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires the filing of an ETA Form 750B with the National Interest Waiver (NIW) I-140 petition. The ETA Form 750B was one of the forms submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued instructions for entry into the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Visa Lottery. The instructions provide that registration will begin at 12:00pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on October 5, 2005 and will end at 12:00pm EST on December 4,...
Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 will end September 30, 2005. This will be the last day for "winners" of the FY2005 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery to obtain the "green card." These individuals entered the DV 2005 lottery and received notification they were selected in late July...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed four appeals on June 17, 2005 that had been filed in National Interest Waiver (NIW) cases. Reason for Dismissal of all NIW Appeals The dismissals were based on the Court's finding that it did not...
The USCIS released a memorandum on May 12, 2005 addressing a number of significant issues on the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Law of 2000 (AC21). The memo contained some favorable procedural specifications regarding adjudication of I-140 petitions in AC21 cases. This article focuses...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an interim rule on April 25, 2005 that reinstates authorization for the issuance of employment-based immigrant visas to scientists and engineers from the Commonwealth of Independent States of the Former Soviet Union and the Baltic States. The...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has regular meetings with members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to discuss issues relevant to immigration law, policy, and procedures. Highlights of the most recent meetings between AILA and the Service Center Operations liaison follow. Advance Parole...
The April 2005 Visa Bulletin, issued by the U.S. Department of State (DOS), brought some limited good news to those in the Employment-Based Third Preference (EB3) skilled / professional worker category. The news was not good for those in the EB3 "Other Worker" category. Those...
On February 23, 2005, the California Service Center (CSC) provided representatives of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) with their views on various immigration issues handled at the CSC. This summary of the highlights of that report is provided for the benefit of MurthyDotCom and...
