John Q Khosravi Law Firm

Please contact our office for more information:

John Q. Khosravi Immigration Law Firm (JQK Law Firm)

Website: JQKLaw.com

Email: info@jqklaw.com

Phone: (818) 934-1561

Skype: john.khosravi


Licensed to Practice in CA. Practice Focus on Federal Immigration Law. This Blog is Legal Advertisement.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

USCIS Update Visa Bulletin Instructions

From USCIS:

Beginning with the November 2015 Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin, if USCIS determines that there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, we will state on www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo that applicants may use the Dates for Filing Visa Applications chart.  Unless otherwise stated on our website, the Application Final Action Date chart will be used to determine when individuals may file their adjustment of status applications.
We anticipate making this determination each month and posting the relevant chart on our website within one week of DOS’ publication of the Visa Bulletin.

About the Visa Bulletin

DOS publishes current immigrant visa availability information in a monthly Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date.
  • The priority date is generally the date when the applicant’s relative or employer properly filed the immigrant visa petition on the applicant’s behalf with USCIS. If a labor certification is required to be filed with the applicant’s immigrant visa petition, then the priority date is when the labor certification application was accepted for processing by Department of Labor.
  • Availability of an immigrant visa means eligible applicants are able to take one of the final steps in the process of becoming U.S. permanent residents.
Learn more about adjustment of status and the Visa Bulletin on our website.

EB-5 & Other USCIS Timelines For October 2015


EB-5 and other USCIS Timelines for September 2015

The Form I-526 processing time has not changed, but Form I-829 (petition by entrepreneur to remove conditions(has increased again by a month) as did Regional Center Form I-924.

For more information about the EB-5 program, please contact the JQK Law Firm at (310) 582-5904.


  • Form I-526 (Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur)
    • 13.8 months (.4 months increase)

  • Form I-829 (Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions) 
    • 15.5 months (.8 increase) 

  • Form I-924 (Application for Regional Center)
    • 12.3 (.1 decrease)

    November 2015 Visa Bulletin Released

    The new visa bulletin includes a new system for Immigrants that are already in the U.S. to adjust status before their Priority Date becomes Current:

    http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bulletin/2016/visa-bulletin-for-november-2015.html

    JQK @ Southwestern Law School Immigration Panel


    Sunday, October 11, 2015

    Court Upholds USCIS Backtrack On Visa Bulletin


    A Washington federal court denied a bid by a group of high-skilled immigrants for a temporary restraining order that would have forced the government to accept green card applications from people who would have been eligible to submit them before the rules changed two weeks ago, finding they hadn’t met key requirements for such an order. 

    In an opinion entered into the record Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez shot down the immigrants' motion for a temporary restraining order, which would have forced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to accept all adjustment applications from immigrants in the proposed class.


    Read more at: http://www.law360.com/articles/712022/breaking-immigrants-lose-bid-to-hold-gov-t-to-original-green-card-dates

    Wednesday, October 7, 2015

    USCIS Revoking L-1 Status After Site Visits

    In 2014 the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it would extend its Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) to L-1 Visas as an anti-fraud effort. Site visits are unannounced visits by USCIS Officers/Inspectors to the L-1 work site to see if the facts on the ground match the statements and evidence provided in the L-1 Petition.

    Recent AAO Appeals (non-precedent) decisions show 2 cases where L-1 Petitioners/Beneficiaries had the L-1 Status revoked after the site visits:
    1) On August 28, 2015 the AAO approved of the USCIS decision to revoke an L-1A status of the Beneficiary of a Petitioner that had claimed it had $1.2 million in gross sales in 2013. In that case, when USCIS Officers arrived at the work site but was unable to located the Petitioner's workers, company signs or business activity to indicate that the Petitioner was conducting operations on the address listed on Form I-129.  
    The USCIS Officer/Inspector called the Beneficiary and was informed that they had moved addresses without informing USCIS. However, the Officer was unable to verify that work was being done at the new location either. The Director issued a Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) based on the lack of employees present at the work site, as well as the Beneficiary's duties being too broad and vague as described.  
    The Petitioner's response to the NOIR was not well-received. They failed to provide evidence that it had employees actually working at the location. Moreover, the Petitioner failed to detail how the Beneficiary was acting in a managerial fashion. Their description of the Beneficiary's duties were too broad and generalized. They also failed to properly respond to the USCIS request with specific information such as the percentage of the Beneficiary's time devoted to specific duties.  
    And
    2) On August 21, 205, the AAO approved the USCIS decision to revoke an L-1A Petition for a retail and wholesale men's clothing company after a site visit. Primarily, after the visit they saw and believed that the Beneficiary was not actually employed in a qualifying managerial or executive capacity. 
    The Petition's description of the Beneficiary's managerial responsibilities failed to show how his primary responsibilities were managerial. In particular, that 72% of the Beneficiary's time was dealing with store customers and resolving complaints... 
    The broad statements of work duties of the Petitioner provided in response to the NOIR, and the observations of the Officer/Inspector at the site caused USCIS to revoke the approved petition. 

    When preparing an L-1 Petition, it is important that the Immigration Attorney truly get to know what the company/client does, and what the exact responsibilities of the Beneficiary are (in detail). This is a time consuming process and requires a lot of research by the Attorney. 

    I have had to read multiple books to learn and understand what a client company actually does and what the Beneficiary's duties mean (in highly technical industries)! This is important to do to help the attorney properly explain the facts of the case to USCIS and avoid a Request for Evidence (RFE), Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) or Denial decisions. 

    The most frequent reason for denials of these types of visas are for having a job duty description that is "too broad" or "vague" or being "inconsistent". A diligent attorney should be able to handle this issue properly.

    For more information, please contact the JQK Law Firm (info@jqklaw.com). 
    For samples  of approval decision, please click on the links:

    Tuesday, October 6, 2015

    JQK @ Loyola Law School, Immigration Law Student Association Panel Oct. 2015 (1)



    Cluster of L-1 Petitions Approved by AAO in August-September 2015

    Recent Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decisions in recent months have shown a noticeable shift in decisions regarding L-1B Specialized Knowledge Intracompany Transfers. This occurs during the same period that USCIS issued its Aug. 17, 2015 L-1B Memorandum (Link).

    However, it must be noted that the facts of each case are different, and this cluster of approvals may have been coincidental. Moreover, it may not be financially prudent to file to the AAO, in particular because of the delayed time it takes for them to make a decision for many cases.

    Please contact the JQK Law Firm for more information

    Recently approved appeals:








    Monday, October 5, 2015

    Additional Fees for L-1 & L-1B Petitions Expires

    Public Law 111-230 H-1B, L-1 Additional Fees Expire

    H-1B and L-1 petitions filed on or after Oct. 1, 2015, should not include the additional fee that was previously required by Section 402 of Public Law 111-230, as amended by Public Law 111-347, for certain H-1B and L-1 petitions. The additional fee required by Public Law 111-230, as amended, expired on Sept. 30, 2015. 
    All other H-1B and L-1 fees, including the Base fee, Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA) Fee when applicable, are still required. Petitions with incorrect fees may be rejected. Petitioners are reminded that USCIS prefers separate checks for each filing fee. 
    Public Law 111-230, enacted on Aug. 13, 2010, required an additional fee of $2,000 for certain H-1B petitions and $2,250 for certain L-1A and L-1B petitions postmarked on or after Aug. 14, 2010. Public Law 111-347, enacted on Jan. 2, 2011, extended the fees through Sept. 30, 2015.  For more information, visit the H-1B Visa or L-1 Visa pages or call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283. 
    From: USCIS

    Friday, October 2, 2015

    EB-5 Program Extended

    The 1992 EB-5 Immigrant Investment Pilot Program (the “Regional Center Program”), a subset of the original 1990 EB-5 regulations (the “EB-5 Program”), should be permitted to expire on September 30, 2015.  The original premise of the EB-5 Program in 1990 was that each immigrant investor must create at least 10 real, full-time jobs for U.S. citizens and/or permanent residents that were at least 35 hours a week at or above the minimum wage level.   However, in 1992, Congress enacted the Regional Center Program attempting to popularize it in the hopes of meeting the 10,000 immigrant investor visa limit allocated to the EB-5 immigration category.  Under the Regional Center approach, developers were afforded the right to count indirect and induced jobs towards the total 10 job requirement.  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) defines indirect jobs as those held by persons who work outside the newly established commercial enterprise. However, in most cases, indirect jobs are not actual jobs but are subjectively derived from forecasted economic impact studies effectively reducing the 10 jobs requirement by 50 percent to 5 real jobs, or even less. 

    Read more at: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/255316-short-term-eb-5-regional-center-program-extension-would

    Thursday, October 1, 2015

    2017 Diversity Visa Lottery Begins


    State Department Web site for the 2017 Diversity Visa program (DV-2017) is now open. The entry submission period for DV-2017 is from 12:00PM EDT (GMT -4) on October 1, 2015 to 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on November 3, 2015. The entry form will only be available for submission during this period and this period only.

    Visit this site to register: https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/