Friday, November 6, 2015
USCIS Update to Form I-140
Update to Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker. New edition is dated 10/15/15. You may also file using the previous edition: 03/05/13.
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.
- 13.8 months (.4 months increase)
- 15.5 months (.8 increase)
- 12.3 (.1 decrease)
For more USCIS Processing times, please visit these links:
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
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:
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