Today US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 15 students on F1 Visa OPT, who fraudulently used OPT program to stay in the country. It is part of an operation called “OPTical Illusion”. The operation was part of ICE enforcement that monitors F1 students for compliance and their status. SEVP and ICE monitors over one million nonimmigrant students in F …
17 Organizations file new Lawsuit on H1B Wage Levels Increase
Late yesterday evening, 17 organizations, which consist of group of Universities, non-profits, and businesses filed a lawsuit against US Dept of Labor regarding the recent rule on increase in the H1B, PERM Wage Levels & changes. This is the second lawsuit, the first one was filed by ITServe. In this article, we will review the lawsuit summary and key argument …
Lawsuit on H1B Wage Levels Increase Filed by ITServe Alliance
As many of you know, the H1B Prevailing Wage levels were dramatically increased for H1B workers in recent wage protections regulation that was published in federal register. There was a lawsuit filed today on the new regulation. In this article we will discuss the background on why and details of the lawsuit that we have as of now. If you …
H1B, I-140, L1 Premium Processing Fee $2500, Effective Oct 19th
As many of you know, USCIS provides Premium Processing for faster processing of I-129 petitions and get a decision in 15 days. The current fee for it is $1,440 and it is increasing to $2,500 from October 19th, 2020. In this article, we will cover the background, why going up, who all it affects and other details. Background of Premium …
New H1B, PERM Wage Levels defined in Regulation. Huge Impact!
As some of you know, recently H1B, PERM wage levels rule that was submitted to OMB and later withdrawn. It was published as an interim final rule to Federal register on Oct 8th, 2020 and effective now. We will review the background, current wage levels, new wage levels, and impact in this article. This prevailing wage level changes rule is …
New H1B Rules – Definition Change, 1 Year Approvals, Site Visits Changes
As some of you know DHS submitted Strengthen H1B Visa Program Rule as interim final stage rule for OMB to review. On October 8th, 2020 DHS published the rule in Federal Register. There are quite a few new changes that are part of the new interim final rule that is published by DHS. In this article we will cover all …
New Rule – USCIS Premium Processing for H4, L2, EAD. Fee $2500
Today Senate passed & president signed a big stopgap spending bill to stop shutdown of the US government agencies. As part of that Govt. spending bill, changes to USCIS Premium Processing fee & categories were included. The changes include new options for H1B, L1 dependents like H4, L2 and also EAD. Also, the premium processing fee is going to increase. …
Process for USCIS Biometrics at ASC with Special Needs – Experience
As most of you know, you would need to give Biometrics with Form I-539 at ASC under revised requirements from March 2019. If you do not have special needs, it is very straightforward all you need to do is go to ASC on the day of appointment. You can read USCIS Biometrics Experience during COVID-19 to get an idea. It …
Visa Bulletin – Filing Date vs Final Action Dates? How does it work?
As many of you know, the October 2020 Visa Bulletin is out and there is some significant movement of priority dates in Employment based category for EB3, especially for Indian nationals under the “Dates for Filing” chart. There was some confusion created by USCIS first telling you need to use the “Final Action Date” and later updating that you can …
I-94 Extension at San Ysidro Border CBP ( US, Mexico) – Experience
As most of you know, at US Port of Entry, you would get shorter I-94 duration, if your passport was expiring before your H1B or L1 petition expiration. You need to extend your I-94 after your passport is renewed. There are 5 Options to Extend I-94 in US, one of them is to cross border. One of our readers Arati …
