Travel Advisory Nonimmigrant Visa Wait Times U.S. Consular Posts in India Significant Delays U.S. Consular Posts in India continue to experience extraordinary wait times for nonimmigrant visa (NIV) interview appointments. At the time of this writing, the current wait times to obtain an appointment for all NIV categories other...
The 2018 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Online Entry Period will begin at Noon ET on October 4, 2016, and will end at Noon ET on November 7, 2016. Applicants may access the eligibility requirements, instructions for application, and FAQs for the 2018 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program...
On Aug. 25, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved a revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. USCIS must publish a revised form by Nov. 22, 2016. Employers may continue using the current version of Form I-9 with a revision date of 03/08/2013 N...
Fausta Albi and Diana Vellos Coker have been selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2017 in the field of Immigration Law. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.” <-- Back to...
PRIORITY DATES AND PREDICTIONS OF FUTURE VISA AVAILABILITY Each month, the U.S. Department of State publishes its Visa Bulletin, in which it establishes cut-off dates in each immigration category, for each nationality. The recently released Visa Bulletin for September 2016 shows a few months of...
IMMIGRANT VISAS PRIORITY DATES AND PREDICTIONS OF FUTURE VISA AVAILABILITY Each month, the U.S. Department of State publishes its Visa Bulletin, in which it establishes cut-off dates in each immigration category, for each nationality. The recently released Visa Bulletin for August 2016 imposes cut-off dates for...
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to raise certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by a weighted average of 21%. After a comprehensive fee review, DHS has determined that a fee increase is necessary in...
USCIS issued the following Press Release: Release Date: May 02, 2016 USCIS announced on May 2, 2016, that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2017 H-1B cap subject petitions selected in our computer-generated random process. USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has implemented a new rule extending the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for international students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. What are the main benefits of the new rule? Increases the available time for a STEM OPT...
Attorneys Diana Vellos Coker and Claudia Martorell will be speaking at the Annual Conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in Las Vegas in June. Diana’s presentation is entitled "PERM: Audits, Supervised Recruitment, and Denials". Claudia will be presenting on the panel “Nonimmigrant Visas...
