Immigration News  |
| Changes in immigration that impact your life. |
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| H2B Cap Count Update |
| December 05, 2013 |
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| USCIS has updated the count of H2B visa petitions received and counted towards the H2B cap for the fiscal year 2014 employment. As of November 29, 2013, USCIS has approved approximately 9,079 beneficiaries for the 1st half of FY 2014. |
| USCIS Announces Security Enhancement to E-Verify |
| November 19, 2013 |
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| USCIS has announced a security enhancement to the E-Verify program that will enable USCIS to lock a SSN that appears to have been misused, protecting it from further potential misuse in E-Verify. If an employee attempts to use a locked SSN, E-Verify will generate a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” (TNC). The employee receiving the TNC may contest the finding at a local Social Security Administration field office, and if an SSA field officer confirms that the employee’s identity correctly matches the SSN, the TNC will be converted to “Employment Authorized” status in E-Verify. |
| H2B Cap Count Update |
| November 19, 2013 |
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| USCIS has updated the count of H2B visa petitions received and counted towards the H2B cap for the fiscal year 2014 employment. As of November 15, 2013, USCIS has approved approximately 8,028 beneficiaries for the 1st half of FY 2014. |
| H2B Cap Count Update |
| November 13, 2013 |
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| USCIS has updated the count of H2B visa petitions received and counted towards the H2B cap for the fiscal year 2014 employment. As of November 8, 2013, USCIS has approved approximately 7,478 beneficiaries for the 1st half of FY 2014. |
| December 2013 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 India Retrogresses to 11/15/04 |
| November 12, 2013 |
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| In the recently published U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletin for December 2013, the EB-2 priority dates remained current in respect of all countries other than India and mainland China. The EB-2 priority date retrogressed from 06/15/08 to 11/15/04 in respect of India and advanced marginally from 10/08/08 to 11/08/08 in respect of mainland China. While EB-3 priority dates advanced significantly for most countries including China, EB-3 priority date retrogressed from 09/22/03 to 09/01/03 in respect of India. |
| TPS Extension for Somalia |
| November 08, 2013 |
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| Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible nationals of Somalia has been extended for an additional 18 months, effective March 18, 2014, through September 17, 2015. Current Somali beneficiaries seeking to extend their TPS status must re-register during a 60-day period that runs from November 1, 2013, through December 31, 2013. To re-register, current TPS beneficiaries must submit Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status. Re-registrants do not need to pay the Form I-821 application fee, but they must submit the biometric fee, or a fee-waiver request, if they are age 14 or older. All TPS re-registrants must also submit Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. |
| H2B Cap Count Update |
| November 05, 2013 |
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| USCIS has updated the count of H2B visa petitions received and counted towards the H2B cap for the fiscal year 2014 employment. As of November 1, 2013, USCIS has approved approximately 7,258 beneficiaries for the 1st half of FY 2014. |
| Infosys Pays Record $34 million to Settle Allegations of Systemic Visa Fraud and Abuse of Immigration Processes |
| October 31, 2013 |
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| The U.S. Justice Department has announced that Infosys Corporation has agreed to a civil settlement of allegations of systemic visa fraud and abuse of immigration processes. The settlement agreement requires Infosys to make a payment to the United States of $34 million, said to be the largest payment ever levied in an immigration case. The allegations against Infosys included that it knowingly and unlawfully used B-1 visa holders to perform skilled labor in order to fill positions in the United States for employment that would otherwise be performed by United States citizens or require legitimate H-1B visa holders. |
| H2B Cap Count Update |
| October 30, 2013 |
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| USCIS has updated the count of H2B visa petitions received and counted towards the H2B cap for the fiscal year 2014 employment. As of October 25, 2013, USCIS has approved approximately 6,848 beneficiaries for the 1st half of FY 2014. |
| USCIS Alert to H-1B, H-2A and H-2B Petitioners Regarding Late Filing Due to Government Shutdown |
| October 19, 2013 |
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| USCIS has issued an alert that if an H-1B, H-2A, or H-2B petitioner submits evidence establishing that the primary reason for failing to timely file an extension of stay or change of status request was due to the government shutdown, it will consider the government shutdown as an extraordinary circumstance and excuse the late filing, if the petitioner meets all other applicable requirements. |
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