Washington D.C., April 2, 2020: The United States, Canada and Mexico agreed to limit travel across their respective land borders by foot, car, rail or ferry to “essential travel” beginning March 20, 2020 until April 20, 2020 (for now). The United States will not apply...
Washington D.C., March 31, 2020: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act provides a one-time payment of $1,200 per eligible adult ($2,400 for married couples filing taxes jointly) plus $500 per child under age 17. Who is Eligible? Persons eligible for the $1,200 stimulus check include...
On March 13, 2020, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held a public engagement via teleconference to provide information and answer questions about operational changes to the management of I-526 visa petitions and discussed the agency’s change from a first-in, first-out case-processing approach to a...
WASHINGTON DC, MARCH 4, 2020: The US Department of State (DOS) has revised the Foreign Affairs Manual’s section on Public Charge to bring it into line with what the Department of Homeland Security has done with USCIS regulations. The DOS has also finalized Form DS-5540 which...
Who Wins from the USCIS EB-5 Adjudications Change? Washington, D.C. – February 24, 2020 – On January 29, 2020, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will no longer process EB-5 visas on a first-come-first-served basis. What Does This Policy Change Mean? The new USCIS adjudications policy...
Washington, D.C. – February 20, 2020: The March 2020 Visa Bulletin was released in the evening of February 18, 2020 by the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”). It brought welcome news to anxious EB-5 investors: the waiting list for Chinese-born EB-5 investors moved forward significantly....
Washington, D.C. – February 21, 2020: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is using a new online registration system to allocate new H-1B visas. This is the first time that USCIS has adopted an online tool for employers to register and participate in the annual H-1B...
Washington, D.C., January 16, 2020: The EB-5 Immigrant Investor visa program has unofficially ground to a halt. This did not happen overnight. Data released this week by USCIS clearly demonstrates that the popularity of the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program peaked in 2015 and 2016, with approximately...
Washington, D.C., January 14, 2020: Do domestic U.S. start-up businesses benefit from hiring foreign skilled workers? The answer is “yes”, according to recent research. H-1B Visas Help Start-Ups to Grow A team of researchers comprised of Stephen Dimmock, Jiekun Huang and Scott Weisbenner, recently published these novel...
