On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that it no longer recognizes the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) as an accrediting agency. This determination immediately affects two immigration-related programs:
USCIS has changed the direct filing addresses for where to file certain forms for beneficiaries who will be working or training in Florida, Georgia, or North Carolina. The changes are as follows:
USCIS Reminds Beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone of May 21 Termination.
USCIS is reminding the public that the designations of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone terminate effective May 21, 2017.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a redesign to the Permanent Resident Card (also known as a Green Card) and the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) as part of the Next Generation Secure Identification Document Project. USCIS will begin issuing the new cards on May 1, 2017.
USCIS generally process cases in the order they receive them. The link below provides you an estimate of how much time the office handling your case currently takes to process your type of application, petition, or request.
USCIS announced on April 7, 2017, that it has received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2018. USCIS has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap.
If you used Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, that you downloaded between Nov. 14 and Nov. 17, 2016, review them to ensure your employees’ Social Security numbers appear correctly in Section 1. There was a glitch when the revised Form I-9 was first published on Nov. 14, 2016. Numbers entered in the Social Security number field were transposed when employees completed and printed Section 1 using a computer. For example, the number 123-45-6789 entered in the Social Security number field would appear as 123-34-6789 once the form printed.
USCIS has extended the grace period for previous editions of Form I-918, Petition for U Nonimmigrant Status. The revised form was published to USCIS website on March 13, 2017 (edition date: 02/07/17). Starting October 2, 2017, USCIS will only accept the 02/07/17 edition. Until then, you can also use the 01/15/13, 11/23/10 and 08/31/07 editions. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the form and instructions.
VISA AVAILABILITY IN THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED PREFERENCES
During the past six weeks, the level of Employment-based First and Second preference demand for adjustment of status cases filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has increased dramatically. Continued heavy demand for numbers will require corrective action to hold number use within these annual limits.
USCIS recently updated the following form(s):
Update to Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion04/10/2017 02:57 PM EDT
New edition dated 04/10/17. Starting 06/09/17, USCIS will only accept the 04/10/17 edition. Until then, you can use the 12/23/16 edition.
Update to Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)04/10/2017 02:57 PM EDT