USCIS Revises Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526 Petitions: Aiming for Greater Efficiency and Productivity

Posted on by Jay Wu
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a significant change to its visa availability approach for managing Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor, as part of a continuous effort to boost productivity and improve efficiency in the processing of these petitions. From July 2023, the USCIS Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) will adopt a new strategy in...

An Epic Wait: The Lengthy I-829 Approval Process in the EB-5 Green Card Journey

Posted on by Jay Wu
The journey towards obtaining a green card via the EB-5 route can often be long and grueling, as evidenced by one of the most recent cases. The applicant in question initially filed their EB-5 I-526 form back on March 14, 2014. After waiting patiently for over three years, they finally received their conditional Green Card on April 24, 2017. The saga didn't end there, though. They then had to...

Proffered Wage Must Exceed State’s Minimum Wage, Not Just the Prevailing Wage (Federal)

Posted on by Jay Wu
As DOL continues to experience delays in issuing PWD and adjudicating PERM applications, employers must be careful when setting the proposed wage during the PERM process. It must exceed not just the prevailing wage as set by DOL but also exceed the state's (where worksite is located) minimum wage. You do not want to wait 1.5 to 2 years for the PERM to be certified only to find that the I-140 was...

Visa Bulletin Update FY 2023

Posted on by Jay Wu
September 2023 September 2023 Visa Bulletin Highlights Family-Sponsored Second Preference (F2A) Retrogression: A significant update has been made regarding the F2A category. A cutoff date of 09/01/2023 has been assigned to the dates of filing chart. This indicates that I-485 based on F2A should be filed within this month, August 2023. Steady Employment-Based Number Use: Employment-based number...

I-485 EB Processing Time (Filed in FY 2023)

Posted on by Jay Wu
Final Update ***Final update to finish off the processing times for FY 2023. Updates for FY 2024 will be here. *** In this update, we finalize the update for for I-485 EB approvals received before October 2023. Sample Cases: Case 1: Filed on 10/06/2022, approved on 08/11/2023. No RFE or interview. Total processing time: 10 months. Case 2: Filed on 10/06/2022, approved on 08/11/2023. No RFE or...

Sample EB1A Approvals

Posted on by Jay Wu
October, 5, 2023 Here's an EB1a approval that we received in August for a proficient individual specializing in Biomechanics Modeling and Simulation, with around 100 citations and 9 publications. Also had to deal with a challenging 'give me everything' RFE. We also received one in September for a Structural Engineer, who had about 20 publications and 250 citations. This was a straight approval...