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...
On August 19, 2022, the US Department of Education no longer recognizes the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) as an accrediting agency. On November 1, 2022, USCIS announced how the loss of recognition will impact certain immigration benefit applicants. Students from impacted schools should contact their DSO immediately and discuss how to maintain their status....
Update Post, January 12, 2023 Starting January 30, 2023, premium processing will be available to new and pending: -E13 multinational executive/manager petitions. I-140 (NIW) -E21 NIW petitions no more phased expansion of premium processing. I-140 (EB-1C) Update Post, September 16, 2022 USCIS continues to expand premium processing for certain petitioners who have a pending Form I-140, Immigrant...
Update 06/28/2022 We are now seeing the results of the requests to transfer the underlying basis ("relink"). We started filing the requests in February. Below is a sample. In addition to sending out the written request to relink, our advice is to follow up on that request by calling USCIS and initiating a service inquiry. Client has both I-140 EB2 and I-140 EB3. I-140 485 EB3 Concurrent Filing...
The processing times here generally cover PERM-based I-140s. EB-1a, EB-1b, and EB-2 NIW will be highlighted in other posts. Update 12/01/2022 Sample I-140 approval from TSC showing a continued trend toward faster adjudication. This one took less than a month. Update 09/26/2022 Some recent samples showing processing times from 1 to 7 months. The trend is toward faster adjudication. Update...
We are starting a post to give everyone a sense of the processing timeframe for I-140 petitions by showing some sample approvals. Below is an I-140 EB2 filed in October 2020 at the TSC. It was approved on 09/09/2021. In August, we received an I-140 EB3 approval on 08/31/2021 which was filed at TSC on 06/03/2021. This was fairly quick which took just under 3 months. On the slow end, we also...
Since March of 2021, visa numbers have been current for Chinese or Indian nationals filing for green card under the employment-based first preference (EB1) category. This means that an applicant may file their green card applications (I-485) concurrently with their I-140 petition instead of waiting 3 to 10 years for visa number availability under second or third preference categories. The...
On July 20, 2021, The Nebraska Service Center (NSC) will start accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450 for petitioners filing Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, with Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, or when filing Form I-907 to upgrade a pending Form I-140 to premium processing.
