Thursday, October 29, 2015

USCIS to Close the Vienna Field Office on Dec. 31, 2015

USCIS will permanently close its field office in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 31, 2015. The last day the office will be open to the public and accepting applications is Nov. 30, 2015. The USCIS field offices in Frankfurt, Rome and Athens will assume Vienna’s former jurisdiction, which includes Austria, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The U.S. Embassy in Vienna will assume responsibility for certain limited services previously provided by USCIS to individuals residing in Austria.



The new jurisdictional breakdown for countries in USCIS Vienna’s former jurisdiction will be as follows:



General information about the U.S. Embassy in Vienna is available on the Embassy website

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

DHS Proposes Changes Related to On-the-Job Training Program for STEM Students

From ICE, 10/16/2015

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today proposed changes to its regulations that would strengthen and enhance the process for foreign students with science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees from a U.S. college or university to get practical training experience in the United States.  The enhancement of this regulation was announced as a part of President Obama’s November Executive Actions. 

The optional practical training program, or OPT, allows nonimmigrant international students and new graduates to extend their time in the U.S. on their F-1 student visa status to gain on-the-job-learning for up to a year.  The proposed rule would allow certain F-1 STEM students to extend their OPT period by 24 months with the appropriate mentoring and training by employers.  The proposed rule would also improve and increase oversight over OPT STEM extensions.  

“Our nation will benefit from keeping international students here, educated in U.S. colleges and universities here while they receive additional training, rather than sending them out of the country,” said Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Sarah R. SaldaƱa. “At the same time, U.S. employers will benefit from the increased ability to rely on the skills acquired by U.S. educated-STEM students, as well as their knowledge of markets in their home countries.”

By increasing access to OPT for STEM students, the proposed regulations will help U.S. colleges and universities remain globally competitive in attracting international students in STEM fields.  It also reforms the program to better ensure that practical training opportunities are designed to meet student needs, while requiring greater accountability of employers and students. 

The proposed rule aims to ensure F-1 students gain valuable practical STEM experience through practical training that supplements knowledge gained in their academic studies.  The rule also seeks to improve and increase the oversight of STEM OPT by requiring the implementation of formal mentoring and training plans by employers and by adding wage and other protections for OPT students and U.S. workers.  The proposed rule would only permit STEM OPT extensions to F-1 students with degrees from accredited schools, and whose employers are enrolled in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ E-verify employment eligibility verification program.  DHS encourages comments on this proposed rule; public comment will be open through November 18, 2015.
For more information and to submit formal input on the proposed rule, visit the Federal Register.

Monday, October 26, 2015

November 2015 Visa Bulletin

From Morgan Lewis, 10/19/2015

The new bulletin shows no movement in filing date cutoffs and little movement in approval date cutoffs for those chargeable to India and China.


The November 2015 Visa Bulletin shows little change from the October 2015 Visa Bulletin issued on September 25. The new category of filing date cutoffs remains exactly the same as in October, and only a few visa categories in the Application Final Action Dates chart have changed. This alert addresses employment-based classifications. 


Application Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Preference Cases

The application final action cutoff dates for employment-based preference classification show movement in the following categories (changes shown in BOLD):

Dates for Filing Employment-Based Visa Applications

Application filing date cutoffs are as shown below:




Updated Instruction for Using the DOS Visa Bulletin

Beginning with the November 2015 Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin, if USCIS determines that there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, the DOS will state on www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo that applicants may use the Dates for Filing Visa Applications chart. Unless otherwise stated on the DOS website, the Application Final Action Date chart will be used to determine when individuals may file their adjustment of status applications.

The Department of State anticipates making this determination each month and posting the relevant chart on their website within one week of DOS’ publication of the Visa Bulletin.

About the Visa Bulletin

DOS publishes current immigrant visa availability information in a monthly Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date.

  • The priority date is generally the date when the applicant’s relative or employer properly filed the immigrant visa petition on the applicant’s behalf with USCIS. If a labor certification is required to be filed with the applicant’s immigrant visa petition, then the priority date is when the labor certification application was accepted for processing by Department of Labor.
  • Availability of an immigrant visa means eligible applicants are able to take one of the final steps in the process of becoming U.S. permanent residents.
Learn more about adjustment of status and the Visa Bulletin on their website.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

DOS Publishes Updated Visa Bulletin for October 2015

From USCIS, 09/25/2015

On Sept. 25, the Department of State (DOS) published an updated Visa Bulletin for October 2015. This bulletin supersedes the bulletin for October 2015 that was originally published on Sept. 9, 2015. Following consultations with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dates for Filing Applications for some categories in the Family-Sponsored and Employment-Based preferences have been adjusted to better reflect a timeframe justifying immediate action in the application process. The Dates for Filing Applications sections on pages 4 and 6, which have been adjusted, have been identified in bold type and highlighted. 

Applicants should use the chart published by DOS on Sept. 25 when filing for adjustment of status. This chart has also been updated on uscis.gov. Please be advised that DHS will rely on this revised bulletin rather than the bulletin published on Sept. 9, 2015, when considering whether an individual is eligible to file his or her application for adjustment of status.

The Dates for Filing Applications chart is a part of the revised procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for adjustment of status that USCIS announced on Sept. 9, 2015. Continue reading below for more information.

Background Information
USCIS, in coordination with Department of State (DOS), is revising the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored preference adjustment of status. The revised process will better align with procedures DOS uses for foreign nationals who seek to become U.S. permanent residents by applying for immigrant visas at U.S. consulates and embassies abroad.

This revised process will enhance DOS’s ability to more accurately predict overall immigrant visa demand and determine the cut-off dates for visa issuance published in the Visa Bulletin. This will help ensure that the maximum number of immigrant visas is issued annually as intended by Congress, and minimize month-to-month fluctuations in Visa Bulletin final action dates.

The Visa Bulletin revisions implement November 2014 executive actions on immigration announced by President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Johnson, as detailed in the White House report, Modernizing and Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st century, issued in July 2015.

What is Changing
Two charts per visa preference category will be posted in the DOS Visa Bulletin:

  • Application Final Action Dates (dates when visas may finally be issued); and
  • Dates for Filing Applications (earliest dates when applicants may be able to apply).

Each month, in coordination with DOS, USCIS will monitor visa numbers and post the relevant DOS Visa Bulletin chart. Applicants can use the charts to determine when to file their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.

To determine whether additional visas are available, USCIS will compare the number of visas available for the remainder of the fiscal year with: 

  • Documentarily qualified visa applicants reported by DOS;
  • Pending adjustment of status applications reported by USCIS; an
  • Historical drop off rate (for example, denials, withdrawals, abandonments).


About the Visa Bulletin
DOS publishes current immigrant visa availability information in a monthly Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date.

  • The priority date is generally the date when the applicant’s relative or employer properly filed the immigrant visa petition on the applicant’s behalf with USCIS. If a labor certification is required to be filed with the applicant’s immigrant visa petition, then the priority date is when the labor certification application was accepted for processing by Department of Labor.
  • Availability of an immigrant visa means eligible applicants are able to take one of the final steps in the process of becoming U.S. permanent residents.

Learn more about adjustment of status and the Visa Bulletin on the USCIS website.