In my previous blog post I went over the percentage of approvals and denials in Fiscal Year 2023. Using the same data source from USCIS, it is possible to rank the countries by number of accepted and approved petitions. In this article we will look into the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 to understand …
USCIS, the agency that deals with green card processing within the federal government, publishes statistics regularly. Unfortunately, they not always provide separate numbers for the National Interest Waiver (NIW) category, which is part of the EB-2 class. In this case, I was able to find separate approval rates for EB2 NIW and in this article I …
Victoria Chen, lawyer at the North America Immigration Law Group, has recently posted a message on her LinkedIn account voicing something that many have thought about. She brings the attention to the recent influx of new USCIS officers and how they may be behind some of the common mistakes observed in the adjudication of EB2 …
Can we blame some of USCIS mistakes on influx of new officers? Victoria Chen thinks so Read More »
In this article, we explore options available for highly skilled foreign tech workers facing layoffs in the US, including Green Card routes and new immigration opportunities in Canada. Layoffs and the H-1B Visa Situation The past couple of years have seen an increase in layoffs, especially in the tech sector. Layoffs come in waves and we …
If you have faced a petition denial, this guide will walk you through the appeal process, discuss timelines, costs, and success rates, providing clarity on whether an appeal is the right path for you. Appeals for EB2 NIW and for other green card categories are possible, but as usual, one will need to evaluate several …
Screenshot of new version of ETA-9089 The Department of Labor has released a statement announcing they will finally issue a new version of form ETA-9089. This form is known as the Application for Labor Certification and EB-2 NIW applicants need to include it in their petition package. I say “finally” because the current version of the …
The United States Immigrations and Citizenship Services (USCIS) agency has published a proposal that would increase the fees most immigration applicants pay. Among the reasons for this increase, USCIS cites the insufficient revenue collected from petitioners to cover the high workload they have. USCIS funds 96% of their operations through costumer fees and not from Congressional funds, …
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released their annual report “Fiscal Year 2022 Progress Report”. In this document they summarize the main challenges and progress achieved during the fiscal year, which ran from October 2021 to September 2022. Key Takeaways from the report The report is an easy-to-read 14 page document that is full …
USCIS processed a record number of green cards in 2022 Read More »
When applying for a green card there are two paths one can follow once the initial petition is approved by USCIS (this is the famous I-140 for EB2 NIW). If you are in the United States under a visa (for example an F-1 student visa or H-1 working visa), you can apply for an adjustment of status …
Guide to Consular Processing for EB2 NIW green card Read More »
The EB2 NIW category of green card has two types of requirements. One is the famous 3-prong system from the Matter of Dhanasar that we have extensively discussed in this blog. The other one is the general second priority employment-based green card requirement. Typically, we refer to it as “advanced degree”, because the petitioner must …
