National Visa Center Initiates Online Payment System
August 15, 2008
We have learned through our AILA liaison, that the National Visa Center beginning with fee letters dated on or after August 11, 2008,will begin accepting online payments in connection with NVC processing. For details, choose "Online payment" please visit the NVC web page in this link. In addition, AILA reports that they do not expect online payment to be acceptable for fees paid which must be paid directly to a consular post
DOS Releases September 2008 Visa Bulletin-EB-2 Categories advance for India and China by two months
August 13, 2008
The U.S. State Department released the September 2008 Visa Bulletin on August 13, 2008. Visa Dates are announced by the U.S. Department of State every month. The EB-2 Categories for China and India have advanced by two months up to August 1, 2006. EB-3 category continues to remain UNAVAILABLE and will remain that way until FY 2009 (October 1, 2008). For more information on this and other news be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at GLC Newsletter. Pursuant to INA § 245(a)(3), aliens with priority dates prior to the cut-off dates shown on the Visa Bulletin will be eligible to file adjustment of status applications during the month of August 2008. We at GLC post these dates for your convenience on our website under Visa Bulletin as soon as they become available from U.S. Department of State.
House Immigration Subcommittee Marks-Up Three Immigration Related Bills
August 4, 2008
On 7/31/08 and 8/1/08, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration held a mark-up session and approved the following three pieces of immigration-related legislation: H.R. 6020, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would amend the INA to allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes. It passed by a vote of 6-3. H.R. 5882, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future. It passed by a vote of 8-1. H.R. 5924, sponsored by Representative Wexler (D-FL) would provide 20,000 employment-based visas per year for three years specifically for nurses. It passed by a vote of 7-2. All three bills will now go to the full House Judiciary Committee for review, though no date has been scheduled yet.
USCIS reaches H-2B Cap for first half of FY2009
July 31, 2008
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced July 30, 2008 that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year 2009 (FY2009). USCIS is hereby notifying the public that July 29, 2008 is the “final receipt date” for new H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates prior to April 1, 2009. The “final receipt date” is the date on which USCIS determines that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 33,000 H-2B workers for the first half of FY2009. USCIS will reject petitions for new H-2B workers seeking employment start dates prior to April 1, 2009 that arrive after July 29, 2008. USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions which are subject to the cap and were received on July 29, 2008. USCIS will use this process to select the number of petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject, and return the fee, for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected.
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