O-1 Visa: General Information

The United States Government can grant the O visa classification to a non-immigrant temporary worker who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements. The classification...

Employers filing H-1B petitions need to be aware of the 240- day rule as it applies to filing H-1B extensions, as this rule allows employees to continue to work beyond the expiration of their authorized stay. This rule is particularly important when an Employer is filing an H-1B extension either when premium processing is unavailable...

DOL is publishing its Prevailing Wage Rule on January 14, 2021.  This rule previously went into effect on October 8, 2020, without any notice and significantly increased the DOL wages.  For further details of this rule please refer to our previous article, published on October 9, 2020. https://patel-law-group.local/dols-interim-final-rule-implements-higher-prevailing-wage-rates/ After the above rule was published, we...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is releasing a final rule changing the next lottery for H-1B specialty occupation visas from the current random selection process to one based on an individual’s wages. The final rule is to be published on 01/08/2021 and will be effective 60 days from the date of publication. Per USCIS...

Trump has one foot out of the door, but that doesn’t mean that he is done with issuing unlawful and discriminatory Immigration policies. In April and June of last year, Trump issued two Presidential Proclamations suspending the entry of certain immigrants and non-immigrants into the US.  The second Proclamation extended the suspension through Dec 31,...

Well, I don’t think anyone saw 2020 coming.  It was a turbulent year, what with the raging pandemic and the countless restrictive immigration measures enacted by the Trump administration.  In fact, for the Immigration Community, the last 4 years have been some of the most challenging that we have ever seen as the President did...

Two federal courts have struck down two government rules designed to reduce the number of visas issued to skilled foreign workers. It is anticipated that a third federal court will follow the same path. The two government rules (one from the Department of Labor and the other from the Department of Homeland security) impose salary...

USCIS recently updated its policy manual regarding the CSPA, to provide clarity on how it calculates a child’s age and the “sought to acquire requirement.” The CSPA provides age-out protection for children who are affected by the delay in adjudicating applications.  Because of the long processing times the CSPA can prevent a child aging out...