USCIS has begun processing I-526 petitions that it received before November 21, 2015, I-829 petitions received before September 2, 2015 and I-924 applications received before October 18, 2015. This has resulted in some changes to the expected processing times for a few these petitions. At this point I-526 processing times are expected to be 24 months, an increase of 1 month. I-829 processing times have not changed, and remain around 26 months.... Read More

In 2018 you can expect the immigrant restrictions in the US to continue, despite a low unemployment rate in the country. The Trump administration has continued to justify the recent immigration restrictions in the US by claiming that immigrants and temporary visa holders are responsible for taking away the jobs of US workers. It is estimated that the unemployment rate in the US will fall by 3.5% till the end of 2019, marking a 50-year low altoget... Read More

EB-5 VISA: WHAT’S NEXT? The controversial EB-5 Visa program that offers green cards to immigrant entrepreneurs whose investments create 10 full time jobs in the nation, currently continues to deal with an uncertain future. Beginning in the year 1990, the EB-5 Visa program was initiated with a motive to encourage investments by foreign investors to aid job creation in the country to boost the US economy. Recently the office of Management and... Read More

In 1965 Lyndon B Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act into effect which held the family unit as an integral part of the policy. The original policy held the family unit in high regard and did not put any cap on the amount of green cards available for "immediate relatives" of American citizens. Enter the Trump Administration's Merit Based Immigration System Now the Trump administration, more specifically Attorney General Sessions, ... Read More

New Immigration Law for California In October of 2017, Governor Brown of California signed Assembly Bill 450 which is effective as of January 2018. What You Need To Know About the New California Immigration Law Both public and private employers will be affected; Immigration enforcement officials will not be allowed to enter private areas of a place of labor without a court ordered warrant. Employers are no longer allowed to give volunta... Read More

For Indian citizens, immigrating to the United States can be a long, difficult process. Long backlogs in the EB-2 and EB-3 visa categories have lead to wait times that routinely reach 10 years or more. Lottery based visas, such as the H-1B visa, are difficult to win and are unpredictable. These hurdles are not likely to abate in the near term. As expected, President Trump has made meaningful moves to curb immigration, and we expect that the Tr... Read More

THE NEW TERMS OF THE BAN: Citizens of Chad, Yemen, Syria, and Libya with business and tourist visas are outright affected by the ban. Immigrants from Somalia are banned outright, but the non-immigrants seeking business and tourist visas will have to undergo strict screenings. Government officials of Venezuela along with their families are banned, whereas the nation’s citizens holding visas are subjected to additional screenings. C... Read More

An immigrant invests in EB -5 in order to qualify for a visa, becoming a lawful and permanent resident of the United States. At the National Visa Center, the numbers of EB-5 visa applications have continued to pile up. As of November 1 2017, the Annual Report of Immigrant Visa Applicants (those sponsored by families and with employment preferences) shows that there has been a 23% rise in the EB-5 visa application backlog, as compared to last year... Read More

We have recently received word that the Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs ("OIRA") at the Office of Management and Budget of the White House is finalizing their review of new EB-5 regulations. The new regulations under review would increase required EB-5 investment amounts, centralize the designation of Target Employment Areas ("TEAs") at US Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"), allow portability for priority dates and chang... Read More

In our final instalment of our Expert Insight Series we will be reviewing guidance from the Immigrant Investor Program Office (“IPO”). As with the rest of the series, our goal is to provide key information and understanding of how upcoming changes and past decisions might impact EB-5 visa applications. EB-5 is likely to see some major changes in the coming year, so we want to make sure that anyone looking for an investor visa is well informed... Read More