Immigration Headlines

DHS announced Jan 6, 2012, that they will seek new regulations for provisional processing of unlawful presence waivers of the 3 and 10 year bars to re-entry for certain immediate relatives of US citizens filing green card applications abroad, allowing qualified applicants to file provisional unlawful presence waiver without first leaving the US.

The US Consulate Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions (for the Green Card) as of January 1, 2012. The US Embassy New Delhi and US Consulate Mumbai will now be the only acceptance centers in India for Immigrant Visas.

The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act (H.R. 3012), which would eliminate the US employment-based per-country green card cap entirely by fiscal year 2015, and would raise the family-sponsored per-country green card cap from 7% to 15%, passed in the House Nov 29, 2011, by a vote of 389 to 15. However, the day after it passed, Sen. Grassley placed a hold on the bill.

USCIS will not have a lottery for 2012 H-1B cap subject petitions received 22 November 2012 to determine if they will be included in the 2012 H-1B cap. 22 November 2011 is the final receipt date for new H-1B petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2012, and that all properly completed H-1B petitions accepted for filing on 22 November 2011 will be included in the 2012 H-1B cap.

As of December 1, 2011, all E visa applications will be processed in Rome. Therefore, all new E visa applications submitted after December 1, 2011, should be sent to the E Visa Section in Rome. Cases will be processed in the order received. All pending cases sent to Milan prior to December 1, 2011, will be processed to conclusion in Milan, in the order received.

The 2012 H-1B cap has been reached. As of 22 November 2012 USCIS had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the annual cap of 65,000 for fiscal year 2012 (FY2012). New cap-subject H-1B petitions with an employment start date of 01 October 2012 or later may be filed beginning 01 April 2012. However, USCIS has announced new pre-registration procedures for 2013 H-1Bs to take effect in March 2012.