Latest News from Yu, South & Associates http://www.yuimmigration.com Sun, 20 May 2012 20:50:46 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.yuimmigration.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.yuimmigration.com Latest News from Yu, South & Associates http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/222/9/ May 1, 2012, TuesdayUSCIS has just released its latest EB-5 statistics provided for a 5/1/12 stakeholder engagement, including information on service-wide receipts, approvals, and denials of I-526s and I-829s, as well as the number of approved EB-5 Regional Centers by fiscal year and I-924 receipts, approvals, and denials by fiscal year. Here are some of the charts provided at the stakeholder engagement provided by USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Immigrant Petition by Alien Entreneur (I-526) and Petition by... Newsflashes - Newsflash Tue, 01 May 2012 17:16:22 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/221/9/ May 1, 2012 TuesdayYu, South Associates just learned yesterday that according to the latest official count as of April 27, 2012, USCIS has received or approved 29,200 new cap subject H-1B filings out of the total of 65,000 regular H-1B annual cap for the fiscal year 2013. Further, USCIS also accounted 12,300 cap subject filings against the total of 20,000 annual total cap for H-1B advanced degree (master’s or above) exemptions for the same fiscal year quota. Those numbers did not include any H-1B petitions that have been denied for the same period even if they might have... Newsflashes - Newsflash Tue, 01 May 2012 11:29:35 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/220/9/ Feb. 23, 2012 Thursday Ever since the financial breakdown 3 years ago, especially over the past 12 months, there has been a steady trend of increased scrutiny and tougher requirements by the USCIS in the adjudication of H-1B and L-1A/B nonimmigrant worker petitions in both initial petition and extension cases. Specifically, more and more Requests For Evidence (RFE) have become a very common routine for L-1A/B petitions and site visitation becomes more and more frequent for many H-1B (both pre-adjudication and post adjudication) cases. The... Newsflashes - Newsflash Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:01:37 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/219/9/ Nov. 29, 2011 TuesdayUS Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) just announced its latest accounting of the H-2B cap count and confirmed it has approved 7,885 H-2B petitions and received 621 new H-2B petitions currently in process, as of Nov. 25, 2011, toward the total quota of 33,000 annual numeric cap for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2012. This is good news, after the recent announcement of the annual cap being reached in another visa category of H-1B classificiation (and if you wish to read more about H-1B cap count you can... Newsflashes - Newsflash Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:41:32 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/218/9/ Nov. 25, 2011, FridayFor our immigration clients, this year’s Thanksgiving holiday was ushered in by the official announcement made on Nov. 23, 2011 by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that it has received more H-1B new petitions than the statutory cap of 65,000 quota authorized by Congress for the fiscal year (FY) 2012. As a result, USCIS will not accept any new cap-subject H-1B applications as of the announcement and Nov. 22, 2011 would be the final receipt date for new H-1B petitions requesting employment start date in... Newsflashes - Newsflash Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:43:31 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/217/9/ Nov. 18, 2011 Friday Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), established in 1989, is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries ( member economies ) that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region. APEC Business Travel Card is a travel document, in lieu of a visa, issued by a member economy to its business travelers and, valid for three years, the card eliminates the need for its holder to possess a visa when visiting other APEC participating economies as long as pre-clearance has been obtained during the... Newsflashes - Newsflash Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:38:02 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/214/9/ Yu, South Associates reminds its clients of the following fast approaching deadline for certain widow(er)s of US citizens if they still wish to seek immigration status without the continued sponsorship of their deceased spouse: The old law that required the widow(er)s be married to the deceased U.S. citizen for at least two years at the time of death to be eligible to self-petition for immediate relative status was abolished on October 28, 2009. Because the Act removed the words for at least 2 years from INA §201(b)(2)(A)(i), widow(er)s of U.S. citizens... Newsflashes - Newsflash Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:13:15 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/213/9/ Aug. 3, 2011, 4:50PM US Homeland Security Department Secretary Napolitano announced on Aug. 2, 2011 “Initiatives to Promote Startup Enterprises and Spur Job Creation” and among those initiative measures, certain intake and review process as previously proposed in May 2011 by USCIS in “Fundamental Enhancements” to streamline the EB-5 process is now officially further enhanced. This enhanced transforming intake and review process now includes: · extending the availability of premium processing for certain EB-5 applications and petitions; ·... Newsflashes - Newsflash Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:47:52 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/212/9/ Aug. 3, 2011, 4:03PMOn July 27, 2011, Judge Orlinda Naranjo of the 345th District Court in Travis County, Texas, issued a permanent injunction against the Texas Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) and Texas Public Safety Commission (“PSC”). The order states that DPS and PSC were operating outside the statutory authority provided by the Texas Transportation Code when the agencies instituted new rules which imposed requirements not contained in the Transportation Code on persons lawfully admitted to the US who are seeking Texas driver’s licenses or identification cards. Specifically, the order permanently enjoins DPS and PSC from:... Newsflashes - Newsflash Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:05:44 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/211/9/ August 3, 2011 3:50PM Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit joined the growing list of other six federal appellate courts to reject the US government’s attempt to bar noncitizens from seeking reopening or reconsideration of their deportation and/or removal cases from outside the United States, as just learned by Yu, South Associates, PLLC from the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center. Federal law allows noncitizens to file motions supported by new evidence or arguments even after their deportation or removal orders become final. Under its... Newsflashes - Newsflash Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:47:52 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/210/9/ Friday, July 15, 2011 The US State Department (DOS) is scheduled to announce the 2nd result of this year’s troubled visa lottery drawing (for Year 2012 winners) and about 22,000 people worldwide are keeping their fingers crossed that this time their “American Dreams” would not be smashed as it has been a few weeks ago! This drawing is a procedure under a special immigration program known as “diversity visa lottery” started since 1995 sponsored by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and the program provided a special mechanism for up... Newsflashes - Newsflash Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:13:06 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/209/9/ Wednesday, April 27,l 2011 Department of Homeland Security released an advance copy of a public notice that it is removing all currently designated countries from the listing of countries whose nationals and citizens are required to comply with National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) registration requirements, thus effectively ending the NSEERS registration process, through the publication of the notice in the Federal Register. NSEERS was first implemented in 2002 as a temporary measure in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attachs and was designed to record the arrival, stay, and departure of certain individuals... Newsflashes - Newsflash Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:16:33 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/208/9/ April 8, 2011 11:18AMAs Congress continues its budgetary deadlock, the possibility of a government shutdown looms larger by the minute. If Congress is unable to reach accord today, the US federal government will close in less than 12 hours from now or at midnight, Saturday April 9, 2011. In general, if the US federal government shuts for budgetary reasons, all but essential government are furloughed and not allowed to work. So who are essential and what does this mean for immigration agencies? USCIS: Update: USCIS has... Newsflashes - Newsflash Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:19:56 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/207/9/ Tomorrow is April Fools Day, of course! But, did you know April 1, 2011 is also the day when the H-1B annual quota for the fiscal year 2012 first becomes available? What does this mean to you and your organization or the foreign national employees or the bilingual teachers you just hired? Here is the answer: As we previously advised you in our last email newsletter, USCIS has become more and more restrictive in interpreting the cap exempt status of public school systems and we have seen... Newsflashes - Newsflash Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:22:21 +0100 http://www.yuimmigration.com/content/view/206/9/ March 22, 2011Public School District Superintendents HR Directors:As a follow up to our last week’s update regarding the new H-1B filing, we want to keep you updated on the latest development regarding the H-1B filing.Effective immediately on March 18, 2011, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service has announced its temporary interim procedures to H-1B non-profit entity petition filed with the CIS seeking H-1B cap exemption based on an affiliation with or related to an institution of higher education. According to the memo, CIS will give deference to prior determinations made since June 6, 2006, in other words,... Newsflashes - Newsflash Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:51:50 +0100