How to Adjust Your Status If you want to adjust your status and become a U.S. permanent resident under a family-sponsored or employment-based visa, you must first have a relative or employer file an immigrant visa petition on your behalf. Then, USCIS…
Read More
April Visa Bulletin Available U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the April 2019 Visa Bulletin. Understanding the Visa Backlogs A limited number of employment-based immigrant visas (“green cards”) are available each year, a…
Read More
On March 12, 2019, USCIS resumed premium processing for all H-1B petitions. Due to this resumption, clients that received RFEs (Requests for Evidence) for pending petitions can now utilize premium processing. RFE responses should include the request…
Read More
AILA issued a practice alert on March 11, 2019, to announce that USCIS updated the filing addresses for Form I-129 on February 28, 2019. What is the Form I-129? The Form I-129 is a petition for a nonimmigrant worker to come temporarily to the United…
Read More
USCIS held a teleconference last week to review revised versions of the Form I-539 and Form I-539A. The Form I-539 is an application to extend/change nonimmigrant status and Form I-539A supplements it. Official copies of the revised forms will be ava…
Read More
On February 14, 2019, the CIS Ombudsman Staff, Carrie Anderson and Allison Posner, held a teleconference regarding changes in the USCIS applicant support services. There have been updates to the USCIS Contact Centers, the InfoPass system, and the myU…
Read More
The Department of Labor‘s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) announced an update to its procedures for H-2B application processing. Beginning July 3, 2019, the OFLC will process all H-2B applications filed on or after July 3, 2019 at…
Read More
Last week, on February 25, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule which extended qualification for employment authorization to some H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants seeking employment-based permanent resident statu…
Read More
Last year, USCIS implemented a new pilot program in Hartford CT, El Paso TX, Jacksonville FL, Sacramento CA, and San Francisco CA field offices that eliminated self-scheduling of InfoPass appointments online. This program is called the Information Se…
Read More
USCIS announced on February 5, 2019 that it will close its office in Moscow, Russia, on March 29, 2019 permanently because of a substantial decrease in demand. The responsibilities of the office in Moscow will be assumed by USCIS office in Athens, Gr…
Read More
Please Note: We are not accepting new clients until June 2026 and may not be able to respond to inquiries at this time. Thank you for thinking of us for your immigration legal needs.
Sivaraman Immigration Law’s founder, Heather Crews, brings an exceptional level of initiative, creativity and dedication to the practice of Immigration Law. A 2008 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, she is an active mem… Read More