Applying for a change to your immigration status in the U.S. typically involves a process of completing applications, submitting them to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and possibly attending interviews. For nearly every immigration status change, applicants will also have to pay the required USCIS application fees, which can range from a few to […]
When applying for an immigration status change with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), applicants will generally have to pay a filing fee in order for their application to be reviewed and process. With USCIS filing fees: The following table highlights some of the most common filing fees for USCIS services: Requested Change (Form) Fee […]
When preparing to resolve your important immigration issues, meeting with a lawyer to discuss your options for proceeding can be the best way to figure out how to move forward. While you may have a lot of questions specific to your situation, making a point to ask the following questions as well can shed some […]
Visa retrogression refers to situations when there are more visa applicants for a certain category or countries than there are available visas for that month. Typically occurring near the end of the fiscal year, visa retrogression can end up meaning that visa applicant’s priority dates shift around the set cut-off date, meeting it one month […]
Visa priority dates refer to visa applicants’ place in queue when the demand for the visa they are seeking exceeds the number of available visas. When visa applicants’ priority dates become “current” or available, these applicants will typically be eligible to obtain permanent resident status in the U.S. Below, we have pointed out some more […]
Concurrent filing refers to situations in which an immigrant petition and an adjustment of status application are filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the same time. This essentially means that petition and application, along with all of the necessary supporting documents and application fees, are mailed at the same time to the […]
Near the end of his first year in office, President Obama signed into law amendments to the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA) reversing the longstanding rule that visa petitions filed for relatives are automatically revoked upon the death of the Petitioner. This law ameliorates the harsh, unfair consequences resulting to thousands of beneficiaries of family […]
Although President Bush signed into law the Child Status Protection Act ("CSPA") nearly two months ago, many questions remain unanswered as to who will actually benefit from the law and what actions green card applicants must undertake to ensure that benefits are not lost. In an effort to answer some of these questions, the INS […]
Even if a fiancé(e) or spousal visa petition is approved (i.e., the foreign spouse/fiancé(e) receives the right to sit for an immigration interview), that does not necessarily ensure that a visa will be issued. In fact, there are several reasons why a petitioner will be deemed inadmissible to the U.S. These include a petitioner who: […]
As policymakers, special interest groups, health care professionals and others discuss the need for health care reform in the US and debate how this reform should take place, one of the most important issues to health care is being left out of the debate: the national nursing shortage. So far, the debate over health care […]
