News & Publications

For weeks, rumors have been circulating that U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) planned to eliminate extensions of stay for H-1B workers beyond the normal 6 year limit.  Current law allows H-1B workers to extend their H-1B status beyond the normal 6 year limit if (1) they have an application for permanent residence that has been pending for at least 1 year, or (2) they are unable to complete the green card process because of limited “per country” quotas on green card issuance. 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2017— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed premium processing today for all H-1B visa extension of stay petitions. Premium processing is now available for all types of H-1B petitions.

September 5, 2017— Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the 2012 Memo implementing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program has been rescinded by the Trump administration. The withdrawal will be implemented over the course of the next six (6) months. The Department of Homeland Security has released an implementation memo and will release an FAQ later today outlining the following details:

September 1, 2017 — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced a new Trump administration policy to require in-person immigration interviews for employment-based green card cases, in the name of what the Trump administration calls “extreme vetting.”  The policy will require in-person interviews for employment-based green card applicants (who currently do not require interviews except in rare circumstances) and for family members of asylum and refugee grantees (primary asylum applicants are already routinely interviewed).

Congratulations to the Immigration Pratice Group of McCandlish Holton Morris for being named to the Top 21 Immigration Firms in the Washington DC area. Expertise.com scored immigration lawyers on more than 25 variables across five categories, and analyzed the results to produce a hand-picked list of the best immigration lawyers in Washington DC. 

Jennifer Minear was elected to serve as the AILA Second Vice President for the 2017-2018 term. Ms. Minear is a director in the Immigration Practice Group, where her practice focuses on employment-based immigration, with a particular emphasis on the healthcare sector, including J-1 waiver and green card processing for foreign medical graduates.

On Monday, April 17, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it received approximately 199,000 H-1B petitions during the first five business days of April (April 3-7, 2017) exceeding the statutory cap on available H-1B slots. As a result, USCIS conducted a random computer generated selection process, or “lottery,” to determine which H-1B petitions filed during this period would be accepted.

On January 27, 2017, the new administration issued an Executive Order which suspends "entry into the United States" of individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days (and possibly longer). 

By: David E. Gluckman, Esq

It happens all the time. Your clients are planning an international dream vacation or an exciting change of jobs. But their green cards are expiring! Do they have to cancel everything? Probably not, but the laws and procedures that apply in these situations are not as clear as one would hope. This article will empower practitioners with all the information needed to guide clients through this potential morass.