Business Immigration Insights

On December 27, 2016, the Administrative Appeals Office of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a far-reaching decision, Matter of Dhanasar, that sets a new legal framework for approval of National Interest Waiver (NIW) petitions and is likely to greatly increase the value of this green card category.  The newly designated precedent decision also vacates Matter of New York State Department of Transportation, a 1998 case that has severely limited the usability of the NIW petition for almost 20 years.

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the January Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

• China continues to move forward at a slow pace, and the EB-3 cut-off date (September 8, 2013) remains ahead of the EB-2 date (October 15, 2012)
• India EB-2 jumps ahead more than two months to April 15, 2008, while EB-3 remains stalled at March 15, 2005

On October 24, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) published a rule in the Federal Register establishing a new filing fee structure for applications and petitions processed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency almost entirely funded by petition and application filing fees.  In announcing the new fee structure, DHS explained that the prior fees no longer recovered the cost of services provided and that the new fee structure was necessary to fully recover costs and maintain adequate service. The new few structure increases filing fees by an average of 20%.