Anna Aronova, Attorney at Law
Your Bridge to a New World

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014.

2014 Diversity Visa Program Registration

The 2014 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2014) will open at noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Tuesday, October 2, 2012, and will close at noon, EDT, Saturday, November 3, 2012. Applicants must submit entries electronically during this registration period using the electronic DV entry form (E-DV) at www.dvlottery.state.gov.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has redesigned the Permanent Resident Card ("Green Card") - to incorporate several major new security features. In addition to all kinds of security features, the card will now be colored green. So no more confusion!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2011 cap on April 1, 2010.

The American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA) posted an alert that the U.S. Customs Border Protection at Newark Airport (New Jersey) has adopted a mandatory detention policy for U.S. lawful permanent residents that have criminal post-1998 convictions. The new policy authorizes the detention of returning lawful permanent residents for up to twenty four (24) hours to obtain a copy of conviction record.

Background

During the last few months, a number of incidents were reported where certain holders of valid H-1B visas seeking admission at the Newark, New Jersey airport were issued expedited removal orders by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Such visa holders were not admitted to the United States, their visas were cancelled and they were sent back to their countries. The American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA) posted an alert that sheds light on the new enforcement policies at the Newark, New Jersey airport.