Blogs – Usimmigrationadvisior

COVID-19 temporary flexibilities for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, will end on July 31, 2023. U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced that employers must complete in-person physical document inspections for employees whose documents were inspected remotely during the temporary flexibilities by August 30, 2023. This new announcement gives employers additional time to complete in-person physical inspection of identity and employment authorization documents, and annotate the Form I-9 for this population. These flexibilities were initially announced in March ...
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Did you know that the purchase of a business to apply for E-2 Treaty Investor Visa can be made contingent on the approval of the visa? There is a way to meet the irrevocability of investment requirement under the E-2 Treaty and at the same time minimize the risk on the part of the investor. Looking for an US immigration lawyer? Request free consultation at Davies & Associates or find our closest location around the world. This article has been ...
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"I am writing to express my sincere gratitude for all the hard work and dedication you put into our E2 visa application process. We received our visa today, and we are overjoyed with the outcome. Throughout the entire process, your professionalism, expertise, and guidance were invaluable. You kept us informed of the progress of our application, answered all the questions promptly, and made the entire process as smooth as possible. I appreciate your attention to detail, your willingness to listen, ...
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Policy Memo of March 2015 (“Memo”) clarifies the L-1B visa “specialized knowledge” standard, providing an authoritative and consolidated guidance on the L-1B program. “Specialized knowledge” under Statutory Laws and Regulations Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA 214(c)(2)(B)), an employee possesses specialized knowledge if he or she has: (1) a “special” knowledge of the company product and its application in international markets; or (2) an “advanced” level of knowledge of the processes and procedures ...
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Italians are eligible to get a 5-year E-2 Treaty Investor visa which would allow them to be in the U.S. to develop and direct their E-2 company. For every entry on a valid E-2 visa, one can get a period of authorized stay of 2 years. E-2 visa applications are filed directly with the Embassies and Consulates unlike other visa categories, which require prior approval of a petition by USCIS. For a period of time after COVID, applicants had to ...
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Did you know that USCIS used to extend courtesy premium processing for the extension of status applications of dependents and applications for Employment Authorization Document concurrently filed with Form I-129? During the Trump administration, USCIS stopped extending courtesy premium processing for the applications of the dependents and this resulted in lengthy processing delays. Since January 25, 2023, USCIS resumed its practice of adjudicating L-2 applications for requests to extend status at the same time as the principal's Form I-129 petition ...
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Did you know that the dependent spouse and children of an E-2 Treaty Investor do not need to have the same nationality. The spouse and children qualify for E-2 derivative visas even are citizens of a country with no E treaty with the U.S. While our client is a Romanian citizen, she and her family resides in Italy. Due to the longer wait times in Rome, we advised our client to file their E2 applications at the US Embassy in ...
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E2 Treaty Investor Visa Application of a Slovenian Citizen Approved Our client from Slovenia was on F-1 status and came to us during his OPT period. He sought our assistance in applying to change status from F-1 to E-2 Treaty Investor. Our client made a substantial investment in his own consulting company as well as in a cookie store franchise. His change of status application was approved and USCIS gave him a 2-year period of authorized stay on E-2 status ...
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Did you know that the validity of an E-2 visa depends on a reciprocity schedule? For most E-2 Treaty Countries, the visa validity is 5 years. For Australians, it is 4 years. For countries like Egypt, Jordan and Bangladesh, the reciprocity schedule only provides for an E-2 visa validity of 3 months. Even if the visa validity is only three months, the E-2 Treaty Investor and family will still get a period of authorized stay of two years. For every ...
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EB5 Investors Magazine and Uglobal Immigration Magazine held an in-person EB-5 & Global Immigration Expo in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 4th and 5th. The event brought together migration agencies, immigration attorneys, global service providers, regional centers, project developers, and investors from all over the world to discuss the United States EB-5 Immigrant Investor program as well as a variety of global residency and citizenship programs. Concurrent filing, adjudication trends, the E-2 road, and smart project selection are ...
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The USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has extended the temporary suspension of the biometrics submission requirement for certain derivate applicants seeking L-2, E or H-4 extension of stay or change of status. Such applicants will generally will have to file Form I-539. The prior suspension was to be in effect until May 17, 2023 and has now been extended through September 30, 2023. While the suspension is in effect, such derivative applicants will not be required by the USCIS ...
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U.S. employers use H-1B visas to employ foreign nationals in the U.S. in certain specialty occupations such as engineers, doctors, architects, software developers and so on. Dependents of an H-1B holder can accompany the H-1B worker to the U.S. on a H-4 visa. Under certain circumstances, spouses on a H-4 visa are permitted to work and often times, the eligible H-4 spouse may already have another employment visa such as the H1B Visa or L-1 and is faced with the ...
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It’s yet to be officially approved, but Portugal is about to end its golden visa scheme for foreign investors. This program has been very successful and has attracted many investors from around the world. The scheme, aimed at non-EU nationals ready to invest in Portugal, has attracted 6.8 billion euros since its launch in 2012, with investor choosing real estate investments on the Atlantic coast. Successful applicants were given residency rights and a path to the European citizenship. The reasons ...
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The US Department of State published a Final Rule on March 28 regarding an increase in fees for certain categories of non-immigrant visa applications. The fee increase will be effective May 30, 2023. The consular fee for employment-based categories such as the H-1B, L-1, and O-1 will increase from $190 to $205, and for the E-1 trader and E-2 treaty investor visa categories, the fee will increase from $205 to $315. Other consular fees are not affected by this rule, ...
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On March 15, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy guidance addressing the analysis of an employer’s ability to pay the proffered wage for certain employment-based immigrant petitions. This guidance, contained in Volume 6 of the Policy Manual, is effective immediately and applies to I-140 petitions filed on or after March 15, 2023. The updated guidance discusses in more detail various types of evidence and explains how USCIS reviews all evidence relevant to the employer’s financial strength and ...
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