BAGON LAW FIRM

WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will start accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2012 cap on April 1, 2011 . Cases will be considered accepted on the date USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Such workers include scientists, engineers, and computer programmers, among others. The cap (the numerical limit on H-1B petitions) for FY 2012 is 65,000. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with U.S. master’s degrees or higher are exempt. USCIS will monitor the number of H-1B petitions received and will notify the public of the date when the numerical limit of the H-1B cap has been met. This date is known as the final receipt date. If USCIS receives more p...

Recently, since the significant visa retrogression for some family based categories,  many Petitioners, Beneficiaries, and Applicants have been anxiously waiting for the monthly release of the Visa Bulletin. Today, the Visa Bulletin for April 2011 has been released. As anticipated, the slow movement of visa priority dates continue. Although some may be relieved that no visa retrogression occurred, there will be no significant forward movement of the dates in April 2011 that could cause excitement. Nevertheless, a little forward movement is better than none at all.   VISA BULLETIN - APRIL 2001 Family- Sponsored All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed CHINA-mainland born INDIA MEXICO PHILIPPINES ...

Have you or someone you know recently received an e-mail claiming you’ve won the Green Card lottery and asking you to send or wire money? Don’t fall for it – the sender is trying to steal your money! Fraudsters will frequently e-mail potential victims posing as State Department or other government officials with requests to wire or transfer money online as part of a “processing fee.” You should never transfer money to anyone who e-mails you claiming that you have won the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery or been selected for a Green Card. These e-mails are designed to steal money from unsuspecting victims. The senders often use phony e-mail addresses and logos designed to make them look more like official government correspondence. One easy way to tell they are a fraud is that the e-mail address does not end with a “.gov”.    According to the Department of State website : Entrants who completed online DV 2011 entries between October 2, 2009 and Nove...