By: Rachel Horner The DHS officially rescinded a proposed rule from the Trump Administration which aimed to eliminate the duration of status for those on F-1 and J-1 visas (namely international students and journalists). The duration of status allowed foreign nationals under said visas to enter the country for a set period of time, ranging from a few weeks to years ...
By: Hannah Welbourn A second round of H-1B seekers has been selected to submit their petitions for the highly sought-after visa. This is the second year in a row that USCIS has conducted a second lottery, releasing a statement Thursday reading: “We recently determined that we needed to select additional registrations to reach the FY 2022 numerical allocations.” Last year’s decision to make another round of selections was largely affected by the initial COVID-19 outbreak, as many who were offered employment early in the year were not able to be hired as a result of the pandemic. The Trump Administration’s travel ban also impacted the decision, as many who had been initially selected were then unable to get into the US. Following ...
By: Hannah Welbourn With his first year in office officially halfway through, President Joe Biden has made it clear that one of the administration’s biggest goals regarding immigration is to promote naturalization. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security announced a campaign aimed at recruiting new citizens and making the naturalization process more accessible. The campaign is headed by the Biden-appointed Interagency Working Group on Promoting Naturalization (also referred to as the Naturalization Working Group or NWG) and is in accordance with the executive order Biden enacted in February, which included calls to shorten naturalization processing times, reduce the naturalization fee, and reinstate a fee waiver. The executive order also called upon the NGW to develop welcoming and inclusive strategies ...
By: Rachel Horner Over the past year and a half, Park worked to build a proprietary software to facilitate the process of tracking PERM recruitment. We can now officially announce the PERM Portal is ready for not only our internal team to use, but our clients as well! We are excited to add the PERM Portal to our roster of PERM-related services (which you can read more about here).
By Ryan Mernin In a previous post, the team at Park Evaluations offered some insight into the L-1A visa and its basic criteria, as well as how an expert letter from Park could help meet USCIS’ various challenges. Here, we will take a deeper dive into the various definitions of managerial capacity and the hidden nuances therein. Managerial Capacities: Personnel, Functional, Executive Much ...
By: Rachel Horner As the end of June quickly approaches, PERM applicants should keep in mind if their Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) expires on the 30th. In this instances, candidates must begin some portion of the PERM recruitment process before the June 30th deadline. Beginning July 1st, the data used for the prevailing wage resets, placing the validity of the position itself in jeopardy. But the good news is, as long as even one step in the PERM recruitment process begins prior to the prevailing wage’s expiration, the DOL will honor that wage for the entire advertising campaign. We talk about this—and more—in our blog posts Top 5 Things ...
By: Matt Gerardi You did everything right: filed your H-1B registration perfectly, got selected for a chance to submit an H-1B cap-subject petition, and submitted an airtight case with all the necessary forms and supporting documents. Now, all there is to do is wait for the approval to roll in. But what’s that? USCIS has reviewed your petition materials, and instead of the approval you were expecting, you’ve been issued a request for evidence because the agency isn’t convinced the job at the center of your case is a “specialty occupation.” What now? What does that even mean? And how are you supposed to prove something so blatantly obvious to USCIS? No need to worry. Park Evaluations is here to talk you ...
By: Rachel Horner While 2020 was a tough year for immigration, petitions continued to be filed, and attorneys are ramping up again to avoid the latest USCIS challenges—including for non-H1B options like the L-1A/B, O-1, and National Interest Waivers (NIW). Our expert evaluator, Howard Borenstein, gave a presentation detailing some of the more common mistakes made during these petitions that are likely to attract USCIS’s attention. Below we’ve highlighted some of the most important takeaways to remember for each of these petition types. L-1A Petition: Discerning the difference between a Functional or Personnel Manager. While the criteria for Managerial ...