On April 19, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would formally update its Policy Manual regarding how cannabis-related activity–even when it took place in states that have legalized the medical and recreational use of marijuana–would impact naturalization. The Policy Manual is self-defined by the USCIS as its centralized online repository for […]
Canada’s cannabis legalization creates yet another wrinkle in the relations between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions harbors a well known hatred towards anything cannabis and he clearly has no love for Canada’s Cannabis Act either. What will this mean though for Canadians who are 100% legally involved in Canada’s cannabis industry when […]
On the eve of the Canada’s cannabis legalization, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) held a teleconference to explain the agency’s enforcement policy and field questions from journalists. The on-the-record teleconference featured the head of the CBP’s Office of Field Operations, which has a staff of 28,000+ employees and an operating budget of $5.2 […]
Canada’s cannabis legalization creates yet another wrinkle in the relations between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions harbors a well known hatred towards anything cannabis and he clearly has no love for Canada’s Cannabis Act either. What will this mean though for Canadians who are 100% legally involved in Canada’s […]
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) arrested and charged Pradyumna Kumar Samal, CEO of two Washington State information technology companies, Divensi, Inc. and Azimetry, Inc., with visa-fraud. The DOJ alleges Mr. Samal initiated and oversaw a multi-year scheme involving the submission of forged documents to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”). The […]
On Friday, April 6, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it had received a sufficient number of petitions between April 2-5, 2018 for the Fiscal Year (“FY”) to meet its 2019 H-1B Cap. The announcement confirms the overwhelming demand from U.S. employers for qualified professionals to fill specialty occupation positions. Assuming […]
In my previous post, I explained the H-1B Cap lottery process and described the general steps employers must take to file their petitions during the H-1B Cap window in April. In this post, I will specify the H-1B requirements, define some key terms, and describe the evidence that must accompany the H-1B petition. An H-1B […]
In his first State of the Union address on January 30, 2018, President Trump articulated his four-pillar plan for immigration reform: path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children; securing America’s southern border with a wall; ending the diversity visa lottery and instituting a merit-based immigration system; and, limiting family immigration […]
