by Kyle Knapp | Apr 4, 2025 | Uncategorized
In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey outlines six strategies to help us be more effective and then includes the most important one as the last habit: Sharpen the saw. After we adopt new strategies, we need to go back and practice and...
by Kyle Knapp | Mar 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
During the Biden administration, the U.S. State Department widely expanded interview waivers for visa applications at U.S. consulates abroad. There also was a pilot program to resurrect state-side visa renewals for H-1B workers. That stateside process had been...
by Kyle Knapp | Feb 3, 2025 | Uncategorized
It came as no surprise to see the raft of xenophobic executive orders issued soon after the former-now current president returned to the White House. It continued with updated agency guidance on medical exams for persons seeking lawful permanent resident status....
by Kyle Knapp | Jan 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
In the last days of the Biden administration, USCIS published a new regulation to update and improve adjudications of H-1B visa petitions. Among the new provisions are the ability to include dependent family members on the employee’s petition (rather than submitting a...
by Kyle Knapp | Dec 1, 2024 | Uncategorized
In January 2023, after the on again / off again concurrent processing of H-4, L-2 and EAD (Employment Authorization Documents) applications submitted with premium processing H-1B and L-1 petitions, USCIS entered into a two-year agreement for adjudicating H-4, L-2, and...
by Kyle Knapp | Nov 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
That sums up the results of the elections. Based upon the previous four-year term of chaos, we can expect several things for common employment- and family-based immigration cases. The incoming administration likely will end the policy of deferring to prior approvals...
by Kyle Knapp | Oct 1, 2024 | Uncategorized
The annual Diversity Lottery (i.e. green card lottery) opens this week for the 55,000 visas. The registration period this year is from noon Eastern Daylight Time on October 2, 2024 until noon Eastern Standard Time on November 5, 2024. Each year the U.S. State...
by Kyle Knapp | Sep 1, 2024 | Uncategorized
In mid- and late-August the State Department announced that it had allocated all available employment-based immigrant visas (green cards) for the first and third preference categories. The expectation is that the second preference also will run out before the end of...
by Kyle Knapp | Aug 9, 2024 | Uncategorized
In February 2015 U.S. Department of Homeland Security implemented a new rule to allow certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B workers to apply for work authorization. The authorization is called an Employment Authorization Document, or EAD for short. This was a...
by Kyle Knapp | Jul 1, 2024 | Uncategorized
Each year U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services schedules naturalization oath ceremonies around the Fourth of July holiday. This year there will be nearly 200 ceremonies for 11,000 new citizens in the days around the holiday. In recent years, I’ve been posting on...
