The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has provided FY2019 statistics (Second Quarter) in the form of program factsheets for each of the major immigration programs. These updated FY2019 statistics (Second Quarter) covers January 2019 through March 2019.
The link to each FY2019 (Second Quarter) program factsheets is listed below:
• Permanent Labor Certification Program – Select Statistics
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has alerted Immigration Lawyers that USCIS has discontinued the practice of providing courtesy (free) premium processing for I‑539s filed concurrently with an I‑129 petition. USCIS cited the need to meet new biometrics requirement for all I‑539 applicants.
Background
USCIS (USCIS.gov) I-539 , Application To Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) held their 2019 Annual Conference on Immigration Law from June 19th through the 22nd in Orlando, Florida. The Keynote Speaker was Julián Castro, besides being the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Obama Administration; he is one of the 25 Democratic Candidates for the 2020 Presidential Race.
I have posted the link to the VIDEO below.
AILA Annual Conference 2019: Julián Castro’s Keynote Speech – VIDEO
USCIS has announced that beginning July 1, 2019 it will no longer accept Form I-407, Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status at any of their international field offices.
The announcement states:
Individuals who wish to voluntarily record abandonment of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status must submit Form I-407 via mail to:
On Tuesday, June 18th, three high ranking House Committee Chairpersons, sent a letter to DHS Acting Secretary Kevin K. McAleenan concerning the appointment of Kenneth T. “Ken” Cuccinelli II as USCIS Acting Director! They are mainly requesting a briefing and any documentation related to Cuccinelli’s appointment. I have posted the link to the PDF version of the letter below so you can read it for yourself.
Signers:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that Kenneth T. (Ken) Cuccinelli will be the next Acting Director of USCIS, as of Monday, June 10, 2019. He will replace Director L. Francis Cissna who has been in that position since October 2017 and resigned June 1st. The new Acting Director Cuccinelli stated, “I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at this critical time and serve alongside this agency’s dedicated workforce,”.
Please review USCIS News Release, “Cuccinelli Named Acting Director of USCIS” for more details.
Source of Information:
USCIS announced on Friday, May 31st that they released the Fiscal Year 2018 Statistical Annual Report (PDF). This report highlights USCIS programs, workload, and accomplishments! USCIS Director, L. Francis Cissna stated, “The 2018 USCIS Statistical Annual Report represents a key piece in our continued commitment to provide improved awareness of the nature and scope of work accomplished by the dedicated men and women of USCIS,”. He also stated, “Following a long absence, we are again publishing an annual report, emphasizing our promise of full transparency and accountability to the American people.”
Note: This was USCIS Director, L. Francis Cissna last day, he resigned as of June 1st!
For more detailed information about this subject please review the USCIS News Release, “USCIS Releases 2018 Statistical Annual Report“.
USCIS announced on Friday, May 24th that L. Francis Cissna had resigned as Director effective June 1st. L. Francis Cissna wrote, “At the request of the President, I submitted my resignation today effective June 1, 2019,”! He has been the Director of USCIS since October 8, 2017 and was appointed by President Trump. This seems to be part of last month’s leadership removals at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in which former Sec. of DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign along with others.
For more detailed information about this subject please review the CNN News Article, “Trump’s Citizenship and Immigration Services director out“.
Source of Information:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that Mark Koumans will be the next Deputy Director of USCIS, as of Monday, May 13, 2019. He will replace Acting Deputy Director Tracy Renaud who has been in that position since March 2018. Deputy Director Koumans is described as a career federal employee and that he has held a number of executive positions within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and many other positions within the federal government over the last 29 years.
Please review USCIS News Release, “USCIS Names New Deputy Director” for more details.
Source of Information:
USCIS has launched a new searchable H-1B Employer database, entitled “H-1B Employer Data Hub” and a new Web Page, entitled “Understanding Our H-1B Employer Data Hub” to explain the new Data Hub’s capabilities. The H-1B Employer Data Hub will allow the public to search H-1B petitioners by different important parameters such as fiscal year, employer name and others. USCIS will be updating the data used by the H-1B Employer Data Hub on a quarterly basis.
Please review USCIS News Alert, “USCIS Launches H-1B Employer Data Hub” for more details.
Source of Information:
H1B Visa Lawyer Blog