NEWS

Premium Processing for Immigration Cases Expanded

Frustrated by lengthy processing times for visas and employment authorization? USCIS offers a solution, but it comes at a price and does not affect your chances of success. With premium processing, USCIS guarantees that it will take adjudicative action on your petition within a shortened time frame. That action must either be an approval notice, READ MORE

Avoiding a Gap in F-1 OPT Employment While H-1B Pending

USCIS is starting to issue H-1B receipts for petitions that won a lottery number.  These receipts will allow those F-1 foreign students working pursuant to their optional practical training (OPT) employment authorization document (EAD) that will expire before October 1, 2019, to extend their EAD until October 1st, unless their petition is denied before then.  This READ MORE

F-1 STEM OPT Students Working at Third-Party Sites

In April 2018, USCIS updated its website regarding the employment of F-1 student and it appears to bar F-1 students in the STEM optional practical training (OPT) program from working at third-party locations. In particular, it states: “For instance, the training experience may not take place at the place of business or worksite of the READ MORE

USCIS Revises Requirements for Employment of Certain F-1 STEM OPT Students

In April 2018, USCIS revised its website page for Optional Practice Training for STEM students that appears to bar F-1 students working pursuant to their STEM OPT (optional practical training) to be situated at third party sites. The website page states: “For instance, the training experience may not take place at the place of business READ MORE

New STEM OPT Extension Training Plan

Under the latest STEM optional practical training (OPT) extension rules that came into effect on May 10, 2016, and which  increase the OPT extension program from 17 to 24 months, USCIS added additional requirements.  One of the most important of these is the training plan that is to be filed on the Form I-983. Before applying READ MORE

New STEM Optional Practical Training Rules

The new STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) OPT (optional practical training) extension is a 24-month period of temporary training that directly relates to an F-1 student’s program of study in an approved STEM field, and replaces the 17-month STEM OPT extension previously available to certain STEM F-1 students. The 17-month STEM OPT regulations remained in effect READ MORE