Breaking News

First winners of the green card lottery have been determined

Just as we wanted to send this month's newsletter, we started receiving the first green card winners notifications for last year's lottery. Not many yet, but we were already able to notify 29 lucky winners. In our next newsletter in mid-May we will again have a more extensive green card section and hopefully, we will be able to announce a lot more winners!

Extended stay for qualified F-1 students

On April 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published an interim report, informing about an extension of Optional Practical Training (OPT) for qualified F-1 non-immigrant students of 17 months, from 12 to 29 months. The extension will be available for students with a degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"This rule will enable businesses to attract and retain highly skilled foreign workers, giving U.S. companies a competitive advantage in the world economy," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Also new is the automatic extension of residence and work permit for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students with a pending H-1B application. In addition, extension applications can be submitted up to 60 days after graduation.

For more information, please refer to

www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1207334008610.shtm

New processing times for immigration applications

On April 2, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that applications for naturalization will be processed faster than had been expected. USCIS expects that by the end of this fiscal year on September 30, 36 percent more applications will have been processed than in the previous year. Processing time for each application will probably be 13-15 months, and not 16-21 as had been expected. The reasons for this faster processing are the hiring of almost 3,000 new employees, the quadrupling of funds for overtime and increasing the staff for conducting naturalization interviews.

For more information, please refer to

www.uscis.gov

Random selection process for H-1B visas has begun

USCIS has announced that more than 163,000 have been received within the application period until April 7, 2008. More than 31,200 of those were for the advanced degree exemption, only 20,000 of those can be issued. The computer-based random selection process already started this week. The more than 11,000 advanced degree petitions that cannot be processed will automatically be added to the regular H-1B selection process. The cap for those is at 65,000 a year.

For more information, please refer to

www.uscis.gov