Latest News

USCIS National Customer Service Center Adds Saturday Hours

Beginning Jan. 12, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Customer Service Center (NCSC) will expand its live, toll-free telephone assistance service to include Saturday hours. Customer service representatives at our NCSC will now take calls Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., local time.

DOL Issues Notice On 2013 Adverse Effect Wage Rates for H-2A Agricultural Workers

The Department has published a notice in the Federal Register announcing new Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs) for each state based on the Farm Labor Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The AEWRs are the minimum hourly wage rates the Department has determined must be offered and paid by employers to H-2A workers and workers in corresponding employment for a particular agricultural job and area so that the wages of similarly employed U.S. workers will not be adversely affected.

DOL Issues Notice on Prevailing Wage Rates for Certain H-2A Occupations

The Department has published a notice in the Federal Register establishing new prevailing wage rates for certain occupations processed under H-2A special procedures. The wage rates established by this Federal Register notice apply only to the following activities: open range production of livestock, itinerant animal shearing, sheepherding and goatherding, and custom combine operations. To read the Federal Register notice please click here.

DHS Announces Final Rule to Support Family Unity During Waiver Process

On January 2nd, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens present in the United States without a visa, who are in the process of seeking immigrant visas to become lawful U.S. permanent residents, may apply and be approved for provisional unlawful presence waivers before departing the United States to attend their immigrant visa interviews. USCIS will begin accepting provisional unlawful presence waivers on March 4th, 2013.

USCIS Unable to Approve I-800 or I-800A Petitions to Adopt Children from Cambodia

The Cambodian government has indicated that it intends to begin accepting intercountry adoption petitions on Jan. 1, 2013. Cambodia joined the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Hague Adoption Convention) on Aug. 1, 2007.