Healthcare Blog

MU Law will be hosting a FREE webinarfor our clients and friends on Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 from 1:00-2:00 pmEastern (12:00-1:00 pm Central).

Join us for this FREE webinarto learn more about:

• Specialty Occupation Criteria
• Potential H-1B Filing Approaches
• H-1B Cap Exemption
• H-1B RN Filing Trends

PLEASE JOIN US!

The Department of State hasjust issued the July2024 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin

Table A: FinalAction Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approved for their GreenCard (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Table B:Dates of Filing

The USCIS will use the TableA Final Action chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCISVisa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis

This Visa Bulletinessentially means that there will not be any more employment-based immigrantvisas issued this fiscal year.  TheAugust Visa Bulletin will likely retrogress or make unavailable all EB-3 dates. 

On May 28, 2024, the USCISTexas Service Center temporarily suspended the intake of all petitions,applications, and other benefit requests due to widespread and severeweather. This temporary closure has caused delays in the delivery of allimmigration applications, petitions, or immigration requests sent to the USCISTexas Service Center.

Courier services willre-attempt delivery once the Texas Service Center re-opens, and petitioners andapplicants do not need to take further action. At this time, USCIS has notannounced when the Texas Service Center will re-open.

If a petition or applicationhas been returned to its sender, USCIS advises those petitioners and applicantsrefile at their earliest convenience. 

In critical situations,petitioners or applicants affected by the intake disruption may request filing flexibilities, bycalling the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283. USCIS canconsider relief on a case-by-case basis. If your case has been affected by theTexas Service Center’s temporary closure, please reach out to your MusilloUnkenholt legal team to determine what the best course of action is in yourcase.

TheDepartment of State has just issued the June2024 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

VisaBulletin

TableA: Final Action Dates-- Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card(Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

TableB: Dates of Filing

TheUSCIS will use the Table A Final Action chart for I-485 employment-basedfilings. See: USCISVisa Bulletin Dates

MULaw Analysis

Alldates mirrored the April and May 2024 Visa Bulletins in all relevant dates,except for India EB-3 which advanced one week. We continue to not expect any meaningful progression for the remainderof the US fiscal year. The US fiscal year ends on September 30, 2024.

On April 04, 2024,The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policyalert announcingofficial guidance in the USCISPolicy Manual clarifying thevalidity period of Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination andVaccination Record, also known as the medical exam. Generally, all green cardapplicants are required to submit a valid medical exam to prove to the USCISthat the applicant’s green card application cannot be denied for health-relatedreasons. According to the USCIS, all medical examinations signed by a CivilSurgeon on or after November 1, 2023, will remain valid indefinitely.

The welcomedchange in policy is due to technological advances in public health which allow civilsurgeons to share some of the applicant’s medical data directly with the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local U.S. health departments. Subsequently,a medical exam signed by a civil surgeon on or after Nov. 1, 2023, will neverexpire. Prior to this change, allproperly completed medical exams were valid for only two years from the date ofthe civil surgeon’s signature.

However, the USCIS reminds applicants, that even incases where an applicant’s medical exam is facially valid, USCIS officers do havethe authority to request a new or updated medical exam if the reviewing officerhas reason to believe the applicant’s medical condition has changed or if the reviewingofficer has reason to believe the medical exam does not accurately reflect theapplicant’s medical condition. Ifyou have any questions about how this guidance may impact your application,please contact Musillo Unkenholt.  

The Department of Statehas just issued the May2024 Visa Bulletin. This blog postanalyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approvedfor their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCIS will use theTable A Final Action chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCIS Visa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis

All dates mirrored theApril 2024 Visa Bulletin.  We do notexpect any meaningful progression for the remainder of the US fiscal year.  The US fiscal year ends on September 30,2024.

USCIShas announced a temporaryfinal rule increasing the automatic extension period for certain employmentauthorization documents (EADs) from 180 days to 540 days.

Therule applies to eligible workers with pending renewal applications filed on orafter October 27, 2023, and to those who file renewal applications betweenApril 8, 2024, and September 30, 2025.

Eligibleworkers include, but are not limited to:

• E-1/2/3spouses (A17);
• L-1spouses (A18);
• CertainH-1B spouses; and
• Workerswith pending Adjustment of Status applications (C9).

Afull list of the eligible categories may be found on the USCIS website here.

Thetemporary final rule follows a previous measure from 2022 that increased theEAD automatic extension period for workers with renewal applications filedbefore October 27, 2023.

USCISestimates the temporary final rule will benefit 800,000 workers and 60,000 to80,000 employers by preventing prevent lapses in work authorization.

Fromnow until June 7, 2024, USCIS invites comments from the public on whether theautomatic extension period for EADs should be permanently increased to540 days or whether a different solution should be implemented.

MULaw encourages workers with pending EAD renewal applications to contact theirMU immigration attorney to determine if they qualify for the automatic 540 EADextension.

Pleaserefer to the USCISpress release for further details. Comments may be submitted on the FederalRegister until June 7, 2024.

MU Law will be hosting a FREE webinarfor our clients and friends on Friday, April 12, 2024 at 12PM Eastern (11AMCentral).

Join us for this FREE webinarto learn more about the USCIS' new online filing for H1Bs.

On March 21, 2024, USCIS announced that theywould be extending the registration period for the 2024 (fiscal year 2025) H-1Bcap registration.

The initial registration opened atnoon eastern on March 6, 2024 and was scheduled to run through noon eastern onMarch 22, 2024. The registration period will now run through noon easternon March 25, 2024. The extension of the registration period is due to atemporary USCIS outage that was experienced by some registrants.

The registration process during thisextended period will remain the same and USCIS still intends to notifyregistrants that they are selected by March 31, 2024.