Free Casseus Law Webinar: Immigration Q&A
Next Session: Wednesday, May 6, 2020, at 2pm EST

Free Casseus Law Webinar: Immigration Q&A

We have gotten so much positive feedback from our April 28, 2020 Immigration Q&A session, we have decided to hold another one on May 6, 2020, at 2pm EST. Click the button above to register. We will be opening up the session to a wider audience, and invite you to share this link with your contacts.

April 28, 2020 Casseus Law Immigration Q&A Webinar Recap

We started yesterday’s session off with a 30 minute presentation discussing employment-based green card categories, and the path to permanent residence, including the EB-2 NIW National Interest Waiver, EB-1A Extraordinary Ability, and EB-1B Outstanding Researcher or Professor categories. Some of the highlights of the discussion include:

• Employment-based routes to US permanent residence is a two step process:
  1. First, a USCIS officer reviews the applicant’s form I-140 and supporting case documents to decide if the applicant meets the category criteria for case approval.
  2. Second, the case is either processed in the US, through the adjustment of status process, which now requires an in-person interview, or through consular processing at a US consulate abroad.
• The most recent Executive Order. The good news is that the ban will not prevent individuals, who are already in the US, with a valid immigration status, from applying for employment-based permanent residency. Also, individuals who are abroad may submit National Interest Waiver petitions, as they are not subject to the ban.
• During the current COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS Service Centers remain open to receive and process cases, but in-person interviews are closed. The closure of in-person services is expected to delay case processing; however, we are working with and encouraging applicants, who are qualified, and ready to submit their applications, to do so, because cases are processed on a first come first serve basis. Once in-person services open up, applicants will be in line for case processing and if all goes well, green card approval.

We then had a robust Question and Answer session, where participants were able to ask their questions. We were surprised that we had enough time to answer everyone’s questions. Many individual questions focused on how to plan next steps, and what options are available for individuals from China and India, who do not have a green card currently available to them based on backlogs. During this part of the session, we had a robust discussion on:

• The idea of using the EB-2 priority date for individuals who are not eligible for the EB-1A. With an approved I-140, an individual may extend their H-1B indefinitely until their priority date is current to apply for adjustment of status.

We look forward to answering as many questions as we can, and to providing as much information possible to help individuals understand the immigration process to allow them to have successful future applications.