USCIS DENYING GREEN CARDS TO OVERQUALIFIED BSN NURSES

MU Law is aware that the USCIS has been denying/issuing RFE/NOIDs on I-140s when nurses hold a BSN.  The USCIS somehow has been finding that BSN nurses are not qualified for nursing positions that require an Associate’s degree in nursing (ASN).  USCIS claims that the I-140 should be denied because the BSN does not meet the exact requirements on the ETA Form 9089.

This is ridiculous decision-making by USCIS.  The BSN is, of course, a higher degree than an Associate’s degree.  BSN nurses are more than qualified for these positions. The law is clear that any I-140 beneficiary can have additional skills, experience, or education beyond the requirements stated in the ETA Form 9089 and still meet the minimum requirements of the position.

MU Law and others have reached out to USCIS through AILA, suggesting that this is a training issue at USCIS .  As per a recent AILA update, USCIS is looking into this issue.  We hope to have a positive update soon.

CHECKING IN ON THE VISA BULLETIN

The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin guru, Charlie Oppenheim, hosts monthly meetings with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  Charlie Oppenheim is the Department of State’s Chief of the Control and Reporting Division. He is the officer who is responsible for producing the Visa Bulletin each month.

This month’s Check In With Charlie featured predictions about EB2 and EB3, which are the most popular categories for readers of this Blog.  Here are some of this month’s highlights:

EB-3 Worldwide.  Charlie expects EB-3 Worldwide to continue to be “effectively current” for the foreseeable future.

EB-3 India. Charlie predicts that the July final action date for EB-3 India will advance to October 15, 2005, which he reiterated at a May 18, 2017 meeting with AILA in Washington, D.C.

EB-2 India. Previously, Charlie believed that this category will recover to FY2017’s final action date.  Unfortunately, he no longer believes this to be the case.  This category may retrogress or exhaust in August, until October 1, 2017.

EB-3 Philippines.  Charlie did not comment on EB-3 Philippines, but MU Law’s internal tracking indicates that this category will continue to progress at the same rate as the last few months.  

H-1B CAP UPDATE

On May 3, 2017, the USCIS announced that it completed the data entry for the 2017 (FY 2018) H-1B cap season.  MU Law believes that it has received all of the H-1B receipts that it will receive this year.  Our in-house receipt numbers mirror the overall 42% receipt number.

H-1B Cap Approval Notices and RFEs.  Last week, Musillo Unkenholt received its first 2017 H-1B cap approval notices.  We have also received our first 2017 H-1B cap Requests for Evidence.  It is unclear how long it will take the USCIS to issue approvals and RFEs for the H-1B cap cases. 

H-1B Returned Petitions.  Musillo Unkenholt has not yet received any returned H-1B cap-subject petitions from USCIS.  Last year, we continued to receive unselected petitions into August.  Our hope is that the USCIS will be faster in light of the 20% decline in H-1B cap petition filings. 

H-1B Premium Processing.  What is also unknown is the state of the Premium Processing Service (PPS) for H-1B petitions.  In March the USCIS revealed that it would be suspending PPS for all H-1B petitions, including cap-subject, amendments, and extensions, for as long as 6 months.  A 6-month suspension of H-1B PPS means that H-1B PPS could be suspended until October 1, 2017.  USCIS has made no announcement as to whether it will shorten the H-1B PPS suspension since so few H-1B cap petitions were filed.

JUNE 2017 VISA BULLETIN: ANALYSIS AND PREDICTIONS

The Department of State has just issued the June 2017 Visa Bulletin.  This is the eight Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2017.  This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

June 2017 Visa Bulletin

Final Action Dates

Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card).

Employ- ment based	All Charge- ability  Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA- mainland  born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	01JAN12	01JAN12	C	C
2nd	C	01MAR13	01JUL08	C	C
3rd	15APR17	01OCT14	15MAY05	15MAR17	01MAY13

MU Law Analysis

All Other:  The EB-2 has been current for many years.  The EB-3 progression continues, moving an additional one month.  Consular processed EB-3 are effectively current.

China:   The DOS has instituted a retrogression for China EB-1.  The continued high level of demand for EB-1 numbers for USCIS adjustment of status applicants has required the establishment of a date for June. It is expected that this EB-1 retrogression will last until October 2017. 

The China EB-2 date again moved up, but only a few weeks.  The DOS notes that there has been an extremely large increase in EB-3s during the past month. The China EB-3 date is being held for the month of June. Continued heavy demand for numbers will require a retrogression of China EB-3  no later than August.

India:  As with China, India EB-1 now is retrogressed.  It is expected that this EB-1 retrogression will last until October 2017. 

EB-2 India moved up about two weeks.  EB-3 India actually moved up almost two months.  It is our expectation that these two categories will move very slowly in the foreseeable future. 

Mexico: Mirrors All Other in all aspects.

Philippines: EB-3 moved ahead by yet another four more months.  The Philippine EB-3 number essentially cleaned out all of the 2010, 2011, 2012, and half of 2013 EB-3 visas in about 6 months.  This is even more positive than we expected.  (Our note from September 2016: "This is consistent with internal MU Law analysis which sees this category progressing into 2013 by the Summer of 2017.").  

USCIS COMPLETES DATA ENTRY OF H-1B CAP PETITIONS

USCIS has just announced that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2018 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in their computer-generated random process.  It may take a week or so for all of the H-1B cap receipts to be delivered.  If a Beneficiary has not received an H-1B receipt notice in the next week or so, it stands to reason that they have not “won” the H-1B lottery.

Shortly, USCIS will begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected.  USCIS is unable to provide a definite time frame for returning these petitions.  USCIS will issue an announcement once all of the unselected petitions have been returned.

In order to balance the distribution of H-1B cap cases, USCIS is transferring some Form I-129 H-1B cap subject petitions from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center.  

PT INTERSTATE LICENSURE COMPACT MAY GO LIVE IN 2018

First reported by PT In Motion, The State of Washington became the tenth state to join the Interstate Licensure Compact for Physical Therapy (PTLC).  The tenth state is key because that is the threshold for the Compact to become effective.  

Once fully live, the PTLC will allow PTs in one compact state to practice in another compact state without having to obtain another state PT license.

The ten states are: Washington, Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah. 

Before the PTTC can go fully live, a Commission must be developed.  The Commission will establish the rules governing interstate practice.  It is expected that it will take about one year for the Commission to be established and the final rules promulgated.

APTA is optimistic that more states will want to join the PTLC now that the ten state threshold has been reached.  States that are interested in the PTLC should contact the APTA state affairs staff.