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ABOUT theVISAGeek™
TheVISAGeek™ is the pen name for Ann L. Lipson, a U.S. Immigration attorney with 25+ years experience.
Ann represents and advises business and individual clients worldwide from her base in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
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USA: (415) 738-2409
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1005 Pau Hana Drive
Soquel, California USA 95073TheVISAGeek™ TOPICS
- Border Inspection Issues (4)
- Citizenship (3)
- Consular Processing (3)
- Diversity Lottery (2)
- Employer Based Immigration Law (21)
- Entrepreneurs and Business Start-ups (16)
- Fiancé/Marriage/ Family (13)
- General Immigration (10)
- I-9 Compliance (6)
- Immigration Policy and Legislative Initiatives (38)
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- Intra-company Transfers (3)
- Investors/EB-5 (3)
- J-1 Waivers (10)
- NIW/EB-1/Outstanding Researchers and Professors (12)
- Political Asylum (1)
- Students (2)
- Tourist Visa/Visa Waiver (3)
- U.S. to U.K (2)
- Waivers (1)
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- TN Visa (1)
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Employer Based Immigration Law
EB-2 Green Cards Available Again (Except India and China)!
To Our EB-2 Advanced degree PERM/NIW clients Excellent news that we have all been waiting for!! EB-2 for all countries except India and China will be current for green card/immigrant visa processing starting on November 1, 2012. That means that all EB-2 self-petitioning NIW applicants who have already filed their NIW I-140 petition AND all… read more
PERM Print Ads: Failure to Include Travel Requirement Risks a DOL Denial
DOL ruling adds additional hurdles for print ads re. travel requirements A new case has just come down from the Department of Labor Appeals office which makes clear that print ads must include the travel requirements of a job opening. This decision is a result of a bizarre interpretation of a federal regulation. This regulation… read more
H-1B cap for 2012 reached on June 11
Time has run out for filing H-1B petitions for employment starting October 1, 2012 For those of you who missed it, USCIS released the following notice today regarding the employment-based non-immigrant visas for professionals or specialty occupations. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions… read more
EB-2 Priority Dates: Bad News on Backlog
Employment-based second preference (EB-2) green cards remain unavailable for India and China and are now backlogged to January, 2009 for ALL countries! We just received notification of the July Visa Bulletin from the U.S. State Department. As you will note, not only do India and China continue to be unavailable in the second preference category… read more
I-129 Processing Delays at USCIS: Additional 2 – 4 Week Delay
H-1B and L-1 visa petitioners should anticipate an extra 2 to 4 weeks to receive their fee receipt! We received the following news alert from USCIS today: Due to the high number of recently filed I-129 petitions with USCIS, customers may experience a longer than usual period of time to receive a receipt notice from… read more
Immigration Policy as an Economic Tool: Bloomberg
Our general policy on TheVisaGeek blog is to provide timely information from the front lines of immigration practice based on our experience representing and advocating for our clients. Thus, we don’t usually provide links to other blogs and online conversations on the assumption that our readers can also access these sources as they wish. However,… read more
EB-2 Green Cards: Bad News for India and China
Priority date retrogression confirmed for India and China EB-2 green cards for advanced degree professionals The Department of State (DOS) has just released its May Visa Bulletin and, as predicted, the EB-2 category for India and China will retrogress to August 15, 2007 as of May 1, 2012. Currently, the priority date for that category… read more
EB-2 Retrogression for China and India expected May or June, 2012
EB-2 applicants from China or India should move quickly to file their AOS Employment-based priority dates have been steadily moving forward on a consistent basis for the last few months. This steady movement of priority dates is expected to end on either May 1, 2012 or June 1, 2012. Charlie Oppenheim, Chief, Visa Control and… read more
Work Visas: RFE and Denial Rates Soaring
Soaring denial and RFE rates for L-1 and H-1B petitions are hurting U.S. business We knew it but no-one official was acknowledging it. Finally, a recent study from the National Foundation for American Policy - a non-partisan public policy research organized based in Virginia, released data showing that USCIS has dramatically increased denials of L-1… read more
Retaining Highly Skilled Immigrants Gaining Policy Traction
On January 31, 2012, USCIS announced several DHS reforms to attract the best and the brightest in furtherance of President Obama’s commitment “to make the U.S. more attractive to highly skilled foreign students and workers, thereby improving the competitiveness of U.S. companies int he world market and stimulating job creations.” Expand eligibility for 17-month extension… read more