Question: Can you please let me know if I can send my wife and son to India for a few months and return to US without stamping with new petition? Their H4 visa on passport is valid till Jan 2013 but with my previous petition.

Answer: Yes you can. The H-4 visa is valid until expiration as long as you are in H-1B status. The H-4 is not tied to your current employer in the same way as your H-1B status.

The signature is a required element of the LCA and this can lead to rejection of the H-1B petition by USCIS if the Certifying Officer’s signature is missing.

Please carefully review the certified LCA that is included as an e-mail attachment from iCERT.

If the document be missing the required signature you can download the complete certified ETA 9035 directly from the iCERT portal.

Director Alejandro Mayorkas kicked-off this innovative program, called the Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) initiative in February.

The EIR initiative consists of a tactical team comprised of outside experts working alongside USCIS employees.

For 90 days this collaborative team, comprised of both USCIS employees and entrepreneurs from the private sector, will identify opportunities where USCIS can streamline pathways for foreign entrepreneurs.

29,200 of the 65,000 H-1B regular cap-subject petitions were received by USCIS.

12,300 of the 20,000 H-1B petitions for foreign national beneficiaries with US Master Degrees were received by USCIS.

http://www.usavisanow.com/visa-bulletin/visa-bulletin-dates-employment/

http://www.usavisanow.com/visa-bulletin/visa-bulletin-dates-employment/

Specifically, USCIS is considering regulatory changes that will allow certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to request provisional waivers under section 212(a)(9)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended (INA or Act), 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B)(v), prior to departing the United States for consular processing of their immigrant visa applications.

An alien would be able to obtain such a waiver only if a Petition for Alien Relative, Form I-130, is filed by a U.S. citizen on his or her behalf and that petition has been approved, thereby classifying the alien as an “immediate relative” for purposes of the immigration laws, and he or she demonstrates that the denial of the waiver would result in extreme hardship to the alien’s U.S. citizen spouse or parent “qualifying relative.”

The qualifying relative for purposes of the waiver is not necessarily the immediate relative who filed the immigrant visa petition on the alien relative’s behalf.

Domestic petitioners will now mail their stand-alone I-130 applications to either the Chicago Lockbox or the Phoenix Lockbox, depending on their residence in the United States.

This effort will balance workloads between the two locations and provide more efficient and effective processing of Form I-130.

There will be no change in filing locations when submitting Form I-130 along with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.

Individuals filing these forms together will continue to mail them to the Chicago Lockbox facility.

Petitioners filing from overseas addresses in countries without USCIS offices will also continue to file at the Chicago Lockbox facility.

Petitioners residing in a country with a USCIS office may send their I-130 forms to the Chicago Lockbox, or they may file their Forms I-130 at the international USCIS office having jurisdiction over the area where they live.

If you are filing a standalone Form I-130, and you live in:

Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virgin Islands, Washington, Wyoming

Mail your application to the USCIS Phoenix Lockbox:

For U.S. Postal Service (USPS) deliveries:

For Express mail and courier deliveries:

Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Mail your application to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox:

For U.S. Postal Service:

For Express mail and courier deliveries:

If you live outside the United States, mail your application to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox:

For U.S. Postal Service:

For Express mail and courier deliveries:

If you are filing Form I-130 with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, and you live in the United States, Mail your application to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox

For U.S. Postal Service:

For Express mail and courier deliveries: