President Obama met with members of Congress on June 25, 2009 to seriously discuss U.S. immigration reform.  Both Democrats and Republicans expressed agendas for having a comprehensive immigration reform bill written and possibly passed this year, or early into 2010.  Issues including visa availability, visa backlogs, legalization, and many more surround the immigration debate.    [...]

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has recently announced that Family Sponsorship applications for Sri Lankan nationals will now be processed on an expedited basis in response to the current situation in Sri Lanka. The Ministry will not do this automatically, however. Applications will be processed expeditiously only where applicants or their lawyers access the CPC center [...]

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in partnership with the Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) and The Alliance for Sector Council (TASC), has recently launched a new resource to guide Canadian employers through the process of hiring foreign workers with international training. This new resource was announced this month by by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister [...]

Effective June 29, 2009, USCIS will provide Premium Processsing service for certain I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker.  Premium Processing service provides faster adjudication for certain employment-based petitions and applications; specifically, USCIS will adjudicate the petition or application within 15 calendar days for a fee of USD$1000.  Premium Processing service will be available for EB-1 [...]

On June 16, 2009, USCIS released a statement indicated that they have received approximately 44,400 H-1B cap petitions that are being counted towards the H-1B cap.  USCIS continues to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced-degree petitions.  USCIS will continue to accept these petitions until they receive enough petitions to satisfy the statutory limit of 65,000 [...]

The soon-to-be Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Richard Fadden, announced yesterday that every visitor to Canada may be required to provide digital fingerprints and photos at foreign visa offices prior to traveling.  Mr. Fadden did not state how biometric information will be gathered for individuals entering Canada who are visa-exempt and therefore not [...]