Business Immigration in a Minute by Honigman LLP

• The Department of State recently released the December 2023 Visa Bulletin. In addition to the final action dates and dates for filing charts for employment-based immigrant visa and adjustment of status cases, it contains notes on the diversity lottery. Notably, EB-2 and EB-3 final action dates for China will advance by approximately three weeks. All other employment-based final action dates and dates for filing will remain unchanged. For December 2023, employment-based applicants must use the dates for filing chart for adjustment of status applications.
  
  
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that certain renewal applicants who have filed Form I-765 qualify for an automatic extension of their expiring employment authorization and/or employment authorization documents for 180 days while their renewal application is pending. USCIS notes that the change is not retroactive and, thus, all previously granted up to 540-day automatic extensions will remain in place.
  
  
• The Department of Labor (“DOL”) updated its processing times for PERM applications and prevailing wage requests. As of October 31, 2023, the DOL is adjudicating PERM applications filed in or before December 2022 and processing prevailing wage requests filed in or before March 2023.
  
  
• Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, when filed with Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, is now filed at the USCIS lockbox. Starting December 13, 2023, USCIS will reject any Form I-907 filed with Form I-140 received at the previous address.

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