Recent amendments by the Government of Canada to the Citizenship Act which came into effect on June 19, 2017 has confirmed that additional alterations regarding criteria for Canadian citizenship will come into effect as on October 11, 2017. The new changes will aim at reducing the age requirement for meeting the language and knowledge criteria […]

Under the EB-5 program, increasing number of Indian nationals are shelling out half a million US dollars in order to get themselves and their families permanent residence status in the US, and eventually American citizenship.  The EB-5 is an investment program which allows foreign nationals to obtain US green cards through investment.  The minimum investment […]

LawQuest was delighted and honored to have the presence of various Consular Officers at their Diwali & Dance Party on October 7, 2017.  It was truly a pleasure to dance and dine with Consular Officers from the Belgian, German, Korean, Bangladeshi and New Zealand Consulates in Mumbai. LawQuest extends its heartiest thanks to the Consulate Officials and […]

On October 3, 2017, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had resumed Premium Processing Services, for all type of H-1B petitions, including the extension of stay petitions for the fiscal year 2018. The USCIS had temporarily suspended the Premium Processing Service for all H-1B visa petitions filed on or after April 3, 2017.   A petitioner may […]

Poorvi was a speaker on the “The Facts on Immigration Programs for Indian citizens” panel at the EB-5 Investors Magazine’s 2017 Mumbai EB-5 & Investment Immigration Expo held from October 4 – 5, 2017 at the St. Regis Mumbai (http://www.eb5investors.com/conferences/2017-mumbai-eb-5-expo)

President Trump’s latest travel ban which was set to take effect on October 18th, was blocked yesterday by a federal judge in Hawaii.  The latest ban imposed travel restrictions on citizens of Chad, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.  The federal judge’s order stops it, at least temporarily, with respect to all […]

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new binding memo on October 23rd rescinding earlier policy that required officers to give deference to prior decisions, in processing nonimmigrant visa extension applications.  This new policy affects all employment extension petitions (I-129), including H-1B, L-1, O-1 and more. The new memo emphasized that the burden […]

According to data of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Indian IT giants became the biggest consumers of the non-immigrant work visa – L-1 visa – for the fiscal years 2015 and 2016.  L-1 visas are available to employees of an entity or corporation with offices in both the U.S. and overseas.  The […]

Immigration of Indian nationals to foreign countries via various investor-visa programmes was not very popular until a few years ago.  Lately, increasing number of Indians are considering the option of immigration to countries such as US, Canada and certain European countries by investing in businesses in these countries. The goal or motivation for obtaining a […]

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made headlines with its act of granting honorary citizenship to Sophia, a humanoid robot. Though the move has been criticized for various social and ethical reasons, it certainly raises a question of importance in present times where artificial intelligence is being developed at an accelerating pace: can a robot […]