Mayor of Bacum, Mexico Sentenced for False Statement in Application and Use of a United States Passport

TUCSON, Ariz. – On April 8, 2019, Rogelio Aboyte Limon, 47, of Bacum, Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Judge Raner C. Collins to 15 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Aboyte Limon had previously pleaded guilty to false statement in application and use of a passport.                

     On Dec. 27, 2018, Aboyte Limon was arrested using a fraudulently obtained United States passport in an attempt to enter the United States through the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz. Aboyte Limon originally obtained the passport in 2005, renewed it in 2015, and used it on multiple occasions.  The false statements in the renewal application included using another person’s identity, claiming United States

USCIS Reaches FY 2020 H-1B Regular Cap

USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap for fiscal year 2020. USCIS will next determine if we have received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap.

The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings (PDF, 119 KB).

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.  Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, an

Re-Registration Period Now Open for Individuals with Temporary Protected Status under South Sudan’s Designation

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under South Sudan’s designation who want to maintain their status through the 18-month extension period ending on Nov. 2, 2020, must re-register between April 5, 2019 and June 4, 2019.

Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documents (EADs), have been published in the Federal Register and are available at uscis.gov/tps.

All applicants must submit Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status. Applicants may

Hampden Woman Sentenced to Five Years of Probation for Conspiracy to Commit Marriage Fraud

BANGOR, Maine - United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Marena Mushero, 28, recently of Hampden, Maine, was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by Judge Lance E. Walker to five years of probation for conspiring to enter a marriage in order to evade U.S. immigration laws.

According to court records, Mushero, a United States citizen, posted an advertisement on an on-line forum, in which she offered to marry a person in need of permanent resident status in exchange for money.   On June 13, 2018, she received a response from a Nepalese citizen who was lawfully in the U.S. and living in another state.  Mushero agreed to marry him in exchange for cash payments so that he could get a “green card.”  On June 25, 2018, Mushero and her coconspirator were married in Brewer, Maine.  Before and after

Non-Profit Organization Operator Pleads Guilty for Her Role in Armenian for-Profit U.S. Visa Fraud Scheme

Stella Boyadjian, 48, of Rego Park, New York pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to unlawfully bring in aliens, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara in the Eastern District of New York for her role in a multi-year visa fraud scheme that brought Armenian citizens into the United States for profit.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue of the Eastern District of New York and U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Director Christian J. Schurman, made the announcement.

According to the indictment, Boyadjian, led a transnational network of co-conspirators who engaged in a widespread visa fraud scheme to bring Armenian citizens into the United States by fraudulently claiming to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigr

Consultants From California And Texas Charged With Visa Fraud And Conspiracy

Eleven-Count Indictment Alleges Defendants’ Staffing Company Submitted Fraudulent Applications for High-Tech Worker Visas

SAN JOSE - A federal grand jury indicted Kishore Dattapuram, Kumar Aswapathi, and Santosh Giri, charging the defendants in a visa fraud scheme, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Spradlin. 

According to the indictment, Dattapuram, 49, of Santa Clara, Aswapathi, 49, of Austin, Texas, and Giri, 42, of San Jose, operated Nanosemantics, Inc., a Santa Clara-based consulting firm whose services included placing skilled foreign workers at software and technology companies in the Bay Area.  According to the indictment, the defendants worked together to submit fraudulent H-1B visa applications on behalf of foreign

USCIS Launches H-1B Employer Data Hub

USCIS has launched an H-1B Employer Data Hub to provide information to the public on employers petitioning for H-1B workers. The data hub is part of our continued effort to increase transparency in employment-based visa programs by allowing the public to search for H-1B petitioners by fiscal year (back to FY 2009), NAICS code, employer name, city, state, or ZIP code. This will give the public the ability to calculate approval and denial rates and to review which employers are using the H-1B program. Data for individual fiscal years is available to download on the H-1B Employer Data Hub Files page.

To help the public use the data hub and understand the terminology in it