The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced earlier this afternoon that they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2014 fiscal year (FY2014). According to USCIS, they have received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries with U.S. master's degree and more than the [...]
Throughout the H-1B cap filing season (which opened back in April), we have been providing updates on the available H-1B cap numbers. Over the past few weeks, we have been also issuing alerts (on our website, via our newsletter and through our twitter and facebook pages) on the upcoming H-1B cap limit. Partially as a [...]
Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are great and very popluar tools for sharing information with friends, relatives and colleagues. Their popularity is, partially, due to the fact that people are free to disclose personal information to their groups of friends, family or colleagues. Many privacy advocates are urging a more careful use [...]
Many of our readers and clients are aware of the recent developments with respect to the "border security bill" passed by Congress and recently signed by President Obama into law (Public Law 111-230). What Are the New H-1B and L-1 Filing Fees? Effective immediately, Public Law 111-230 requires the submission of an additional fee of [...]
We wrote in late October and early November of 2009 about the USCIS Ombudsman's recommendation that USCIS (1) accept H-1B filings without a certified LCA but with a proof of filed and pending LCA and (2) to excuse late H-1B filings where the delay in filing was caused by pending LCA or employer's Federal Employed [...]
Two weeks ago we wrote about the USCIS Ombudsman recommendation to modify the LCA/H-1B filing process to avoid negative consequences associated with delayed LCAs. As a response, USCIS just announced a temporary change in policy pursuant to which it will temporarily accept H-1B petitions filed without Labor Conditions Applications (LCA) that have been certified by the [...]
In a formal recommendation to USCIS, its Ombudsman has reviewed the current H-1B filing requirements with respect to LCAs and has concluded that changes to the LCA/H-1B filing process are necessary to avoid a number of negative consequences prejudicing employees and employers alike. The drive behind this policy review by the USCIS Ombudsman is a number [...]
After USCIS suspended temporarily the I-140 premium processing service on July 2, 2007, we have been constantly fielding questions on when the temporary suspension would end. Over the past few weeks there was increased speculation that premium processing for Form I-140 would resume. Earlier this week, USCIS confirmed that in fact premium processing for I-140 [...]
We have written before about the H-1B quote of 65,000 which opens on April 1, 2008 for starting employment date of October 1, 2008. We anticipate that the entire quota will be used on the first day of the filing, therefore it becomes important to make sure the filing is done correctly.