Employers

H-1B Cap 2018 Work Visa Season Is Underway – Opens for New Filings on Monday, April 2, 2018

On April 2, 2018 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will start accepting applications for one of the most popular U.S. work visas, H-1B, for fiscal year (FY) 2019.    Our [...]

By |2018-02-01T12:22:53-05:00February 1st, 2018|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert|

New USCIS Policy Creates I-140 Revocation Notice Rights to AC21 Porting Beneficiaries; Requires Proactive AC21 Porting Filing

In a November 11, 2017 Policy Memorandum, USCIS has formally adopted a recent AAO decision in Matter of V-S-G Inc. and has provided guidance on its impact on AC21 beneficiaries where the underlying I-140 immigrant petition is being revoked.   The new policy memorandum states that beneficiaries who have properly ported their green card process to [...]

By |2017-12-07T10:05:46-05:00December 7th, 2017|AOS, Articles, Employees, Employers, I-140, I-485, News, News Alert, Policy|

Wage Level I RFEs: How Helpful are Third-Party Professor Opinions?

USCIS has been very active and relentless in raising the Wage Level I issue in many thousands (if not tens of thousands) of requests for evidence (“RFE”) since June 2017.     It has become evident that a successful Wage Level [...]

By |2017-11-13T21:57:09-05:00November 13th, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert|

USCIS Changes Deference Policy for I-129 Extensions: Raises the Bar for Approvals

In an October 23, 2017 Memorandum, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") has issued a Policy Memorandum which eliminates the current practice of giving deference to prior approvals when adjudicating Form I-129 petition renewals where the petitioner, the beneficiary and the material facts of the petition remain unchanged.     This affects all I-129 petitions extensions, [...]

By |2017-10-24T10:19:36-04:00October 24th, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert, Policy|

Premium Processing Reinstated for All H-1B Cases as of October 3

USCIS has just officially confirmed as of today, October 3, 2017, they have reinstated the premium processing service for all types of H-1B petitions.    Petitions filed under the premium processing service are given a response by USCIS within 15 calendar days.  Similarly, pending "regular processing" H-1B petitions can be "upgraded" to premium processing service. [...]

By |2017-10-03T12:34:49-04:00September 28th, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert|

Trump Administration to End DACA – What Does That Mean for Employers?

On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ("DACA") program will end. DACA will remain in place until March 5, 2018 and the program will be phased out over the next two years. DACA Revocation Details The Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") has released details and clarifications regarding [...]

By |2017-09-07T12:16:22-04:00September 7th, 2017|Articles, DACA, Employers, News, News Alert|

Premium Processing for H-1B Cases Starting to Come Back, Gradually

USCIS appears to be in the process of reinstating premium processing service for H-1B petitions.  On July 24, 2017, USCIS announced that they are reinstating premium processing for H-1B petitions filed by cap-exempt employers. Background of the H-1B Premium Processing Service Suspension Effective April 3, 2017, USCIS suspended the premium processing service for all H-1B [...]

By |2017-07-27T12:49:19-04:00July 27th, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert|

USCIS Starts Issuing Redesigned Green Cards and EADs

Starting May 1, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) will start producing and issuing redesigned Permanent Resident Cards (also known as Green Cards) and the Employment Authorization Document (EADs). […]

By |2017-05-20T21:46:57-04:00May 8th, 2017|Articles, Employers, News|

USCIS Completes Data Entry and Receipting of H-1B Cap Petitions for FY2018

Many of our readers are aware that as of April 7, 2017, USCIS had received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual H-1B quota. As USCIS has been issuing receipt notices for the H-1B [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:46:57-04:00May 3rd, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert|

Alert: FY2018 H-1B Cap Demand Very Strong; Random Lottery Just Completed

Our office just learned that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has completed the intake and processing of all of the fiscal year (FY2018) H-1B cap petitions.    According to USCIS, there were over 199,000 H-1B cap petitions filed [...]

By |2017-04-17T17:09:24-04:00April 17th, 2017|Articles, Employers, H-1B, News, News Alert, USCIS|

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