One of the common RFE issues raised by USCIS in connection with H-1B petitions is the suitability of the beneficiary’s educational (and experience) qualifications. There are two aspects to this RFE issue — whether the degree itself is a US-equivalent [...]
USCIS has released a proposed rule which seeks to change the H-1B visa program regulations. The changes are generally positive and seek to allow greater flexibility for petitioners and to strengthen the H-1B cap lottery program. Also, the proposed [...]
October 1 is the first day of the government fiscal year and also the date when H-1B “cap” applicants in the U.S. have their status changed automatically to H-1B. This is a reminder that employees who may not have been [...]
With the recent increase of remote or hybrid work arrangements, and the return to office to third-party client sites, we would like to provide a reminder of the relevant H-1B rules for compliance when changing (or having already [...]
Many of our readers are aware of the extraordinary demand for first-time H-1B "cap" registrations over the past few years and especially after USCIS introduced a pre-registration system during the 2021 fiscal year. Under the previous H-1B "cap" filing system, a petition would have to prepare and submit a full H-1B petition (with [...]
USCIS has just completed the second round of the H-1B cap selection lottery and notified the selected applicants. The August 2023 selection round was due to the fact that a (significant) number of H-1B cap registrations [...]
USCIS has finally released details of the numbers of H-1B cap registrations for the upcoming fiscal year and the numbers are well above expectations in a number of ways. USCIS reported that out of a total of 780,888 [...]
Since the H-4 EAD rule became effective in May 2015, our office has assisted many eligible H-4 spouses secure work authorization under the H-4 EAD program. We continue to applaud USCIS’s efforts to allow certain H-4 spouses to apply for [...]
With the approaching H-1B cap filing season, one of the most common concerns we are hearing from both prospective H-1B employers and candidates is about the H-1B cap lottery and the fact that the random lottery does not provide a great chance of an H-1B application being selected for review. Our office has handled thousands [...]
Our office has been receiving an increasing number of inquiries and reports of situations where USCIS would deny a pending I-539 H-4 application (sometimes with a concurrent I-765 H-4 EAD) based on a prior employer’s H-1B petition [...]
