Tag Archives: H-1B

As reported on April 6, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received more H-1B cap petitions than the statutory available visas for both the general cap of 65,000 available H-1B visas and the additional 20,000 for U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the “master’s cap.” We understand how stressful it is for both the H-1B employers and the foreign national candidate as they await the results of the H-1B lottery (“work by lottery” program).… More

Now that the FY 2019 H-1B cap has been reached, make sure you have a strong immigration compliance programs in place, particularly when it comes to Department of Homeland Security’s H-1B Site Visit program and Department of Labor H-1B/Labor Condition Application Audit program. As reported earlier this year, the government plans to step up targeted site visits and audits for H-1B cases in 2018.… More

Today, April 6, 2018, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it has received more H-1B cap petitions than the statutory available visas for both the general cap of 65,000 available H-1B visas and the additional 20,000 for U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the “master’s cap.” Therefore as mandated, USCIS will run a computerized random selection lottery to choose the petitions that will be selected for processing.… More

“Give your dream a chance” is the state of New Jersey’s lottery slogan.  “Somebody’s gotta win” is the Massachusetts state lottery slogan.  In fact, each state has its own slogan, and these two just happen to resonate with me.  These slogans refer to each state’s random cash lottery options, where you can pay to play and, maybe if you are lucky, win.  For U.S. employers who want to employ global talent this year,… More

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hosted a DHS stakeholders call entitled “H-1B Cap and Filing Tips Stakeholder Engagement” that I participated in on March 6. It made me think about “merit-based” immigration and how we have not seen movement of any real proposals by the Trump administration – or his supporters in Congress.  I wondered what they have in mind for merit-based immigration and would it actually work for my clients,… More

On February 22, 2018, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy memo making it more restrictive for H-1B employers who have their consultants work at third party work sites to fulfil client projects. The new policy memo updates the January 2010 agency memo that outlined the guidelines in determining “Employer-Employee Relationship for Adjudication of H-1B Petitions, Including Third-Party Site Placements,” which is also called Neufeld memo.… More

It’s the time of year when U.S. employers are preparing for the upcoming H-1B cap petition filing season. While it appeared that USCIS was considering revising the H-1B lottery process for this fiscal year by adding a new online pre-registration step, USCIS recently confirmed that there are no changes to the process at this time. USCIS will begin accepting H-1B cap-subject petitions in the same manner as they have in years past,… More

Based on President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” USCIS has implemented a new policy to interview all employment-based adjustment of status applicants where the application was filed after March 6, 2017. For applications filed prior to that date, USCIS appears to be randomly selecting some applications for an interview.

USCIS Service Centers will continue to adjudicate the underlying I-140 Petition.… More