Today February 15, 2019, USCIS announced that the agency will resume premium processing services on Tuesday February 19, 2019, for all H-1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018. Premium processing service remains suspended for H-1B petitions filed on or after December 22, 2018. USCIS will make an announcement…
Articles Posted in Specialty Occupations
Begin Preparing for the Upcoming H-1B Visa Lottery Today: Running Checklist FY 2020
Now is the time to begin preparing for the upcoming H-1B visa lottery. USCIS will begin to accept H-1B cap-subject petitions for fiscal year 2020 beginning Monday, April 1, 2019. Please note: employers cannot file an H-1B petition for an employee more than 6 months before the employee’s intended start date. If…
This Week in Immigration News: House Proposes to Add Ireland to E-3 Program, Dreamer Negotiations, and More…
The House Proposes to Extend the E-3 Program to Irish Nationals On November 20, 2018, the House of Representatives introduced H.R. 7164, a bill proposing to add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program. Currently, the E-3 visa program is available to American employers seeking to hire Australian nationals to…
Proposed Rule: Mandatory Registration Requirement for H-1B Petitioners
Today, November 30, 2018, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks to impose a registration requirement for H-1B petitioners seeking to file an H-1B petition on behalf of beneficiaries under the regular cap and advanced degree exemption. An unpublished version of…
USCIS Extends Temporary Suspension of Premium Processing to February 19, 2019
During March of this year, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the temporary suspension of premium processing services for all fiscal year 2019 cap-subject petitions, including petitions requesting an exemption from the general cap. USCIS announced that the suspension would last until September 10, 2018, in order…
This Week in Immigration News: Return of Unselected H-1B Petitions, Delay in Implementation of NTA Policy, and I-751 Petition Transfers
Return of Unselected H-1B Petitions H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the fiscal year 2019 visa lottery have been returned to unlucky applicants. If you filed a petition between April 2 and April 6 and you did not receive a receipt notice for your application, you will be…
USCIS Completes the H-1B Selection Process for FY 2019
Great News! Today, USCIS announced that the computer-generated selection process has been completed to select the H-1B petitions necessary to fulfill both the general cap and master’s cap for this H-1B season. The randomized lottery was completed yesterday April 11, 2018. This H-1B season, USCIS received 190,098 H-1B petitions for…
USCIS Announces H-1B Cap Reached for FY 2019, What’s Next?
Today April 6, 2018 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the H-1B general bachelor’s cap has been reached for fiscal year 2019. In addition, USCIS received more than 20,000 petitions for the advanced degree exemption. Sometime within the next week, USCIS will conduct a random computer-generated process,…
USCIS Cautions Against Different Employers Filing H-1B Cap Petitions for the Same Beneficiary to Increase Success
A new policy memorandum issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes clear that different H-1B petitioners may not file multiple H-1B petitions for a single beneficiary. This applies in a situation where different employers seek to file an H-1B petition for the same person. According to…
H-1B Blunders: USCIS Announces Suspension of Premium Processing for FY 2019 H-1B Cap Subject Petitions, A Word of Warning
In what seems like déjà vu, today, March 20, 2018 the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) formally announced that the agency will be temporarily suspending premium processing service for all fiscal year 2019 cap-subject petitions, including petitions that seek an exemption for individuals who possess a U.S. master’s…