Another sad day for immigration lawyers, employers and workers. USCIS announced it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year 2009. This is a clear sign the system is not working, we need more visas to jump…
Sad but true, it seems that H2B visas will run out in the next few days. Here is a recent count update as provided by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. July 23, 2008 H-2B Count On July 24, 2008 USCIS updated the count of H-2B petitions received and counted towards…
We process many TN visa cases at our office and through our self help kit guide on the TN Visa Expert Site. The TN visa is available for Canadian and Mexican citizens. The applicant must be coming to work in the United States as one of 65 job titles defined…
The Department of Labor continues to fight against immigration service providers. First it was the largest Law Firm in America and now a software provider. DOL announced the debarment of an immigration software company, having determined that the company willfully provided false or inaccurate information when applying for permanent labor…
A few days ago USCIS updated the count of H-2B petitions received and counted towards the H-2B cap. As of July 1, 2008, 17,305 petitions have been counted towards the 33,000 cap for the first half of fy 2009. For the lawyers filing H2B visas and employers needing them badly,…
The American Immigration Lawyers Association reports that USCIS Service Center Operations has provided the following information to AILA liaison regarding processing cases under the FY2009 H-1B cap: 1. Except for cases that were being reviewed as potential duplicate filings, all receipts have been issued for those cases selected in the…
More bad news for H1B visa holders. DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel released a memo on the payment of back wages to doctors hired on H-1B visas by the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”), stating “the statute authorizing the H-1B visa program does not waive the federal Government’s sovereign immunity.…
ComputerWorld’s Patrick Thibodeau is doing an excellent job covering H1B and the Green Crisis in the past two years. I was happy to be interviewed for his H1B article coverage in early April. His most recent article regarding the need for Green Card Fix is right on the money. He…
We continue our updates on the new TN visa extension rules. USCIS announced today that it is publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to increase the maximum amount of time a Trade- NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico can remain in the United States before seeking readmission or…
DHS issued an updated OPT filing guide for schools and students.In April, DHS published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled Extending Period of Optional Practical Training by 17 Months for F-1 Nonimmigrant Students With STEM Degrees and Expanding Cap-Gap Relief for All F-1 Students With Pending H-1B Petitions. The revised…