The USCIS announced late last week that it would permit F-1 students who have properly filed H-1B petitions in April and have their petition selected during the random lottery to request a change of status processing in lieu of consular notification. Please read the full article for details on the procedure.
The Washington Post published today an article about the H-1B visa program and how its benefits and problems affect immigrants, employers and American workers. The article is fairly short but it compresses the feelings of the three major stakeholders in the H-1B visa program debate. The U.S. Employers The H-1B program was designed to help U.S. companies [...]
For green card holders who plan to be outside of the U.S. for six months or more and less than two years, the re-entry permit procedure now requires biometric processing. There are steps which can be followed to expedite the biometric processing.
In a Memorandum of Understanding, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is one step closer to adding Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania as Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries. This comes after DHS signed similar agreements with Estonia and Latvia earlier in March 2008.
A proposed rule is under review which would allow F-1 visa holders to obtain optional practical training (OPT) for 17 months (compared to 12 currently) and which will be a great relief to F-1 visa holders seeking to obtain H-1B or other labor immigration status after completing their studies.
The annual H-1B filing season starts tomorrow, April 1st, and employers and employees who have applied for an H-1B visa are hoping for low numbers of applications. Unfortunately, preliminary sources suggest that even though the U.S. economy is slowing down, there are many sectors which are still running strong and the demand of H-1B visas is expected to be as strong as ever.
A new report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) indicates that major US companies experience severe shortages of skilled labor. According to the report, major U.S. technology companies today average more than 470 U.S.-based skilled job openings. NFAP surveyed postings for U.S.-based jobs that require at least an undergraduate degree for 500 companies [...]
Earlier in February, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification at the Department of Labor released its official FY 2007 data covering cases processed under the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM). The PERM data provides an insight into the level of demand for U.S. jobs in different industry sectors and geographic areas.
A very common question by the holders of visas which have employment restrictions is, “Can I engage in unpaid volunteer work under my visa?” The answer is that it depends on the type of unpaid volunteer work you are seeking to perform.
Many foreign nationals who are on H-1B visa and have their spouses on H-4 visa often face the issue of insufficient income for Form I-864, Affidavit of Support purposes when filing for adjustment of status.