In recent years, despite the U.S.’s rich history as a haven for ambitious immigrants, many foreigners looking to work in the U.S. have had to cope with increasingly restrictive immigration policies. As a result, the number of immigrant-founded startups in Silicon Valley, to take an example, has declined from 52.4% in 2005 to 43.9% in [...]
The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed substantial revisions to Form 9035 (and its instructions), Labor Condition Application, which is used to support a number of employment-based visas, including H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3. The proposed changes to the form are significant in many respects -- the government now requires all LCA beneficiaries (up to 10 [...]
The Brookings Institute has completed and released an interesting report (PDF document, accompanied by interactive charts) on the H-1B program. The report aims to provide a deeper analysis of the H-1B program and to understand the issues and the competitive advantages (or lack thereof) of one of the H-1B work visa which is the most [...]
One of the most popular U.S. work visas, the H-1B, will start accepting filings for new H-1B employment on April 2. Pursuant to each yearly H-1B quota, new H-1B filings can be filed on April 1 (April 2nd this year because April 1st is a Sunday), at the earliest, for a starting date of employment [...]
Due to the significant number of PERM-based green cards and H-1B work visa applications (including the required Labor Condition Application, or LCA), our office constantly monitors developments at the Department of Labor (DOL) which controls the review of PERM and LCAs. As of October 5, 2011, DOL has shared some important statistics about their processing [...]
Our office handles a substantial number of H-1B work visa petitions for a variety of U.S. employers and we often share our direct experiences with the H-1B work visa program. This article is intended to share our experience with H-1B work visa petitions where there is a change of the job location once the H-1B [...]
One of the most popular U.S. work visas, the H-1B, will start accepting filings for new H-1B employment on April 1, in exactly one week. Pursuant to each yearly H-1B quota, new H-1B filings can be filed on April 1, at the earliest, for a starting date of employment on or after October 1. The [...]
Under a new directive marked as “Tier 1″ (high strategic importance and significant impact on one or more industries), the Internal Revenue Service (”IRS”) has indicated that it will be focusing increased resources on H-1B sponsor companies’ tax withholding and reporting. As our clients and readers know, the H-1B nonimmmigrant work visa is one of the [...]
The increasing unemployment rate inevitably affects foreign nationals living and working in the U.S. on a work visa. We have been happy to help many clients over the past months who have either been laid off or have decided to seek a better opportunity to attend school by changing their status to F, J or [...]
By nature, consulting companies often send their employees to work at a third-party’s worksite and perform services onsite. When filing H-1B work visa petitions for their workers, many consulting or third-party worksite companies have faced an increasing number of requests for evidence (”RFES”) requesting information about the duties of the employee, itinerary of work and [...]