The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced earlier this afternoon that they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2014 fiscal year (FY2014). According to USCIS, they have received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries with U.S. master's degree and more than the [...]
On March 27, 2013, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) published the long-awaited agency regulation that will automate Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Form. The change will be implemented at air and sea ports of entry in a phased approach beginning April 30. What does it mean? Form I-94 provides international visitors evidence they have been [...]
As we are going in to the peak of the H-1B cap season, our office receives many inquiries about the duration of the H-1B filing season this year or, in other words, when will the H-1B cap be reached? So far we have been able to compare demand with prior H-1B filing seasons and we [...]
One of the most popular U.S. work visas, the H-1B, will start accepting filings for new H-1B employment on April 1. 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 H-1B Quota and [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the April 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the seventh Visa Bulletin for the FY2013 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the lack of movement (again) in EB-2 India. Many have been looking forward to this Visa Bulletin in order to gauge [...]
Our office has established a reputation as one of the leading practices for handling appeals with the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) and we often receive inquiries not only about the procedural aspects of an AAO appeal but also about the current processing times for AAO cases. The AAO processing times are published monthly, at the [...]
There is a more recent version of this article. Please see our most recent report from Mr. Charles Oppenheim. In a recent conversation with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) of which our office is a member, Mr. Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State, has [...]
The Department of Labor has provided some updates for the first quarter of the Fiscal Year 2013 (October 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012) on their processing of PERM cases and we are happy to share them with our clients and readers. DOL Processing Statistics (First Quarter, 2013 Fiscal Year) PERM According to the report, [...]
As many of our clients and readers are aware, unless Congress decides to act on a long-term federal deficit-reduction plan before March 1, the government will suffer automatic slashes under the looming "sequester" plan passed in 2011. It will cut 8 percent from U.S. military spending and 5 percent from other domestic spending budgets. The [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") is set to begin accepting H-1B visa applications pursuant to its Fiscal Year 2014 (FY2014) quota. The first day on which USCIS will accept new, cap-subject H-1B petitions, is Monday, April 1, 2013. About the H-1B Program and the Annual Cap The H-1B visa category was created in [...]