The April 9, 2015 AAO decision In Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC (PDF copy) put many H-1B employers (mainly those who place H-1B workers at third-party worksites) in a position to scramble and assess their current level of compliance with the H-1B regulations, as they would be interpreted by USCIS in accordance with the Simeio [...]
In today’s globalized economy, more and more industries rely on telecommuters and remote employees to fill in positions, whether part-time or full-time. One of the challenges that our corporate clients are faced with in such a global market is the difficulty of getting remote employees to appear in person at the employer’s location and complete [...]
The Simeio H-1B guidance has been updated. Please see the Final Policy Memorandum on Simeio. The April 9, 2015 AAO decision In Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC (PDF copy) put many H-1B employers (mainly those who place H-1B workers at third-party worksites) in a position to scramble and assess their current level of compliance with [...]
Many of our readers are aware that as of April 7, 2015, USCIS had received a sufficient number of H-1B cap-subject petitions to fill the annual H-1B quota. As USCIS has been issuing receipt notices for the H-1B cap cases which are being selected for processing (we even are starting to see H-1B cap premium [...]
A recent Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision which highlighted the requirement for an H-1B amendment any time there is a change in the job site requiring a new Labor Condition Application (LCA) has created a lot of conversation in some H-1B circles and our office has been handling many inquiries, concerns and reactions to the [...]
Our office just learned that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has completed the intake and processing of all of the fiscal year (FY2016) H-1B cap petitions. According to USCIS, there were nearly 233,000 H-1B cap petitions filed during the April 1st-7th filing period. This marks a 35% percent increase in the number of [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that, as of today, April 7th, they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2015 fiscal year (FY2016). According to USCIS, they have received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries with U.S. master’s degree and more [...]
As we are going into 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 knew [...]
On April 1, 2015 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will start accepting applications for one of the most popular U.S. work visas, H-1B, for fiscal year (FY) 2016. Our intelligence and past experience suggest that this year’s H-1B cap season will be very short — five business days. Our office is already [...]
The short answer is yes. Benching H-1B workers can lead to a criminal visa fraud indictment. Employers who hire H-1B employees and fail to pay the wages indicated in the Labor Condition Application during a work stoppage may be violating the terms set forth in the Department of Labor regulations. The practice of “benching” H-1B [...]
