In a sudden and surprising move, a number of immigration-related provisions were inserted into the must-pass government funding bill, titled “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016” The bill passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Obama on [...]
With the end of the year quickly approaching, many of our clients will travel abroad during the Holiday season to visit their homelands and will need to renew their current U.S. visas. We would like to remind our Indian clients and friends about the Interview Waiver Program (IWP) which allows some qualified individuals to apply [...]
A recent class action lawsuit serves as a reminder that employment policies for H-1B workers must comply not only with Federal immigration laws, but also state and local labor rules. On November 9, 2015, Accenture PLC, a global professional services company, became the defendant in a class action lawsuit filed in New York State. The [...]
September 30, 2015 was the last day on which the additional filing fee required to be paid by certain H-1B dependent employers was required. The Public Law 111-230 additional filing fee of $2,000 was required to be paid [...]
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 [...]
USCIS has just announced that effective today, July 13, 2017, they are resuming accepting Form I-907 premium processing service requests for all H-1B petitions. Previously, in mid-May, USCIS had announced that they are suspending the premium processing service for certain H-1B extension or transfer petitions until July 27, 2015 and we are glad to see [...]
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 [...]
USCIS has announced that effective May 26, 2015, they are temporarily suspending the premium processing for all H-1B extension of stay petitions for two months, or until July 27, 2015. This surprising announcement comes in light of the anticipated heavy demand and number of filings for H-4 Spouse EAD when the filing window for this [...]
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 [...]
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. This year's number of filings (233,000) is at an all-time high, meaning that about 1 in 3 H-1B cap applications will be selected for review. As USCIS [...]
