H-1B

Pending H-1B Relief Bills

Following the H-1B lottery, where roughly half of the applications were rejected in the lottery, we are providing an overview of the pending H-1B relief bills in Congress. The main piece of legislation in connection with H-1B relief is the SKIL Bill (HR 1930, S 1083). The bill would raise the H-1B cap to 115,000 and provide for market-based increase if the cap has been reached during the previous years. The bill would also exempt from the cap professionals with U.S. master's or higher degrees AND some medical specialty certificate awardees. Finally, the SKIL Bill contemplates including into the 20,000 advanced degree cap holders of advanced degree from non-U.S. educational institutions. Please read the full article for more details on the pending bills in Congress seeking to provide H-1B relief.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:31-05:00May 30th, 2008|H-1B, News|

iGate Mastech Fined $45,000 by DOJ for H-1B Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Justice announced May 1, 2008, that it has imposed a civil fine of $45,000 to iGate Mastech, Inc., a Pittsburgh computer consulting company in connection with the company's alleged discrimination against United States citizens in its employment practices and advertisements. Please read the full article for details on this civil fine settlement.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:31-05:00May 2nd, 2008|H-1B, News|

USCIS Provides F-1 OPT Cap-Gap Fix

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.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:31-05:00April 21st, 2008|H-1B, News|

H-1B Visa Policy

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 [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:49:56-04:00April 21st, 2008|H-1B, News|

Withdrawal of Pending H-1B Application

Over the past few days we have been asked on numerous occasions - what happens to my OPT when my H-1B is approved? Can I withdraw my H-1B? The answer is 'Yes', but you must act quickly and with the cooperation of the employer sponsoring the H-1B visa. Read the full article for more details.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:32-05:00April 16th, 2008|H-1B, News|

USCIS Releases H-1B Numbers

USCIS had released a preliminary count of the H-1B applications filed during the period between April 1 and April 7, 2008. There are 163,000 H-1B petitions and more than 31,200 of those were for the advanced degree category.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:32-05:00April 11th, 2008|H-1B, News|

H-1B Cap Reached

As expected, USCIS announced earlier today that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the cap for fiscal year 2009. The 20,000 H-1B cap for holders of advanced degrees has also been reached.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:32-05:00April 8th, 2008|H-1B, News|

FedEx Service Disruption

We have received some inquiries from clients regarding the FedEx service disruption and how it may affect the H-1B filings. We wanted to address the issue and hopefully allow concerned H-1B petitioners that the disruption should not affect their petition.

By |2017-05-20T21:49:57-04:00April 2nd, 2008|H-1B, News|

H-1B Visa Filing Date and Lottery – We Are Available for Comments

With the H-1B filing date upon us, we have seen an increased amount of inquiries from companies, press organizations, legislative and not-for-profit entities seeking comments on the upcoming H-1B work visa lottery and the broader economic impact of the current labor immigration landscape. Please contact us if you need comments from immigration attorneys who specialize in labor immigration.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:32-05:00March 31st, 2008|H-1B, News|

The “Visa Roulette” Begins Tomorrow

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.

By |2010-01-01T17:14:33-05:00March 31st, 2008|H-1B, News|

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