As we are in the back end of this year's H-1B work visa “cap” registration season (registration ends at noon ET on March 25th), we wanted to provide a reminder for the remaining steps and timelines for this year's H-1B cap season. As a reminder, the H-1B cap season this year has (1) registration period, [...]
As we are just about to enter into this year's H-1B cap lottery registration, we hear a common and interesting question from candidates and employers who are trying to evaluate the chances of selection under the lottery, "Would the chances of H-1B cap lottery selection be higher next year?" The answer is that different groups [...]
As we are heading into the H-1B cap season this year, USCIS has just announced that a January 7, 2021 H-1B Selection final rule which sought to introduce salary-based selection will be delayed until at least December 31, [...]
Among the many first-day actions taken by the new Biden administration was to immediately put a block (or delay) to some of the last-minute employment-based immigration rules which were sought to be rushed by the prior administration. In a January 20, 2021 memo, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain directed in part, that (a) [...]
In a December 1, 2020 opinion (PDF copy), a U.S. Judge in Northern California has blocked the implementation of both the DOL and DHS/USCIS Interim Final Rules (IFR) which were introduced in October seeking to substantially increase the [...]
The Department of Homeland Security has substantially increased the I-907 premium processing service filing fee from $1,440 to $2,500 starting October 19, 2020. Under the optional premium processing service USCIS is required to provide a response within 15 calendar [...]
In a coordinated effort, both DHS/USCIS and DOL have just released two new rules which seek to introduce substantial changes to the H-1B program. DOL seeks to increase the prevailing wage levels by a substantial margin with immediate effective date of October 8, 2020. DHS/USCIS seeks to change the definition of specialty occupation and employer-employee [...]
On Friday, August 14, 2020, USCIS completed the second round of the H-1B cap selection lottery and notified the selected applicants. The August 2020 selection round was due to the fact that a (significant) number of [...]
Our office does not normally react to or otherwise speculate on or encourage rumors - as there have been many as far as immigration is concerned over the past years and especially over the recent months. But we feel compelled to share what we hearing from Washington with respect to some possible upcoming restrictions on [...]
USCIS has announced that H-1B cap petitions will experience a significant delay in the case intake and the issuance of receipt notices as a result of the Coronavirus/Covid-19 outbreak. USCIS have announced that they will not begin processing any filed H-1B cap petitions until at least May 1 although they will continue to accept filings. [...]
