It is not a secret that the last several month have brought a great increase in the rate of RFEs and denials on H-1B petitions – mainly focusing on the specialty occupation and right to control issues. As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in the rate of denials and in a number [...]
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 (FY2019) H-1B cap petitions. According to USCIS, there were over 190,098 H-1B cap petitions filed [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that, as of Friday, April 6th, they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2019 fiscal year (FY2019). According to USCIS, they have received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries with U.S. master’s degree and more [...]
USCIS has announced that effective April 2, 2018, they are temporarily suspending premium processing for H-1B cap petitions (only) until September 10, 2018. Please note that this suspension applies only to H-1B cap petitions filed under the annual H-1B cap season. All other H-1B petitions - such as extensions, transfers, amendments - continue [...]
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 [...]
Our office has been seeing cases and reports that USCIS is changing their approach and starts to question the validity of F-1 CPT work authorization especially in cases where the F-1 foreign student has used more than 12 months of combined CPT and OPT at the same degree level. Most often this issue is [...]
On April 2, 2018 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) 2019. Our [...]
After months of speculation and discussion, USCIS has taken the initial steps in the rulemaking process in order to take away the H-4 EAD work authorization for certain H-4 spouses which had been available since 2015. It should be noted that this is an initial step in the rulemaking process and until and [...]
USCIS has been very active and relentless in raising the Wage Level I issue in many thousands (if not tens of thousands) of requests for evidence (“RFE”) since June 2017. It has become evident that a successful Wage Level [...]
In an October 23, 2017 Memorandum, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") has issued a Policy Memorandum which eliminates the current practice of giving deference to prior approvals when adjudicating Form I-129 petition renewals where the petitioner, the beneficiary and the material facts of the petition remain unchanged. This affects all I-129 petitions extensions, [...]
