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, [...]
USCIS has just officially confirmed as of today, October 3, 2017, they have reinstated the premium processing service for all types of H-1B petitions. Petitions filed under the premium processing service are given a response by USCIS within 15 calendar days. Similarly, pending "regular processing" H-1B petitions can be "upgraded" to premium processing service. [...]
USCIS appears to be in the process of reinstating premium processing service for H-1B petitions. On July 24, 2017, USCIS announced that they are reinstating premium processing for H-1B petitions filed by cap-exempt employers. Background of the H-1B Premium Processing Service Suspension Effective April 3, 2017, USCIS suspended the premium processing service for all H-1B [...]
Two months after completing the random H-1B cap lottery, USCIS has started mailing back the H-1B cap applications which were not selected under the random H-1B cap lottery. While the H-1B cap receipts for selected cases were sent out by May 3rd, many employers and applicants who had not heard by now had to assume that their [...]
In our office, and in the broader H-1B community, we are seeing instances and reports of H-1B petition RFEs aimed at ensuring compliance with the Simeio-line of guidance issued by USCIS in 2015. Specifically, we are seeing RFEs on H-1B petitions (amendments, mostly, but also for extensions) where USCIS is questioning the timeliness or the [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has issued a memorandum adopting the AAO decision in Matter of A-T-, Inc. and establishing policy guidance which will apply to and bind all USCIS adjudicators. USCIS clarifies that [...]
Many of our readers are aware that as of April 7, 2017, 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 [...]
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 (FY2018) H-1B cap petitions. According to USCIS, there were over 199,000 H-1B cap petitions filed [...]
