The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that, as of Friday, April 7th, they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2018 fiscal year (FY2018). According to USCIS, they have received more [...]
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 [...]
USCIS has announced that effective April 3, 2017, they are temporarily suspending premium processing for all H-1B petitions for a period of up to six months. This surprising announcement comes in light of the anticipated heavy demand and number of [...]
In the era of increased immigration enforcement under President Trump, our foreign national clients and readers are increasingly asking about the requirements on carrying specific immigration documents with them while they are in the U.S. – whether [...]
As part of a set of rule changes, collectively called “Retention of EB–1, EB–2, and EB–3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers” (see our full analysis) and effective as of January 17, 2017, USCIS [...]
On April 3, 2017 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) 2018. Our intelligence [...]
During the election campaign, President-elect Trump put immigration at the center of his agenda and platform and made a commitment to the voters to take immediate steps relating to immigration upon taking office on January 20, 2017. There are certain immigration-related steps that [...]
Many of our readers are aware of the way first-time H-1B work visas are allocated – via a random lottery conducted as part of each year’s H-1B cap filing season in early April. The way the lottery is conducted has been kept secret and [...]
The definition of an H-1B dependent employer is important in a number of ways, including due to the H-1B regulations’ certain additional recruitment and attestation requirements to such employers. For H-1B employers, it is important to understand the definition and apply the analysis during each H-1B [...]
The Department of Homeland Security has just released a proposed rule seeking to amend (increase) most of the Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) application filing fees. The weighted average of the increase is 21 percent and USCIS is adding one new fee. The [...]
