United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the January 2021 final rule modifying the H-1B selection process has officially been withdrawn by The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). This rule would have eliminated the random selection process known as the H-1B visa lottery, and replaced it with a process prioritizing those foreign nationals who are offered the highest salaries relative to their occupation and geographic area according to the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) prevailing wage system.
Read moreUSCIS Accepts Re-filing of Rejected I-140 Petitions with E-certification or Electronically Reproduced Signatures
On March 20, 2020, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would accept electronically reproduced signatures in benefit requests during the coronavirus (COVID-19) national emergency. Additionally, on March 24, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) announced that ETA Forms 9089, Application for Permanent Employment Certification (ETA 9089), will be issued electronically to employers and their authorized attorneys or agents. After these announcements, USCIS notes that the agency “inadvertently rejected some Forms I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, that included these e-certified ETA-9089s or blue ETA-9089s with electronically reproduced signatures.”
USCIS is requesting that affected petitioners re-submit their Form I-140 with the blue ETA Form 9089s or e-certified ETA-9089s with “either wet original signatures and/or scanned copies of the original signatures as well as a copy of the rejection notice.” If the petitioner’s inadvertently rejected ETA-9089 expired between March 20 and May 18, 2020, USCIS notes the agency will accept the re-filed Form I-140 petition along with the inadvertently rejected, expired ETA-9089 for the duration of the national emergency.