The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today posted a final rule effective April 1, 2019 that introduces an electronic registration requirement for H-1B cap cases but suspends the electronic registration for this year’s H-1B cap season (FY 2020). After considering public feedback, USCIS decided to suspend the electronic registration requirement for the FY 2020 cap season to “complete user testing and ensure the system and process are fully functional.” This move will be welcomed by many immigration practitioners, who since the initial announcement of the electronic registration have been concerned whether the registration rollout would be ready and fully tested in time for the fast approaching start of the H-1B FY 2020 filing period on April 1, 2019.
Read moreUSCIS Will Resume Premium Processing But Only for Pending Fiscal Year 2019 H-1B Cap Petitions
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the agency will resume premium processing for all pending fiscal year (FY) 2019 H-1B cap petitions, including “master’s cap” advanced degree exemption cases effective Monday, January 28, 2019. USCIS originally suspended premium processing for all cap-subject petitions, including master’s cap exemption cases, in April 2018, and in September 2018 extended the suspension to additional H-1B petitions.
The premium processing service will resume only for pending FY 2019 cap petitions, not new submissions, since sufficient cap cases have been filed to meet the cap numbers. The previously announced temporary suspension remains in effect for all other categories of H-1B petitions to which the suspension applied. If USCIS has issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) for the case, petitioners and/or attorneys should submit the RFE response with the premium processing upgrade request. USCIS says: “We plan to resume premium processing for the remaining categories of H 1B petitions as agency workloads permit.”
DHS Proposes Changes to the H‑1B Visa Lottery Process
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions to first electronically register with US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) during a designated registration period. Under this proposed rule, USCIS would also reverse the order by which USCIS selects H-1B petitions under the H-1B regular cap and the advanced degree exemption, a move the agency says would result in “a more meritorious selection of beneficiaries” by increasing the number of individuals with a master’s or higher degree from a US institution of higher education selected in the H-1B cap lottery.
Read moreBloomberg Law: “High-Stakes Lottery for H-1B Visas May Become Simpler Next Year”
L. Francis Cissna, director of US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), has announced that the agency is making plans to simplify the H-1B visa lottery program beginning in 2019 for the 2020 fiscal year. These changes would potentially include an employer’s ability to preregister electronically for the H-1B lottery and, if selected in the lottery, file the H-1B petition with USCIS, instead of submitting full petitions before the lottery is completed. Cissna tells Bloomberg Law that he hopes that the agency will implement changes in time for when H-1B cases can be filed in April 2019, although the agency may not have sufficient time to do so. "[Y]ou don’t have to file and go through the hassle and effort and cost of preparing a full-blast petition,” Cissa says, touting the benefit of preregistration. “I think that’s a lot easier than the current situation.”
Read moreUSCIS: Extension and Expansion of Premium Processing Suspension for H-1B Petitions to Reduce Delays
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is extending the previously announced temporary suspension of premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions and will also expand the temporary suspension to additional H-1B petitions effective September 11, 2018. USCIS says that they expect these suspensions to last until February 19, 2019, and will provide notice before resuming premium processing for these petitions. During this time when H-1B premium processing is suspended, USCIS will reject any Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, filed with an affected Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. If petitions are submitted with one combined check for the Form I-907 and Form I-129 H-1B, both forms will be rejected.
Read moreUSCIS Reaches FY 2019 H-1B Cap
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they have reached the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2019. They have also received a sufficient amount of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 limit for the master’s cap advanced degree exemption. While USCIS has not yet specified how many total H-1B cap cases have been received during this filing window, some experts are predicting overall lower numbers than in previous years.
Read moreRainy Day H-1B Blues
H-1B cap season is drawing to a close, since the government will begin accepting H-1B cap cases on Monday, April 2. After months of working on so many H-1B petitions, Liz is sad to say goodbye. The rainy gloomy weather only makes her more sad. As her way of saying a fond farewell, and imparting that “extra something” to each case, she is hugging each and every case and wishing them the best of luck on their long, long journey to California or Vermont to find out if they will be picked in the H-1B cap lottery. Wish them all luck!!!
USCIS Will Temporarily Suspend Premium Processing for Fiscal Year 2019 H-1B Cap Petitions
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that starting April 2, 2018, the first day that H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 cap cases can be received, USCIS will temporarily suspend premium processing for all cap-subject petitions, including master’s cap exemption cases. This suspension, likely to frustrate many immigration practitioners and petitioners, is expected to last until September 10, 2018. Last year, USCIS temporarily suspended premium processing for all cap and non-cap subject H-1B petitions and resumed it in stages over a six month time period.
Read moreReuters: “Trump administration red tape tangles up visas for skilled foreigners, data shows”
US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), under the leadership of the Trump administration, has been challenging a significant number of visa applications for skilled workers since President Trump vowed to investigate the “fraud and abuse” of the H-1B visa program by American-based companies this past April. Although neither the Trump administration nor Congress have instituted any changes to the H-1B program, data provided by USCIS reveals that the agency has issued 85,000 challenges, or “requests for evidence” (RFE’s), regarding H-1B visa petitions between January 1st and August 31st of this year. This is a forty-five percent increase since the same period of time last year. These RFE’s have also been issued at a rate greater than any point during the Obama administration, apart from 2009. RFE's can delay cases by months, and often interfere with hiring plans and business operations for American companies.
Read moreOPINION: USCIS Rescission of Guidance Memo on Computer-Related Positions: H-1Bs Are Still Available for Computer Programmers
As most immigration attorneys were breathing a sigh of relief from having prepared all their H-1B cap cases, and from having rushed to file the H-1B renewals requiring premium processing; and as we were just popping open that bottle of champagne, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a surprise memo on March 31, 2017. Panic ensued. Trump was blamed. USCIS jumped in to explain that the March 31 memo did not constitute a change in policy but rather a clarification to the Nebraska Service Center (where many H-1Bs are now being processed) of the current policy on H-1Bs for computer programmers. So what does it all mean? Can a computer programmer still get an H-1B? What about other technology jobs? We will try to answer some of these questions below.
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