Law Brief: H-1B Visas – New Process and New (Upcoming) Deadlines
Benesch B-Cast 07: Immigration Deadlines and Demands Employers Need to Know
On July 30th, USCIS determined that not enough H-1B petition filings in the regular cap were submitted during the initial filing period from April 1, 2024 through June 30, 2024. USCIS will select additional registrations to...more
Just as people were starting to lose hope, USCIS announced that it will soon hold a second round of selections for the FY 2025 H-1B cap. USCIS will randomly select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries from the...more
For many highly skilled international workers, securing an H-1B visa in the United States can be elusive. With this year’s lottery results announced, employers find themselves exploring alternative strategies to retain...more
As noted in our post in February 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a final rule updating the H-1B cap registration process and creating a beneficiary-centric selection process. The rule took...more
On April 1, 2024, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had reached the annual quota of 85,000 cap beneficiaries in the initial registration period for employment in FY 2025. USCIS has...more
To retain the best global talent, many US employers leverage the annual H-1B visa lottery to secure work authorization for new employees. It allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require a...more
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) launched its new organizational accounts platform which allows multiple individuals within an organization, as well as their legal representatives, to collaborate...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently updated employers and immigration practitioners regarding important dates to keep in mind regarding the upcoming H-1B registration for the upcoming H-1B lottery. This...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released guidance on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 H-1B lottery process. The registration system will be open from noon Eastern, March 6, 2024 until noon Eastern, March 22, 2024....more
USCIS has officially announced the dates for the fiscal year (FY) 2025 H-1B cap lottery, which will open on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at noon ET and end on Friday, March 22, 2024, at noon ET. This annual lottery is meant to...more
March Madness will once again not fail this Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) H-1B cap season. The shift in 2020 to the “new” H-1B registration system continues to be a work in progress. The USCIS strength and conditioning exercises...more
Employers wishing to sponsor a candidate for an H-1B visa in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 are approaching an important time of year. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced the H-1B cap lottery...more
Once again, the H-1B cap filing season is upon us. The H-1B is a popular U.S. work visa available to highly skilled foreign nationals who are offered a qualifying position by an employer. This visa is also known as a...more
On December 13, 2023, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it reached the requisite number of H-1B Cap petitions and stopped making further selections for Fiscal Year 2024. Fiscal...more
The annual H-1B cap season has begun for Fiscal Year 2025. Once again, there will be a two-step process – the registration step and then, if the registration is selected in the H-1B cap lottery, the petition step. Now is the...more
Last year, a would-be H-1B nonimmigrant employee had about a 14% chance of their registration being selected in the annual lottery. In response to backlash from U.S. employers following the extraordinary low selection rate...more
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced all available visas in the Fiscal Year 2024 H-1B lottery program have been utilized. Each year, 65,000 H-1B visas are available for positions...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received enough petitions to reach the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree master’s cap and has completed the H-1B selection process...more
On December 13, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received enough petitions to meet the annual numerical allocation of 85,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2024 (FY2024), which...more
On October 23, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued its long-anticipated notice of proposed rulemaking on modernizing the H-1B program. The purpose is to amend regulations governing H–1B specialty occupation...more
As the United States carries out projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act, the manufacturing...more
On August 1, 2023, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they selected a total of 188,400 H-1B cap registrations to reach the annual 85,000 quota. In March 2023, the agency first selected...more
A SHRM article posted yesterday indicates that USCIS has discovered potential collusion among a number of technology companies to submit multiple H-1B registrations on behalf of the same beneficiaries. According to the...more
On March 27, 2023, USCIS announced that it had received enough electronic registrations to reach the H-1B annual cap FY2024, including the advanced degree exemption (Master’s cap). While official statistics regarding the...more
USCIS recently announced the annual registration period for the FY2024 H-1B cap will open at noon (ET) on March 1, 2023, and remain open until noon (ET) on March 17, 2023. Registration is an annual electronic process through...more