U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed a new rule for the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee for H-1B and L-1 Visa Petitions. Under the proposal, the fee requirement would be expanded to nearly all covered...more
Data from the Fiscal Year 2025 H-1B registration process has recently been released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The data show that changes intended to reduce the number of multiple registrations for the...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for many years has used an online system for the annual March lottery for petitions that are subject to the H-1B Cap. The USCIS has now expanded this system to allow the following...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a new fee rule that imposes significant increases, particularly for employment-based petitions. The rule, and the higher fees, will apply to any benefit request...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
1/17/2024
/ Beneficiaries ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
NAFTA ,
STEM ,
USCIS ,
Visa Caps ,
Visas
On December 21, the U.S. Department of State issued regulations with details of its pilot program for issuance of renewed H-1B visa stamps in the United States. The pilot program eliminates the need for applicants to obtain...more
A variety of U.S. work visas require employers to pay a certain salary to foreign workers whom they employ in the United States. But one employer was recently surprised by an appeals court ruling that it was required to...more
The filing of an H-1B petition requires submission of a Labor Condition Application certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA certifies, among other things, that the H-1B beneficiary will be paid the prevailing wage...more
On Friday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that there was a dramatic increase in multiple H-1B registrations for single individuals for Fiscal Year 2024.
The agency announced that it has...more
The U.S. Department of State has indicated that it will establish a pilot program that will allow some non-immigrant visa holders to get their visas renewed without having to leave the United States.
The information came...more
The annual H-1B cap season has begun for Fiscal Year 2024. 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
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with fee increases for immigration filings. Under the proposed rule, the most dramatic increases would apply to employment-based...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced last week that it has reached the caps for the Fiscal Year 2023 regular and master’s (advanced degree) H-1B lotteries and has sent non-selection notifications to the...more
The H-1B cap season is here for Fiscal Year 2023. Once again, there will be a two-step process – the registration step and then, if the registration is selected, the petition step.
This will be the third year that the...more
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has agreed to make policy changes that will benefit L-2 spouses and certain H-4 nonimmigrants filing renewal applications for Employment Authorization Document cards...more
With the consent of the U.S. Department of Labor, a federal judge in San Francisco has vacated final regulations issued by the Trump Administration that would have significantly increased the “prevailing wage” that would...more
Last year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rolled out for the first time a new electronic registration tool for H-1B cap cases as part of its implementation of regulations issued in January 2019. The 2019...more
In filing an H-1B petition, employers must select one of four wage levels for the applicable occupational title in preparing the required Labor Condition Application. (There is an exception when a private wage survey is...more
The U.S. Department of Labor has again issued a final rule on the computation of prevailing wage levels for high-skilled foreign workers. The rule is intended to replace a prevailing wage rule issued in October that was...more
We reported in October about two new rules that were issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor that would affect H-1B specialty occupation visas. The DOL rule significantly raised...more
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued proposed regulations that would amend the H-1B cap registration selection process by replacing the current random process with one based on wage levels.
The proposed...more
For many years, U.S. employers have benefited from the “B–1 (Business Visitor) in lieu of H” policy. The policy allowed a business visitor to come to the United States as an employee of and on behalf of a foreign employer in...more
Thursday, the Trump Administration published in the Federal Register two new Interim Final Rules designed to reduce significantly the number of H-1B workers in the United States. They are-
•A rule from the U.S. Department...more
10/12/2020
/ Comment Period ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Register ,
Green Cards ,
H-1B ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Software Developers ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is poised to implement new filing fees on October 2, under regulations published in the Federal Register on August 3. However, two lawsuits were filed in federal court about a...more
The U.S. Department of State has issued some preliminary guidance on the application of the national interest waiver to foreign nationals from countries that are subject to a COVID-19-related travel ban.
Since late...more
7/28/2020
/ Child Care ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Educational Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
H-1B ,
Homeland Security Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ,
Immigration ,
Internships ,
J-1 Visas ,
L-1 Visas ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Secretary of State ,
Travel Ban ,
Travel Restrictions ,
US Department of State ,
Waivers