America runs on semiconductors, also known informally as chips. Chips are integral to the cars we drive, the planes we fly, the systems that defend our country, and the computers that every single industry, from manufacturing...more
Recent processing time trends at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) are raising concerns for both Employers and F-1 visa holders relying on automatic extensions of work authorization while awaiting the...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed its annual H-1B cap lottery selection process for fiscal year 2025. Given the high number of lottery registrations and the fixed number of...more
Beginning March 6, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will conduct its annual H-1B Cap Lottery to award H-1B slots for professional workers in specialty occupations. There are a total of 85,000 visas...more
USCIS is proposing to modernize the H-1B visa program by streamlining eligibility requirements, improving program efficiency, providing greater benefits and flexibilities for employers and workers, and strengthening integrity...more
Each year in March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducts a lottery to award H-1B slots to enough foreign workers to meet its 85,000 visa annual cap. This number includes 20,000 slots reserved for...more
Employers who recently hired F-1 foreign students and wish to continue to employ them beyond the one or three years of Optional Practical Training employment authorization should contact immigration counsel and start making a...more
On January 27, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2024 H-1B lottery will open on March 1, 2023 at noon EST and close on March 17,...more
The H-1B lottery for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 was conducted in March 2022. USCIS received 483,927 H-1B registrations and initially selected 127,600 registrations, which is the projected amount needed to reach the FY2023...more
An accounting firm hires a new graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from a local university for its audit team. This new graduate is a foreign student utilizing the one-year Optional Practical Training...more
It’s the lottery that can pay dividends for U.S. employers and foreign nationals. Today marks the official opening of the H-1B lottery season. This is the time in which employers who seek to hire or retain foreign national...more
US Citizenship & Immigration Service announced that it will accept initial applications for first time H-1B visa petitions from March 1, 2022 until March 18, 2022. An H-1B visa allows an employer to employ a foreign national...more
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the registration period for this year’s H-1B lottery will begin at noon Eastern time on March 1, 2022 and will end at noon Eastern time on March 18, 2022. All...more
Employers seeking to sponsor candidates for initial H-1B sponsorship should note that the H-1B electronic registration dates have been announced by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). USCIS has announced that...more
It’s that time of year again when employers have to decide who they are sponsoring for an H-1B visa. What to Know - - The lottery registration period will be from noon EST on March 1, 2022 to noon EST on March 18, 2022,...more
On January 21, 2022, the White House released a fact sheet entitled “Biden-Harris Administration Actions to Attract STEM Talent and Strengthen our Economy and Competitiveness,” announcing several immigration-related policy...more
On March 30, 2021, USCIS announced completion of the initial FY2022 H-1B Cap-Subject lottery selection process. Beginning April 1st, those selected were eligible to start filing. But what if your employee was not selected? ...more
Registration Dates Announced and Rule Prioritizing Selection of Highest Wage-Level Delayed - On February 5, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the...more
On Friday, February 5, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the FY2022 H-1B Cap Lottery will begin on March 9, 2021. ...more
Fifth in a Series of Blogs Regarding the Presidential Transition - From the beginning of the Trump presidency, the administration made clear that it would seek to enact major reforms of the U.S. immigration system,...more
USCIS Resumes Premium Processing - USCIS has announced here that beginning the month of June 2020, it will again start accepting certain petitions for premium processing. Premium processing was indefinitely suspended as...more
In late 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would implement the registration process for the fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap. The H-1B visa is used by businesses that want to employ foreign...more
As we previously advised, the H-1B lottery process is undergoing changes for cap-subject employers. The H-1B is the most common professional work visa, limited by a numerical quota of 65,000 regular cap approvals per year,...more
It is time to start preparing for the upcoming H-1B visa lottery, which begins April 1, 2020, and will be the first one to require an electronic registration for each case. To be eligible to file a cap-subject H-1B...more
In 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued final rules making a number of changes to the H-1B visa lottery process. This Holland & Knight alert highlights key differences in the 2020 process and answers...more