U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the H-1B cap initial registration period for fiscal year 2024 will be from March 1, 2023, 12 p.m. EST to March 17, 2023, 12 p.m. EST. During this time, employers and their representatives may submit an H-1B registration for a chance to be selected among one of 85,000 employers to proceed forward to the next stage of the H-1B process.
Continue Reading H-1B cap registration period opens March 1, 2023
At the outset of the COVID pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) responded quickly to employer concerns about how to comply with the requirement to personally review supporting documentation for Form I-9. Because this form must be completed within three days of the first day of employment, compliance was not possible when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended social distancing and work from home protocols were established.
Continue Reading USCIS seeks public input on remote preparation of I-9 forms
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) changed the H-1B lottery last year with the introduction of a requirement that employers first register their interest to file petitions for the fiscal year beginning October 1 in an online system. The lottery was conducted from the registrations instead of the full petitions, as had been done in previous years. Only those employers whose registrations were selected were able to file H-1B petitions with USCIS. This registration system will remain in place for 2021.
Continue Reading New H-1B petitions for FY2022 again follow online registration and selection process, wage-based selection delayed
On Aug. 21, 2020, Chief Judge Algenon Marbley of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ordered the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to permit thousands of foreign nationals to work in the U.S. before they receive printed Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). These workers had already been approved to work by USCIS, but they had not received the EADs they must provide to their employers. Although these cards are usually issued within a few days of approval of an application for employment authorization, USCIS had slowed down its production of them earlier this year.
Continue Reading Immigration settlement allows thousands of foreign workers to get back to work
On Dec. 6, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the H-1B cap season 2021 will begin on March 1, 2020 and end on March 20, 2020. Once selections have been announced, those selected will have 90 days to submit the petitions.
On Jan.
On Friday, May 3, a Federal District Judge in North Carolina enjoined the Trump Administration’s effort to change the immigration policy on “unlawful presence” as it is applied to foreign students, in Guilford College et al. v. McAleenan, et. a.l. The concept of unlawful presence was first introduced into the immigration laws in 1996 to impose a penalty on those who remain in the U.S. after their authorized period of stay expires. This penalty, a bar, known as the “3/10-year bar,” is imposed from the day the foreign national departs the U.S., preventing their return for either 3 or 10 years, depending on whether they remained more than 180 days or 365 days after their authorization expired.
The key to imposing this bar, however, depends on the calculation of the date the authorized stay expired. For foreign students, who are admitted for the duration of status (d/s), there is no certain date by which they are told they must depart the United States. Therefore, in 1997 Legacy INS announced a policy that students would be deemed unlawfully present only when an immigration officer or Immigration Judge made a determination that they had violated their status. In the event such a determination was made, the student was informed of the decision and then given 180 days to depart the U.S. before the 3- or 10-year bar would be imposed.
Continue Reading Court ruling puts administration’s immigration policy on hold
Foreign nationals, especially spouses and dependents of nonimmigrant workers and students, are warned that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is revising the Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status. This form is used by nonimmigrants to extend their stay in the U.S. or change to another nonimmigrant status, as well as for F and M students applying for reinstatement. The new form was issued on March 11, 2019 and after March 21, 2019, USCIS will accept only the newly revised version of the form, with an edition date of Feb. 4, 2019. All other versions of the form, including the current one dated Dec. 23, 2016, will be rejected. Additionally a new Form I-539A, Supplemental Information for Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, generally used to extend or change status of dependent children, has been being revised and published.
Continue Reading New forms I-539 and I-539A, and additional fees, required on March 21, 2019
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is again releasing a new and updated version of Form I-9, the Employment Eligibility Verification document. Since November 1986, all U.S. employers have been required to complete and retain the I-9 for new employees. The most recent version of the form went into effect on Jan. 22, 2017, but, for some unknown reason, USCIS is now issuing another version. This new version will be mandatory as of Sept. 18, 2017. The easiest way to identify the new form is by the date (07/17/17) noted in the bottom left corner; the prior version was dated 11/14/2016.
A couple of points to bear in mind:
Continue Reading Employer alert: Revised I-9 form required beginning Sept. 18, 2017
On Friday, March 3, 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would suspend premium¹ processing for all H-1B petitions filed on or after April 3, 2017. Because April 3 is the first day that cap subject petitions² can be filed for Fiscal Year 2018, this puts a halt on premium processing for all cap subject cases that will be accepted in April, as well as all other H-1B petitions, both change of employer petitions and extensions. According to the notice, the suspension of premium processing may last as long as six months.
Processing times for H-1Bs have grown over the past 2 years, increasing from an average of two months to nearly a year in many instances. USCIS has struggled with an ever-increasing case load, and has tried several strategies to alleviate the long processing delays. Last summer, extension petitions were routed from the California Service Center to the Nebraska Service Center, increasing the offices that process H-1B petitions from two to three. All new cases continue to be processed at either the California or Vermont Service Center, with all cap exempt³ cases filed in California.
Continue Reading USCIS to suspend premium processing for H-1B petitions
President Trump issued three Executive Orders during the first week of his administration to fulfill his campaign promises. During the campaign, President Trump promised to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico and to impose a ban on the admission of Muslims until the new Administration could impose “extreme vetting” of all non-citizens admitted to the United States. A third Executive Order seeks to withdraw federal funding for sanctuary cities. The implementation of these Orders has been uneven, instilling fear and uncertainty among travelers, their employers and families, leading to numerous demonstrations in cities and at airports throughout the country.
While the three orders addressed different aspects of immigration, the most impactful order was the third one signed and immediately implemented on the late afternoon of Jan. 27, 2017. This order, entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” suspended immediately the admission of all refugees for 120 days, Syrian refugees indefinitely and it prohibited the admission of all citizens from seven designated countries (Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) with both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for 60 days. Certain diplomatic visa holders were exempted from the Executive Order. While the Order provided for individual exemptions on a case by case basis, in the national interest, the standards and the procedures to apply for this exemption were not identified in the Order.
Continue Reading President Trump’s immigration Executive Orders