USCIS announced Tuesday, May 15, that it has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions. USCIS will now begin returning H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected to the Attorney of Record. USCIS did not state the timeline that Petitioners can expect to receive unselected petitions.
USCIS also announced that is […]
Today, April 12, 2018, USCIS announced that on April 11th, it conducted the H-1B lottery for FY 2019. USCIS received 190,098 Petitions for the almost 85,000 slots. This is less than in FY 2018, when USCIS received 199,000 Petitions. USCIS received 94,213 Petitions for the standard cap and 95,885 Petitions for the advanced degree […]
Friday, April 6th, 2018, USCIS announced that it reached the FY 2019 H-1B cap during the mandatory first five business days that the program must remain open to accept filings. USCIS did not announce when it will run the lottery, and SPS Immigration will keep you appraised as USCIS continues to announce advances in […]
In direct contradiction to prior statements, Tuesday, March 20th, 2018, USCIS announced that it is suspending the premium processing service on all H-1B cap cases until September 10, 2018. USCIS confirmed that it will continue to honor its existing criteria to request an expedite on a case. USCIS also confirmed that non-cap cases may […]
On February 28th, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) submitted a status report to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, stating that it is now postponing the release of proposed H-4 regulations. In response to the litigation in Save Jobs USA v. DHS, DHS initially stated that it would release proposed […]
USCIS confirmed to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) that there would be no procedural changes in the the FY2019 H-1B Cap Process. This means that there will not be a H-1B Cap pre-registration process, as previously suggested. USCIS also indicated that, while it may suspend the option to premium process H-1B Cap cases again […]
The media reported late January 8th that the Trump Administration, admidst strong pressure from the business and technology sectors, decided to back away from its proposal to remove the ability of Foreign Nationals to extend H-1B status past the six year limit. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) confirmed that it is still conducting […]
On December 30th, 2017, the media began reporting that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) was working on changing H-1B laws that permit certain H-1B employees to extend their H-1B status past the six year limit, pursuant to the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (“AC21”). A change of this nature would predominantly […]
On December 14, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced through notice in the Federal Register its desire to make two critical regulatory changes impacting employment-based immigration. Specifically, DHS focused on the H-1B and H-4 EAD programs:
USCIS announced October 3, 2017 that it is resuming premium processing for all H-1B visa petitions. This means that employers may convert all pending H-1B petitions to the expedited review process by paying an extra $1,225 for each petition and filing the required form. Please contact SPS Immigration if you have questions on how this […]