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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held its annual H-1 visa cap lottery in late March 2022. As of this writing, the first 85,000 cases to be selected for the annual allocation are receiving notifications. Then, the successful employers have 90 days to complete and submit an H-1B petition to the agency for employment to […]
International borders have been closed for 18 months, U.S. embassies abroad have been operating at a limited capacity, and yet employers struggle to find and retain talent. Corporate immigration, including H-1Bs and other visas, continues to provide a solution for savvy employers. Below are the most important immigration changes within the last year.
A day after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed the H-1B cap-subject lottery selection process in late March, the winners were eligible to start filing. But what if your employee wasn’t selected? Fortunately, numerous other options are available so your business can continue to employ valuable foreign national workers. Optional Practical Training Foreign national […]
It’s that time of year again when employers that want to hire recent college graduates and other professionals prepare to file H-1B visa petitions. Because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept petitions up to six months before the employee’s start date, and the first possible start date is the first day of the […]
by Elaine C. Young We recently fielded a call from a client’s in-house employment counsel, who noted that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) seems to be rolling back employee protections, making her job a little easier. But then she observed that isn’t the case with immigration. The DOL is scaling back protections, except with […]
by Leigh Polk Cole Each year, employers looking to hire H-1B workers for hard-to-fill positions have to focus on preparing H-1B petitions for the April 1 H-1B lottery deadline. All you can do is hope for success in the lottery, which in recent years has led to H-1B approval in fewer than half the cases […]
The Trump administration recently implemented two major changes to its immigration policies, and the full effect for employers remains to be seen. Between a replacement Executive Order (EO) on immigration and the suspension of the fast-track process for H-1B (highly skilled) worker visas, employers and foreign employees may soon face new hurdles, albeit fewer than […]
President Donald Trump’s executive order affecting foreign nationals and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries sparked an uproar from a number of major employers—particularly those in the tech sector—but it may be just the first signal of a new and uncertain atmosphere for companies wishing to employ foreign workers. Trump’s order, issued on January 27, prohibits […]
by Leigh Cole H-1B nonimmigrant status allows U.S. employers to hire international workers in “specialty occupations” that require at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent vocational preparation. Most H-1B applications are subject to an annual limit on H-1B approvals known as the H-1B cap. Some employers are exempt from the cap, but most H-1B applications […]
It took just under a week for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to take in enough H-1B visa petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year 2015, which begins on October 1, 2014. The USCIS announced April 7 that it received sufficient petitions to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the […]