When Immigration Matters

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on January 30, 2024, that: 

It is H-1B Cap Season again for Fiscal Year 2025. Like in prior years, 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. 

Early in February, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Visa Services at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Julie Stuff told Bloomberg News that  United States Department of State (USDOS) is preparing to introduce a pilot program to restore domestic visa revalidation for H-1B and L-1 non-immigration visa types.  This means that H-1B and L-1 visa holders will not have to travel overseas to get visas placed in their passports at US. Consulates.   Instead, they can apply for H-1B visa renewal from the United States after receiving their renewal approval notice from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). More details will be announced later in the year.  

This is a huge relief for many nonimmigrant workers and the business that hire them in the United State as they will no longer have to incur costs and delays in travelling overseas to get the visas placed in their passports.  This program is not new. It would bring back the practice that existed but was discontinued back in 2004.  Although this pilot program is limited to H-1B and L-1 visas for now, it may be expanded to other nonimmigrant visa categories such as E, O, and P, later on. 

The COVID pandemic have caused serious backlogs and delays with visa renewal interview appointments at U.S. Embassies and/or Consulates aboard, especially for offices in India where the majority of these visa holders come from. Some workers have claimed to have waited more than a year to get their visa appointments. Many workers and businesses had to risk workers getting stuck in their home country awaiting visa interviews. To address these bottlenecks, many immigration attorneys, advocacy groups, and businesses have pushed State Department to bring back state-side visa renewal as an option. The State Department stated last year that they would look into domestic renewals but challenges such as establishing a brand-new consular services division in Washington D.C. have delayed this decision and may be the reason for the limited rollout only for H-1B visa renewal and L-1 visa renewal types. 

Can you believe that H-1B Season is upon us?   Each year, I say it seems like yesterday we filed last year’s H-1B Cap cases.  This year is particularly true as we have only recently received all decisions on April 2019 H-1B Cap Cases.  USCIS issued the most requests for evidence and denials it has ever issued on H-1B Cap cases.  In fact, USCIS has stated that it issued requests for evidence in 70 percent of the H-1B Cap cases filed.  So, what have we learned?

On January 9, 2020, Department of Homeland Security published a notice in the Federal Register to formally announce implementation of a new H-1B registration process. 

On February 2015, DHS published a final rule providing employment authorization to spouses of certain H-1B nonimmigrants who are seeking employment-based lawful permanent resident (LPR) status. 

Can you believe that H-1B Season is upon us!   Each year, I say it seems like yesterday we filed last year’s H-1B Cap Cases. This year is particularly true as we are still responding to Requests for Evidence and waiting for decisions on April 2018 H-1B Cap Cases. USCIS issued the most requests for evidence and denials it has ever issued on H-1B Cap cases. In fact, USCIS has stated that it issued requests for evidence in 70 percent of the H-1B Cap cases filed. So, what have we learned?

Trump’s proposed changes to business visas may have significant negative implications for businesses trying to employ skilled immigrants.  The H-1B visa in the United States is a visa which allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.  The regulations define a “specialty occupation” as requiring theoretical and practical knowledge in a field of human endeavor including, but not limited to: biotechnology, chemistry, computing, architecture, engineering, statistics, physical sciences, journalism, medicine and health, economics, education, research, law, accounting, business specialties, technical writing, theology and the arts, and requiring the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, and state licensure, if required to practice in that field.

On April 1, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) begins accepting H-1B visa applications for the 2019 fiscal year (which starts on October 1, 2018). Last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received in excess of 200,000 petitions during the five-day filing period and as in past years conducted a random lottery to select the 85,000 petitions that would be eligible for processing. 20,000 of those visas are reserved for Beneficiaries with a Master degree from a U.S. University. We expect that there will be just as many applications this year. During FY 2019, cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS takes possession of the petition, as opposed to the date it was postmarked.