When Immigration Matters

On April 1, 2013, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) begins accepting H1-B visa applications for the 2014 fiscal year (which starts on October 1, 2013).   In 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received approximately 163,000 petitions during the five-day filing period and conducted a random lottery to select the 65,000 petitions that would be eligible for processing.  In 2007, the USCIS reached its H-1B visa quota in one day.  Due to the slump in the economy, last year all H-1B visas were not taken until the end of June 2012.   While we cannot predict how quickly these visas will be taken, since the economy has picked up, we guesstimate that the cap will be reached well before June 2013.

Immigration attorney Karen-Lee Pollak explains how to legally work in the United States with an H-1B visa. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 for fiscal year (FY) 2013. Yesterday, June 11, 2012, was the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2013.

USCIS Receiving H-1B Visa Applications for Fiscal Year 2013 at an Accelerated Pace

Well H-1B Season is almost upon us.  On April 1, 2012, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) starts accepting H-1B visa applications for the 2013 fiscal year (which starts on October 1, 2012).

 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 cap on Monday April 2, 2012. Cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct fee. USCIS will not rely upon the date that the petition is postmarked.

Employers using the H-1B category are required to make certain attestations in the DOL’s Form 9035, “Labor Condition Attestation” commonly referred to as the LCA.  Now the Department of State has created its own set of attestations for employees applying for an H-1B visa in Hyderabad, India. It seems the attestations are primarily aimed at IT consulting companies who typically place their employees at third-party sites.  These attestations consist of a sworn statement by the visa applicant acknowledging certain facts.

On April 1, 2012, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) starts accepting H-1B visa applications for the 2013 fiscal year (which starts on October 1, 2012).

Time is running out to file H-1B visas for this year.  United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) announced that 50000 of 65000 allotted visas for the Fiscal Year have been used.  We estimate that the remaining 15000 will be used by mid-December at the latest.