Immigration and Firm News

Today, USCIS held an engagement session about developments in its Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative (EIR). Director Alejandro Mayorkas, his senior counsel and others on his staff attended. The EIR initiative is an attempt by USCIS to have adjudicators better understand the entrepreneurial space. Key developments thus far include the following: 1. The EIR Tactical Team has trained small groups at the various USCIS adjudications service centers. 2. Specialized teams are assigned to … [Read more...]

The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently released its FY2012 year to date statistics covering October 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 concerning the use of H-1B visas and PERM, the labor certification program for permanent residence. Here are a few key stats from the report: H-1B Use The H-1B report shows that 278,737 applications were received YTD. 287,165 were processed. Of those, 243,098 were certified, and 16,346 were denied. The balance were withdrawn. These covered 577,298 positions. (A … [Read more...]

A July 17, 2012 Seattle Times news article, Seattle ranks high in skilled workers on H-1B visas, reports on a new Brookings Institution study showing that while Seattle ranks high in the number of skilled foreign workers for H1B visas, the Seattle metropolitan area fails to benefit from H-1B user fee grants for local worker training. The Brookings report, The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, notes that companies like Microsoft, Amazon, University … [Read more...]

In a rare case of bipartisan action, Congress passed legislation to add E-2 visas to the list of Treaty Investor countries. Historically, Israelis have only been able to use the E-1 Treaty Trader visa, but not the E-2 Treaty Investor visa. E-1 visas require a primarily Israeli owned US company engaged in substantial trade in goods or services between the US and Israel. Otherwise, Israelis have had to use the EB-5 permanent residence investor program, L or H visas depending upon the scenario. … [Read more...]

On January 5, 2012, USCIS issued new draft templates for Requests for Evidence (RFE) concerning L-1 Intra-Company Transferee visas for multinational managers, executives and those with specialized knowledge. USCIS has been reviewing its policies and trying to streamline adjudications of different visa categories to insure more consistent adjudications among officers and offices. Over the last year, the agency has issued draft RFE templates and implementation policy memos in the temporary and … [Read more...]

USCIS is reporting today that the H-1B Cap count as of November 22, 2011 has been reached for Fiscal Year 2012 that expires September 30, 2012. This means that employers wanting to hire H-1B workers this year and next will have to wait until the new filing season begins on April 1, 2012 for jobs with start dates of October 1, 2012. The 65,000 cap was reached earlier this year compared to last fiscal year when it was reached in January. Although the economy has been sluggish, employers continue … [Read more...]

The export control questions on the new I-129 form for H-1B, H-1B1, L-1 and O-1 petitions go into effect this week on February 20. Having to answer the new questions was delayed so that employers could become familiar with the export control regulations. Immigration lawyers are not typically trained in the details of export controls, though we are familiar with the issue in connection with certain types of security clearances for our clients when they are abroad seeking visas. Sometimes … [Read more...]

The annual 65,000 H-1B cap has been reached as of January 26, 2011. That means for the balance of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, no new H-1B visas are available for employers with positions subject to the cap if they want to hire foreign talent between now and the end of September. The fact the cap was reached at all is interesting. In an earlier post, GAO Issues Significant H-1B Report , I noted that the cap has been reached every year except for 2001 to 2003 when the maximum … [Read more...]

At the request of Congress, on January 14, 2011, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a comprehensive and quite significant report on the H-1B Specialty Occupation program. Entitled H-1B Visa Program: Reforms Are Needed to Minimize the Risks and Costs of Current Program, the GAO study involved interviews with 34 H-1B company executives, researchers of various types, advocates for several groups, interviews with involved agencies, examination of the data on 150 of the top users of H-1B … [Read more...]

As of January 7, 2011 USCIS reports that 58,700 of the annual 65,000 allotment of cap-eligible petitions have been approved. Some petitions are exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption provided to the first 20,000 petitions filed for a beneficiary who has obtained a U.S. master's degree or higher. Those 20,000 have now been reached. If the annual 65,000 cap is reached in the next few weeks or months, then a new round of H-1B visas will not be available until October 1, 2011. … [Read more...]