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Friday, July 31, 2020
On July 31, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security announced a final rule that will adjust certain immigration and naturalization fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to ensure that USCIS has the resources it needs to provide adequate service to applicants and petitioners. The rule will also remove certain fee exemptions, change fee waiver requirements, alter premium processing time limits, and modify intercountry adoption processing. The final rule is effective October 2, 2020.
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Wednesday, December 11, 2019
On Friday, December 6, 2019, USCIS announced its implementation of its new H-1B lottery registration process after a successful pilot testing phase. Employers will now need to first register electronically and remit a $10 registration fee when filing H-1B Cap-subject (including Cap-subject advanced degree exemption) petitions for FY (Fiscal Year) 2021. USCIS will open an initial registration period starting March 1st and ending March 20, 2020. This process will require employers to provide basic information about their company and each H-1B Cap candidate. Thereafter the H-1B random selection process, if necessary, will be run on the H-1B Cap candidates that have been electronically registered. Instead of preparing and submitting a full petition for all H-1B Cap candidates, only selected registrants who are eligible to file will be required to submit the full H-1B Cap-subject petitions to USCIS. Read more . . .
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Update - effective October 11, 2019, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York prohibited the USCIS and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from enforcing the DHS Public Charge Final Rule, specifically preventing the implementation of any new or updated forms that would be required under the Final Rule, including: Forms I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker), I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status), I-539 (Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status), I-864 (Affidavit of Support), I-864 EZ (Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Act), I-944 (Declaration of Self-Sufficiency), and Form I-945 (Public Charge Bond). The newer Forms I-944 and I-945, produced exclusively for use in connection with the Public Charge Inadmissibility Law, were removed from the USCIS website shortly after this injunction.Read more . . .
Monday, September 16, 2019
An advance copy of a notice of proposed rulemaking requiring petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions to pay a $10 fee for each electronic registration submitted to USCIS for H-1B cap selection was released by USCIS on September 3, 2019 and published in the Federal Register on September 4, 2019. DHS published a final rule on January 31, 2019 requiring petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, including eligible petitioners for the advanced degree exemption, to electronically register first with USCIS during a designated registration period unless the requirement was temporarily suspended. If registration is required, only those H-1B candidates selected will be eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition. The final rule became effective on April 1, 2019 but USCIS suspended the registration requirement for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 cap filing season. Read more . . .
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
On May 17, 2019, USCIS announced their completion of H-1B cap-subject petitions data entry for fiscal year 2020, including petitions selected via USCIS’ computer-generated random selection process as well as those selected under the U.S. advanced degree exemption.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
The Department of State revised its immigrant and nonimmigrant visa application forms to now request social media identifiers. Specifically, in addition to information already requested on visa applications, such as travel history, family member information, and previous addresses, most U.S. visa applicants worldwide will now be required to also provide details regarding names or “handles” used on social media platforms (i.e.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
USCIS will start rejecting Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, where the name and primary U.S. office address of the petitioner or applicant are missing (in addition to other form requirements, such as incorrect fee, missing signature, and/or unauthorized third-party signature on behalf of the petitioner).
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Monday, June 24, 2019
USCIS began premium processing service for all remaining Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions on June 10, 2019. Petitioners may now file a Request for Premium Processing Service (Form I-907) with the USCIS service center where their petitions are currently pending. Note that premium processing service remains available for cap-exempt H-1B petitions such as requests for Extension of Stay.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
On May 22, 2019, USCIS announced a new eProcessing strategy that will accelerate its transition to a digital business model. eProcessing will therefore be completely digital from start to end and will include the ability to apply for a benefit, communicate with USCIS and receive a decision on a pending case in addition to receiving biometrics appointment notices, status updates, ability to respond to Requests for Evidence and update/change contact information. Through eProcessing, USCIS will create official digital immigration records from time of application to final decision, and will continue to issue Forms I-797, Notices of Action, and Forms I-94, Arrival-Departure Records, as evidence of benefits granted.
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Friday, April 26, 2019
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) announced that I-94 numbers will become alphanumeric effective May 2019 and that in replacement of the 11-digit numerical format, the new format will now have 9 digits with a letter in the 10th position and a digit in the 11th position.
CBP further provided that I-94 records that have not expired and were issued with the current numeric-only format will continue to be valid until the "Admit Until Date" reflected on the paper I-94 record (in passports) or on the electronic version found on CBP's I-94 website.
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Tuesday, March 12, 2019
USCIS will resume premium processing on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 for all H-1B petitions.
If a request for evidence (“RFE”) for a pending petition has been received, the RFE response should be included with the premium processing request.
Please note that when an H-1B Petitioner has properly requested premium processing service, a 15-day processing time is guaranteed by USCIS. If the processing time has not been met, USCIS will fully refund the premium processing fee and continue to expedite processing of the petition.
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