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Biden Administration Sued Over Wage Level Final Rule

Five tech and medical nonprofits represented by the American Immigration Lawyers Association are suing the Biden Administration in an effort to block the wage level preference final rule from going into law December 31st, 2021.

The lawsuit filed in a Washington, DC US District Court stated:

“It will have a deleterious impact on small businesses, start-ups, non-profits, rurally located businesses and other industries that rely on foreign highly skilled workers, but who are not able to compensate workers at the highest level.”

The lawsuit also states that this final rule was reviewed and approved by Chad Wolf, who was the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security.  He did not have the legal and valid authority to review and approve this final rule because he was not properly appointed to his position of authority.

This rule was proposed by the Trump Administration on its way out to prioritize H-1B beneficiaries based on wage level.  This would effectively do away with the lottery system, which was designed to give equal footing to businesses and organizations large and small, rural and urban, in areas expensive and impoverished.  Many of these rural areas rely on foreign workers because they lack a pool of highly skilled workers to provide essential services to the community or cultivate sustainable economic development. 

Wage level preference would be based on the H-1B occupation in that geographic location.  However, when put into action this regulation gets murky in areas where economic opportunity and urban density is patchy and gives preference to large and wealthy businesses over small businesses and nonprofits across the board.

CCI TheDegreePeople.com will continue to track this lawsuit and advise accordingly.  However, we do anticipate wage level issues will be a common RFE this year in light of current controversy.  We are here to help you identify and fix the weaknesses in H-1B petitions before you file, and to help successfully answers RFEs.

For a free review of your H-1B case, visit www.ccifree.com.  We will respond in 4 hours or less.

H-1B Lottery Brought Under the Freedom of Information Act

  • How does the electronic selection process work?
  • How does the process for rejecting or accepting a petition function?
  • How does CIS determine how many petitions to select for the lottery, and how does CIS determine when they have reached the limit for petition approval?
  • How does CIS track visa numbers?
  • Does CIS actually allocate all of the visa numbers available?
  • Unless major immigration reform happens to significantly increase the number of H-1B visas available annually, the lottery is here to stay. That means it needs to be made public record how it works. Candidates and their employers and lawyers have no control over whether or not any given petition is selected, but checking the process to ensure that it is up to statutory standards, and as impartial as it claims to be is necessary for accountability. If your petition, or your employee or client’s petition is selected, it must be impeccable. CIS selects more petitions than there are H-1B visas available in the lottery process, then reviews the petitions they receive. That means they are looking for red flags, and many petitions must be rejected as part of the process. It is imperative that you get it right the first time. While RFEs can be answered, it is always best to prevent getting one in the first place. If your education, or your employee or client’s education is from outside of the United States, never file without a thorough credential evaluation that clearly spells out the US equivalent of your client’s degree, with a specialization that matches their job offer. We see so many RFEs every year that could have been prevented simply by taking this step before CIS has to ask you, or your employee or client to do so. About the Author Sheila Danzig Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director of TheDegreePeople.com a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a no charge analysis of any difficult case, RFEs, Denials, or NOIDs, please go to http://www.ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.  ]]>

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