Need Help?

H1B deadline

Get Those Visas Ready! H1B Season Starts April 1st

st, 2017 for visas for fiscal year 2018. The annual cap is 65,000 for candidates with bachelor’s degrees, and another 20,000 for candidates with master’s degrees of higher. This cap has not changed. Last year, CIS received a record 236,000 petitions in the first five days of opening its doors to petitions, during which CIS is mandated to continue to accept petitions even if the cap is exceeded. After that point, the petitions go into a randomized lottery for review for approval. Every year, more and more petitions have come in, exceeding the annual H1B cap in the first week. There will almost certainly be an H1B lottery again this year. That means if you or your employee or client has a cap-subject H1B job and is petitioning for a visa for FY2018, the petition MUST be filed on April 1st or very shortly after to make the lottery. Make sure that when you file, everything you or your employee or client needs to get the visa approved is included. If you or your employee or client has a degree that doesn’t fit their job title, a foreign degree, a three-year bachelor’s degree, or any other unusual education situation, do not file without first consulting with a foreign credential evaluation agency that specializes in H1B visas. Making the lottery only to receive an RFE or worse is not worth the time, money, and energy. About the Author Sheila Danzig Sheila Danzig is the Executive Director at TheDegreePeople.com, a Foreign Credentials Evaluation Agency. For a free analysis of any difficult case, RFE, Denial, or NOID, please go to http://ccifree.com/ or call 800.771.4723.]]>

Simple Tips to Streamline Your H1B Petition Process

st is rapidly approaching. It’s officially crunch time. That means you’re finishing up your applications, gathering up the rest of your education and immigration documents, triple-checking your work, and getting your credential evaluations ordered. The USCIS is required to accept H1B petitions for a full business week before closing regardless of how many petitions they receive in that time. Last year it was literally hundreds of thousands for just 65,000 H1B visas. That means you need to have your petition submitted on April 1st and you’ve got to make it easy on the USCIS worker evaluating your petition to approve it. How can you make this happen? Simple. By making the USCIS worker’s job easier. Submit all of your documents, applications, and evaluations together, in order, on time, and to the correct address. Go over your forms to make sure all of the information in your H1B packet is accurate and consistent. If you’ve answered questions inconsistently that’s a big red flag and will land you in the rejected pile. Make sure to always put your signature in blue ink so the USCIS worker evaluating your petition can tell the difference between you and your employer’s signatures and signatures on original documents and copies of original documents. This will streamline the process for the USCIS – who has literally hundreds of thousands of packets to go through – and will make reading your petition a more enjoyable experience. Remember, people will be deciding whether or not you can get your visa. These people want to have a good day. Make theirs a good day by making their job easy and they will approve your visa. You also want to be sure to submit a credential evaluation along with your transcripts and diplomas if your education is from outside of the United States. You need to clearly show the US equivalent of the value of your education and the only way to do this is with a thorough evaluation from an authorized credential evaluation agency. At CCI, all of our evaluators are experts in international education with the authority to convert work experience and classroom contact hours into college credit hours to clearly show the value of the academic content of your degree. We are available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. We will always answer the phone, text you back, or return your email promptly. We understand the time crunch you face and offer rush services on your credential evaluation order. We will also work off of emailed copies of your academic documents to save you time and hassle. Remember, no matter how hard you are feeling the crunch, it is essential to always make time to double-check your work, make sure you’re sending the right documents to the right addresses, and to make sure you have everything the USCIS has asked for in the proper order.]]>

Scroll to Top