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USCIS just announced that submissions to be entered into the electronic H-1B lottery will take place between March 1st and March 20th, 2020.  The submission fee is $10, and a completed petition is not required. Applicants selected will have 90 days to complete the filing. If you, or if your employee or client is selected […]

USCIS has announced that starting in 2020, H-1B petitions will be filed in a new electronic manner that streamlines the process. Between March 1st and March 20th, 2020, employers must register online to submit H-1B employees’ names into a lottery.  Through an electronic selection process, beneficiaries chosen will be given a registration number, through which […]

Expert opinion letters have meant the difference between rejection and approval since USCIS adjudication practices surrounding various aspects of H-1B eligibility have changed. An expert opinion letter can address wage level issues, specialty occupation issues, and employer-employee relationship issues, and your expert opinion letter ought to address all three in one.  However, even the right […]

The past few years have not been easy on the H-1B program.  Now, over the next few months, new regulations surrounding immigration to the United States will be introduced that will continue to impact H-1B beneficiaries, the employers that hire them, and the lawyers who represent them.  Next month, December 2019, DHS announced they will […]

The Specialty Occupation RFE has become the scourge of H-1B hopefuls and their teams, and they are impacting occupations that had never been called into question before 2017.  With the high rate of H-1B RFEs, it is important to understand what Specialty Occupation means, how the burden of proof as shifted in the past few […]

IT professionals have been hit the hardest by current USCIS policy changes to restrict the H-1B program without statutory basis.  In 2015, the Denial rate for H-1B petitions was just 6%.  This year, that number has reached 24% across industries, but IT companies have been hit the hardest. Twelve IT companies that saw Denial rates […]

Following the Trump Administration’s “Buy American and Hire American” policy, USCIS declassified documents show that approval standards for H-1B visas have changed without statutory basis.  This has led to a massive spike in RFEs and Denials for H-1B petitions – both for initial filings, and for H-1B extensions for cases that had previously been approved. […]

With the rising rate of H-1B denials being overturned in appeals and recently declassified USCIS memos that clearly showed restrictions to H-1B approval without legal basis, it is clear that USCIS is issuing RFEs for approvable petitions. H-1B extension petitions for the same jobs, beneficiaries, and petitioners that have already been approved are getting RFEs […]

When USCIS finds a problem with your petition, or with your client or employee’s H-1B petition, more and more often they are finding something wrong with your response.  The second round of H-1B RFEs hit H-1B hopefuls harder than ever and like a ton of bricks last H-1B season, and this year is equally bad. […]