USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security have submitted an Interim Final Rule with request for comments, to go into effect December 7, 2020 which will restrict H-1B visa eligibility.  This rule will codify the USCIS approval trends we have been seeing since 2017. This rule changes the definitions of

The Department of Homeland Security and USCIS have submitted an Interim Final Rule that will go into effect on December 7, 2020.  This rule restricts H-1B eligibility by revising two key definitions, one of which has been blocking the ability of USCIS to illegally deny H-1B visas: “specialty occupation.” This

On March 30, 2020, USCIS announced that due to the COVID-19 crisis, RFE, NOID, and other notice respondents will have a 60-day grace period to file a response following the due date.  That means any response filed within 60 days of the deadline will be considered received by USCIS.  This

The rate of RFE responses to H-1B initial petitions held stead from the second quarter of 2019 this year, rising from 35.3% to 35.8% this year.  However, while in 2019 only 58.8% of RFEs were successfully answered, this year 68.2% were approved in the second quarter of 2020.  We at

Since 2017, H-1B visa applicants have faced specialty occupation and employer-employee relationship issues from USCIS wrongly adjudicating petitions based on the visa’s own eligibility rules.  So far, RFE and Denial responses and court challenges have been successful in overturning these decisions.  Now, a new regulation has been sent for review

RFE rates are still high for H-1B petitions, and processing delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic are making it even harder for employees to get their visas approved to meet their start dates.  Having to answer one or two – and sometimes as much as three – rounds of RFEs

The E-3 work visa is very similar to the H-1B visa, except that only Australian citizens are eligible.  That means if you are an Australian citizen with a specialty occupation job offer in the United States, this is the visa for you. There are 10,500 annual E-3 visas, not including

The H-1B approval rate for the second quarter of FY2020 came in at 87.1%, a nearly 4% rise from the same time last year.  However, the RFE rate remained high, at 35.8%, with a 68.2% rate of approval after response.  That means around one in every three H-1B petitions is

One of the H-1B visa eligibility requirements is that there must be an employer-employee relationship.  What this means is that the employer must be able to hire, fire, promote, and otherwise control the work the H-1B employee performs. Consulting firms are vulnerable to employer-employee relationship issues because of the independent

In the past year, USCIS faced three convictions regarding illegally denying RFEs due to specialty occupation issues.  Despite these judicial decisions, USCIS continues to adjudicate H-1B petitions wrongly, which means H-1B beneficiaries still must take steps to prevent and fight these specialty occupation RFEs. Here is the issue: USCIS defines