The H-1B quota count came out again yesterday. USCIS released the following quota numbers: Bachelor’s degree quota: approximately 20,600 petitions received Advanced degree quota: approximately 9,700 petitions received This tells us that those petitioners and employees who had a job in hand by April 1, did not delay in getting…
Retrogression has hit the EB-2 preference categories for India and China. USDOS released the May 2012 visa bulletin showing EB-2 priority dates of August 15, 2007 for both countries. The EB-3 priority dates have moved forward about one month, with the exception of India which forward about a week to…
F-1 cap gap issues cause a lot of confusion, but here is a quick guide to help you all you need are clear answers. I posted a similar blog entry last year. The full guidance from USCIS can be found here: Can an F-1 student file an H-1B petition during…
The days of PERM processing within a week or two are long gone, but the business immigration attorneys at Romben Law, APC, have seen a decrease in time for adjudications at US Dept of Labor. Although processing times still vary, we have recently seen certifications within 2 months of filing.…
H-1B news. April 1, is just around the corner. The so-called “H-1B season” is upon us with preparations in high gear for early filings. While I won’t give predictions or insight into how long this quota will last, the important thing is to prepare your case well and do it…
Last week, Department of Homeland Security announced several proposed reforms to “attract and retain highly skilled workers.” These reforms include employment authorization of certain H-4 spouses and other concrete incentives. DHS released a press release describing these administrative reforms, which would impact the benefits and the adjudications process in several…
The last update from USCIS announced that the US advanced degree cap for H-1Bs has been filled. The regular H-1B quota has accepted 46,200 petitions leaving 18,800 slots available for new H-1B cases to be filed. We can expect this last batch of H-1B slots to fill up quicker since…
September 30 marks the end of fiscal year for 2011. I wanted to review some statistics regarding labor certification information by the US Dept. of Labor which shows some interesting statistics about labor certification processing times and audits between October 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. Labor certification audits are…
In the last month, usage of H-1B numbers have continued to crawl upwards: The regular H-1B cap has seen an increase from 25,300 petitions received to 32,200 as of September 9, 2011 The advanced degree cap has moved toward the 20,000 cap from 14,700 petitions received to 16,700 received as…
So far, the USCIS has announced that it received 5,900 H-1B applications for the normal quota and an additional 4,500 for the advanced degree quota. These numbers were released yesterday, April 7, 2011. In years past, many remember that the H-1B quota was exhausted as early as the first day…