Posts Tagged ‘H-1B’
H-1B and L-1 Petition Fees Increase for Certain Employers
Effective immediately, petitioning employers with 50 or more employees in the U.S. and 50% or more of its workforce holding H-1B or L status (L-1A, L-1B and L-2) must submit additional fees for initial and change of employer petitions.
For H-1B petitions of either type, the petitioner must submit an additional $2000. For L-1A and L-1B petitions of either type, the petitioner must submit an additional $2250. These fee increases will remain in effect through September 30, 2014.
Please don’t hesitate to contact our immigration law office in San Francisco if you have questions about these fees.
Tags: H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, petition fee, Public Law 111-230, visa fee
Posted in Alerts, H-1B, Nonimmigrant Visas, Politics/Current Events, USCIS | Read More »
H-1B’s Still in a Slow Crawl
On July 20, 2010, the USCIS updated the H-1B cap count for fiscal year 2011. To date, the USCIS has received 25,300 regular petitions and 11,000 U.S. Master’s cap petitions. The regular cap is available to those with a Bachelor’s degree (U.S. or foreign) or equivalent experience or foreign Master’s or higher degree. The U.S. Master’s cap is available to individuals with a Master’s or higher degree from a U.S. academic institution. Please note that all H-1B positions must have job duties so complex that they cannot be performed without a Bachelor’s or higher degree.
The regular cap has 65,000 slots available and the U.S. Master’s cap has 20,000. As you can see, there are still many slots left for this fiscal year. Please contact our San Francisco immigration law office if you’d like to pursue H-1B status.
Tags: FY2011, H-1B, Master's cap, quota, regular cap
Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
USCIS Proposes Fee Increases
USCIS announced a proposed fee increase today, designed to address a $200 million budget shortfall for the agency in the coming fiscal year. The proposed increase of approximately 10 percent would affect most petitions, and would leave applications for naturalization unaffected. A 45-day public comment period will follow.
As an attorney in the trenches, I regularly see the incredibly poor level of service that USCIS delivers to its “customers”. For instance, a company petitioning for an H-1B employee must already pay anywhere from $1570 to $2320 in filing fees, and it receives very little value for it.
Increasingly, what we see in the adjudication are burdensome and unnecessary requests for evidence; evidence that is irrelevant and/or already provided in the initial petition. For instance, recently, I received a request asking that I “prove” why a position for a staff scientist at a DNA sequencing start-up company qualifies as a professional occupation worthy of an H-1B. In that case, the scientist in question has a degree in molecular cell biology from a U.S. university and is spending 100% of their time on scientific research.
It’s bad enough that in this era of declining applications, USCIS feels that it must make busy work for its under-employed contractors by encouraging those contractors to waste the petitioners’ time and money with unnecessary requests for more evidence. Now they expect petitioners to have to pay ten percent more for this “service”? Where I come from, they call that serious chutzpah.
Tags: fee increase, filing fee, H-1B, immigration, USCIS
Posted in Alerts | Read More »
Visa Extensions: A Problem?
Many of my immigration attorney colleagues are reporting denials of visa extension requests. These are situations where the foreign national is already in the U.S. working legally; but when it comes time to renew the visa, the USCIS says no.
If your status is about to expire, do not think that the USCIS will simply rubber stamp a prior approval and extend your visa. Now more than ever it is important to thoroughly document your eligibility again even if nothing about the employment situation has changed. What was approved once will not necessarily be approved again.
Although most reported cases I’ve heard about involve denials of L-1, O-1 and H-1B visa extensions, other visa types are not remotely immune to the culture of no that pervades USCIS these days.
In fact, just this past weekend, the New York Times reported that E-2 visas are becoming difficult to extend. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30visas.html?pagewanted=2&sq=E-2%20visa&st=cse&scp=1 for a woeful tale of a business forced to shut down because its British proprietors were not able to renew their visas.
Tags: E-2, extension, H-1B, L-1A, O-1, renew, visa
Posted in Alerts | Read More »
May I qualify for H-1B status without a degree?
Yes, provided you have enough experience to be the equivalent of a college degree. The USCIS considers 3 years of experience to equal 1 year of college education. In the U.S., college is typically completed in 4 years, which is the standard the USCIS follows. Thus, if a person has never obtained any college credit, he/she would need to have 12 years of professional experience to meet the H-1B qualifications requirement (i.e. 3 years of experience x 4 years of college = 12 years).
If a person has an Associate’s degree or a few years of college credit, he/she would only need to make up the remaining time in experience. The formula is the same. For example, if 2 years of college was completed, the person would need to demonstrate only 6 years of relevant experience.
The experience being used in this regard must be relevant to the H-1B position and the individual must be able to submit documentation attesting to this experience (i.e. employment verification letters from prior employers). It is also helpful to get letters from experts in the field, including from professors who can issue college credit, stating that the individual’s experience is equivalent to a college degree.
Please contact our immigration law office if you would like to discuss your qualifications for the H-1B category.
Tags: college degree, experience, H-1B
Posted in FAQ H-1B | Read More »
ALERT: DEPARTMENT OF STATE REDUCES VISA PERIOD FOR MEXICAN CITIZENS
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has reduced work visa validity periods for Mexican citizens after Mexico increased its visa fees for U.S. citizens. Starting February 22, 2010, any Mexican citizen applying for a U.S. work visa in the categories of H-1B, H-2B, E-1, E-2, TN or L-1 will receive a one-year validity period only. Multi-year work visa approvals are no longer available until further notice. This change applies to Mexicans seeking to come to the U.S. and those already in the U.S. filing extension petitions with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). If you have any questions about this recent and sudden change, please don’t hesitate to contact our immigration law firm.
Tags: Department of State, H-1B, L-1, Mexican citizens, TN
Posted in Alerts, FAQ - TN, H-1B | Read More »
H-1B’s Still Available
The FY2011 H-1B cap filing period opened April 1, 2010. As of April 8, 2010, the USCIS has only received 19,100 H-1B petitions for the 85,000 slots currently allotted. This means there are many H-1B slots left to be filled!
The H-1B category is for individuals who wish to perform temporary work in the U.S. in positions that require a Bachelor’s or higher degree (i.e. in a specialty occupation). Each year, 65,000 slots are allotted for holders of Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent experience and 20,000 slots are allotted for U.S. Master’s degree holders (or higher), totaling 85,000 slots. In previous years, the quota was reached within days of April 1, however, due to the struggling U.S. economy, that is not currently the case. Last year, the cap period remained open over 8 months from April 1, 2009 – December 21, 2009.
Despite the slowdown in H-1B filings, the category remains a first-come/first-serve system, so filing an H-1B cap petition sooner rather than later is best. The USCIS can announce at any time that the cap has been reached and it is closed until next year. Please contact our immigration law firm if you would like our assistance with your H-1B petition.
Tags: H-1B, h-1b cap, H-1B quota
Posted in H-1B | Read More »
Am I an intermittent H-1B or L-1 visa holder?
Intermittent status applies to H-1B and L-1 visa holders who reside in the U.S. for fewer than 6 months in a one year period. If an H-1B or L-1 visa holder maintains a residence abroad and is only needed periodically in the U.S. (not to exceed 6 months) the individual is an intermittent H-1B or L-1 employee not subject to standard time limitations.
Typically, a person may hold H-1B status for a maximum period of 6 years with limited exceptions going beyond 6 years. For L-1A status (managers/executives), the maximum time period is 7 years. For L-1B status (specialized knowledge professionals), the maximum time period is 5 years. These H-1B and L-1 time limitations do not apply to intermittent H-1B and L-1 visa holders and these individuals can renew their status indefinitely.
Filing for intermittent status is the same as filing for regular status, with a notation made that the individual resides abroad and is therefore an intermittent employee. Intermittent status is an attractive option for individuals stationed abroad and due to its flexibility, should be utilized whenever possible to avoid the standard categorical restrictions of H-1B and L-1 status. Please don’t hesitate to contact our immigration law firm if you would like to discuss intermittent status in detail.
Tags: H-1B, intermittent, L-1
Posted in FAQ H-1B, FAQ L-1, H-1B | Read More »
Am I allowed to change employers in H-1B status?
Yes. This is known as H-1B portability. A person in H-1B status may switch to a new employer provided the new employer files an H-1B petition on the worker’s behalf requesting the change.
This “change of employer” petition is similar to an initial petition and must include the applicable forms and fees, as well as set forth information about the company, the H-1B position and the worker’s qualifications.
The most important thing to note with H-1B change of employer petitions is that employment with the new employer may begin upon filing the petition (i.e. upon receipt at the USCIS) provided ALL of the following four conditions are met:
1. The worker was lawfully admitted to the U.S.
2. The new petition is non-frivolous (i.e. not without basis in law or fact)
3. The new petition was filed before the date of the worker’s expiration of stay
4. Subsequent to the worker’s lawful admission to the U.S., he/she has not been employed with authorization before filing the H-1B change of employer petition
In other words, if the worker meets all 4 criteria above, he/she does not need to wait for the petition to be approved before starting employment with the new employer.
Please contact our San Francisco immigration law firm if you need assistance with your H-1B petition or would like to discuss changing H-1B employers.
Tags: change of employer, H-1B, portability, switch employer, transfer employer
Posted in FAQ H-1B, H-1B | Read More »
Is the position being offered to me an H-1B specialty occupation?
A specialty occupation is defined in the H-1B regulations as a position requiring the “theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and attainment of a Bachelor’s or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the U.S.” To put it plainly, the position must require a Bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent) in a specific specialty relevant to the position duties. There are various standards the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) looks at when determining whether an H-1B position is a specialty occupation. The first is whether a Bachelor’s or higher degree (or its equivalent) is normally the minimum requirement for entry into the position (i.e. generally speaking across industries). The second is whether the degree requirement is common in the specific industry in parallel positions among similar organizations/companies (i.e. similar in size and type). The third is whether the specific H-1B employer normally requires a degree (or its equivalent) for the position. Lastly, the USCIS will review the nature of the specific duties and determine whether they are so specialized or complex that the knowledge required to perform the duties competently is usually associated with attainment of a degree (or its equivalent) in a specific specialty. An H-1B position will not be considered a specialty occupation based on the job title alone. The main focus for the USCIS is on the complexity of the duties. If you have any questions about the H-1B category and/or whether a position qualifies as a specialty occupation, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.
Tags: Bachelor's degree, H-1B, specialty occupation
Posted in FAQ H-1B, H-1B | Read More »
