Posts Tagged ‘LCA’
Alert: H-1B Filing Season is Around The Corner
The H-1B filing period for fiscal year 2011 (for a start date of October 1, 2010) will open on April 1, 2010. The H-1B category is used by an employer to sponsor a foreign national to work in a specialty occupation, which is a position requiring, at a minimum, a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
As you may already be aware, there are a limited number of H-1B visas each fiscal year: 65,000 slots for holders of Bachelor’s degrees and 20,000 additional slots for holders of Master’s degrees or higher level degrees from U.S. universities. In 2007 and 2008, the numerical limit was reached in the first few days of April . In 2009, due to the struggling economy, the quota was not met until December 21, 2009.
While there is no way to predict how quickly the visas will be used this year, we do anticipate that demand will increase from last year, and therefore we recommend that all employers planning to file H-1B petitions file them on April 1, 2010 so as to ensure the greatest chances of success.
Filing an H-1B this year requires more lead time for preparation than in prior years. This is because in 2009, the Department of Labor (DOL) rolled out a new system for certifying the Labor Condition Application (LCA), a form required in the filing. This new system, involving manual review of all LCA’s, has created unforeseen delays and unpredictability of timing in the H-1B process. Under the old system, the LCA could be certified automatically upon an attorney submitting it online. Certification is now projected to take 7 days. However, in many instances, the LCA is denied erroneously because of DOL computer error, and must be re-filed, making the exact length of the LCA process unpredictable.
Please contact our office if you’d like to file an H-1B petition for fiscal year 2011. Given the changes discussed here, it would be prudent to begin the process as soon as possible. We look forward to assisting you.
Tags: cap, DOL, FEIN, H-1B, iCert, LCA, quota, tax identification number
Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
USCIS Will Begin Accepting H-1B Applications without Certified LCA
USCIS has recently announced that it will begin to accept H-1B petitions filed with uncertified LCAs for a temporary period, ending on March 4, 2010. As many have experienced including our office, the Dept. of Labor’s new iCert process for certifying LCA’s has resulted in unprecedented delays, and has added a new level of unpredictability to the H-1B process. In response to requests, USCIS will accept petitions with uncertified LCA’s and then issue a Request for Evidence (RFE) for the certified LCA before approving the petition. Normally, only petitions with certified LCA’s are accepted. This “temporary flexibility”, as USCIS called it, is somewhat useful, but what happens at H-1B cap time, either in the coming year, on in subsequent years, when we need to file all of those applications by April 1? How will we be sure that the LCA will be certified in time for filing after March 4th? Also, since filing with an uncertified LCA will essentially guarantee a Request for Evidence, are adjudicators going to use that opportunity to throw more items into the request? As it is, applicants are already beleaguered from overly burdensome, redundant, and nonsensical RFE’s.
Tags: certified LCA, DOL, H-1B, LCA, request for evidence, uncertified LCA, USCIS
Posted in H-1B | Read More »
USCIS to Consider Accepting Pending Labor Condition Application for H-1B Filings
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Ombudsman recently recommended that USCIS begin accepting H-1B applications with pending Labor Condition Applications, or LCA’s. Normally, the LCA, the document initially filed with Dept. of Labor (DOL) prior to submission of the H-1B petition , must be certified first. The certification process used to be instantaneous- as easy as a click of a mouse. But DOL, in its infinite wisdom, decided to scrap this system that worked so efficiently. In July of this year, DOL rolled out a new LCA process, and now each LCA is reviewed manually. Getting an LCA certified has now become a mini-nightmare in most cases, resulting sometimes in delays of several weeks and erroneous denials from DOL. The fact that we’ll now be able to file the H-1B petition without first needing to certify the LCA is somewhat of a positive development, although it does guarantee that USCIS will issue a request for the certified LCA before approving the petition, and they will likely use that as an opportunity to request other additional evidence.
Tags: DOL, H-1B, iCert, Labor Condition Application, LCA, LCA certification, USCIS, USCIS ombudsman
Posted in H-1B, USCIS | Read More »
