USCIS has published information to help eligible H-4 dependent spouses who want to apply for employment authorization under the Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses final rule.  USCIS has also published a list of Frequently Asked Questions since they announced the H-4 rule in February.  Please note that H-4s cannot apply for employment authorization until May 26, 2015.  USCIS has made clear that any H-4 employment authorization applications received prior to May 26 will be rejected.

If you would like assistance applying for work authorization for an H-4 spouse please contact our office [email protected].

Marty & Ellis LLP welcomes Katherine (Katy) James to our Seattle office.  Katy received her B.A. in Government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where she concentrated on researching political issues in East Asia. She recently returned home to the Seattle area after completing a nine-month program with the French Ministry of Education teaching English to high school students in Brittany, France. Previously, she worked for a non-profit in Boston on air-quality issues in the Northeast, helping develop a green house gas inventory for the state of Rhode Island. Additionally, she has worked for NGOs and non-profit organizations on air and water quality issues in Beijing and Seattle. She is interested in international legal and policy issues.  Ms. James is resident in the Seattle Office but supports both the Seattle and Washington DC office.  Ms. James has traveled to many countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia.  Ms. James lived in France while teaching English for the French Ministry of Education.  Ms. James is fluent in French.  

USCIS announced today that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2016 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generates random process.   USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap subject petitions that were not selected.  Due to the high volume of filings, the time frame for returning these petitions is uncertain.  USCIS asks petitioners to not inquire about the status of submitted cap-subject petitions until they receive a receipt notice or an unselected petitions is returned.  USCIS will issue an announcement once all the petitions have been returned.

If our office has filed a petition on your behalf, we will let you know immediately upon our receipt of either an I-797 Notice of Receipt or your unselected H-1B petition package.   We expect that we may continue to receive I-797 notices for the next 1-2 weeks but maybe longer.  Please contact us if you have any questions.