Selection of H1B lottery winners has begun, results started to be published Saturday March 27. Based on previous years, selection is is not done yet! We will continue to update our news section with H1B updates.
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By American Immigration Council
Foreign workers fill a critical need in the U.S. labor market—particularly in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. Every year, U.S. employers seeking highly skilled foreign professionals submit their petitions for the pool of H-1B visa numbers for which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) controls the allocation. 1 With a low statutory limit of visa numbers available, demand for H-1B visa numbers has outstripped the supply in recent years, and the cap has been reached quickly. Research shows that H-1B workers complement U.S. workers, fill employment gaps in many STEM occupations, and expand job opportunities for all. This fact sheet provides an overview of the H-1B visa category and petition process, addresses the myths perpetuated about the H-1B visa category, and highlights the key contributions H-1B workers make to the U.S. economy. Highlights of the study include:
Click here for access to the full report. AILA Practice Alert: Updates on FY2022 H-1B Electronic Registration Process During the past two days, USCIS made several announcements that directly impact the timing and the selection process for the FY2022 H-1B Electronic Registration, including that: 1) the registration period will be open from March 9, 2021, to March 25, 2021, and 2) USCIS will continue to use a random selection process for this year’s H-1B lottery. For more resources, please see AILA’s Featured Issues Page on the FY2022 Cap-Subject H-1B Filing Season. Timing of the FY2022 H-1B Registration Period • • • • USCIS is required by 8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(iii)(A)(3) to establish an H-1B Cap Selection Process On January 8, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule that replaces the current random selection process by which USCIS selects H-1B registrations for filing of H-1B cap-subject petitions. The new system will select registrations based on the highest Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) prevailing wage level that the offered wage equals or exceeds for the relevant Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code and area(s) of intended employment. The rule was scheduled to take effect on March 9, 2021. USCIS has published an announcement on its website that the H-1B registration process will commence at on March 9, 2021, at 12:00 pm (ET). The registration process timeline is as follows: March 9: H-1B registration process opens at Noon, Eastern Time; March 25: H-1B registration process closes at Noon, Eastern Time; March 31: Date by which USCIS intends to notify selected registrants; and April 1: Earliest date that FY2022 H-1B cap subject petitions may be filed. USCIS is also required to announce the start and end dates of the initial annual initial H-1B registration period that lasts a minimum of 14 calendar days and starts at least 14 calendar days before the earliest date on which H-1B cap-subject petitions may be filed for a particular fiscal year. Accordingly, the latest date that the agency could have begun the registration process for FY2022 is March 18, 2021. By way of background, the H-1B registration process for FY2021 began on March 1, 2020, and concluded on March 20, 2020. On February 4, 2021, the DHS posted for public inspection a final rule delaying the effective date of the wage based selection system for H-1B cap-subject petitions until December 31, 2021. This rule will publish in the Federal Register on February 8, 2021. As such, the random selection process utilized by USCIS for the FY 2021 cap season will remain in effect for the FY2022 cap season. AS IT DID LAST YEAR, USCIS WILL CONDUCT TWO RANDOM LOTTERIES TO SELECT ENOUGH BENEFICIARIES TO MEET THE 85,000 ANNUAL CAP. THE FIRST LOTTERY WILL INCLUDE ALL REGISTERED BENEFICIARIES AND WILL SELECT ENOUGH REGISTRATIONS TO MEET THE REGULAR CAP OF 65,000. THE SECOND LOTTERY WOULD INCLUDE REGISTERED U.S. ADVANCED-DEGREE HOLDERS WHO WERE NOT CHOSEN IN THE FIRST LOTTERY, AND WOULD SELECT ENOUGH REGISTRATIONS TO MEET THE ADVANCED-DEGREE CAP EXEMPTION OF 20,000. USCIS IS EXPECTED TO RECEIVE FAR MORE H-1B CAP REGISTRATIONS THAN NEEDED TO MEET THE ANNUAL QUOTA OF 85,000. USCIS HAS NOT YET RELEASED THE START AND END DATES FOR THE FY 22 H-1B CAP REGISTRATION PERIOD.
Fragomen Feb. 4, 2021 DHS and its Federal government partners fully support equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine distribution sites for undocumented immigrants. It is a moral and public health imperative to ensure that all individuals residing in the United States have access to the vaccine. DHS encourages all individuals, regardless of immigration status, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine once eligible under local distribution guidelines. DHS carries out its mission, including all areas within its COVID-19 response, without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or other protected class, and in compliance with law and policy. Further, DHS supports the equitable and efficient distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to all populations, including historically underserved communities. To reach underserved and rural communities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in collaboration with federal partners, will coordinate efforts to establish and support fixed facilities, pop-up or temporary vaccination sites, and mobile vaccination clinics. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will not conduct enforcement operations at or near vaccine distribution sites or clinics. Consistent with ICE’s long-standing sensitive locations policy, ICE does not and will not carry out enforcement operations at or near health care facilities, such as hospitals, doctors' offices, accredited health clinics, and emergent or urgent care facilities, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances. DHS is committed to ensuring that every individual who needs a vaccine can get one, regardless of their immigration status How to Make an Expedite RequestIn General. You may ask USCIS to expedite the adjudication of an application or petition for an immigration benefit.
USCIS:
All expedite requests claiming severe financial loss, regardless of the immigration benefit sought and regardless of whether the claimed loss is to a company or a person, must be documented to establish the loss and that the requestor is not able to withstand the temporary financial loss that is the natural result of normal processing times. For more information, see USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 1, Part A, Public Services, Chapter 5, Requests to Expedite Applications or Petitions [1 USCIS-PM A.5]. You can generally request expedited processing by contacting the USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283 (TTY for the deaf, hard of hearing, or those having a speech disability: 1-800-767-1833) or by asking Emma after you have obtained a receipt notice. (You can access Emma by clicking on the Ask Emma icon on the top right of this page). The USCIS Contact Center will not be able to refer the expedite request to the appropriate office without a receipt number. When you call to request expedited processing, the USCIS Contact Center creates and forwards a service request to the office with jurisdiction over your application or petition. After receiving the service request, the reviewing office may request additional documentation to support expedited processing. A decision on an expedite request is not an approval or a denial of the underlying benefit request. The expedite decision simply informs the requestor whether USCIS will take the benefit request out of date order and issue a decision (approval or denial) faster than the normal processing time. About Citizenship-by-InvestmentResidence- and citizenship-by-investment programs enable nations to grant residence or citizenship rights to individuals in exchange for a substantial investment.
Citizenship-by-investment refers to the process whereby qualified and carefully vetted candidates are granted full citizenship in exchange for their significant economic contribution to the passport-issuing state. Residence-by-investment refers to a similar process, but candidates in this case are granted temporary residence, which can be extended to permanent residence or, in some cases, citizenship at a later stage. For individuals, the key benefits of holding an alternative passport include expanded travel mobility, access to business and educational opportunities on a global scale, ease of asset diversification, and improved safety and security in a rapidly changing world. For host countries, the foreign direct investment secured through these programs creates both sovereign and societal value. Debt-free liquidity is injected into the economy, resulting in additional capital flows both to the public sector — encouraging fiscal autonomy, diversifying the economy, and creating employment opportunities — and the private sector, in the form of investments in existing enterprises, infrastructure, start-ups, and real estate. Over 100 countries have investment migration legislation in place, and there are over 60 active programs globally, of which about 30 are relevant and successful. Nineteen of the G20 nations offer some form of mechanism to encourage inward investment in exchange for residence rights. The 20th member is the EU, and 60% of EU member states offer investment migration options. www.henleyglobal.com The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information, and enhanced by ongoing research by the Henley & Partners Research Department.
With expert commentary and historical data spanning 16 years, the Henley Passport Index is an invaluable resource for global citizens and the standard reference tool for government policy in this field. Download Global Ranking 2021 Global Mobility Report 2021 Q1The quarterly Global Mobility Report is a unique publication that brings together commentary from leading scholars and professional experts on the major and emerging trends in global and regional mobility today.
Grounded in geopolitical analysis and with a focus on the realities shaping our world – from Covid-19 to climate change to economic downturn to ongoing conflict – the report offers exclusive insight into mobility and migration patterns, and looks at what we can expect in the months to come as migration has become a permanent condition of global life. Click here to read the full report. Fragomen, January 4, 2021
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