http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com Bridging the Divide Between Global Business and Geographic Boundaries Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:07:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en USCIS announced on November 23 that it had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 for the fiscal year (“FY”) 2012 H-1B cap as of November 22, 2011 (the 20,000 “advanced degree” exemption was previously exhausted on October 19).  As such, USCIS will ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/h-1b-cap-2012/ After nearly seven months of filings, USCIS has announced that, as of October 14, 2011, approximately 43,300 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted.  Additionally, USCIS announced that it has receipted 19,600 H-1B petitions for foreign nationals with advanced degrees.  When comparing those figures to the H-1B numbers from the prior fiscal ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/cap-count-quota/ As of July 1, 2011, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that 19,000 H-1B petitions filed under the regular cap and 12,200 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. Master’s exemption cap have been received. Such reduced H-1B usage is certainly an indication that the U.S. economy continues to struggle.  ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/h-1b-cap-count2012-cap/ USCIS has begun accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2012 cap today, April 1, 2011. Cases will be considered “accepted” on the date USCIS receives the properly filed H-1B petition; not the date that the petition is postmarked. The H-1B cap for new H-1B petitions is set ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/cap2012/ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") has recently announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year ("FY") 2011.  As such, USCIS notified the public that January 26, 2011, was the "final receipt date" for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/uncategorized/uscis-reaches-the-h-1b-cap-for-fy-2011/ USCIS has announced that, as of December 17, 2010, approximately 53,900 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted.  Additionally, USCIS receipted 19,700 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees. Taking into account the numbers reserved by treaty for nationals of Singapore and Chile (up to 6,800), there may be less than 5,000 ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/h-1bca/ On November 23, USCIS published a revised version of Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker.  The new form requires petitioners to take some additional steps to ensure that export compliance is properly evaluated and that their attestations are accurate. With regard to export compliance, the new Form I-129 includes a new ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/newform1-129/ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") published a final rule modifying (mostly increasing) filing fees for certain immigrant and nonimmigrant applications and petitions. All applications and/or petitions mailed, postmarked or otherwise filed on or after November 23, 2010, must include the new fee amounts listed below. Fee Increases: Premium Processing service increased ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/uscis-filing-fee-increase/ The Department of State announced the opening of the registration period for the DV-2012 Diversity Visa lottery.  Entries for the DV-2012 Diversity Visa lottery must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Tuesday, October 5, 2010, and noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EST), Wednesday, November ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/green-card/green-card-lottery/ The annual cap for new H-1B visas is set by Congress at 65,000 new visas per year, not including the 20,000 H-1B visas available under the U.S. advanced degree cap exemption. As of July 2, 2010, approximately 24,200 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has reported receipting 10,400 H-1B petitions ... http://www.corporateimmigrationlaw.com/h-1b-visa/h-1b-visa-cap-count/