April 2007 ★ Archive of Immigration News

USCIS announced yesterday afternoon that it has received enough H-1B cap-subject petitions to meet the H-1B cap for the fiscal year starting October 1, 2007. Approximately 260,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions were received by Tuesday afternoon, April 3. Only 65,000 slots are available for most applicants. There is a separate cap of 20,000 additional slots for applicants who hold a Masters or higher degree from a U.S. university.

As part of its announcement, USCIS indicated the following:

1. USCIS will use a random selection lottery to determine which of the cap-subject H-1B cases it received on April 2 and 3 will be accepted.
2. USCIS will reject and return, with filing fees, any cap-subject H-1B petitions received on or after April 4.
3. USCIS will reject and return, with filing fees, any H-1B cap cases received on April 2 and 3 that are not randomly selected. This could take several weeks.
4. USCIS is uncertain how many of the cases it received on April 2 and 3 were for applicants who hold Masters or higher degrees from US universities. USCIS will make a future announcement regarding the “final receipt date” for these petitions.

Theoretically, this means that H-1B petitions for holders of US Masters and higher degrees can be filed until a cut off date is announced. However, it is likely that the “final receipt date” for these cases will be April 3 or 4, so that it is probably already too late to file these cases.

The cap does not apply to H-1B petitions filed to: (1) extend the period of time an H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.; (2) change the terms of employment for an H-1B worker who is not changing employers; or (3) allow an H-1B worker to work concurrently for a second employer while continuing with the current employer. In most cases, the cap does not apply to new employees who are currently employed in H-1B status with another employer, or who have held H-1B status at any point during the past six years. In addition, the cap does not apply to institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations that are related or affiliated to such institutions, and nonprofit or governmental research organizations.

You can view the U.S. CIS announcement here.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the information in this newsletter, please contact one of the Ivener and Fullmer attorneys:

Mark Ivener mark@usworkvisa.com

David Fullmer david@ usworkvisa.com

phone: 310-477-3000

In the March 2007 edition of California Lawyer, Mark A. Ivener, author of Handbook of Immigration Law, Volumes I and II, was quoted in “Fed Up With The Feds,” an article about frustrated local jurisdictions passing their own immigration-related measures. He said he is amazed that some of these ordinances see the light of day and that, in his view, “the whole area is preempted by federal law.” In the case of landlords, for example, Mr. Ivener said such local laws impermissibly force them to be “immigration officers enforcing federal harboring laws.”

Click here to view the article.

Roll Call and GalleryWatch have launched Congress Now!, (www.congressnow.com) an online source of legislative news. The newsletter for CongressNow! will appear in mid-afternoon, five days per week, and will feature news, analysis, and information on committee markups. Breaking news will be posted to CongressNow.com throughout the day and sent via e-mail alerts. These features are available free to congressional staff and members of Congress, and by subscription otherwise, click subscribe. Click for more information (PDF).

GovTrack provides a hyperlinked version of the Congressional Record for the current session, at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/recordindex.xpd. Custom “monitors” of subject areas to track, such as bills in Congress, may be set up here.

The latest TRAC data tool, covering the five-year period through the end of November 2006, notes that criminal immigration charges by federal prosecutors have declined substantially in the last year. TRAC documents trends for the overall number of prosecutions filed and convictions obtained under U.S. immigration law in federal districts around the country. U.S. District Court judges who handled the largest number of immigration cases are also highlighted.

A new report on the future of small business, authored by the Institute for the Future, finds that immigrant entrepreneurs will drive a new wave of globalization, and that U.S. immigration policy and the outcome of the current immigration debates will affect how this segment performs over the next decade.

The “Intuit Future of Small Business Report” is available (see pages 8 and 9 for information on immigrant entrepreneurs).

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report analyzing challenges that continue to face the US-VISIT program. The GAO noted that US-VISIT has improved the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) ability to process visitors and verify identities upon entry, but found that management controls in place to identify and evaluate computer and other operational problems at land ports of entry were insufficient and inconsistently administered. In addition, the GAO noted, a biometric exit capability is not yet available. The GAO said that DHS continues to face longstanding US-VISIT management challenges and future uncertainties. Read the rest of this entry »