- H-1B Season is Nearing! April 1, 2018 marks the beginning of the new H-1B petition filing season with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As in prior recent years, the filing season is likely to be brief (i.e., most likely, limited to the first week of April) and, if more petitions are received than there are available visas (65,000 regular H-1Bs and 20,000 allocated to foreign nationals with U.S. graduate degrees), visa numbers would be distributed via lottery. To maximize your chances to secure these much coveted visas, start petition planning and preparation early. Consult your immigration counsel now to plan the upcoming H-1B petition submissions and related timelines.
- While TN status applications under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are still legally and practically possible, employers should carefully prepare supporting documents for their intended employees traveling to the border to submit their TN proceedings to the U.S. immigration adjudicators. USCIS is clarifying and fine tuning its stance on various TN occupational categories. On par with the traditionally highly scrutinized Management Consultant NAFTA visa category, the occupation of Economist has been in the center of the government’s attention. USCIS has recently issued guidance clarifying that professional economists applying for TN status must plan to engage primarily and specifically in activities traditionally falling under the Economist occupation. This excludes workers in the fields related to economics but not directly practicing as economists (e.g., financial and marketing analysts, market research analysts). This narrower interpretation is part of the USCIS’s efforts to carry out the presidential Buy American and Hire American Executive Order.