- On April 7, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reached the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for the government’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. USCIS also confirmed it had reached the cap under the 20,000 H-1B petitions allocation for U.S. advanced degree holders. The agency has not yet indicated the anticipated timelines of the visa lottery conclusion and receipt notices issuance and delivery to petitioners.
- USCIS announced a number of measures to uncover H-1B visa fraud and abuse. Among these measures are targeted site visits to H-1B petitioners and the work sites of H-1B workers. Specifically, USCIS will concentrate on cases where it is unable to verify the employer’s business data through readily available sources, on H-1B-dependent employers, and employers that send H-1B workers to off-site locations (i.e., to other companies and organizations).
- The government has issued notification to employers who may have used Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, downloaded between Nov. 14 and Nov. 17, 2016. Due to a glitch in the Form I-9 available from the USCIS website, employees’ Social Security numbers (SSNs) do not appear correctly in Section 1. Numbers entered in the SSN field were transposed when employees completed and printed Section 1 via computer. Employers that downloaded Form I-9 with this glitch should download and save a new Form I-9 at uscis.gov/i-9. Consult your immigration legal counsel regarding Form I-9 data corrections if your recently completed Forms I-9 were affected by the glitch.
- As of the beginning of this month, USCIS suspended Premium Processing for all types of H-1B petitions. The temporary suspension is expected to continue for 6 months or less. If you or your employees are affected by the suspension and require expedited processing of the pending or newly filed H-1B petition proceedings for significant business or personal reasons, discuss alternative expedited processing request options with your immigration counsel.