The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be holding a national teleconference on Friday, March 13, 2020 between 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (Eastern). This event will include a discussion of USCIS’ modernizing efforts on the Immigrant Investor Program, also known as the EB-5 program. They will include time for the participants to ask questions during the discussion.
To participate in this teleconference:
Call-in Toll-Free number: (888) 946-7792
We wanted to find a new way to engage our reader base. Every other Friday, we will post the ten (10) best/most frequently asked questions received during the week from our h1bvisalawyerblog, Facebook, and Twitter readers. We will answer those questions and provide the Q&A on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.
If you have a burning question, are seeking assistance with a difficult immigration related case, wish to discuss your views on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, DREAMers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, priority dates, the monthly visa bulletin, adjustment applications, etc., please contact us by submitting your question/comment/viewpoint in our comment box provided on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.
Our next “Q & A Forum” will take place this Friday, March 13, 2020. Act now and submit your questions!
The American Immigration Council (AIC) has released all fifty states and the District of Columbia, for a total of fifty-one updated state-by-state fact sheets highlighting immigration data and facts. These fact sheets highlight the demographic and economic impact of Immigrants in each state.
With national immigration policy being discussed, we thought that it would be a good time to provide some statistics on the Immigrant population in the United States as provided by this AIC research. Once a week we will be posting a blog with information on three states at a time. This week we will highlight; Vermont, Virginia and Washington!
The AIC has compiled research which shows that Immigrants are an essential part of each of these states’ economy, labor force and tax base. As our economy continues to grow, Immigrants and their children are a growing economic and political force as consumers, taxpayers and entrepreneurs. As United States economic continues to grow, immigrants and their children will continue to play a key role in shaping the economic and political future of each of these states.
H-1B Registration opens March 1st at noon (Eastern)!
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has started accepting H-1B cap registration for fiscal year (FY) 2021 on March 1st at noon (Eastern). They will continue accepting registration for this cap season until March 20th at noon (Eastern). USCIS will assign a unique confirmation number for each FY 2021 H-1B registration submitted during this period to be used for tracking this registration only.
For more detailed information about this subject please review the USCIS News Alert, “Initial H-1B Registration Period Opens at Noon Eastern on March 1“.
USCIS announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-2B petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap (33,000) for the second half of FY 2020. February 18, 2020 is now the “final receipt date” for cap-subject H-2B worker requesting employment start dates before October 1, 2019. The “final receipt date” is the date on which USCIS determined that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 33,000 H-2B workers for the second half of FY2019, for a total of 66,000 for the year.
USCIS will reject new H-2B petitions that were received after February 18, 2020 and that request an employment start date before October 1, 2020, but there are some exceptions!
The exceptions are listed below:
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently overturned the decision of a Certifying Officer (CO) to deny labor certification for the position of “Computer Programmer.”
Upon evaluating an Employer’s Application for Permanent Labor Certification, the CO denied the Labor Application because the Employer ran its recruitment advertising in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, as he believed it was not the newspaper of general circulation for Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was located in Bentonville, AR and the newspaper was headquartered in Little Rock, AR. He believed that the Arkansas Democrat Gazette would not bring replies from available US workers in the area of intended employment.
The Employer sent a reconsideration request to the CO. In the argument, the Employer declared that “The Arkansas Democrat Gazette is most likely to bring responses from available US workers because it is the most widely circulated newspaper in Bentonville and the most widely circulated Sunday newspaper in all of Arkansas.” They submitted several pieces of evidence to back up their claims including circulation numbers from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and Mondo Times website. One of these documents stated there is no other newspaper in Bentonville, AR.
MVP Law Group, P.A. makes available the information and materials in this forum for informational purposes only. The information is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice or any contractual obligations. Further, the use of this site, and the sending or receipt of this information, does not create an attorney-client relationship between us. Therefore, your communication with us through this forum will not be considered as privileged or confidential.
Question #1 – Advance Parole (AP)
If my Advance Parole is about to expire and I don’t plan to travel outside of the US within the next year, do I have to renew it?
Reminder:
USCIS has announced that they will open their initial registration time period for H-1B cap-subject petitioners for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY 2021) from Sunday, March 1, 2020 to Friday, March 20, 2020.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they will not use pre-paid mailers to send out any communication or final notices for fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021) cap-subject H-1B petitions. This will also include petitioners being considered for the advanced degree exemption. USCIS has fully automated approval notices using USPS first-class mail for this selection process.
For additional important information please review the USCIS News Alert, “Fiscal Year 2021 H-1B Cap Pre-Paid Mailer Suspension”.
Source of Information:
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
H1B Visa Lawyer Blog