NEWS
Will You Make the H-1B CAP in 2023?!
On March 12, 2008, Bill Gates appeared before Congress and testified that the H-1B CAP “is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to the U.S. economy's demand for skilled professionals.” He also famously urged Congress to increase the H-1B CAP [...]
Will You Make the H-1B CAP in 2023?!
2023 appears to be a year where we finally see some balance in the way the H-1B CAP is utilized. Hopefully, you are among the lucky ones who get picked in this year’s lottery. Read more - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-make-h-1b-cap-2023-vaman-kidambi
FY 2024 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 1 – $10 FEE REMAINS UNCHANGED
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2024 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 1 and run through noon Eastern on March 17, 2023. During this period, prospective petitioners [...]
USCIS Announces Final Phase of Premium Processing Expansion [EB-1C – Now, F-1 OPT (coming)]
USCIS announced that: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is implementing the final phase of the premium processing expansion for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications. Unlike previous phases of the expansion, this phase [...]
H-1B CAP Registration Fee of $10 May Remain the Same for 2023
The proposed fee increase announced recently by the USCIS is currently in the 60-day comment period which ends on March 6, 2023. If there are enough comments to offset some of the increases, there could be delays while the USCIS [...]
USCIS Issues Proposed Rule to Adjust Certain Immigration and Naturalization Fees
The proposed fee rule is the result of a comprehensive fee review at USCIS. That review determined that the agency’s current fees, which have remained unchanged since 2016, fall far short of recovering the full cost of agency operations. USCIS [...]
RFE – The Acronym that Continues to Confound and Bewilder Practitioners
Attorney Vaman Kidambi shares insights into the confusion surrounding "Requests for Evidence" (RFEs) and how seemingly extremely similar, if not identical, cases result in different outcomes, urging USCIS to reengage with stakeholders on this issue. https://thinkimmigration.org/blog/2022/11/30/rfe-the-acronym-that-continues-to-confound-and-bewilder-practitioners/
Proposed Fee Rule Frequently Asked Questions
USCIS conducted a comprehensive fee review as we are required to do every two years by federal law and determined that current fees do not recover the full cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services. Therefore, the Department of Homeland [...]
List of USCIS Forms and Fee Increases
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Written comments must be submitted on this proposed rule on or before March 6, 2023. The [...]
Let us Show you the R-O-P-Es! Additional Nonimmigrant Visa Options for Specific Purposes
Kidambi & Associates offers clients a variety of options when it comes to visa processing. Our knowledge and experience extend to additional nonimmigrant visa options that may fit your needs. Here are a few that we would like to discuss [...]
Making Hay While the Moon Shines! Employee’s Remote Work Gives Rise to “Moonlighting” Issue
We have seen the number of concurrent H-1B petitions continue to rise. As stated earlier, while the USCIS has no regulations that prevent an employer from filing a concurrent H-1B for full time employment, it does require a schedule of [...]
Slowing Down is the new “Normal” – The Ever-Increasing Backlogs in Immigration Processing
On September 28th, the Service made an announcement to automatically extend Green Card validity during a pending extension to 24 Months. The Service also announced that it began printing amended receipt notices for individuals with a pending Form I-90. While [...]
How Do I Qualify for EB-1? Simple Steps in Evaluating Eligibility for the Employment-Based First Preference
For India, the wait times for EB-2 and EB-3 (Final Action – April 2012) show no signs of abating. The short respite when EB-3 priority date galloped ahead and was at January 2015 (Filing Action) on the Visa Bulletin for [...]
Why Can’t my Parents Come and See their Grandson?! Immigrant Families must wait Years for a Visitor Visa
Investments in U.S. companies have been stalled due to the nonavailability of visas to allow legitimate visitors to enter and pursue investment opportunities. More importantly, the State Department is failing thousands of American citizens whose families are unable to visit [...]
The Kumars May Have to Go Home! The Dire Consequences of Delays in DOL’s PERM Processing
Most H-1B nonimmigrants who have been in the U.S. for over 5 years run the risk of not being able to extend their H-1B Visa beyond the sixth year. This is due to inordinate delays at the Department of Labor [...]
USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2023 H-1B Cap
USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2023. We have [...]
When Not to File an Amended H-1B Petition
In May 2015, the USCIS issued draft guidance following a precedent decision in Matter or Simeio Solutions, LLC (26 I&N Dec. 542 (AAO 2015)) on when to file amended H-1B petitions. However, in 2020 following the IT Serve Alliance case, [...]
USCIS Increases Automatic Extension Period of Work Permits for Certain Applicants
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a Temporary Final Rule (TFR) that increases the automatic extension period for employment authorization and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), available to certain EAD renewal applicants, to up to 540 days. The increase, which will be effective [...]
USCIS Service Center Expands Credit Card Payment Pilot Program to All Forms
As part of USCIS’ credit card payment pilot program, the USCIS service centers are now accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, for all forms. The goal of this pilot is to bring USCIS one [...]
Reminder: DHS To End COVID-19 Temporary Policy for Expired List B Identity Documents
DHS is ending the COVID-19 Temporary Policy for List B Identity Documents. Beginning May 1, Employers will no longer be able to accept expired List B documents. DHS adopted the temporary policy in response to the difficulties many individuals experienced [...]