Immigration News  |
| Changes in immigration that impact your life. |
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| H2B Returning Worker Deadline Looming |
| October 01, 2007 |
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| Despite a looming September 30, 2007, H2B returning worker deadline, Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (DMd.) today said she will not stop her fight to extend a crucial returning guest worker exemption from her Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act that protects small and seasonal businesses from a devastating cut to their workforce. |
| Senators Scrutinize the Usage of L1 Visa Program |
| June 29, 2007 |
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| Closely following on the heels of asking top foreign based companies to disclose details about their workforce and their use of the H1B visa program, Senators Chuck Grassley and Richard Durbin have now expressed fresh concerns over the use of L1 visa by companies who also use large numbers of H1B visas. |
| Senators ask for details on reported abuse of H1B and L1 visas |
| May 14, 2007 |
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| Due to some concerns raised over reported fraud and abuse of the H1B and L visa programs, and their impact on American workers, Senators Chuck Grassley and Richard Durbin have asked the top nine foreign based companies in 2006 that used nearly 20,000 of the available H1B visas, to disclose further details about their workforce and their use of the special visa program. |
| USCIS Issuance of Receipts for H1B Cap Cases OnGoing |
| May 11, 2007 |
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is temporarily experiencing a receipting/dataentry (DE) front log at its Service Centers due to the unprecedented volume of recent H1B filings. In an effort to give our customers more accurate information about current receipting timeframes and USCIS service level commitments, we are providing the following projections for fee receipting and data entry processing for H1B cap cases currently at our Service Centers. |
| USCIS reaches H1B Exemption CAP for FY 2008 |
| May 04, 2007 |
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received enough H1B petitions requesting exemptions from the FY 2008 H1B cap for “foreign workers who have earned a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education” to meet the congressionally mandated exemption limit of 20,000. USCIS has determined that the “final receipt date” for these exempt H1B petitions is April 30, 2007. USCIS will be rejecting petitions requesting a FY 2008 cap exemption for “workers with a master’s or higher degree earned from a U.S. institution of higher education” that are received on or after May 1, 2007 unless the petition is otherwise eligible for a separate cap exemption. |
| USCIS reached H1B Advanced Degree Cap for FY 2008 |
| May 03, 2007 |
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| The H1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, which took effect on May 5, 2005, changed the H1B filing procedures for FY 2005 and for future fiscal years. The H1B Visa Reform Act of 2004 also makes available 20,000 new H1B visas for foreign workers with a Master’s or higher level degree from a U.S. academic institution. |
| USCIS Proposes Revisions for Religious Worker Visa Classifications |
| April 19, 2007 |
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) propose to amend existing regulations pertaining to special immigrant and nonimmigrant religious worker visa classifications. The proposed rule focuses on how the agency can best ensure the integrity of the religious worker program by eliminating opportunities for fraud in the program while, at the same time, streamlining the process for lawful petitioners. |
| Change in H1B Procedures Trims Weeks off Final Selection Process |
| April 19, 2007 |
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it completed the computergenerated random selection process on April 12 to determine which H1B petitions subject to the congressionally mandated H1B cap for fiscal year 2008 (FY 2008) would be accepted for processing. USCIS announced that it had received enough petitions on April 3 to meet the cap for FY 2008 and that it would conduct a computergenerated random selection of capsubject petitions filed on Monday, April 2, and Tuesday, April 3. As a result of the high volume of petitions subject to the computergenerated random selection process, USCIS did not conduct dataentry of all capsubject filings. Rather, it developed new procedures that enabled the agency to efficiently process capsubject petitions. |
| USCIS runs random selection process for H1Bs |
| April 13, 2007 |
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that on April 12 it conducted the computergenerated random selection process to determine which H1B petitions, subject to the congressionally mandated H1B cap for fiscal year 2008 (FY 2008), would continue to final processing. USCIS completed this determination ahead of the preliminary schedule noted on April 3, when it announced it had received enough petitions to meet the cap for FY 2008. |
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