USCIS Ombudsman Confirms that Employers Face Significant and Unfair Hurdles in Getting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Petitions Approved
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Ombudman’s report to Congress for 2015 confirms what many employers and their representatives already knew – we continue to face high rates of requests for evidence (RFEs) and denials of high-skilled nonimmigrant petitions, and a very low chance of success challenging such denials in administrative appeals. Some interesting facts and figures from the report include: Nearly 25% of H-1B petitions receive an RFE. The California Service Center’s RFE rates were higher than that of the Vermont Service Center. RFEs challenging whether the H-1B position was a specialty occupation were found to be unduly restrictive…. Read more
EB-5 Regional Center Program Up for Reauthorization
Once again the EB-5 Regional Center, which has been a “pilot program” since its inception in 1992, is up for reauthorization. It currently “sunsets” on September 30, 2015. In a recently published blog post by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, it is noted that from 2008 to 2014 an estimated $12 billion of capital investment came into the U.S. through the EB-5 program, with almost all of it through the regional centers. Since 1990, the EB-5 program has created over 85,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. In FY2013 alone, an estimated 30,000 jobs were created through the EB-5 program. There seems… Read more
DOS Visa Guru Explains September Retrogression – Makes Predictions for Visa Availability in FY 2016
In recent correspondence with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Mr. Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Department of State’s Visa Control and Reporting Division provides some explanations for the visa retrogression seen in the September 2015 Visa Bulletin, as well as predictions for visa movement in Fiscal Year 2016 (October, 2015 through September, 2016). EB-2 China and India both retrogress significantly for September, 2015. Mr. Oppenheim attributes this to “skyrocketing” demand for EB-2 Worldwide visas. This leaves fewer visas available to spill-over to EB-2 China/India. Additionally, the EB-1 visa demand is up, which means there are fewer visas to spill-down to… Read more
Final Guidance on H-1B Worksite Location Changes Issued by USCIS
In May 2015, in response to the immigration service’s Administrative Appeals Office decision in Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC, USCIS issued draft guidance addressing the need for employers to file amended H-1B petitions when there was a change in the foreign national employee’s worksite. Essentially, the immigration service considers there to be a “material change,” thus triggering the need for the filing of an amended petition, when an H-1B employee is going to their place of employment to a new worksite that was not listed in the employer’s initial petition and accompanying Labor Condition Application (LCA). In this draft guidance, USCIS indicated… Read more
USCIS Provides L-1B Adjudications Policy
Included within the Obama administration’s Executive Actions on Immigration announced in November, 2014 was a directive to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from DHS Secretary Johnson to issue a long-awaited L-1B policy memorandum that provided clear, consolidated guidance on the meaning of “specialized knowledge.” That memo has now been issued, and is implemented through an update to the immigration service’s Adjudicator’s Field Manual. The L-1B nonimmigrant visa category for “specialized knowledge” intracompany transferee employees has been much maligned in the press and in Congress over the past several years, and has faced overly stringent adjudicatory review by U.S…. Read more