H1B Bill Signed Into Law
Posted Oct 21, 1998

The Law Office of Sheela Murthy is pleased to announce that both the House of Representative and the U.S. Senate recently passed the new FY 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4328) by a majority of 333 to 95 and 65 to 29, respectively, and today, the President has signed the Bill into law. We now finally have law for increasing the H1B quota effective immediately.

Highlights of this new Bill are as follows:

- Increase in H1B numbers from 65,000 to 115,000 for the next two fiscal years (FY 1999 and 2000), then 107,500 for fiscal year 2001 and reverting back to 65,000 in fiscal year 2002.

- New Labor Condition Application (LCA) attestations for H1B dependent employers which will be effective when final regulations are published.

- New INS fee of $500 per H1B Petition, both for new and for H1B renewals, effective from December 1, 1998 (in addition to the $110 filing fee which was effective from October 13, 1998).

- Rules pertaining to no benching by employers except subject to certain specific conditions.

- Colleges, Universities, and nonprofit research institutions will be subject to different salary criteria compared to private and for profit research institutions, both for H1B LCAs and for Labor Certifications for permanent residency applications.

Since this is a new Bill, we will post details of the provisions at our website (www.murthy.com) as soon as they are released.

The Law Office of Sheela Murthy takes this opportunity to thank all of our clients and all of you who have helped to pass this Bill by your telephone calls and letters to your Representatives and Senators and all others who have supported the passage of this Bill!