Today, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed the randomized H1B cap lottery selection process. The USCIS reported that it received 190,098 petitions this year, which is a slight reduction from the 199,000 H1B petitions received last year, and is...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the H1B cap limit for fiscal year 2019 (FY19) has been reached. This applies to both the 65,000 regular H1B cap limit as well as the 20,000 advanced degree (masters) cap exemptions.As the H1B case...
On April 3, 2018, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) is once again deemed a nationally recognized accrediting agency. Moreover, this decision applies retroactively to December 12, 2016, which is when the ACICS was stripped...
Long-time followers of MurthyDotCom have likely read some of our articles on the increase in government scrutiny of the hiring and employment practices of U.S. employers. These articles focus on immigration compliance. However, employers of foreign workers also need to concern themselves with general employment...
Congress must pass a spending bill to extend government operations by midnight of March 23, 2018, or else another temporary shutdown of the federal government will go into effect. A government shutdown at this time would be especially problematic because H1B cap season is upon...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that, for the upcoming fiscal year 2019 H1B cap season (i.e. H1B lottery cases to be filed starting in April 2018), no procedural changes from last year are anticipated....
With less than a week left to pass a spending bill to extend government operations, there is a possibility that the U.S. government will be forced to shut down temporarily as of midnight on January 19, 2018. Such shutdowns are rare, and there is a...
The H1B nonimmigrant program is one of the most versatile and widely used work visa programs in the United States. Therefore, having a good understanding of the program can be helpful for both workers and their respective employers. Below are some of the most common...
Every year, there are numerous immigration bills proposed in Congress. It is extremely rare for any of these proposals to gain traction. Therefore, MurthyDotCom typically does not report on proposed bills until and unless it appears there is a bill with a reasonable chance of...
It seems that the Trump Administration is no longer pursuing efforts to eliminate extensions of H1B status beyond the standard six-year max, as permitted by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act (AC21). The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) noted that it...
