H Visa News

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently began transferring some extension of stay casework from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center to balance workloads. The affected casework includes the following form:

• I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, filed by an employer to extend the stay of an alien to perform services as an H-1B specialty occupation worker.

How You Will Be Affected

On October 17, 2013, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a change in the schedule for the release of certain reports due to the lapse in Federal appropriations resulting in the Government shutdown. Among the affected reports is the Farm Labor Survey (FLS) report upon which the Department relies in order to establish the Adverse Effect Wage Rates in the H-2A program. The new release date for the FLS report will be December 5, 2013.

 Below are Fact Sheets for 4th Quarter of FY 2013 (07/01/2013-09/30/2013)

PERM

Prevailing Wage Determination

H-1B LCA 

The NPWC uses the Prevailing Wage Determination Policy Guidance in issuing wage determinations for the Nonagricultural Immigration Programs. The Department updated the guidance in November 2009 following the publication of the H-2B regulation and the corresponding changes to PERM, H-1B, H-1B1, H-1C and E-3 regulations that affected the prevailing wage determination process. To read the updated Prevailing Wage guidance, pleaseclick here.

OFLC appreciates the challenges the regulated community has experienced as a result of the lapse in appropriations, which resulted in the cessation of the operation of OFLC's electronic systems, and further resulted in a backlog of documents submitted to OFLC during that period by mail, hand-delivery, or email. As a result of the government shutdown, OFLC is implementing the following temporary changes to its standard procedures related to document timeliness:

According to "Times of India" :

The US government plans to punish Indian outsourcing giant Infosys with the largest immigration fine ever for seeking visas fraudulently for workers at big clients in America, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Infosys is accused of putting workers on visitor visas rather than work visas. The former are much easier and cheaper to obtain than the latter. The fine is expected to be about $35 million, the paper said, quoting people close to the matter. 

On August 30, 2013, the Department of Labor (Department) will publish in the Federal Register a final rule to delay indefinitely the effective date of the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment H-2B Program final rule (2011 Wage Rule), which was published on January 19, 2011, 76 FR 3452.

FY 2013 Third Quarter for PERM,H-1B, H-2B and H-2A as of 06/15/1013

FY 2013 Q3 PERM Fact Sheet

FY 2013 Q3 H-1B Fact Sheet

FY 2013 Q3 H-2B Fact Sheet

FY 2013 Q3 H-2A Fact Sheet

WASHINGTON—For the first time since 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the statutory H-1B cap of 65,000 for fiscal year (FY) 2014 within the first week of the filing period. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.