“The term speciality occupation is defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act, so a definition change cannot be brought about by mere agency regulation,” Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com told TOI. 

“Unfortunately, the definitions of employment and employer-employee relationship are not provided in the statute. That definition can be tinkered with. But to what degree it can be redefined remains to be seen,” he adds. 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced a new strategy known as eProcessing to accelerate USCIS’ transition to a digital business model. eProcessing will be a complete digital experience, from applying for a benefit, to communicating with USCIS, through receiving a decision on a case.

Added to the backlog woes is the spike in denials of naturalization applications "The grounds for denial are unpredictable, they could even relate to errors made when obtaining H-1B visas or green cards. This adds to the uncertainty," said Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com.  " An entrepreneur had sponsored a green card for an employee without mentioning that he was a distant relative. He thought it was immaterial as the relationship was so distant. Today, this entrepreneur is unable to become a US citizen," Khanna said. 

On May 20, 2019, the Texas Service Center will begin processing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, for certain H-1B cap-exempt petitions requesting:

USCIS has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generated random selection process, including those selected under the U.S. advanced degree exemption. As in previous years, USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that the center did not select and will issue an announcement once USCIS is done notifying petitioners.

USCIS recently updated the following form(s):