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This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during March for: “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center.

Published by: The Economic Times - Date: February 02, 2021

Two developments in immigration law bring happy tidings: a court challenge to OPT and STEM OPT extension has failed; and the US Department of Labor (DOL) has delayed to May 14, 2021 (beyond the H-1B lottery deadlines) implementation of the regulations affecting disproportionate wage hikes for H-1B and green card petitions.

For more details please see the attachment below.

Release Date 01/29/2021

On Jan. 29, USCIS published the 07/23/20 edition of Form I-690, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility, and changed the filing location. Applicants previously filed this form at the USCIS Chicago Lockbox. Now they must send the form to the USCIS Dallas Lockbox. For more information, please see the Edition Date and Where to File sections of our Form I-690 page.

USCIS announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 9 and run through noon Eastern on March 25. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to fill out petitioner and beneficiary information and submit their registrations.

A confirmation number will be assigned to each registration submitted for the FY 2022 H-1B cap. This number is used solely to track registrations; you cannot use this number to track your case status in Case Status Online.

Published by: The Economic Times  - Date: February 06, 2021

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:

“(The new rule) would’ve created a new method of selection, with restrictions over and above what the statute provides. Wages are not a method of selection specified by the statute,” said Rajiv S Khanna, Managing Attorney at immigration.com.

Published by: The Economic Times - Date: February 12, 2021

Synopsis

Until 2019, when a decision from the Department of Labor (DOL) changed the calculus, our answer to this question was: “An H-1B employee may work from outside the USA and be paid under any terms, not necessarily those required by the H-1B laws.”

For more details please see the attachment below.

Release Date 02/12/2021

On Jan. 20, 2021, President Biden issued a memorandum directing the secretary of Homeland Security to reinstate Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for eligible Liberians and to provide for continued work authorization through June 30, 2022.

Published by: The Economic Times - Date: February 15, 2021

Synopsis

Biden’s administration will do what is good for the USA. That is to be expected. It is obvious that the administration is inclined to take a hard look at the possible loopholes in the system that may be causing problems such as suppression of wages.

For more details please see the attachment below.

USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2021.

USCIS has completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts. The status for registrations properly submitted for the FY 2021 H-1B numerical allocations, but that were not selected, will now show: