U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed premium processing today for all H-1B visa petitions subject to the Fiscal Year year (FY) 2018 cap. The FY 2018 cap has been set at 65,000 visas. Premium processing has also resumed for the annual 20,000 additional petitions that are set aside to hire workers with a U.S. master’s degree or higher educational degree.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is no longer accepting petitions from U. S. employers seeking to hire temporary nonagricultural workers under the one-time increase to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 H-2B cap announced in July.
For the first time, in May, Congress delegated its authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to increase the number of temporary nonagricultural work visas available to U.S. employers through FY 2017.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of State, has identified 58 countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B programs for the coming year. The notice listing eligible countries will publish in tomorrow’s Federal Register. Each country’s designation is valid for one year from the date of publication.