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WASHINGTON— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Justice today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (PDF, 2.00 MB) that expands their collaboration to better detect and eliminate fraud, abuse, and discrimination by employers bringing foreign visa workers to the United States. This new effort improves the way the agencies share information, collaborate on cases, and train each other’s investigators.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today posted a policy memorandum (PDF, 179 KB)changing how the agency will calculate unlawful presence for students and exchange visitors in F, J, and M nonimmigrant status, including F-2, J-2, or M-2 dependents, who fail to maintain their status in the United States.  

USCIS has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generated random selection process. USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected. Due to the high volume of filings, USCIS cannot provide a definite time frame for returning unselected petitions. USCIS asks petitioners not to inquire about the status of their cap-subject petitions until they receive a receipt notice or an unselected petition is returned.

USCIS reminds F-1 students on Optional Practical Training (OPT) that transferring to another school or beginning study at another educational level (for example, beginning a master’s program after completing a bachelor’s degree) automatically terminates their OPT as well as their corresponding employment authorization document (EAD). 

USCIS updated the following USCIS form(s):

Update to Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker; New Edition Dated 05/09/1805/23/2018 12:00 AM EDT For more information, please visit  Forms Updates page.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing a rule to end a program that allows certain foreign entrepreneurs to be considered for parole to temporarily come to the United States to develop and build start-up businesses here, known as the International Entrepreneur Rule (IE Final Rule). 

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.

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.

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:

Release Date 02/24/2021

Release Date 02/24/2021

Release Date 02/26/2021

USCIS announced flexibilities for certain foreign students affected by delayed receipt notices for Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. These flexibilities apply only to applications received on or after Oct. 1, 2020, through May 1, 2021, inclusive.