What are the main errors in an H-1B petition that can cause USCIS to have to reject or deny the petition?
There are several common errors made by petitioners that can cause a petition to be rejected or denied. This is a list of the most frequently seen and easily cured mistakes.
Incorrect Fees
Frequently, petitioners miscalculate the amount of money needed for each filing. If you submit the fees in one check and the amount is wrong, we must reject the petition. We suggest you submit the fees in separate checks. We believe this lessens the likelihood of unintentional math errors when calculating the total fees due in connection with the filing of an H-1B petition.
Inconsistent and Incorrect Answers on Form I-129 and Supplements
Please double check the petition to make sure you have answered all the questions and that the answers are consistent and correct throughout the entire package, including the petition and all accompanying documentation. USCIS cannot make assumptions about what a petitioner really intended if that is not clear on the face of the documents submitted.
For example, if you check “yes” to the question of whether the beneficiary has a U.S. Master’s degree in Part A, #5 of the supplement, then Part C, #7 should also be checked “yes.”
Another common mistake is where the petitioner indicates on one part of the Form I-129 that the beneficiary is not subject to the cap, but on top of the petition they may write “Regular Cap.” This can also delay processing of a case or even cause it to be rejected.
If your worker is or has ever been a J-1 please note:
Part C, #4 of the supplement does not refer to all J-1s who have been granted waivers of the 212(e) 2-year foreign residency requirement. Check “Yes” only if your worker is a doctor or a medical researcher who has been granted a Conrad 30 waiver under INA section 214(I)(1)(B) to work in a medically underserved area, or a waiver under INA section 214(I)(1)(C) based on a request by an Interested Government Agency (IGA).
For Fiscal Year 2009, the first filing date is Tuesday, April 1, 2008. USCIS wants to be sure to accept all qualifying petitions for inclusion in the random selection , if necessary. If you file a petition correctly, you increase your chances of obtaining an H-1B cap number. We are working on making the process as smooth as possible both this coming April and in the future. Please read all Updates posted for additional information.
Petitions are filed at Vermont and California Service Centers, depending on jurisdiction. See filing instructions and USCIS Update on “Centralized Filing Location” for certain H-1B cap exempt petitioners (listed in the Related Links section of this page). Both the forms and the instructions can be downloaded from our website under “Immigration Forms”.
Statement by USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez on Processing of Naturalization Applications
On March 11, I announced to members of the House Appropriations Committee that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had lowered its original processing projections for naturalization applications. Individuals who filed for citizenship during the summer of 2007 can now anticipate an average processing time of 14-16 months for these applications. That’s a marked improvement from the 16-18 months projection we announced in January.
During FY 2007, we received approximately 1.4 million naturalization applications. In the months of June and July of 2007 alone, we experienced an increase of nearly 350 percent compared to the same period in 2006. In addressing the significant increase in naturalization cases, and the unprecedented increase in all immigration applications and petitions, the professionalism and hard work of nearly 17,000 dedicated USCIS employees and contractors have been evident.
I am proud of our accomplishments. Still, we remain committed to doing even better. And, we will continue to improve while maintaining our commitment to the integrity of the immigration process and national security requirements.
Emilio T. Gonzalez
Director
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Department of Homeland Security
Microsoft’s Canadian Move a Swipe at Stiff U.S. Visa Policies
Fay Hansen of Workforce Management describes how Microsoft is coping with overly restrictive U.S. immigration policies regarding professional nonimmigrant workers.
She writes: “Without national reform, the U.S. continues to drift away from the global move toward greater labor mobility. Other nations, including Canada and the United Kingdom, now use point systems designed to pull in the most talented workers without an existing job offer.
The U.K. also automatically grants visas to MBA graduates from the world’s top 50 business schools, more than half of which are located in the United States. Unlike these merit-based systems, the U.S. H-1B process is a lottery that increasingly discourages the top candidates from looking for work in the U.S.”
Bill Gates leads H-1B hike cry
NEW DELHI: The April 1 deadline and an election year have given American industry renewed vigour to lobby for an increase in the annual quota of temporary skilled worker (H-1 B) visas.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is among industry chiefs headed for Capitol Hill to lobby for this increase. Alongside, Compete America, a coalition of industry, research and education institutions have also begun pitching for an increase in the annual quota.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will start accepting applications for temporary skilled worker (H-1 B) visas from April 1 for the fiscal year 2009 that begins on October 1.
As was the case in the past couple of years, it is expected that the annual quota of H-1 B visas will be exhausted on the first day itself. At present, the quota is at 65,000 visas a year. Of this, 6,800 visas are set aside for Chile and Singapore as per their trade agreements with the US. This leaves 58,200 H-1 B visas for applicants from the rest of the world.
Experts say as this is an election year, not merely the presidential race, but also for the Congress, the industry may be able to persuade lawmakers to actively consider an increase. There are also reports of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus introducing a new immigration reform bill.
This would focus on illegal immigrants, but hike in H-1 B numbers could be tacked along as well. There seems to exist a support for this line of action within the American legislature.
Both Democrats and Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives are of the view that any effort at immigration reform should take into consideration the need to ensure that “the best and brightest in the United States and around the world are able to contribute to innovation” in the US.
As recently as October 2007, the House Republican leadership in a letter to the Speaker wrote that “we must enact legislation that allows US companies to attract and retain high-skilled workers to contribute and excel in the US economy without unnecessary delays and waiting periods. Members on both sides of the aisle have supported this in the past and we’re confident they will again.”
Compete America is lobbying for immigration reform that goes beyond enforcement steps. In a letter to Speaker and leaders of the House, Robert Hoffman, co-chair of Compete America wrote, “We agree that enforcement measures are a crucial part of immigration reform. Enforcementonly legislation, however, would not address many of the most pressing aspects of the national crisis surrounding our immigration system, especially for US employers who need access to highly-skilled professionals in order to remain competitive.”
“Congress instead must address immigration reform more thoroughly, including reforms to the legal immigration system, whose H-1 B visa and employment-based green card programmes are woefully inadequate to meet our nation’s economic needs.”
Clinton, McCain and Obama on H-1B visas
InfoWorld quotes the three presidential candidates’ positions on the H-1B visa:
“Hillary Clinton
“I also want to reaffirm my commitment to the H-1B visa program and to increase the current cap. Foreign skilled workers contribute greatly to our technological development. That is well understood in Silicon Valley.”
John McCain
“I will continue to support H-1B visas, but, I’m telling you, the American peoples priority is, either rightly or wrongly, and we live in a democracy, is that we secure the borders first.”
Barack Obama
“We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively.”
Read Article
Guess Who’s Getting the Most Work Visas – Via BusinessWeek
Via BusinessWeek
Moira Herbst of BusinessWeek indicates that “Indian outsourcers accounted for nearly 80% of the visa petitions approved last year for the top 10 participants in the program.” Also: “Infosys Technologies (INFY) and Wipro (WIT), both based in Bangalore, top the list of visa beneficiaries in 2007, with 4,559 and 2,567 approved visa petitions, respectively, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services.”
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) are critizing the program: “These numbers should send a red flag to every lawmaker that the H-1B visa program is not working as it was intended,” said Grassley in an e-mail.”
Perhaps these two believe that some sort of per-country limits (like for EB Green cards) should be placed on India, a reverse-affirmative action of sorts.
Read Article
H-1B visa shortage again
BANGALORE: Despite evidence of an impending recession in the US, there is expected to be a severe shortage once again of US visas for Indian IT professionals in the coming year.
April 1 is the date to begin filing H-1B cases (for entry into the US from October 1), and IT companies are already scurrying to put together all documents in the expectation that the entire H-1B quota will be exhausted on the very first day, as it did last year.
“The visa scenario is going to impact the industry adversely, says Ravi Prasad, resident partner and immigration expert in legal firm Jay Sagar Associates.
“The business volumes have gone up significantly, but the quota remains the same. This is going to be a major deterrent for the industry, as it’s tough to convince and retain clients without having some amount of physical support/presence at the clients’ premises,” Prasad adds
For the 58,200 H-1B quota, the US received 1,20,000 petitions on April 2, 2007, the first day the quota opened last year.
“Short of a miracle, we expect the same to happen this year, says Navneet S Chugh, attorney in The Chugh Firm.
“We can also reasonably expect that, like last year, this year there will be a lottery system to pick petitions for approval. So expect somewhere between 40 per cent to 50 per cent of a company’s filed petitions on April 1 to get approved.
It was widely expected last year that the US Congress would increase the H-1B quota to over a lakh. But that didn’t happen.
Several immigration bills have failed in the US House as well as the Senate. And now with the presidential election primaries underway, nobody expects US President George Bush or his Republican government to take up the matter.
Meanwhile, the demand for IT services has not faced a significant cut yet. So a visa shortage is inevitable.
“To overcome this problem, domestic companies are currently busy checking out alternative options like L visa (meant for intra-company transfer), J visa (for specialists/domain experts) and B (business) category visas, says Prasad.
Indians were 34,000 of the 58,200 H-1B recipients last year.
“We expect the number to go up slightly this year, Chugh says.
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Some Observations from DOS on India EB-2 Unavailability
Via AILA
On January 10, 2007, AILA Liaison contacted Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting at the State Department, to speak about the announcement of India EB-2 visa unavailability in the February 2008 Visa Bulletin. By early November, indications were that USCIS demand for India EB-2 visa numbers would place significant pressure on the overall annual limitation, leading to the decision to roll back the priority date for India EB-2 for December 2007 to 01JAN02, and for January 2008 to 01JAN00. Even with those significant retrogressions, USCIS requested almost 300 India EB-2 for December. (As an indication of the rate of demand and how close to the quarterly and annual limits usage is, the USCIS requested three India EB-2 numbers for January, all with dates prior to 01 JAN 00.) There is some possibility that India EB-2 could again become available if it appears that the demand for India EB-1 will not exceed the annual limit, but, that determination will not be able to be made until the second half of the fiscal year.
For China-mainland born EB-2, if demand remains as has been seen over the last couple of months, it is expected that the 01 JAN 03 cut-off date will hold, and it is likely that all numbers will be used within the current cut-off date.
As is always the case, Charlie is looking for mechanisms to maximize number usage so that no visa numbers remain unallocated, and is looking for ways to make additional India and China-mainland born numbers available, such as by making sure that unused numbers that had been sent to consular posts are promptly returned.
Top IT firms used only 14% of H-1B petitions in 2006: US study
The 10 most cited outsourcing firms are Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Satyam Computer, Patni Computer, Cognizant Tech Solutions US, HCL America, Deloitte and Touche LLP, Accenture, and MphasiS.
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee
New Delhi, Dec. 16 Countering claims by some critics that Indian IT industry was depriving US firms of H-1B visas, the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) has said that the top 10 outsourcing entities that are cited most by critics — including Indian vendors like Wipro, Infosys, and TCS — used up less than 14 per cent of new H-1B petitions approved in 2006.
In its latest study titled ‘The impact of high-skill immigration restrictions on America’, NFAP, a non-profit policy research group, said that “in 2007, critics started arguing that most H-1B visas were used by companies headquartered in India and that this deprived US companies of the visas. However, the top 10 outsourcing companies cited most by the critics, used less than 14 per cent of the new H-1B petitions approved in 2006 for initial employment.” The “vast majority of H-1B visas go to US high-tech companies, financial institutions, and US Universities.”
NFAP pointed out that employers had snapped up all the H-1B visas the first day the applications were submitted in FY 2008, meaning that about 15,000 petitions used by the 10 companies had no major impact on the overall availability of H-1Bs. The list of 10 most cited outsourcing firms are Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Satyam Computer Services, Patni Computer Systems, Cognizant Tech Solutions US, HCL America, Deloitte and Touche LLP, Accenture, and MphasiS, according to NFAP.
When contacted, the NFAP Executive Director, Mr Stuart Anderson, told Business Line from Arlington, Virginia, that against the total visa pool (65,000 cap for H-1B visa; 20,000 H-1B visas for foreign workers with Master’s or higher level degree from US institution; and visas available for those working with varsities or research institutions), the companies together used only 14 per cent of the total available numbers.
Mr Anderson said H-1B cap needed to be hiked to reflect the market demand for skilled professionals. “Any new restriction on high-skill immigration will hurt the US industry, as much as Indian firms. For US firms, it means that either they would not be able to grow for the lack of skilled professionals or they would have to pursue offshore alternatives,” he added.
IT worker who became an H-1B activist ends his fight
Via Computerworld
John Bauman, who led the grass-roots group TORAW, says it’s disbanding due to dwindling funds and membership.
H-1B visa: US Senator questions federal entities
| Via The Hindu Move comes within 7 months of missive sent to Indian cos |
Details have been sought of the number of H-1B visa workers employed by the NIH between January 2002 and now (both full and part time workers), the job titles under which H-1B visa workers were employed, and a description of the efforts the NIH made to hire domestic workers before seeking an H-1B workers.
Our Bureau
New Delhi, Dec. 25 Months after asking nine Indian IT firms to explain the use of H-1B visas, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has now turned up the H-1B-heat on two US Government-backed entities — National Institutes of Health and Fannie Mae — that are among the top 200 users of these high-skilled visas.
The Senator — who serves as a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees US’ immigration and visa policies including the H-1B visa programme — has sought details of the number of H-1B visa workers employed by the NIH between January 2002 and now (both full and part-time workers), the job titles under which H-1B visa workers were employed, and a description of the efforts the NIH made to hire domestic workers before seeking an H-1B worker.
Citing US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) data that showed the NIH to be among the top 100 H-1B employers in America, the Senator has also asked the two entities to give details of the expense incurred by them in the H-1B visa process, and the number of layoffs, by year since 2002.
“While the H-1B programme has served a valuable purpose in allowing companies to bring in temporary workers for high-skilled jobs, the US Congress has a responsibility to make sure that Americans are not overlooked in the process. I’m asking questions today to find out how many taxpayer dollars are being used to recruit foreign workers and how invested our Government-backed entities are in this visa programme,” Senator Grassley has said in the letter to the two entities.
The move comes within seven months of the Senator (along with Senator Richard Durbin) sending letters to nine Indian firms that were issued an estimated 20,000 of the 65,000 visas issued in 2006, asking for information on the utilisation of H-1B visas.
‘It turned out I was the bad guy’
Via The Chicago-Sun Times
Corina Turcinovic came to the U.S. 17 years ago to care for her disabled fiance. Now that he has died, she’s getting kicked out.
The U.S. Immigration Law Blog by Ashwin Sharma 