USCIS Has Reached the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020

April 8, 2019 Joseph McKeown

US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 FY 2020 regular cap. Next, USCIS will determine if the agency has received enough petitions to meet the 20,000 US advanced degree exemption master’s cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions which are not prohibited multiple filings. USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions exempt from the cap including petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap and who still retain their cap number, as well as H-1B petitions for extensions, change in terms of employment, change-of-employer, and concurrent employment. To receive future updates about the H-1B program, USCIS encourages applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season email updates on the H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Cap Season page.

UPDATE APRIL 12, 2019: On April 10, after USCIS selected enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated regular cap, USCIS determined that the agency had received enough petitions projected as sufficient to meet the 20,000 US advanced degree exemption master’s cap. In total, USCIS received 201,011 H-1B petitions during the filing period beginning April 1, including master’s cap cases. The agency additionally notes that in accordance with the new H-1B regulation, USCIS first conducted the selection process for H-1B cap-subject petitions submitted for all beneficiaries, including master’s cap cases, and afterwards from the remaining eligible petitions selected a number projected to reach the advanced degree exemption.

Why They Do What They Do

April 8, 2019 Joseph McKeown

Prismatica

April 5, 2019 Joseph McKeown

Prismatica is an interactive “art trail” of twenty-five kaleidoscopic prisms located in three public plazas in downtown Manhattan: 75 Wall Street, 77 Water Street, and 32 Old Slip. The seven-foot-tall prisms are covered in a dichroic film and, depending on the angle and light hitting the prism, can reflect every color in the visible spectrum. During daytime the prisms, which are able to spin, glimmer under natural light and send explosions of color over the surroundings. At night they provide atmospheric and colorful lighting. The project was originally created by Canadian architecture firm RAW Design for the 2014 Luminothérapie Competition in Montreal, and has since traveled across North America to such places as Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, Washington’s Potomac River, and Niagara Falls. Roland Rom Colthoff, director of RAW Design, says that they “wanted people to play around” and “have fun” with the prisms. Prismatica’s stay in New York will end after five weeks on April 21st.

The Washington Post: “Parents separated from their kids returned to the U.S. to be reunited. They’ve been detained for almost a month.”

April 2, 2019 Joseph McKeown

Twenty-nine parents who were separated from their children and removed to their home countries in Central America last year traveled to the US/Mexico border last month with the hope of reuniting with their children in the US. The twenty-nine parents, some who have been separated from their children for nearly a year, presented themselves at the US/Mexico border on March 2. The parents asked to be allowed back into the US to resume their asylum applications and to be reunited with their children, who are in American foster homes, shelters, or with relatives.

Still Here

April 1, 2019 Joseph McKeown

H-1B Blood, Sweat, and Tears

March 29, 2019 Joseph McKeown

H-1B cap season is tough (as our previous Friday Photos over the years have shown). This week the firm pushed to put the final touches on all our cap petitions that will be filed starting April 1.

In preparation for sending out our H-1Bs, Gaby got into a bloody fight with our REG CAP stamp, Liz broke a sweat from running around to check in with our paralegals, and Carolyn bid some petitions a tearful goodbye. Nothing says a labor of love like some blood, sweat, and tears!

The Washington Post: “How a flight attendant from Texas ended up in an ICE detention center for six weeks.”

March 26, 2019 Guest User

DACA beneficiary Selene Saavedra Roman from Peru, who has lived in the US for twenty-five years and is a flight attendant for Mesa Airlines, was detained shortly after she landed in Houston on a return flight from Mexico in February. Saavedra Roman remained in custody for six weeks and was released last Friday, but advocates are pointing to her case as an example of how the Trump administration’s attempts to end DACA continue to confuse program beneficiaries, their families, government agencies, and private employers.

Never Without Cost

March 25, 2019 Joseph McKeown

Pegasus

March 22, 2019 Protima Daryanani

In ancient legend, Pegasus is the “mythical creature who sprang from the blood of Medusa’s neck.” In famed contemporary artist Damien Hirst’s version, Pegasus is a flying horse encrusted completely with crystals residing in the Brasserie of Light, the Martin Brudnizki-designed restaurant in the British department store Selfridges. The sculpture, standing at twenty-four feet with a thirty-foot wingspan, is Hirst’s largest artwork in London, but isn’t the first time he has used this mythical creature in his work. Businessman Richard Caring says of his latest restaurant in Vogue UK: "The Brasserie of Light is a new look spectacle where the input of Damien Hirst, Martin Brudnizki and the absolute strength of Selfridges; this mix has resulted in what I believe to be something very beautiful. It is about light, make-believe and dreams." Hirst explains: “I love the myth of the Pegasus and this is such an exciting project and I love the scale of it. I hope it’s going to look like something beautiful from another world.”

USCIS: Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 H-1B Cap Season To Begin April 1, 2019

March 19, 2019 Protima Daryanani

Today, USCIS officially announced April 1, 2019 as the start date of FY 2020 H-1B cap season. USCIS also explained changes to the H-1B application process itself, including how premium processing will work, the agency’s new H-1B data hub, and an update to the order in which cap cases are selected.

Premium Processing

Rather than fully suspending the premium processing requests, the agency has decided to offer it in two phases: first to FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions requesting a change of status, and then secondly to all other FY 2020 cap-subject petitions. Premium processing for the first phase will commence on May 20, 2019.

Applicants wishing to use premium processing for their H-1B petitions requesting a change of status may concurrently file Form I-907 with the H-1B petition on April 1. These petitions will not be processed by USCIS until after all data entry on cap cases has been completed, around May 20, 2019. Petitioners may also convert cases filed as a change of status and picked in the H-1B lottery to premium processing after May 20, 2019 if they prefer. The rest of the FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions will likely be able to upgrade to premium processing in June 2019.

H-1B Data Hub

The new H-1B Employer Data Hub — available on April 1st — will allow the public to search for H-1B petitioners by fiscal year, NAICS industry code, company, name, city, state, or zip code. The hub is meant to allow members of the public to calculate approval and denial rates as well as review which employers are using the H-1B program, therefore increasing transparency between the agency and the public.

Selection Process

As previously noted, the Department of Homeland Security has reversed the order in which USCIS will select petitions. The purpose of the reversal is to increase the chances that more advanced degree H-1B petitions will be selected in any lottery.