As predicted, more than half of the H-1B petitions filed during the first week of April 2014 will be returned without ever being reviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).\u00a0 On April 7, 2014, USCIS announced that the fiscal year (FY) 2015 H-1B cap was reached. USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions in total (including those falling within the U.S. Masters Cap) during the filing period that began April 1. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 U.S. Masters cap. \u00a0USCIS conducted the selection process first for the U.S. Masters degree petitions. All U.S. Masters degree petitions not selected, then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.<\/p>\n
By now, some of the applicants have already heard whether they have been selected by this random lottery \u2013 that their petitions have been \u201creceived\u201d as within the H-1B cap.\u00a0 Especially compared to last year, USCIS has acted quickly in sending out \u201creceipt notices\u201d for those petitions that have been selected by the random lottery.\u00a0 All petitions filed with premium processing, for both general and U.S Masters cap, should have received a \u201creceipt notice\u201d if they were in fact selected by the random lottery.\u00a0 This past week, we just started to receive \u201creceipt notices\u201d in the mail for petitions filed with regular processing.\u00a0 It is true that until the filed petition is returned in the mail, it is not 100% certain that your petition did not make the lottery.\u00a0 However, if you have not heard by now, it is probably not looking too promising\u2026<\/p>\n
What about the petitions that have luckily been selected by the lottery and will now be reviewed by USCIS?\u00a0 What are the chances of an approval?\u00a0 Given past statistics released by USCIS, the trend is not in the applicants\u2019 favor.\u00a0 USCIS is reviewing all petitions with greater scrutiny and overall approval rate is decreasing every year, especially for those non-computer related occupations.\u00a0 In particular, in its most recent report released in July 2013, USCIS reported that the number of H-1B petitions approved decreased 3% overall in FY2012.\u00a0 Furthermore, while the number of H-1B petitions approved for workers in computer-related occupations increased by 15%, the number of petitions approved for all other occupation groups combined decreased by 20%.<\/p>\n
In fact, a recent report released by the Department of Labor (DOL) confirmed that computer related occupations still overwhelmingly dominate the H-1B filings.\u00a0 Specifically, in FY2014, computer related occupations made up about 70% of all Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) which must be submitted and certified by the DOL before any H-1B application can be filed with USCIS.\u00a0 Additional 5% of LCAs received by DOL comprised of non-computer related engineering occupations.\u00a0 Another 5% went to financial analysts\/accountant occupations.\u00a0 The remaining 20% included all other occupations.<\/p>\n
Such statistics attests to the growing trend of USCIS disfavoring non-computer, non-science, non-IT jobs. \u00a0In other words, more \u201cbusiness\u201d type positions (relating to operations, business development, marketing, market research, public relations, etc.), are becoming more and more difficult to receive \u201ceasy\u201d approvals without any request for further evidence (RFE). \u00a0While \u201csales\u201d related jobs were always challenging, even other business-related positions that used to be deemed acceptable, like market research analysts, are becoming less assured of an approval.\u00a0 In fact, just recently this April 21, 2014, a federal district court found no error in USCIS\u2019s decision that an entry-level public relations specialist was not a specialty occupation.<\/p>\n
What does this mean?\u00a0 Answer.\u00a0 For both the sponsoring employers and the foreign national applicants, it is imperative to have a Plan B.\u00a0 In particular, for the employers who submitted multiple H-1B petitions this year, statistically speaking, less than half of those candidates will actually be approved for an H-1B visa.\u00a0 Therefore, the company must devise a Plan B for how it will fill those positions for which it can no longer hire foreign national candidates under H-1B status \u2013 whether such Plan B involves considering other visa options, or once again trying to recruit for qualified U.S citizens and\/or permanent residents, etc.\u00a0 For the foreign nationals, especially those international students whose OPTs will soon expire, Plan B is especially critical, as you only have a 60 day grace period to leave the United States.<\/p>\n
Written by H. Heidi Son, Esq. As predicted, more than half of the H-1B petitions filed during the first week of April 2014 will be returned without ever being reviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).\u00a0 On April 7, 2014, USCIS announced that the fiscal year (FY) 2015 H-1B cap was reached. USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions in total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[8,9,10],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/a>Of Counsel
\n<\/i>SW Law Group P.C.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"