IMMIGRATION NEWS

USCIS Begins Accepting H-1B Temporary Work Visa Applications Beginning April 1, 2007!

Get ready, H-1B visas are arriving again! The USCIS will begin accepting H-1B visas on April 1, 2007 for the new 2008 fiscal year, which begins on Oct 1, 2007. This means that you should start preparing no later than late February for the early April filing. Last year, H-1B visas were all used up by July! Estimates are that it will be worse this year. But remember, if you are applying for an H-1B and your I-94 will expire before Oct 1, 2007, if the USCIS approves your H-1B, it will be for consular processing, meaning you will need to pick it up at a U.S. consulate in your home country (or Canada/Mexico). With time getting so close, those of you whose I-94’s are expiring may want to consider apply for F-1 student visas to fill the gap between now and Oct 1, 2007.

For background, the H-1B visa is the most common type of employment-based work visa. To qualify, the foreign national must have at least a Bachelor’s degree or it’s equivalent (12 years or more in a professional capacity) and must be sponsored by a U.S. company who is offering the foreign national a job, which requires at least a Bachelor’s Degree. The H-1B is issued for three (3) years and can be extended for another three (3) years. Normally, soon after obtaining the visa, foreign nationals begin the road to obtaining U.S. Residency (Green Card) through the Labor Certification process, now called PERM.

Once the PERM is approved, if the foreign national possesses a Master’s degree and the job offered requires it, he or she (and dependant family members) can immediately file for U.S. Residency and obtain the Green Card in approx 8 –18 months. If the foreign national possesses a Bachelors degree, the I-140 Immigrant Visa is filed and there is a wait until a visa becomes available.

In recent years, the number of H-1B work visas has been reduced from a high of 195,000 to the current low of 65,000. This has produced a critical situation with regard to the demand for H-1B visas, versus their availability. The result has been that the yearly 65,000 visas are used (exhausted) in the first four (4) to five (5) months after the USCIS begins accepting applications. The USCIS year runs from Oct 1 to Sept. 30. New H-1B visas are released each year with start dates on Oct. 1 of each year. However, the USCIS begins accepting applications on the April 1, before each Oct. 1 year.

What this means for applicants is that generally, after July of each year, there are no visas available for the fiscal year which runs from Oct 1 to Sept 30 of the next year. Therefore, the only option is to wait until the USCIS begins accepting H-1B applications on April 1 of the following year. This can have devastating effects for applicants whose I-94 cards are expiring or when OPT is ending. Since the USCIS now provides 15 day “premium processing” for an additional $1,000 fee and this is HIGHLY recommended!

Please Note: The USCIS provides 20,000 additional H-1B visas to individuals with Advanced degrees (Master’s or above) from U.S. universities.

IMMIGRATION QUESTIONS:

Question: I am attending college in the U.S. on a student visa at the University of Miami. I applied for financial aid. The college is requiring proof that I am an eligible Non-Immigrant Alien for Financial Aid (Pell Grant etc.) What do I need to give them to qualify?
Answer: The U.S. Dept of Education (DOE) requires proof of U.S. permanent residency (I-551 stamp or green card) for financial aid purposes. Under the current rules, you can receive federal student financial aid only if you are a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen. For financial aid purposes, an eligible non-citizen is one of the following:

1) U.S. permanent or conditional resident,

2) "Refugee," "Asylum Granted," "Indefinite Parole," "Humanitarian Parole," or "Cuban-Haitian Entrant".

Foreign nationals in the following categories are not eligible for financial aid/grants, but may be eligible for state or institutional aid by completing the FAFSA for that aid: F-1, F-2, M-1 student visas, J-1, J-2 exchange visitor visas, B-1, B-2 visitor visas, G, H or L visas "Temporary Protected Status".