Published on 03/20/2016
Hello, I’m investment immigration attorney Vaughan de Kirby. This is a little bit outside our normal subject area, but I thought it might be important to our followers, so I wanted to include it today.
I received an email today confirming a lot of what we already know about H-1. No.1 for fiscal 2017, there will be 65,000 H-1 visas available. Not included in that number, will be an additional 20,000 for people holding masters degrees. They pointed out to us a couple things: 1. During the first five days of filing, (April 1 is the first filing day) for the next five days, they’re going to look at the numbers. If it’s clear to USCIS that they’re going to exceed the 65,000 visas, they will then institute a computer-generated lottery system, which they’ve done in the past. And that lottery system is not fully explained to us, but the bottom line is that lottery system will give them the number of applications that are necessary to meet the limitations of H-1. All applications that are not selected in that lottery will be returned.
Another thing you want to know is that premium processing will be available. However, it will not start until May 16th. So it’s going to take them until May 16th before they are going to actually institute premium processing. Doesn’t mean that premium processing is not valuable, because you’ll get answers and responses much quicker, but you’ll have to understand the two-week timeframe that they give you will not begin until May 16th.
Another point they made in this email, which must be a problem that occurs, is that if you have a temporary employment or employment training with a company, and there may be more than one location, you need to know the location for filing your application is based on the main office of your employer. That’s something you want to make sure that is very clear with your H-1 attorney.
The last point they made, sort of a paragraph at the end of the email, was that cases will be considered accepted when properly filed. That means you and your H-1 attorney should work very closely to make sure there’re no critical errors, things like forgetting to put filing fee checks, because if it is not filed properly, it will be returned to you. That’s what we know about H-1 right now. We’ll find out after April 6th what’s going to happen, but I hope this information was helpful to you people that’re looking for your H-1.
Please contact us or call 415-221-2345 if you have any questions or concerns.
