The recent news in the H-1B world is that the fee penalties of Public Law 111-230 have sunset. H-1B and L-1 petitions that are filed on or after October 1 are not subject to this fee anymore.

In 2010, President Obama signed Public Law 111-230 into effect. This law increased the fees that certain employers had to pay to file some H-1B and L-1 petitions. Employer petitioners who employed 50 or more employees in the United States with more than 50% of its US workforce in H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant status had to pay $2,000 for the filing of each petition. This fee existed on top of the normal filing fee, Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act fees.

The post One H-1B Fee Eliminated appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

From May 26, 2015 to July 27, 2015, USCIS will be suspending premium processing for all H-1B Extension of Stay petitions. Please note that this is only for H-1B Extensions of Stay, not for executing an AC21 change of employment or any other H-1B petition. The reason for this suspension is that USCIS wants to dedicate resources to timely adjudications of H-4 nonimmigrant employment authorization applications. USCIS is expecting 180,000 applications.

In February, regulations were published that granted certain (not all) H-4 nonimmigrant spouses work authorization. An H-4 is an individual who is a dependent on an H-1B worker. It can be a child or a spouse of the H-1B worker. Work authorization is only available for spouses of H-1B workers who have a pending I-140 Petition (employment-based permanent residence) or have an approved I-140 Petition and are waiting for their priority date.

USCIS will be accepting applications for H-4 nonimmigrants on May 26. The Notice and Comment period was last summer and received an overwhelmingly positive response on behalf of granting work authorization.

Premium processing is a service that is available for many but not all employment-based petitions. For a fee of $1,225, you can request adjudication of a petition within 15 days. This does not apply for family-based petitions, such as a petition for your spouse.

The post H4 Work Authorization and H-1B PP appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

We have closely been following the developments of Texas v. United States, in which Texas and other states are suing against President Obama’s Expanded DACA and DAPA programs. Expanded DACA would grant deferred action status for three years to individuals who have been here since 2010 without status and are low priority for removal (plus other criteria). DAPA would grant deferred action to parents of US citizens and permanent residents who have been here since 2010 without status and are low priority for removal (plus other criteria).

DACA & DAPA Ruling

In mid-February, a federal judge in Texas ruled in favor of Texas on the grounds that the executive branch did not follow the normal rules of Notice and Comment in issuing the DACA and DAPA programs. Work authorization for certain H-4 dependents will be allowed starting May 26. That was part of the executive order program in November, but it had already undergone the Notice and Comment process.

The post Motion of Stay for DAPA, DACA appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

Work authorization is permitted for H-4 visa holders who have an H-1B principal with a pending I-140 (employment-based application) or with an approved I-140 under AC21. AC21 104(c) and 106(a) allow for H-1B visa holders to extend their status with a pending or approved I-140 application for permanent residence. Individuals from countries such as India, China, and the Philippines have excruciatingly long waits for their priority date, even when they are approved for their Green Cards through EB-2 or EB-3 categories. During those waits, H-4 visa holders will be able to work.

This will bring much relief to H-4 visa holders and should help local economies benefit from talented individuals who can now contribute. This proposal was announced with the series of Executive Actions from November 20, 2015 that primarily focused on deferred action for parents of Americans and expanded DACA. However, there are also executive orders that have more support, such as allowing certain H-4 visa holders to obtain work authorization and employment.

November 2014 was not the first mention of permitting H-4 work authorization. Over the summer of 2014, a Notice and Comment period generated enormous support for the proposal, with H-4 and H-1B visa holders voicing their espousal of such a rule. Opposition was minor and consisted of fear that H-4 visa holders would be discriminated against and forced into menial labor positions.

The Law Offices of Andrew Wood applauds USCIS for announcing this rule and looks forward to assisting H-4 visa holders obtain employment authorization. If you would like to learn more about how we can assist you, please drop us a line.

The post H-4 Work Authorization appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

State of the Union 

“Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student, and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is taken from her child, and that it’s possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.” – Barack Obama, January 20, 2015

The word ‘immigration’ was only uttered twice Tuesday night in President Barack Obama’s seventh State of the Union speech, but the immigration motif was prevalent throughout the address.

The president made quick mention of the inherent unfairness of breaking apart families to remove a low-enforcement priority mother from her US citizen children. That is the basis of DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Arrivals). The guiding light of American immigration policy is family reunification. Dismantling families would run contrary to that. DAPA is receiving most of the attention from Obama’s November 20, 2014 Immigration speech, in which he announced a series of executive orders to make incremental improvements to the immigration system in the face of congressional paralysis, especially in 2007 and 2013-2014. The “hardworking mom” mentioned during the speech would be someone that DAPA would protect temporarily, for the sake of keeping families intact.

The president dedicated much of his speech to trumpeting the job creation, research & development, innovation, and overall economic improvement of the United States in recent years. Underlying these important markers is immigration. American businesses rely on non-immigrant and immigrant visas to succeed. There are currently 140,000 Emplyoment-Based visas available per year and the H-1B visa system has been criticized for years by American businesses, some politicians, and immigration advocates as being damagingly low. The president has vowed to make improvements throughout the immigration architecture. He has declared his intention to modernize the employment process for immigration. We eagerly anticipate these reforms, as they will be in the best interests of our country, our fellow citizens, and immigrants.

The post Immigration in State of the Union appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

“My presidency is entering the fourth quarter. Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter.”

The annual State of the Union is the president’s opportunity to sketch out an agenda for the year, emphasize his priorities, and deliver reprimands and congratulations. The broad topic of immigration is bound to receive some air time in the speech tonight. The past year has been an intensive year in immigration for President Obama, one in which Congress dithered on passing immigration reform and performed various legislative delay tactics on an important issue that seemed prime for change in 2012. After initially waiting for the midterm elections in November, President Obama announced a series of executive orders that to improve our overall immigration system in various ways. The highlights of the speech included work authorization for H-4 visa holders (dependents of H-1B visa holders), Deferred Action for Parent Arrivals (DAPA), expanding the provisional waiver, and a pledge to modernize the nonimmigrant and immigrant visa programs. Opposition to this approach culminated last week when the US House of Representatives voted against funding DAPA and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The Senate has yet to vote, but it is expected that it will vote against the bill.

We are excited to see the president’s speech as it pertains to immigration. We are hopeful that it will continue to build upon his immigration speeches from November, as our immigration system incrementally improves for the better of immigrants, non-immigrants, and United States citizens. We will recap our thoughts on the immigration portion of the State of the Union address later in the week.

The post Immigration in SOTU Tonight appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

H-1B Visas Causes Firms to Go Overseas

It is estimated up to 120,000 jobs are available each year in tech fields. Only 51,000 American graduates are trained to meet that opening, as only 45% of STEM degrees issued at research intensive universities in the United States are obtained by US born graduates. That widening chasm has forced employers in the sector to recruit foreign graduates, but the difficulty of obtaining their H-1B visas has caused some firms to move operations overseas. For example, Microsoft opted to open a Vancouver office with 400 tech jobs. Smaller firms have felt the pressure acutely and have responded similarly.

Credit: @timothykrause – Flickr

The H-1B visa is critical for foreign workers seeking to ply their craft in the United States. It is frequently issued to computer programmers and health care professionals, as well as to workers throughout the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field generally. However, it is far from being a panacea to solving labor shortages in those arenas because the quota of H-1B visas that are issued per year lag far behind business needs. The number was augmented to correspond with the tech boom of the late 1990s, but it has reverted from a peak of 195,000 per year in 2003 to 65,000 per year in 2004. It has remained at that incongruous 65,000 (with an exemption) cap since, despite the increasingly vocal urgency of employers. In 2014, for the second year in a row, the number of H-1B applications received in the first week of April far exceeded the number of available H-1B visas for the entire year.

H-1B Visa Fears

A common fear is that increasing the number of H-1B visas to foreigners will lead to wage depression and loss of job opportunity for American-born workers. However, the report authored by Americans for a Renewed Economy rebuts those notions by showing H-1B visa denials have injured American born workers’ wages and job prospects. By examining H-1B visa denials in 2007-2008 and their aftermath in 236 cities, the report shows that those denials hampered job creation and wage growth for American-born computer specialists, college graduates, and non-college workers. American workers lacking a college degree were the most injured by the recession in 2007 and 2008. The growth of jobs for non-college educated U.S.-born slowed down by 7.1% every time a city experienced a 1% “shock” in the available supply of computer workers. The report points to surrounding jobs eliminated as a result of tech jobs being unfulfilled, such as human resources, sales, operations, and management.

Improving the American Immigration System

The Partnership for a New American Economy was formed by Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch for the purpose of improving the American immigration system. Its chairmen include some of the most prominent businessmen and mayors in the United States. The businessmen include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Bill Marriot, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. The mayors include San Antonio’s Julian Castro and Philadelphia’s Michael Nutter.

The post More H-1B Visas Would Help the U.S. Economy appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.

DHS announced this proposed rule as a possibility over a year ago. The ostensible reason for authorizing H-4 dependents for employment is to increase retention of highly skilled H-1B workers in the United States. One of the pressing problems, which is mentioned frequently in the public comments section, is that the wait for long-term permanent residence is lengthy. This may also have the effect of encouraging the entry of H-4 eligible spouses who were separated from their H-1B spouses in order to continue their own careers in the United States. The public comments contain many personal stories of immigrants and their spouses facing problems that this proposed rule would help solve, such as talented spouses who were excelling in their careers in their home country being precluded from practicing their professions in the United States. Opposition to the proposed rule focuses on concern that U.S. citizens will be laid off in favor of cheaper labor. Immigrants have expressed concerns their fear that H-4 holders will end up working in low-skilled position in restaurants and gas stations, rather than pursuing their career paths.

The public comment was made available on May 12 and comment period will end on July 11. If you would like to add your own comment, you may here.

The post DHS Proposes H-4 Employment Authorization appeared first on Wood Immigration Law.