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USCIS announced late Friday afternoon that it has received a sufficient number of Advanced Degree H-1B petitions to meet the exemption limit of 20,000 established by Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2007. The final receipt date for H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2007 Advanced Degree Cap was June 26, 2006. Affected H-1B petitions received on that date will be subject to a computer-generated random selection process. H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2007 Advanced Degree Cap received by the USCIS after June 26th will be rejected.
On May 26, 2006, USCIS received enough H-1B petitions to meet the standard H-1B cap of 65,000 for FY2007. With both the standard and advanced degree caps met, the earliest date an employer may file a new petition requesting a FY2008 H-1B with an employment start date of October 1, 2007 will be April 1, 2007.
Employers should keep in mind that some H-1B petitions are not subject to the cap. These include H-1B petitions for amendment or extension of status, including new employers, and requests for concurrent H-1B employment; petitions filed by exempt organizations, including institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations or entities that are related or affiliated with an institution of higher education, a nonprofit research organization, or governmental research organizations; H-1B petitions for J-1 nonimmigrants who received a waiver of the two-year foreign residency requirement based on certain interested state or federal agency requests; and H-1B petitions for beneficiaries counted against the cap within the preceding six years, unless the beneficiary is entitled to request a new six-year period.
Proskauer Rose LLP counsels corporate clients and their employees in all areas of immigration, nationality and consular law. This includes obtaining work authorizations and visas to enable companies to hire aliens or transfer personnel between nations; compliance with and defense of anti-discrimination and unlawful immigration practices; and advice and appearances in special circumstance matters such as asylum claims and removal proceedings. Much of the work involves obtaining appropriate non-immigrant or immigrant visas to enable corporations to transfer executives, managers, persons with specialized knowledge or other key personnel temporarily or permanently to the United States.
For more information contact: David Grunblatt
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