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The H1b 2008 FY Quota was reached on the same day
that the filing period opened. There is now an historically
unprecedented 18 month restriction on access to the
H1b visa. 65,000 new H1bs are available per year and as
of 4/9/07, the CIS has determined that it received
approximately 119,193 cap-subject H1b filings.
Regulations require that filings received the day after the
cap is reached need to be included as well---so all cap-
subject H1b filings that were received on 4/2/07 and
4/3/07 will be subjected to a computer-generated random
selection process (i.e. lottery). Any applications received
on 4/4/07 or after, will be immediately rejected.
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On 4/10/07, the CIS announced that on April 2nd and 3rd
it received a total of approximately 12,989 cases
requesting an exemption from the FY 2008 H1b cap
because they were filed on behalf of aliens holding a
master's degree or higher from a US institution. The total
available under this category is 20,000. As such, filings
under this category are still possible. We will be tracking
the advancements made in this category on our website.
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On 4/9/07, the CIS announced that it was imposing
restrictions on the H1b premium processing program
under the authority of 8 CFR 103.2(f)(2). Specifically,
they have announced that the guaranteed 15 day
premium processing period for petitions subject to the
fiscal year 2008 H1b cap will begin only after the
computer-generated random lottery has selected the
petitions for processing. In practical terms what this
means is that the H1b petitions filed via premium
processing will not be processed within 15 days of filing
& the CIS is not refunding the premium processing fees
because of the delays---they have shifted the processing
period to avoid this.
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CIS will now allow an alien who has been absent
from the US for more than 1 year who has
previously been admitted to the US in H1b status
but did not exhaust his/her entire 6 year H1b
maximum period while in the US to seek
readmission to the US in H1b status for either
(1) a new 6 year period of admission (note: this
type of filing is subject to the H1b cap) OR (2)
apply for an H1b for the ?remainder? of his/her
initial 6 year maximum H1b period (note: this
type of filing is exempt from the H1b cap).
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If you know of anyone who would be interested in receiving our immigration bulletin, please feel free to forward it using the link below. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Danielsson, Esq
JD Stanford Law School; BA Economics--UC Berkeley
email:
cdanielsson@infinitilaw.com
phone:
(415)874-3540
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