Post H-1B Filing Results
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), over 233,000 H-1B petitions were received for fiscal year 2016 from employers seeking to hire H-1B workers - a record number of H-1B cap-subject petitions, and about a 35 percent increase over last year's 172,500 filings. USCIS held a random-selection lottery on April 13, 2015, picking the fiscal year 2016 H-1B cases to be processed for a work start date of Oct. 1, 2015.
USCIS had announced on April 7, 2015, that it had received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory annual cap of 65,000 visas and the additional 20,000 H-1B visa numbers reserved for individuals with Master degrees from U.S. colleges and universities.
This means that approximately 63.5 percent of cap cases overall-approximately 148,000 H-1B petitions-were rejected for processing. Under the lottery process, H-1B numbers for Bachelor degree candidates had less of a chance of being selected than candidates holding a U.S. Master degree (about a 30.5 percent chance of being selected).
All unselected petitions along with filing fees will be returned to those petitioners whose petitions were not selected for processing.
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Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Spouses!
As previously noted, the Department of Homeland Security recently published a Final Rule extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain spouses of H-1B workers who are in the process of obtaining permanent resident status.
Effective May 26, 2015, the following H-4 visas holders will become eligible to apply for work authorization:
- H-4 visa holders whose H-1B spouses are the principal beneficiaries of an approved Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Foreign National Worker; and
- H-4 visa holders whose H-1B spouses have been granted H-1B status beyond the six-year regulatory limitation as a result of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21).
USCIS is predicting that the number of individuals that will be eligible to apply for employment authorization under this rule could be as high as 179,600 during the rule's first year, with 55,000 applicants in subsequent years. Given the rule's limitations, the benefits appear to be primarily limited to H-4 spouses of H-1B workers from India and China, and to H-4 spouses of H-1B workers who are beneficiaries of approved labor certifications (the first step in the permanent residency process for most applicants).
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Legislative Update
Last November, President Obama announced that he would be using his executive authority to implement a number of significant changes to the immigration system, including the ability for certain H-4 spouses to obtain work authorization, as noted above. Most significantly, he announced an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (which grants work permits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. at an early age), as well as the creation of the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program for certain undocumented parents of U.S. citizen or permanent resident children. USCIS was scheduled to begin accepting applications for the expanded DACA program in February 2015, but a federal district judge in Texas blocked both the DACA expansion and creation of DAPA by issuing a temporary injunction. The Obama administration has appealed, and the battle is not yet over. We will keep you updated on important developments in upcoming newsletters.
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