USCIS has updated the FY2013 H-1B cap count. As of April 13, 2012, USCIS had issued receipts to 20,600 H-1B cap-subject applications . This number includes applications that are approved or remain pending, but does not include applications that have already been denied. USCIS has also receipted 9,700 H-1B petitions eligible for the Masters cap [...]

In general, when an employer employing foreign nationals decides to make deductions from such an employee’s salary, the employer must be sure that doing so would not push the employee’s actual wages below the prevailing wage required by the labor certification. Exceptions are made for “authorized” deductions that are required by law and/or that are also made against the wages of U.S. workers similarly employed.

When filing an I-140 petition subsequent to the denial of a previously filed petition, the same labor certification may be used even if it has expired, provided that it was not expired at the time the original petition was filed and it was not invalidated for reasons of fraud or misrepresentation. Should a petitioner require a new copy of a labor certification, (s)he can request a duplicate copy from the Certifying Officer, with proof that a visa application or petition has been appropriately filed.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will not extend the period in which it temporarily accepted H-1B petitions filed with uncertified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs). Due to processing delays associated with Department of Labor’s (DOL) “iCERT” system, USCIS responded to requests from the public and temporarily allowed H-1B petitions to be [...]

Workers in H-1B and H-2B classifications who are admitted to perform labor and services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam are exempt from the H-1B cap and H-2B cap from November 28, 2009 to December 31, 2014.  The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA), Public Law 110-229, provides a [...]