Hopefully the sun does not run out of hydrogen before many of your foreign national employees obtain permanent residence given severe visa retrogression.  [Permanent visas remain available for all nationalities in the EB-1 first preference category, and are available for all nationalities except Indians and Chinese in the EB-2 second preference category.] 

It is time to gear up for the fiscal year H-1B season again.  As you may know, the H-1B numbers for last year’s quota ran out in December.  Although we can never predict what will happen this year, we have spoken to many of our corporate clients, most of whom, unlike last year, intend to hire additional employees over the next several months.  Our very unscientific conclusion is that the demand for H-1B visas may be higher this year.  The safest strategy to assure that your company can hire the H-1B workers it needs is to assess your hiring needs as early as possible, and to file any required H-1B petition as close to April 1 as able.

As of December 21, 2009, USCIS has received sufficient petitions to reach the statutory cap for FY2010.  USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.  USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY2010 that are received after December 21, 2009.  USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on December 21, 2009.

Please contact us with any questions.