A recent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decision, Administrator, Wage & Hour Div. v. Itek Consulting, Inc. 2008-LCA-00046 (5/6/09), found an H-1B employer, Itek Consulting Inc. liable for back wages for periods of time when the employee was in nonproductive status. In its decision, the ALJ references the pertinent part of the Regulations, writing “Employers are […]

The Department of Labor has informed AILA liaison that they will keep the old LCA system operational through June 30, 2009. The DOL has implemented fixes to many of the issues brought to their attention by AILA and other stakeholders thus far. The decision to keep the old LCA system operational will allow the DOL […]

The Dept. of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) has released a decision, reversing the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) decision, finding that Pegasus Consulting Group, an IT consulting company, had “willfully violated the INA’s H-1B wage requirements”, by failing to comply with the H-1B program’s requirements. The ARB found that the evidence presented showed that Pegasus knew […]

With sadness, we post the June 2009 Visa Bulletin just released by the U.S. Department of State.  Most of the bulletin is the same as May 2009 — EB-3 remains “unavailable” for all countries and EB-2 China is still February 15, 2005.   However there are further set backs for EB-2 India which rolled back approximately 4 […]

The Pentagon recently announced plans to open military enlistment to nonimmigrants legally present in the United States.  Previously only U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents could enlist in the military.  However the government now recognizes a specific need in strategic areas, languages, and skill sets and will actively recruit students and professionals in temporary nonimmigrant status […]

As of April 27th, the USCIS announced that only 45,000 cases seeking an H-1b for FY 2010 had been filed.

Senate bill 887 proposed by Senators Grassley and Durbin, contains provisions that if enacted would eliminate the use of H-1b visas for any staffing or consulting company.  Essentially, the bill would prohibit the placement of H-1b workers at any third party work-sites unless a waiver was first obtained and a waiver would not be available […]

The USCIS has updated the number of cap subject petitions it has received. The USCIS has received approximately 44,000 H-1B cap petitions. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap. Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 petitions for the Master’s cap.   
For cases filed for premium processing during the initial five-day filing window, […]

I suppose the trade-off for not reaching the H-1B cap and having to spend time sorting and running a lottery is that USCIS has more time on their hands to issue RFEs.  As many of you may know, just before April 1st of this year, USCIS revised the I-129 Data Collection Supplement to include a question […]

USCIS released the following statement today:
USCIS Update
April 8, 2009
USCIS Continues to Accept FY 2010 H-1B Petitions
WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it continues to accept H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010) cap. USCIS will continue to monitor the number of H-1B petitions received for both […]