Immigration Blog

Can Foreign Nationals Volunteer While Waiting for Work Authorization?

              🤔 I’m often asked by employers …. 👉 My employee wants to Do Volunteer Work while waiting for his/her work authorization… CAN WE DO THAT?  Although volunteer work is essential and good for our communities to thrive because this work makes a tangible impact on the lives of people, animals, and organizations, in the context of the question above, volunteer work is NOT allowed. The Department of Labor (DOL) […]

Continue Reading

What Employers Need to Know About the FY2024 H-1B Cap Season!

                H-1B visa program background  The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to petition to obtain a work visa (H-1B) for highly specialized foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty such as architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, and others.   To petition for these workers to obtain a new H-1B visa under the H-1B visa […]

Continue Reading

How Does the 240-day Employment Authorization Extension Work?

When an employer timely files a petition for an employee in H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, E-3 or TN status to extend his/her employment in the same status, the employee may continue to work for the same employer for an additional 240 days beyond the expiration of their current status, while the petition is pending adjudication (it does not need to be approved) or until USCIS adjudicates the case, whichever is sooner. To qualify for the […]

Continue Reading

H-1B Cap Selection Is Complete. Now What?

USCIS announced that the cap of 85,000 new H-1B visas for FY2020 was met. They received a total of 201,011 H-1B cap petitions. There was an 11% increase from FY2019 in H-1B advanced degree (master’s and above) petitions selected in the FY2020 lottery; about 63% of those selected were advanced degree petitions. Unfortunately, as it has been for the last two years, being selected is just the first challenge. With the Request for Evidence (RFE) […]

Continue Reading