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H-1B Visas
DOL online labor certification registry now live

DOL online labor certification registry now live

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC In January the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it would make copies of various documents submitted to it by employers available to the public in a searchable Labor Certification Registry (LCR). These include...

H-1B Cap update – USCIS reports 124,000 H-1B petitions received

H-1B Cap update – USCIS reports 124,000 H-1B petitions received

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC Today USCIS announced that it received approximately 124,000 H-1B petitions between April 1 and April 5. It was the first time the statutory H-1B cap of 85,000 (including 20,000 available under the advanced degree...

H-1B Cap reached, lottery triggered

H-1B Cap reached, lottery triggered

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000...

DOL announces online labor certification registry

DOL announces online labor certification registry

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that it will make copies of H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, H-2A, H-2B, and PERM labor certification documents, as submitted by employers, available to the general public through its iCERT...

VIBE – the USCIS’s New Information Verification System

VIBE – the USCIS’s New Information Verification System

When adjudicating employment-based immigration petitions, the USCIS is required to verify certain basic information about the petitioner, to make sure that the company or organization is a bona fide U.S. employer.  For these verifications, the USCIS relies on paper documentation submitted with the petitions, and issues Requests for Evidence (RFEs) to employers when the documentation initially submitted doesn’t fully provide the necessary information. 

Large increases in government filing fees for some H-1B and L-1 petitions

Large increases in government filing fees for some H-1B and L-1 petitions

To make emergency supplemental appropriations for border security, Public Law 111-230 was passed by Congress and it was signed into law by President Obama on August 13, 2010.  One provision of the new law, effective immediately, adds large supplemental filing fees to certain H-1B and L-1 petition filings.  USCIS clarified in a recent announcement that it will require the supplemental fee for petitions postmarked on or after August 14, 2010.  The supplemental fees will remain in effect through September 30, 2014.

H and L fee increases

H and L fee increases

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC – August 13, 2010 On 8/13/2010, President Obama signed into law H.R. 6080, an act making emergency supplemental appropriations for border security.  One provision of the act raises the filing fee and Anti-Fraud fee for H...

Companies’ H-1B wages available online

Companies’ H-1B wages available online

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC - May 6, 2010 All H-1B petitions are supported by a Labor Condition Application (LCA), on which the employer attests to the wage to be paid to the H-1B employee.  The same is true for H-1B1 and E-3 visas.  The LCA does not...

Worldwide Deployment of Form DS-160 for Nonimmigrant Visa Applications

Worldwide Deployment of Form DS-160 for Nonimmigrant Visa Applications

News Release from Jewell & Associates, PC - February 23, 2010 As part of the Stare Department’s ongoing modernization of the visa application process, it is deploying the DS-160 fully web-based nonimmigrant visa (NIV) application form worldwide.  The DS-160 has...