Masters Cap Reached & Substitution | Immigration Alert

FY2008 H-1b Master's Cap Reached

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Friday May 4th, that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B master’s cap exemption for those individuals who have earned a master’s degree of higher from a US institution. The “final receipt date” for these cases is April 30, 2007. Any cases received on or after May 1, 2007 requesting to be counted under the US master’s cap exemption will be rejected and returned unless otherwise eligible for a separate cap exemption.
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/H1Bfy08CapUpdate050407.pdf

This year’s H1B cap was exhausted on the first day of submission. Likewise, the H-1B master’s cap exemption was exhausted in record time, a month after the cap opened up. The need for H-1B relief is clear. HLG encourages companies and individuals alike to contact your Congressmen to urge relief be passed in the form of Congressional Immigration Reform. For further details see: http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/alerts/make_the_difference.htm

End of Substitution Imminent

As of Friday, April 27th, 2007, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cleared its review of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed regulation that would eliminate substitution of aliens in labor certification proceedings, bar the payment by the alien of the employer’s attorney’s fees and other labor certification costs, institute a 45 day validity on labor certifications and enhance penalties for violations of labor certification regulations. The regulation, known as the “Labor Certification for Permanent Employment of Aliens in the United States; Reducing the Incentives and Opportunities for Fraud and Abuse and Enhancing Program Integrity,” will now go through the DOL for final review. Whether all points in the proposed regulation (see: http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/alerts/04.05.2006_alert.htm) will be included in the final rule remains to be seen. HLG, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and other groups and organizations submitted comments to these proposed regulations emphasizing the need to maintain the option of substitution, particularly given the backlog in green card numbers, and the impracticality of a 45 day validity period for labor certifications. Unfortunately, we will not be sure whether these comments have fallen on deaf ears until the final rule is released.

The publication of the final rule and effective date has not yet occurred but are imminent. In anticipation of this final rule, clients are encouraged to contact their HLG attorney to discuss options on their pending Green Card cases.