By: Jake Campbell and Weijia (Victoria) Ma

Seyfarth Synopsis: The below summarizes recent legal updates that impact U.S. immigration:

1. FY2024 H-1B Cap Registration

On March 27, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that initial registration was complete and that all prospective petitioners with selected registrations selected in the lottery were notified.  Petitioners

By: Victoria Ma

Seyfarth Synopsis: In its continued efforts to increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall immigration system, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the expansion of premium processing for certain F-1 students seeking Optional Practical Training (OPT) and F-1 students seeking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) OPT extensions. 

As

By: Jake Campbell and Victoria Ma

Seyfarth Synopsis: The below summarizes recent legal updates that impact U.S. immigration:

1. H-1B Cap Registration is Live

H-1B cap registration opened on March 1, 2023 at noon EST and closes on March 17, 2023 at noon EST.  Employers should be prepared to submit critical data points associated with

By: Jake Campbell

Applying for an Immigration visa.

Seyfarth Synopsis: U.S. immigration agencies have started 2023 at full steam and have issued numerous legal updates. The below will provide a summary of these updates that occurred in January 2023:

  1. H-1B Cap Registration

USCIS announced that this year’s cap registration will open on March 1

By: Mia Batista, Steven R. Brouillard, and Victoria Ma

Seyfarth Synopsis: H-1B Registration is approaching! Employers should identify any current employees and employment candidates who may require H-1B visa sponsorship.

This Legal Update is intended to assist employers with understanding the general process of the H-1B electronic registration program and identifying any current

By: Steven Brouillard and Jake Campbell

Seyfarth Synopsis: Starting January 25, 2023, USCIS will adjudicate I-539 and I-765 applications for H-4 and L-2 dependents when those applications are filed concurrently with the I-129 petition.  The bundling of those applications applies to both regular and premium processed H-1B or L-1 petitions.

USCIS will return to its

By Steven R. Brouillard and Victoria Ma

Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 12, 2023, USCIS announced the final phase of premium processing expansion for EB-1 Multinational Executive and Manager and EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) Form I-140 Petitions, as well as steps to expand premium processing for certain I-765 and I-539 applications.

Background:

On March 30

On January 4, 2023, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed rule to increase fees for most immigration benefit requests. If implemented, employers will pay significantly more for most nonimmigrant and immigrant filings. The fee increases projects to boost revenues by over $4.5 billion providing USCIS with the much-needed resources the

By: Dawn Lurie, Matthew Parker* and Amber Stokes*

As U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) continues to deal with their backlogs, they have announced that, effective September 26, 2022, USCIS is automatically extending the validity of expired Forms I-551, Permanent Resident Card ( or “PRC”), commonly known as a Green Cards, for lawful permanent