usavisanow.com – Immigration Law Office of Eran Regev, Esq.

From USCIS.gov on 5/29/20: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it will resume premium processing for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, in phases over the next month.

Effective June 1, 2020, USCIS will accept Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for all eligible Form I-140 petitions.

Effective June 8, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for:

• H-1B petitions filed before June 8 that are pending adjudication and are cap-exempt (for example, petitions filed by petitioners that are cap-exempt and petitions filed for beneficiaries previously counted toward the numerical allocations).
• All other Form I-129 petitions (non H-1B petitions) for nonimmigrant classifications eligible for premium processing filed before June 8 that are pending adjudication.

Effective June 15, USCIS plans on resuming premium processing for:

• H-1B petitions requesting premium processing by filing an I-907 concurrently with their I-129 (or request for a petition filed on or after June 8) and are exempt from the cap because:
• The employer is cap-exempt or because the beneficiary will be employed at a qualifying cap-exempt institution, entity or organization (such as an institution of higher education, a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization); or
• The beneficiary is cap-exempt based on a Conrad/IGA waiver under INA section 214(l).

Effective June 22, USCIS plans on resuming premium processing for all other Form I-129 petitions, including:

• All H-1B cap-subject petitions (including those for fiscal year 2021), including change of status from F-1 nonimmigrant status, for both premium processing upgrades and concurrently filed I-907s.

• All other Form I-129 petitions for nonimmigrant classifications eligible for premium processing and requesting premium processing by filing an I-907 concurrently with their I-129.

All dates are subject to change as USCIS continues to take on more premium processing requests and USCIS will announce any changes to these dates accordingly.

On March 20, USCIS announced the temporary suspension of premium processing for all Form I-129 and I-140 petitions due to the coronavirus (COVID-19).

USCIS continues to process any petition with a previously accepted Form I-907, in accordance with the premium processing service criteria.

Petitioners who had already filed Form I-129 or Form I-140 using the premium processing service before the March 20 suspension, but received no action and a refund, may refile their Form I-907 consistent with the timeline above, barring any changes USCIS may announce in the future.

Beginning Monday, June 10, 2019, OFLC will accept online submissions of the Application for Prevailing Wage Determination (Form ETA-9141) in the FLAG System covering all visa programs.

Beginning June 10, 2019, the capability to submit the Form ETA-9141 using the iCERT System will be deactivated. OFLC will continue to accept online submissions of the Form ETA-9141 through the iCERT System until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, Sunday, June 9, 2019.

Technical Assistance Materials:

OFLC has developed a series of instructional videos to help educate the stakeholder community on how to create and manage a FLAG System account and content to prepare the Form ETA-9141 for submission to the NPWC.

To obtain more information and view these instructional videos, please visit the Prevailing Wage Program page on the FLAG System at https://flag.dol.gov/.

As the employer, you are required to provide your minimum degree requirements for the offered H-1B Visa position.

Failure to comply may lead to an RFE (Request for Evidence) and potentially a denial of your H-1B petition.

In the current climate of BAHA (Buy American / Hire American) it is more important than ever to ensure that you are doing everything in your power to obtain the H-1B approval.

Here are some tips on ensuring that your minimum degree requirements are in compliance with USCIS regulations.

Breadth – Majors must be specific, and not overly broad:

The major required must be related to the position offered.

ie: A Bachelor’s Degree in English would not be acceptable for a Software Developer position.

A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science would be acceptable for a Software Developer position.

The Minimum Degree requirement cannot be too broad.

Engineering Degrees:

You must state the specific Engineering major(s) that you would accept.

ie “Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering” would not be accepted for a Mechanical Engineering position.

Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering would be accepted for a Mechanical Engineering position.

Business Administration:

USCIS has indicated that a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration is not an acceptable minimum degree for an H-1B position.

The degree must be occupation specific.

Example. For a Market Research Analyst position, the major must be Marketing. (ie Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing).

Related – Majors must be related to each other:

If you have multiple degrees as your minimum degree requirements, such as: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Technology, or MIS, all of the degrees must be related.

Example:

For a Software Developer position: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Technology, or Biology would not be accepted.

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Technology, or MIS, would be accepted.