It is time for employers to prepare H-1B filings for workers who
have not held H-1B status before and are subject to the annual cap
on visa numbers. The filings need to be submitted on April 1 to
USCIS with full documentation and following a preliminary Labor
Department filing and approval, as in prior years. Work needs to
begin promptly to prepare those filings.
USCIS has just announced a final rule to change the process in
two ways. A change set to take effect for this year's April
filings will reverse the order in which USCIS selects H-1B
petitions under the "regular" cap and the advanced degree
cap. Lawsuits about this change are expected, given that the change
arguably violates the literal words of the statute, and such
litigation might delay the announcement of results of the April
H-1B lottery.
