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Immigration Law
Alert December 22, 2009
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Immigration Law
Practice Group Co-Leaders
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IMMIGRATION LAW SPECIAL ALERT
2010 H-1B CAP HAS BEEN REACHED
On
December 22, 2009 the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
announced that for the fiscal year 2010 the agency
has received more than enough applications for new H-1B visas.
This includes the normal 65,000 quota (also called a "cap")
and the additional 20,000 quota for persons who have an advanced
degree (more than a bachelor degree) from a US university.
USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty
occupation workers seeking an employment start date in Fiscal Year
2010 that are received after December 21, 2009. USCIS will
apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions
that are subject to the cap and were received on December 21,
2009. The H-1B is a temporary work status used by US employers
for hiring foreign nationals to perform jobs which require a bachelor
degree or higher (professionals), and the employer must prove it will
pay the employee the same or more than a similar worker for a
comparable job in the geographic location. The government's fiscal
year runs from October 1st until September 30th. H-1B applications
can be filed up to 6 months before October 1st. USCIS will
accept petitions for Fiscal Year 2011 beginning on April 1, 2010 for
work that commences on October 1, 2010. For more on H-1B visas see
the Clark Hill website.
Persons
who have been issued an H-1B under a previous cap, for work with a
private employer and have not used all of their time on an H-1B
(generally limited to 6 years), or persons who work for or in
furtherance of a US university or research organization, are exempt
from the H-1B cap.
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To find out
more about Clark Hill and our Immigration and Empoyment Practice
Groups, visit clarkhill.com or
call 800.949.3124.
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