16. May 2007 by dmo.

The H1-B visa cap for the entire year of 2008 was filled within only one month of filing.  If the regular H1-B visa cap of 65,000 was reached on the first day of filing, which fell on April 2nd, the visa cap of 20,000 for the advanced degree H1-B was reached on the 30th of April.  The same procedure with the regular H1-B will be conducted in all the applications on the first day when the cap was reached for advanced degree H1-B.  All the applications accepted on April 30th will be subject to random lottery as part of the standard procedure of the USCIS. Applications which are not randomly selected will be returned with the corresponding filing fees.  The successful applicants for both regular and advanced degree H1-B applications will be processed according to the receipt date.  Visa issuance for the successful applicants for the fiscal year 2008 will start on October 1, 2007.  You may check with the USCIS website for the status of your application or Processing Dates .

Congratulations to all who made it for the fiscal year 2008!

Posted in Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »

4. May 2007 by dmo.

As of April 25th, 2007, the number of petitions received for Advanced Degree
H1-Bs is 19,172. This means that the visa cap of 20,000 is almost reached and
only a few more advanced degree holder have the chance to file for the fiscal
year 2008. 7,982 petitions have been approved so far, and 10,717 have been
receipted, while 473 more are yet to be receipted for processing. Good luck to
all those who have filed advanced degree H1B application for 2008.

Posted in Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »

4. May 2007 by dmo.

Pursuant to the CGFNS decision of denying the VisaScreen Certification to the June 2006 Nursing Licensure Board Examination, President Arroyo signed the Executive Order No. 609 which will allow the affected nurses to re-take the test parts 3 and 5 of the examination.  The special examination will be conducted along with the regular board examination in June and December of this year.  The re-taker may only choose from either of the examination dates, and must pass the exam to qualify for the VisaScreen Certificate.  The government will subsidize the cost of the examination and designate free review classes to the nurses who will take the special examination.  The same procedure will be followed in registering for the exam as before. Re-taking the examination will not affect the status of the nurses in the Philippines and their license will remain valid irregardless of the exam result.  The government also orders that the results of the examination shall be forwarded directly to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and not to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).  The DOLE secretary and the Board of Nursing Chair are the authorized personnels to undertake the public release of the names of those who passed the examination, notify the examinees individually of the result of their exam, and furnish the official results of the examination to the CGFNS.  All these will be closely monitored to satisfy the requirement of the CGFNS, and to address the problem of our fellow nurses with their ineligibility to work in the US. 

Posted in Nursing | No Comments »

19. April 2007 by dmo.

The employment-based visa category for nurses is now processing the applications with priority dates up to August 1, 2003.  This is a substantial movement for the retrogression.  The USCIS is trying its best to process the applications affected by the retrogression.  If they continue to process a year’s number of applications every couple of months, then the retrogression would cease faster.  To view the visa bulletin for May 2007, you may click here .

Posted in Retrogression, Immigration | No Comments »

19. April 2007 by dmo.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has introduced “The High-Tech Worker Relief Act of 2007.” This legislation will increase the number of H-1B high-tech industry visas from 65,000 to 195,000 to address the severe shortage in the number of visas available in 2008. At various times, Congress has temporarily raised the cap on the number of H-1B visas, when sufficient American workers cannot be found.
                        
“The severe shortage of H-1B visas is a nation-wide problem, and Nebraska is directly affected. The demand in Nebraska for these highly qualified individuals in fields such as health care and computer science far out number the supply. This legislation is important to helping keep America competitive in the 21st Century workplace,” Hagel said.

H-1B visas allow highly skilled foreign workers to work in the U.S. for
up to three years. Congress has imposed an annual cap on the number of
H-1B visas of 65,000. This cap does not meet the demand.

This year, the Department of Homeland Security began accepting H-1B applications for the 2008 fiscal year on April 2. On that day, DHS received 133,000 applications.  Tens of thousands of additional applications were received on April 3, before DHS began rejecting applications.
                         

Many industries use H-1B workers to fill jobs when American workers can’t be found.  In Nebraska, these visas are used by employers such as Union Pacific, Streck Labs, First Data, Valmont, Terracon, Western Electric, DTL Industries, NIC USA, Inc., Omaha Public Schools, Lexington Public Schools, Great Plains Regional Medical Center and Mary Lanning Hospital.
               

Source: Swenbr.Net

Posted in Retrogression, Immigration | No Comments »

19. April 2007 by dmo.

Posted in Retrogression, Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »

11. April 2007 by dmo.

On April 10, 2007, the USCIS announced only 12, 989 H1-B cases had been filed on April 2nd and 3rd for foreign workers with advanced degrees.  This means that the H1-B visa cap exemption of 20,000 for the Fiscal Year 2008 remains open.  The USCIS will continue sorting the cases filed from April 4th and so on until the H1-B visa cap exemption of 20,000 is reached.  These are the cases requesting exemption from the FY 2008 H1-B visa cap as they have advanced degrees, that is they hold a Master’s degree or higher from a US institution.

As per the regular H1-B visa petitions,  the USCIS has announced that as of April 9th, 119,193 regular H1-B cases received on April 2nd and 3rd are subject to the FY 2008 65,000 congressionally mandated visa cap.  Receipt notices will be sent out once the USCIS finishes sorting out all the qualifying cases.

We will continue to provide updates on the FY 2008 H1-B visa cap.

Posted in Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »

7. April 2007 by dmo.

The USCIS has released a new Update on this years H1B Visa filings (The pdf can be viewed here). It states that USCIS expected to receive 150,000 H1B mailings on April 2nd and 3rd, but that the actual number was only 133,000. However each mailing may contain more than one application so the true number will not be known until USCIS has time to open and sort all the mailings. So far 14% of the applications have been from people holding a Master’s Degree or higher from a US institution and those people do not count towards the visa limit, so if you did get your application in on the 2nd or 3rd you still have a good chance of getting your visa this year. Once the mail sorting is completed USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection to determine which qualified applicants will receive a visa this year. Good luck to all the applicants!

Posted in Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »

5. April 2007 by dmo.

Easter is the day that we celebrate the rebirth of Jesus. His sacrifice is an example for us all and nurses are a true embodiment of the principal of putting the welfare of others before ourselves. Here is wishing a Happy Easter to all the hard working Filipino nurses all around the world.

Posted in Greetings / Announcements | No Comments »

3. April 2007 by dmo.

The USCIS confirmed today, April 3rd, that the alloted number of H1-B visas for the fiscal year of 2008 was reached on the very first day of filing as expected.  The visa cap was reached on April 2, 2007, which was considered the first day of filing.  Under the USCIS regulations, a random lottery will be performed if the cap limit is reached on the first day of filing.  The random selection will come from the first two days of filing, which will be the April 2nd and 3rd.  All H1-B petitions for those two days will undergo data entry before a random selection process will be conducted.  This will determine which petitions will receive the cap numbers.

The lengthy data entry and random lottery will take several weeks to finish due to the volume of petitions received at the USCIS.  All the H1-B visa petitions that will not be selected will be rejected and returned along with filing fees.

Posted in Immigration, H1-B/EB-3 | No Comments »