H-1B demand at our office as well as at our colleagues’ firms leads us to believe that the H-1B cap will be reached on the first day petitions will be accepted by the USCIS, April 1, 2014. If this is the case, the USCIS will conduct a lottery of all petitions received the first week to determine which ones it will accept for adjudication. It will accept 65,000 cap-subject petitions plus an additional 20,000 petitions from those who have earned at least a Masters degree from a US institution.
Only One Bite at the Apple
Given the expectation that numbers will be exhausted early on, it is imperative that the filing be error-free because if it is rejected due to an error, there will be virtually no chance to refile it in time for the beneficiary to begin employment on October 1, 2014. Below are some tips to ensure the petition is not rejected due to a filing error: (1) make sure to send the petition to the correct Service Center; (2) ensure filing fee check amounts are correct, although one check is acceptable, it is best to send separate checks for premium processing, the USCIS filing fee, the training fee and the fraud fee, and (3) be sure that a certified LCA is included with the filed petition and that the LCA number matches what appears on the Form I-129. Of course there are a myriad of other issues to consider which is why it is recommended to have an experienced immigration lawyer prepare the H-1B petition.
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