For employers who need to hire foreign national talent for STEM or other hard-to-fill positions, an important immigration deadline is around the corner.

The electronic H-1B lottery application window started on March 1 and ends on March 18 at 12 noon EST / 9 am PST. If you desire to have one or more candidates entered into the H-1B lottery, please let immigration counsel know by March 10.

If the case is selected, then immigration counsel would file a full H-1B petition with USCIS with an employment start date of October 1. This electronic lottery process allows immigration counsel to do a preliminary streamlined filing on your behalf. Employers no longer have to go “all-in” with a full petition filing up-front without knowing whether the petition has been accepted into the cap. This should result in substantial cost savings for employers.

H-1Bs are for college degreed professionals, such as software developers, engineers, scientists and financial analysts. The annual quota is 85,000 visas and demand is expected to be twice or three times that number.

Employers should check to see if they have a need for such a visa for either a possible new hire, or to keep a current foreign national employee work authorized who is on Optional Practical Training (OPT) or STEM OPT.

H-1Bs are good for three years and can be extended for an additional three years. They can be extended beyond year 6 as well if the company has sponsored the individual for permanent residency.

General H-1B...

Read Full Story: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/annual-h-1b-visa-lottery-opened-march-1-...