News Update - September 11, 2010H-1B Cap Number Use Hits 50,000; China H-1B Holders Allowed Multiple Entry One Year Visas; India-born Big Winners in Underutilization of Immigrant Visas in EB-2 Category.The H-1B cap as of September 3, 2010, has now reached a round 50,000 numbers of which 36,600 are counted against the general cap and 13,400 under the U.S. Masters cap. There are now approximately 35,000 numbers left in fiscal year 2011 which begins on October 1, 2010 and ends on September 30, 2011. The rate of H-1B consumption appears to be ticking upwards. The H-1B reciprocity scale of the U.S. Department of State has changed for Chinese The big winners in the recent applicability of Section 202(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as in most occasions when utilized) have been Indian-born. That section provides that if total worldwide demand is insufficient to use all available numbers in a particular employment preference category in a calendar quarter, then the unused numbers can be made available without regard to the annual per country limits. Just looking at U.S.C.I.S. statistics and the current October 2010 availability dates for the EB-2 category of 5/22/06 for China and 5/8/06 for India, it would appear that much inroad has been made since the end of May 2010 into the 3500 U.S.C.I.S. backlogged China EB-2 cases with priority dates before May 2006 and the 15,500 for India prior to that date. This figure does not account for the 15% of EB-2 cases immigrating through the consulates overseas and not through adjustment of status in the States. Normally the annual EB-2 per country limit is set at around 2800 per year. (Note: All figures are approximate).
† The author is a 30+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2010 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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