The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has just announced that it has received approximately 5,900 H-1B petitions under the regular H-1B cap of 65,000, and that around 4,500 have been counted toward the 20,000 set aside for those with advanced U.S. degrees. This means that USCIS continues to accept applications for initial H-1B status a week after the H-1B filing season opened up on April 1st. This seems to be a reflection of the economy as it continues its slow improvement. It is interesting to note that fewer H-1B numbers have been accounted for during the first week of this cap-filing season than were received during the same timeframe last year. However, considering that H-1B numbers for last year's H-1B cap were available through most of January, it is logical that fewer H-1B petitions were stockpiled for an April 1st filing.

Today, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a proposal to amend its regulations to require companies filing H-1B petitions to pre-register each new cap-subject H-1B case prior to filing. The proposed rule will be printed in the Federal Register tomorrow, March 3, 2011, and will be open for comments for 60 days. Under this new rule, USCIS would create an internet-based electronic registration process for U.S. employers that anticipate filing H-1B petitions subject to the annual limitation of 65,000 under the regular H-1B cap or 20,000 under the advanced U.S. degree cap. Employers would go into the electronic registration system and provide information about the company and specific employee to be sponsored. A separate registration is required for each beneficiary. In part, this is to avoid certain petitioners from monopolizing large numbers of H-1Bs for unknown potential beneficiaries in the future. In other words, employers would need to name a specific individual for which H-1B sponsorship will be sought. The registration acceptance would need to be paired with the H-1B petition, which avoids substitution of one beneficiary for another.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) just announced that it will start issuing a new combined employment authorization document (EAD) and advanced parole document (AP) to certain individuals who have a pending employment or family based I-485 application to adjust status. This new combined EAD/AP card will look similar to the current EAD card, but will contain language on the face of the card that states “Serves as I-512 Advanced Parole.” The new card will be issued to individuals who concurrently apply for their EAD and AP documents with their I-485 application. The card will also be issued to applicants who file for extensions of their EAD and AP documents concurrently, so long as their EAD and AP documents expire within 120 days of each other.