Month: August 2022

That’s a wrap on this year’s H-1B season! On August 23, US Citizenship & Immigration Services announced that the agency had received a sufficient number of applications to meet the congressionally mandated allotment of H-1B visas for FY2023. The H-1B program for specialty occupations is highly sought after by visa applicants, with a large number of registrations each year. Annually, there is a limit of 65,000 H-1B visas which may be granted under the regular cap and 20,000 H-1B visas which may be allocated under the U.S. advanced degree exemption. With this announcement USCIS also notified potential applicants of their non-selection from the lottery. It is not anticipated that any further lottery selections will be made in this fiscal year.

Didn’t receive a cap number in this year’s lottery? Be sure to reach out to our firm in January 2023 to enter the lottery for next year!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it will be making an important update to its Policy Manual for those who seek to apply for U.S. citizenship based on their military service. This update clarifies that a current or former service member who received an “uncharacterized” discharge is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Former USCIS policy held that an “uncharacterized” discharge did not qualify the service member under the legal requirements for military-based citizenship. This is a welcome change in USCIS policy that will enable more military service members to qualify for U.S. citizenship based on their military service to our country. To learn more about this update and discuss eligibility for U.S. citizenship based on military service, please contact our office for a consultation.