Curran & Berger

On April 10th the USCIS announced that they received approximately 163,000 H-1B petitions during the filing period ending on April 7, 2008.  More than 31,200 of these petitions were filed in the advanced degrtee category, for which 20,000 H-1B visas  are allocated.  They will run the lottery for advanced degree petitions first, and those that are not selected will then go into the general lottery for the remaining 65,000 visas.  (See AILA doc. 08041073)

For information on efforts to inrease the number of available H-1B visas, please see the resources listed on our Advocacy page .

A new rule regarding OPT (optional practical training for F-1 students) is expected to be published in the Federal Register the week of April 7th.  Details can be found on the NAFSA website: http://www.nafsa.org/regulatory_information.sec/29_month_opt_rule_updates.  Highlights of the new rule include:

• OPT extensions of up to 17 months beyond the initial 12-month OPT period (for a total of 29 months) for graduates of science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs who have a job offer from a qualified employer and meet all other requirements of the rule.
• Extension of status and work authorization for ALL F-1 OPT students with pending H-1B petitions. 

This State Department memo instructs consular officers to refer any visa applicant with a drunk driving or alcohol-related arrest in his/her record to the panel physician for additional evaluation.  If the panel physician finds the applicant to have a mental disorder that has posed, or may pose, a threat to the safety, property or welfare of the applicant or others, the applicant can be found ineligible for admission to the United States under Section 212(a)(1)(A)(iii).  

If you have any alcohol-related offense in your history, it will be found when the background check is run on your fingerprints.  Make sure that your attorney knows ahead of time about this issue.