Archive for December 24th, 2010

USCIS Temporarily Suspends Export Control Attestations on New Form I-129

Henry Chang | December 24, 2010 in United States Immigration | Comments (0)

As part of its Form I-129 revision on November 23, 2010, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) added a new Part 6 to Form I-129, the petition form used for most non-immigrant employment classifications. The new Part 6 states the following:

With respect to the technology or technical data the petitioner will release or otherwise provide access to the beneficiary, the petitioner certifies that it has reviewed the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and has determined that:

  • A license is not required from either the U.S. Department of Commerce or the U.S. Department of State to release such technology or technical data to the foreign person; or
  • A license is required from the U.S. Department of Commerce and/or the U.S. Department of State to release such technology or technical data to the beneficiary and the petitioner will prevent access to the controlled technology or technical data to the beneficiary until and unless the petitioner has received the required license or other authorization to release it to the beneficiary.

Clearly, many employers will not know whether their disclosure of certain information to the Beneficiary during the course of his or her employment will violate these regulations. In response to requests by numerous stakeholders to delay the implementation of this requirement, USCIS has now announced that the export control attestations (Part 6 of Form I-129) are suspended temporary for 60 days (until February 20, 2011) to allow employers to institute or modify the necessary internal processes to be able to provide accurate attestations with respect to the export control section.


USCIS Updates H-1B Cap Count as of December 17, 2010

Henry Chang | in United States Immigration | Comments (0)

As of December 17, 2010, approximately 53,900 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has receipted 19,700 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers. The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. However, some petitions are exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption provided to the first 20,000 petitions filed for a beneficiary who has obtained a U.S. master’s degree or higher. Others are completely exempt from the numerical limits.

Please note that up to 6,800 H-1B numbers may be set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year.

For further information regarding the H-1B category, please review our H-1B article, which is available here.


CIC Announces Language Tests Now Valid for Two Years

Henry Chang | in Canadian Immigration | Comments (0)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has announced that, effective December 23, 2010, if you are submitting a language test with your application, the results are now valid for 2 years from the time you took the test, instead of 1 year. This change applies to Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class and Business Class Immigrants (which includes Investor, Entrepreneur, and Self-Employed categories).