US Immigration News

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will hold two ballots to allocate this year's quota of H-1B temporary work visas.

In a brief statement issued on 7th April 2014 US immigration had the following to say 'USCIS announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U. S. advanced degree exemption'.

In June 2013, the US Senate passed an immigration reform bill; the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act 2013. The bill contained proposals for comprehensive reform of the US's immigration system which is commonly said to be 'broken'.

If it ever becomes law, the Act will

More than 80% of EB-5 visas are now issued to Chinese nationals, figures from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) show. The EB-5 investor visa allows entry of businesspeople to invest and start up businesses in the US.

Foreign nationals who invest from $500,000 and create (or preserve) 10 US jobs, can apply for a US permanent residence visa (or 'green card'). The spouse and dependent children under 21 can also gain residence in the US.

Democrats in the lower house of the US Congress are to use a very infrequently used procedure to try to force a vote on immigration reform.

The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives will use a 'discharge petition' to try to force a vote on a bill that has already been passed by the Senate.

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act was passed by the Senate in June 2013. It is a comprehensive immigration reform bill which would radically reform the US's immigration system in many areas.

A report by an influential US think-tank says that refusal rates for L-1B visas have risen each year over the last decade and seem still to be rising. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, 9% of L-1B visa applications were refused in 2003. This had risen to 34% by 2013.

The report points out that, over this period there have been no changes to the regulations governing L-1B applications.

The cap on the number of H-1B visas is costing the US economy one new job every 43 seconds, according to a tech industry pressure group. According to Dr Matthew Slaughter of Compete America, 500,000 more jobs would have been created in the US in the last year if the H-1B cap had not existed.