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Web steps and specialty worker caps
President Obama recently announced the launch of an improved government immigration website, while the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) revealed it is still accepting H-1B applications months after they normally would.
Speaking at the end of June, President Obama announced that within three months: "USCIS will launch a vastly improved website that will, for the first time ever, allow applicants to get updates on their status of their applications via e-mail and text message and online… This is going to save [families] huge amounts of time standing in line, waiting around, making phone calls, being put on hold. It's an example of some things that we can do administratively even as we're working through difficult issues surrounding comprehensive immigration. We're going to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce the unnecessary paperwork, backlogs, and the lack of transparency that's caused so many people so much heartache."
This announcement is indeed great news for anyone who has tried to navigate the complicated existing USCIS website.
USCIS also recently updated its count of the applications received for H-1B 'specialty worker' visas towards fiscal year 2010. As of 26 June 2009, USCIS had received approximately 44,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions and 20,000 advanced degree cap exemption petitions; the annual cap is 65,000.
Over the last few years USCIS was forced to close the doors to new applications in the few days that followed the opening of the floodgate (1 April every year). As such, this year represents a much better opportunity for people to get a visa processed without facing the uncertainty of a lottery to see which applications are processed.
USCIS said that it will accept cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the pre-determined limits.
To read about potential immigration reforms and how to secure 'specialty worker' employment, pick up an August 2009 issue of Emigrate magazine, available on 23 July from WH Smiths and a selection of other outlets