Hello everybody. Welcome to Ask an Immigration Lawyer Podcast. This is Jacob Sapochnick, your host. You ask. We answer.

In today’s episode we want to talk about the H1B cap and some last minute filing tips for those who are getting ready to file for their H1B visas. We are now in March 2018. We are just a couple of weeks away from filing the H1B visas for April 1st deadline. Those tips are essential today but if you listen to this podcast after April, they’re gonna be essential in the years coming after so it is important for you guys to listen and see what you need to do, what your employers should be doing to be successful as possible to get the H1B visa.

As you know by way of introduction H1B cap is limited to 65,000 H1B regular cap and 20,000 H1B masters from US cap. An additional 20,000 visas. There is also 6800 visas that are set aside from the 65,000 each year for H1B1 program citizens of Chile and Singapore. So do not forget about those 6800 visas that re actually taken off from the 65,000 general cap. So, typically there are those we can file for H1B visas on April 1st to begin work on October 1st 2018. You typically file six months before the date of employment. This year, April 1st is going to be on a weekend so immigration is going to start accepting cap cases on April 2nd which is going to be a Monday.

So, immigration USCIS provided a few certain tips and suggestions a few weeks ago that I wanted to share with you. Number one. Labor Condition Application (LCA). When you file for the H1B visa you must have a signed and certified LCA included in the case which could be an original or copy but you must not forget the LCA.

The second thing is that you must remember that the *** of evidence of the applicant, the person who will be working, the employee, of his or her educational background so you must submit first of all the copy of the degree educational evaluation and if it’s a foreign education it must be accompanied by evaluation from accredited agency in the US so we always recommend you include your transcripts or if you have not graduated yet, a letter from the registrar confirming that the applicant is going to meet all the requirements for the degree and you can still use that even if you do not have final graduation documents. But remember if you don’t have that your case will be denied.

The other thing we need to ensure is that we need to have if you’re applying for the H1B visa you must file the application in duplicate so it’s important to have two copies of the petition because if you’re applying abroad one copy will be sent to the US Embassy. Remember H1B petitions must be filed in duplicate. Very important. The other thing you need to remember is the filing fees. The different filing fees. I would recommend to have them in few separate checks. First filing fee is the application for the form for $460.00. The other fee is the American Competitiveness Workforce Improvement Act which is $750.00. If you have 1 to 25 fulltime employees then you have an extra fee of $1,500.00. If you have more than 26 employees then the fee goes up by another the fee goes up by another $1,500. So it’s $750 if you have 1 to 25 employees and it’s $1,500 if you have 26 employees or more. Just recap $460, $750 if you have 1 to 25 employees and $1,500 if you have 26 employees or more. Finally, you have the $500 Fraud Prevention Fee which is $500. If you are from Chile and Singapore you don’t need to pay that $500. The checks must be payable to the Department of Homeland Security and not a different agency. If you want to do premium processing you can do that and you can add another check for an additional amount of $1,225 and in 15 days you get an expedited processing, that’s an optional fee for premium processing. Now you must have all original signatures on the forms. If the forms are *** prefer them to be in black ink if possible. The evidence for the petition must establish that it’s a specialty occupation meaning that it’s complex enough that other companies require degree in the same field that the employee required people like that in the past with a degree so we must establish evidence in the case that it is specialty occupation. We have evidence for employer-employee relationship We have to show that the beneficiary qualifies and the LCA must correspond to the petition identified on the forms. Form I129 must be completed in its full and no boxes must be missing that should be checked. Of course, make sure the name is spelled correctly, date of birth, the correct passport information is on the form, country of birth and citizenship. Cases must be labeled H1B Cap with the red ink on the top margin of form I129. Regular cap cases on petition subject to 65,000 must be written regular cap and if it’s a master’s cap we have to label master’s cap on the form. Now, the document order form G28 if you have an attorney, form I129 and all the adendums, Section H Classification, H1B Data Collection Form, Arrival and Departure Record Form, I94** *** if you need them. Department of Labor Certified LCA Form, and other supporting documents and copy of the petition in duplicate. So you know it’s going to be lottery but if you follow those tips you definitely have a much better chance to be approved once you’re selected. Hopefully this information was helpful. If you have any questions please email me or post your questions on our podcast website and good luck in this H1B season.