USCIS to permit re-filing of certain rejected H-1B petitions for FY 2021

On June 23^rd, USCIS introduced that it’s going to settle for resubmitted H-1B cap-subject petitions for Fiscal Yr 2021 that had been rejected solely as a result of the requested begin date was after October 1, 2020.  A welcome announcement that can deliver the chance for H-1B visas for an untold variety of folks, this comes on the heels of Joseph & Corridor’s victory on this exact same concern within the case Acquia v. USCIS.  On this case, we sued on this very concern, alleging that the follow of rejecting petitions solely for a begin date after October 1 was illegal, and whereas the case by no means obtained a last resolution from a choose, the company shortly reopened and authorized the instances for our purchasers who suffered rejections due to this follow.

The difficulty basically boils all the way down to the truth that the company was requiring employers to interrupt the legislation to have their petitions accepted.  The second choice of H-1B registrants permitted filings as much as November 16 of final 12 months – a month and a half past October 1.  Naturally, then, if a petition was filed on November 14^th, an H-1B selectee’s begin date couldn’t presumably be October 1.  This positioned employers within the scenario the place they needed to both fill out an software with false data, after which signal that petition saying that every one data was right below penalty of perjury, or fill out the applying with the correct data and threat their petition being rejected for a correct begin date after October 1.

This announcement is a welcome change, although one should surprise the hurt employers suffered with this authorization popping out over seven months after the final software interval ended reasonably than shortly after the problem was recognized.