All petitions are to be physically received by the USCIS during this five day window to be eligible for the FY 2015 lottery. This strictly means that any petitions received earlier that April 1st, 2014 (Tuesday) or after April 7th, 2014 (Monday) will be rejected without any sort of consideration. USCIS has received about 124,000 petitions for a total of 85,000 visas last year for FY 2014. A majority of residual 39,000 applicants, who were not selected in H1B 2014 lottery shall be potential applicants for FY 2015 quota. This is in addition to the Masters students studying in for-profit schools that are under scrutiny and shall be rendered ineligible if they applied in t Masters quota - forcing them to apply in the general category. In summary - it is imperative that adequate planning and timing are mandatory to ensure you meet the window with the right documentation.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thesis and OPT Extension.
Effective October 6, 2013 - students who only have the thesis or equivalent remaining in the STEM degree may either apply for pre-completion OPT , post-completion OPT while completing the thesis/dissertation and if they are **NOT** done with the thesis /dissertation during the 1 year post completion OPT they can still **go ahead** an apply for the 17 month extension. However - as is always the case the time period utilized in the pre-completion OPT will be reduced from the 1 year post completion OPT.
Extended Eligibility for OPT Extensions
Highly Possible in 2014: USCIS is potentially going to enable F-1 nonimmigrant students who complete a 1 year (OPT) to qualify for the 17-month extension based on either a prior STEM degree or the most recent degree granted if it in a STEM area. This means that if one has previously a STEM degree but currently in non-STEM degree OPT (1year) will be able to extend to the 17-month STEM OPT. This is in addition to the inclusion of fields such as Veterinary Sciences, Pharmaceutical Science, Economics and Behavioural Sciences to the expanded list of STEM qualifed degrees. The complete list is available at http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stem-list.pdf
This means that if your most recent degree is Business Administration and you are on an 1 year OPT as it is not in the STEM list but your previous F-1 based American degree is "Live Stock Management" or "Poultry Science" you get an 17 month extension . On a serious note this is very helpful for people with a Economics, Agriculture or Pharmacy background from their home country who continue in the same area after arriving to the US but did not previously qualify for the STEM extension.
However there is little or no clarity on what are your 17 month extension prospects of Degree #2 in an non-STEM area if you have already utlized a 1year+17 month extension on your STEM qualified degree prior to enrolling into the second degree. This shall be more clear in the coming months.
Movement: China in comparision with India
#greendream EB3 China in February 2013 was Feb 2006 after 1 year it is June 2012 in the latest bulletin = 6 years of movement in 1 calendar year - impressive to say the least. In contrast India has moved from Nov 02 - Sep 03 = ~ 1 year - pretty standard movement - except that it is 11 years behind. I am sure that at some point it will start to move like it did for China and the backlog will be eliminated in a two-year period.
In the last one year, EB2 China has made a net progress of 1 year from Jan 08 to Jan 09. EB2 India has advanced and retrogressed as it always does from Sep 04 - Nov 04 = a net of ~ 2 months. In my opinion, the magic bulletin for EB2 India will be May 2014.
In the last one year, EB2 China has made a net progress of 1 year from Jan 08 to Jan 09. EB2 India has advanced and retrogressed as it always does from Sep 04 - Nov 04 = a net of ~ 2 months. In my opinion, the magic bulletin for EB2 India will be May 2014.
March 2014 - VISA Bulletin
March 2014: EB2 India is stagnant at 15 November 04. EB3 India has moved 15 calendar days to 15 September 03. The movement of 0 to 15 day per bulletin for EB3 while good is expected to get better very soon according to various expert accounts. As already suggested by Mr. Oppenhiemer, aspirants should not expect any significant change the next 3 bulletins for EB2.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)