H-1B quota season is here! We anticipate a very busy quota season and are working to ensure your cases move swiftly and easily. There are two options:

1) Regular/Full Filing: Full case documentation at full price.

2) Bare Bones Filing: No project documentation at a reduced rate; RFE likely.

Please note that you must choose one of these for all quota-subject filings.

REGULAR/FULL FILING

These are cases that include full project information and supporting documentation. They offer the best chance at approval, if accepted for processing, without RFE. However, given the high rate of rejection at the lottery stage (the majority of non-Master’s cases last year were rejected), these cases involve higher up-front attorney fees and labor to create a case that may never be processed by USCIS.

We will not accept Full Filing cases after March 23, 2017.

The rate to respond to an RFE with a Full Filing case will be your normal RFE rate. If you choose to expedite any individual RFE response, additional charges would apply. Overall, these are effectively the same cases you file throughout the year, on similar terms.

BARE BONES FILING

With the exception of individuals with U.S. Master’s degrees, only a fraction of the quota cases submitted are likely to be picked up in the lottery.

Given the high rejection rate, it does not make sense to put extensive time and energy into cases that likely will not be picked up in the lottery. Bare bones cases are streamlined and offered at a reduced price. If these cases are accepted under the lottery, remaining documentation can be submitted at the RFE stage. Up-front costs are lower, but the RFE (which should be expected, for these cases) will be billed at a higher price. The objective is to minimize your costs on cases that are NOT picked up in the lottery.

For these cases, we will not review or include any project-specific documentation. If you want to submit project-specific documentation and information with a case, please opt for a full filing, at full price.

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: Although we will NOT be including project information with bare bones filings, it is imperative that there be a project in place and that you provide project information for each of these cases.

Projects must have a start date on or before 10/1/2017 and be in place BEFORE the case was filed (i.e. – April 1, 2017). Only after USCIS accepts cases under the lottery will we accept and review supporting project documentation for the RFE stage.

Please note also that bare bones filings are generally limited to professions in systems analysis, programming, and software development. Petitions for jobs in sales engineering, accounting or other fields may not be acceptable for preparation under the bare bones model.

No attorney fee refunds or credits will be issued for cases not picked up in the H-1B lottery.

To Start a Bare Bones Case:

To initiate a bare bones H-1B petition, we need the following “initial information”:

• Quota-Specific Employer, Employee Questionnaires and One Time Employer Questionnaire filled out
• Job Title
• Exact Work location(s) (client address, and/or in-house)
• Confirmation that you want to file the case under the ‘Bare Bones’ offering
• Non-blank Passport pages
• Beneficiary’s status information
• Beneficiary’s educational credentials
• Filing fee checks, made out to the “U.S. Department of Homeland Security”
We will not consider the case ‘received in full’ until we receive all information/documentation listed above. Case pricing is assessed at the time the case is ‘received in full’.

FOR ALL QUOTA FILINGS: NO ATTORNEY FEE CREDITS OR REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED ON CASES NOT ACCEPTED BY USCIS UNDER THE QUOTA.

Note, though: USCIS will not cash your filing fee checks on cases not accepted under the quota.

USCIS will accept cases under the quota over a range of days this year, as they have in years past. In previous years, this range has been the first five business days of April. Once that range is defined, cases received by USCIS during that range are treated equally for purposes of inclusion and selection under the lottery – there is no advantage to filing on the first day, once a multiple-day range for case acceptance has been defined. Accordingly, we file all cases on a first-in first-out basis.

In order to start a quota case, please send documents to our quota intake email quota@sgimmigration.com

We will be filing H-4 petitions after the lottery for cases picked up on the lottery where there are dependents in the U.S.

Again, please contact us directly if you should have any questions on the quota process, pricing, or case types.