On March 8, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the revised Employment Eligibility Verification, Form I-9, and published a notice in the Federal Register.

In the initial announcement, USCIS described when employers can no longer use prior versions of Form I-9. USCIS incorrectly described the effective date as being after May 7, 2013.

USCIS published a correction notice in the Federal Register. This notice corrects the error and clarifies that beginning May 7, 2013, employers may no longer use prior versions of the Form I-9.

Employers who need to apply for H-1B visas for foreign workers in specialized skill areas should start getting ready. U.S. businesses typically use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as science, engineering or computer programming.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 cap on Friday April 1, 2013.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services states that employers should continue using the current Form I-9 until further notice. This form has a control number expiration date of August 31, 2012, but this form should continue to be used even after August 31, 2012 has passed.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced in late November that it received enough H-1B petitions for fiscal year (FY) 2012 to reach the H1-B statutory cap of 65,000.

November 22, 2011, was the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2012. Any H-1B petitions filed after that date will be rejected. USCIS looks at the date the petition was actually physically received by USCIS, not the date of the postmark.

This announcement only affects petitions that are subject to the annual cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: