Immigration news update for AMER and APAC regions
Americas
United States: Immigration agency finalizes H-1B visa lottery for fiscal year 2025
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the yearly limit of 85,000 H-1B visa beneficiaries has reached during the initial registration period for employment in the fiscal year 2025. USCIS has completed the selection for both the regular and advanced degree categories and has notified employers about the results. Employers will need to access their H-1B cap registration accounts to find out which beneficiaries were chosen. The notices regarding H-1B cap selection indicate a petition filing period from April 1 to June 30, 2024. In the event that the USCIS does not receive enough H-1B cap petitions for unique beneficiaries during this filing period to meet the annual limit of 85,000 H-1B visas, the agency may conduct one more additional lottery to fulfil the quota.
This summary was prepared using information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Disclaimer: The above information is provided for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have any further inquiries regarding the applicability of this information, please contact Roberta Carnaccini (Global Director of Immigration) and Margarida Luis (Immigration coordinator, AMER).
Asia-Pacific
Australia: Expanded visa option for Britons seeking entry to Australia
In accordance with the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (A-UKFTA), the Department of Home Affairs has recently provided clarification on the eligibility of UK nationals and permanent residents to apply for the four-year Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) Subclass 482 Visa.
Applicants eligible for intra-corporate transferees, independent executives, or contractual service providers – can benefit from the extended TSS visa duration of four years, even when initially applying under the short-term stream typically granted for two years. Popular occupations that will benefit from these changes include but are not limited to:
• Recruitment Consultant
• Web Developer
• Software Tester
• Network Analyst
• ICT Support Engineer
• ICT Project Manager
• Marketing Specialist
• Advertising Specialist
• Human Resource Manager
Those unable to meet the conditions for the first two categories will be covered by the third category, contractual service provider, which aims to encompass all remaining UK nationals.
The summary was prepared using information from our local service partners.
Disclaimer: The above information is provided for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have any further inquiries regarding the applicability of this information, please contact Roberta Carnaccini (Global Director of Immigration) and Debra Jane Beynon (Regional Immigration Manager, APAC).
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