Hello ,
i need to know about the usual time taken for H1B visa to be processed after the labor condition application(LCA) stage is thru. and what are the chances of H1B being rejected by INS even after the approval of the LCA.

thanx ,
Nish

Hi,

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The LCA is one of the "pre-phases" during the H-1B. The other is your educational
evaluation. The application then goes to INS [alongwith the LCA and the educational
evaluation]. Once it reaches INS, you can expect to wait for anywhere between 2-4 months.
For the first 30 days, it will be lying around on some shelf till an INS officer is
allocated your case. Then it will sit on his/her desk for another 15-20 days. Once the
officer starts working on your case, it depends on how "clean" your case is. Whether all
the documents are complete and convincing, whether there is any more information/evidence
that INS needs, etc. If INS sends an RFE, then it will involve further delays.

The long and the short of it is that it simply cannot be predicted and depends on several
factors, such as the center, the average processing time in that center, current INS load,
the load of the officer deciding your case, the phase of the moon, the direction of the
wind, the color of the INS officer's hair, etc.

Of course, you can keep checking on the INS automated system :)

All the best, Sea

Sea,

My case #WAC-01-052-xxxxx has a receipt date 4 DEC.2000 & notice date 18 DEC.2000 Until
now (Mar.1 2001) it is NOT approve. I rang the Auto. Phone System and getting the message
that 'the case cannot be found at this time'. What does this mean? Base on your info. does
this mean it's been assigned to an INS officer awaiting adjudication OR what? Please
clarify situation?

Thanks, Daniel

Hi Daniel,

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It is quite common for the INS telephone system not to have the current information. I
know of quite a few people who experience this. It could also happen that you call today
and it states that the case has been received. You call a week later and it says that the
case cannot be found.

Their systems are at best erratic and buggy.

I don't think you have cause to worry yet since you have the receipt notice. This means
that INS has cashed your fee cheque. This means that the case is with the INS-whether an
officer is working on it yet or not is anyone's guess
!!

Anyway, you should not worry before 3-4 months. My H-1B transfer recently took a little
more than 3 months. New H-1Bs take the same time, and usually longer.

What you can do is keep checking the INS processing times for your center as posted on
immigration web sites (such as www.murthy.com). But again, those times are usually
unreliable.

If you are *too* concerned, talk to your employer (who is sponsoring your H-1) and/or the
lawyer. If they feel the need, they can call INS and speak to an officer. Let your
employer/lawyer do the talking-INS won't talk to the beneficiary (you).

All the best, Sea

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What do you mean, notice date of December 18? It sounds like that would be the date it was
approved... That would be unusually fast, though.

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No. It means that your case is not in the phone system at all. That generally is nothing
to worry about; the phone system routinely loses cases that are otherwise in perfectly
good standing. You may want to call INS during business hours (be patient!) and talk to a
human. Better have somebody from the employer call because INS sometimes refuses to talk
to the beneficiary and only talks to the employer.

Ingo

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. For reliable advice, please consult with a
professional immigration attorney.

For further information, check the following frequently-requested links.

For many questions, you may find answers at http://travel.state.gov/visa_services.html
(Department of State)

or http://ins.usdoj.gov (INS).

For consular policies and visa reciprocity fees, find your consulate in
http://travel.state.gov/links.html

For DOL Faxback status information: http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/

For information on affidavit of support for marriage to US citizens (I-864), go to
http://travel.state.gov/i864gen.html and http://travel.state.gov/checklist.html

For information on entering the US as a K-1: http://www.k1poelist.com/

For poverty levels, see http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/poverty/00poverty.htm

For information on H/L/O/P visa extensions at Dept. of State in St. Louis, MO, see
http://travel.state.gov/revals.html

For non-official information, check:

(When using these sites, and any Web sites, please watch out for privacy, as I do not know
all site operators.)

http://www.visalaw.com http://www.shusterman.com http://www.immigration.com
http://members.aol.com/MDUdall http://www.murthy.com/ http://www.getusavisa.com
http://greencard-lottery.virtualave.net/ http://www.jcvisa.com (H-1B)
http://www.h1bresources.com (marriage and fiancee) http://www.kamya.com/misc/ (marriage
and fiancee) http://www2.apex.net/users/thehydes http://www.formshome.com
http://www.workpermit.com

This is not an endorsement of any of these Web sites. I am not affiliated with any of the
Web site owners and do not receive nor accept payment in return for listing them, and
typically don't even know them.

(if believe you have a good immigration-related Web site and want your Web site listed
here, please e-mail me).