Health Care Blog

Non-profit entities that are related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education have long been approved as cap-exempt Petitioners. This has allowed these Petitioners to file H-1B Petitions regardless of whether the H-1B cap had been reached. In the recent past, however, the USCIS has taken a strict interpretation on the question of whether a non-profit was “related” to an institution of higher learning (e.g. a University).

The new USCIS policy will allow those Petitioners who previously have been granted approvals to file new H-1B cases confidently without fear of inconsistent adjudication. The burden will be on these Petitioners to prove that they have been approved for cap-exempt H-1Bs in the past.

The FSBPT has just announced that they will be using a fixed test date for all applicants regardless of country of education or nationality. The FSBPT’s web-page posting makes clear that this was in part in response to their unsuccessful defense of the NPTE-i program in Georgia. The fixed test dates for 2011 are:

· September 7, 2011 (Wednesday)

· October 20, 2011 (Thursday)

· December 5, 2011 (Monday)

In 2012, the FSBPT has committed to five testing days.

In February a Georgia judge ruled that the FSBPT’s previous NPTE-i testing scheme violated Georgia law. The Georgia judge’s decision did not address whether or not the NPTE-i violated Georgia discrimination and due process Constitutional issues. Those issues may be addressed in an appeal, should the FSBPT chose to appeal the Georgia court’s decision.

To some degree an appeal would be moot in light of the FSBPT’s actions today. MU commends the FSBPT for producing a fair and equitable testing system.

Effective March 1, 2011 all Overseas Philippine Workers (OFW) who are exiting the Philippines via Ninoy Aquino International Airport must pass through the POEA’s Labor Assistance Center prior to boarding their airplane.

The purpose behind the procedure is to insure that all OFWs are properly documented and have their proper POEA clearance. The POEA’s press release says that priority exit lanes will be put into place for recruiting companies who are recipients of performance awards.

In the comments to a recent posting on this Blog posting, a reader, “Michael,” raised an interesting point. Because of the lengthy nature of my reply, I’ve decided to re-post the exchange as its own Blog posting.

Michael said…

I read (d)(ii) to mean that other in-house media is only required if that in-house media is used to recruit for similar positions. There are four scenarios I can envision in which this is relevant:

1. An employer has a company-wide newsletter in which it normally posts job openings. In this instance the employer must specifically post the PERM position.
2. An employer has a company-wide newsletter in which it does not normally post job openings. In this instance, the PERM position would not need to be posted.
3. An employer has a newsletter in which it normally posts job openings. In this instance the employer must specifically post the PERM position. Additionally, if the employer includes notice of an incentive component to the referral program, this Notice likely can meet the employer referral program standard that was the subject of the Sanmina-Sci decision.
4. An employer has a company-wide newsletter in which it does not normally post job openings. In this instance, the PERM position would not need to be posted. However, if the employer elects to post the notice in the newsletter and the employer includes notice of an incentive component to the referral program, this Notice likely can meet the employer referral program standard that was the subject of the Sanmina-Sci decision.

Obviously much of these scenarios are very fact specific. Thanks for the question/comment, Michael. It was a good one.