7th
YEAR H-1B EXTENSIONS
On November 2nd 2002, President Bush signed into
law the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations
Authorizations Act (the DOJ Act). The DOJ Act has
several immigration related provisions including provisions
dealing with post-6th year H-1B extensions, the Conrad
State Program which permits physicians to be sponsored
for J waivers, and new benefits for certain EB-5 immigrant
investors. This article will be restricted to the
amendments to the existing section 106 of the American
Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC 21), which
contained provisions for an extension of stay beyond
the 6 year H-1 limit.
Until the passing of AC 21 in October 2000, an H-1B
employee who had completed the maximum permissible
6-year period of stay in the United States was required
to leave the country for one year before being permitted
to re-enter for a fresh 6-year stay in H Classification.
AC 21 introduced a limited exception to this rule.
Accordingly, an alien who had completed the 6 years
period but had already filed a Labor Certification
application more than 365 days ago and had an I-140
employment based immigrant petition or an I-485 adjustment
of status application pending, was permitted to file
for a 7th year H-1 extension.
While this provision of AC 21 was widely welcomed
by the large alien workforce in the U.S., it was not
much use to many whose Labor Certification(LC) applications
were caught in lengthy agency backlogs that did not
allow them to also file the I-140 petition, as required,
before their 6 year period had expired.
The recently passed DOJ Act now allows for an extension
of stay beyond 6 years if more than 365 days have
passed since the filing of either a Labor Certification
application or an I-140 employment based immigrant
petition. This extension may be granted in one-year
increments by the Attorney General, until such time
as the entire green card process has been completed
or, alternatively, the LC application or immigrant
petition or Adjustment of Status application is denied.
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