The public comment period for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed changes to the H-1B lottery system has now closed.  U.S. companies filing H-1B visa petitions must typically enter a lottery because the law caps the number of H-1B visas that DHS can issue each year.

The proposed rule would make two important changes

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a policy memorandum clarifying the one-year foreign employment requirement for an L-1 visa for intracompany transferees. Previously, USCIS inconsistently applied this requirement when a foreign national was in the United States in one status but sought to change to L-1 status.

An L-1 visa permits

Two of the Trump administration’s new immigration policies go into effect today. Beginning today, October 1, 2018, foreign national students who had been working under a regulation known as the “cap-gap” are no long authorized to work. The announcement can be found here.

The “cap-gap” period starts when an F‑1 student’s status and work authorization