Recruiting and Hiring Critical Shortage Teachers on an H1B

Aracely Chavez, Executive Director, Classified Learning, FWISD

Keely Sewell, Attorney, Jason Mills Law Firm

Olga Quiroz, 4th Grade Teacher Manuel Jara Elementary

September 26, 2016

Preparing ALL students for success in college, career and

community leadership. We start with the end in mind!

Recent FWISD and H1B teacher experience In 2008 as the Minority High Need Coordinator, I convinced the HCM director to

consider H1B Visas because of the critical shortages in bilingual education.

In 2009, the Superintendent agreed that we attend the Region 4 Mexico Job Fair. http://www.esc4.net/employment/2016-bilingual-teacher-conference-and-job-fair

That year, we hired 69 teachers from Mexico, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela. Region 4 teachers go thru an intensive certification program.

Fast forward to 2013 and our HCM Chief decided to do H1B Visas again because of the critical shortage in bilingual education. He also decided to pay for the perms for the original teachers from 2009. This when we hired the Jason Mills Law Firm

During the school year 2013-2014 I recruited, recommended for hire and placed 29 new H1B teachers

Sol Tager was hired at MH Moore Elementary. Sol is from Queretaro,

Mexico and had 17 years of teaching experience.

In addition to bilingual teachers, we hired a Qui Hu a Mandarin Chinese teacher and two International students from TCU. Andrew Paolo is math teacher from Canada and

Hiroko Saigo is Japanese teacher from Japan.

Nelson Cedillo, was a dentist in Mexico and was hired to teach Spanish at McLean Middle school. Nelson now teaches dual language at George C.

Clark Elementary

Mario and Maria Razo where named Teachers of the Year in 2015. They both work at different schools. They have been teaching for 8 years for FWISD.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article19184154.html

Olga Quiroz is a teacher at Manuel Jara Elementary, has written curriculum and translates for the district. http://www.lipfw.org/

https://twitter.com/TeachFortWorth

http://www.fwisd.org/pages/FWISD/Departments_Programs/Departments__E-I_/Human_Capital_Management

Employment Options: OPT

• Students can apply for the 12-month OPT authorization without a job offer. Students are eligible for 12 months of full-time OPT per academic level. Students may apply for OPT authorization during their academic program, after their program completion, or a combination of both.

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- Students who graduate with a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degree are eligible to remain in the United States for an additional 24 months on an OPT STEM extension.

- Link to list of acceptable STEM degrees: https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/document /Document/2014/stem-list.pdf

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New OPT STEM 24 Month Extension

What is H-1B Status?

• Nonimmigrant (temporary) visa

• Six years

• Professional or “specialty” occupation requiring a bachelor’s degree

• Employer specific

• Location specific

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Employment Options: H-1B

The H-1b Cap On Visa Numbers

• 65,000 for the bachelor’s degree

• 20,000 additional numbers for those with a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution.

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Fiscal Year for the H-1B Cap

• Visas become available October 1st of each year.

• The fiscal year runs from October 1st to

September 30th.

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H-1B Cap Cont.

• The earliest an employer can file an H-1B petition

subject to the cap is April 1st of each year (cannot file more than 6 months in advance of the start date).

• The H-1B cap in both the bachelor’s and master’s categories for this fiscal year was reached on April 7, 2016.

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H-1B Cap Continued

• Petitions received from April 1st to April 7th are subject to a computerized random lottery.

• USCIS received over 236,000 H-1B petitions during the filing period for FY 2017

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Processing via Change of Status

• Any F-1 student with a timely filed H-1B petition and request for change of status will be allowed to extend the duration of F-1 status and any current employment authorization until the first day of the new fiscal year.

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Changing status from OPT to H-1B

Petitions Exempt from the H-1B Cap

- Certain employers and petitions are not subject to the visa cap.

- If not subject to the cap then the H-1B petition can be filed and the employment may commence at any time during the year

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Changing status from OPT to H-1b

Cap Exemption Cont.

Cap exempt petitions and employers include:

- Any alien counted against the cap within the past six years

- J-1 who has obtained a waiver through the State 30 program

- Institutions of higher education

- Nonprofit entities affiliated with institutions of higher education

- Nonprofit or governmental research organizations

- Extensions of H-1B status

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Changing status from OPT to H-1b

Filing Fees and Attorney Fees

• The employer must pay certain fees (ACWIA, fraud)

• Certain employers are exempt from those fees

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Premium Processing

• $1,225 filing fee

• UCIS must adjudicate the petition within 2 weeks of receipt or request additional evidence within this time frame

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Portability

• H-1B change of employer petitions

• The employee can commence employment with the new H-1B petitioning employer upon the filing of an H-1B petition.

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Admission and Extension

• H-1B status granted for up to three years at a time and for a maximum of six years.

• H-1B status can be extended beyond six years if the process for legal permanent residency through an employer has reached a certain stage.

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Filing for Permanent Residency

• The employer can start the permanent residency process for an H-1B employee either before, during or after filing the H-1B petition.

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Law Office of Jason Mills, PLLC

Law Office of Jason Mills, PLLC

1403 Ellis Avenue

Fort Worth, TX 76164

817-335-0220

Email: Jason@immigrationnation.net

Keely@immigrationnation.net

Immigration Law

Law Office of Jason Mills, PLLC