Petition for Non-immigrant Worker, Form I-129.
Is filing Form I-129 petitions for non-immigrant workers taking up your time? Not anymore! We are here to make it simple for you.
What is Form I-129?
Any employer who is willing to sponsor an alien for temporary employment in the US has to file the Form I-129 petition. This is a 36-page document with the primary petition consisting of 8 pages. The remaining pages are the supplement pages that are required based on the visa category selected. The primary petition contains information about the employer along with the roles and responsibilities of the current position being filled.
An approved Form I-129 has to be attached in the visa application along with the required supporting documents while submitting for further process.
This petition is filed for the below-mentioned visa categories:
- H-1B, H-1C, H-2A or H-3 status
- O-1 and O-2
- P-1, P-2, P-3 and P-1S, P-2S or P-3S status
- Q1
- R-1
In addition to these visa categories, you should also file this petition when:
- There is an extension of stay for a non-immigrant who is already residing in the US (extension).
- Changing the status of the non-immigrant who is presently residing in the US with different immigration status (status change).
- There is a material change in the job details of the non-immigrant who is already working in the US (amendment).
Who files the Form I-129 petition?
As an employer, you are responsible for filling this petition for the non-immigrant you are hiring. The completed form has to be properly signed before filing the petition to the USCIS along with the filing fees.
Any employer filing the petition should have a clear understanding of the process to fill the form. So, USCIS provides a clear set of instructions for filing the Form I-129 petition based on each non-immigrant category.
But as no two Form I-129 petitions come with the same set of instructions, employers find it hard to remember all the instructions, leading to errors. The lengthy document along with these complications makes the form a complex one.
So some of the employers approach attorneys to file their petitions.
Did you know USCIS has updated the rejection criteria for Form I-129?
Till date, USCIS rejected Form I-129s based on several reasons, recently one more has added up in the list of rejection reasons.
Now, USCIS will reject the petitions that do not include the petitioner’s or applicant’s name and primary U.S. office address in Part 1 of the form. This is to decrease the unnecessary delays created due to failure in providing petitioner’s name or address.
With an increase in rejection reasons, Form I-129 completion can now create more hassle for the employers.
Here are a few setbacks in filling the Form manually
Being an employer, you are responsible for filing the Form I-129 petition for every non-immigrant worker you recruit. Though the employer information entered in the form is the same for all the employees in your organization, you cannot re-use the previously entered data. This results in a lot of re-work along with an increase in time.
Did you ever consider automating the Form I-129?
OnBlick does that for you. This Immigration and HR compliance software comes with a unique feature of automating Form I-129
This is how OnBlick automates your Form I-129
If you are an employer sponsoring a non-immigrant for work, you can file the Form I-129 petition using OnBlick. All the information you have entered while filling the form will be auto-saved into OnBlick’s database.
Now, this saved data (employer information) which is the same for all the employees of your organization can be auto-populated while you are filing the petition for other candidates.
In case, you are filing an H-1B for an OPT candidate of your organization, then the candidate information can also be auto-populated, which makes the process easier.
To avoid the complexities raised by filing this petition some employers approach attorneys. But the services of the attorneys are very expensive and some of the organizations may not afford to go for the attorneys.
OnBlick can be your go-to solution to many immigration challenges including filing the Form I-129 petition. Its automated Form I-129 feature which is well connected with the compliance environment reduces the re-work and increases efficiency.
So, it’s time for you to incorporate OnBlick into your organization and stay immigration compliant.
