The indictment this week of the owners of a Texas bakery on harboring charges is proof that the Trump administration has made immigration enforcement a top priority, targeting both unauthorized foreign nationals and the...more
3/5/2025
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS
An executive order by President Trump is set to reshape immigration procedures, increasing security screening, and tightening visa processing. Employers of foreign nationals should prepare for delays in employee travel to the...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has officially announced the FY2026 H-1B Cap Registration dates. Below is a summary of some information that you should know:...more
Immigration enforcement has quickly become a pressing issue for employers in the first few weeks of the Trump administration, and many companies are re-evaluating their policies, reviewing their I-9 compliance and preparing...more
2/11/2025
/ Compliance ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Employment Policies ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Penalties ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will no longer follow guidelines that once limited immigration enforcement in so-called “protected” or “sensitive” locations. The change stems from President Trump’s Executive Order...more
2/7/2025
/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
FERPA ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Warrants
The Office of Management and Budget issued a vaguely worded memorandum on Jan. 27, 2025, ordering a blanket freeze (with very limited exceptions) in all federal grants, federal loans, and other forms of federal financial...more
2/3/2025
/ Compliance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Funding ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
H-1B ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Layoffs ,
OMB ,
State Labor Laws ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act
On January 29, 2024, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) will begin accepting online H-1B visa stamp applications at this web address for a limited number of qualifying applicants to receive H-1B visa stamps from within the...more
Each year at this time we kick off H-1B Cap Season by working with U.S. employers to prepare for registration in the upcoming H-1B Cap Lottery. U.S. employers interested in sponsoring foreign nationals for specialty...more
The U.S. State Department (U.S. DOS) has taken a step toward resuming issuance of H-1B visa stamps from within the United States. It is anticipated that this could begin in early 2024 with a limited pilot program to test the...more
Health care employers in many areas of the U.S. continue to have difficulty recruiting physicians to meet patient needs.
One option that may be useful to health care employers when a U.S. physician cannot be recruited is...more
On July 21, 2023, DHS announced a new edition of Form I-9 along with a new rule permitting certain employers to conduct remote inspection of the documents used in the Form I-9 employment eligibility verification process. The...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has officially announced the FY2024 H-1B Cap Registration dates. Below is a summary of some information that you should know:
•This year’s initial registration period for...more
Each year at this time we kick off H-1B Cap Season by working with U.S. employers to prepare for registration in the upcoming H-1B Cap Lottery. U.S. employers interested in sponsoring foreign nationals for specialty...more
The Supreme Court of the United States held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, overruling long-standing precedent in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood...more
7/5/2022
/ Abortion ,
Aiding and Abetting ,
Board of Directors ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Employee Assistance Programs ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HRA ,
PHI ,
Roe v Wade ,
SCOTUS ,
Self-Insured Health Plans ,
Title VII ,
Travel Expenses ,
White Collar Crimes
Happy New Year and Happy H-1B Cap Season!
Now is the time for US employers to prepare for registration in the H-1B Cap Lottery.
Readers may recall that H-1B Temporary Worker status is for professional level workers....more
The US State Department (DOS) has authorized a discretionary waiver of the in-person interview requirement for certain nonimmigrant visa applicants through December 31, 2022. Those eligible for a possible waiver of the...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making “structural changes” to work authorization for H-4 and L-2 spouses. The changes result from an agreement settling litigation brought against the agency by the American...more
As anxiously awaited, USCIS has announced the initial FY2022 H-1B Cap Registration dates. Employer Electronic Registration will open on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, at 12:00 noon Eastern Time and continue through Thursday, March...more
USCIS just announced that it will be publishing a notice in the Federal Register to delay implementation of changes to the H-1B Selection Final Rule until December 31, 2021. If published as preliminarily announced, this will...more
Following up on its November announcement, last week USCIS issued a Final Rule to change the way cap-subject H-1B petitions are selected.
The Final Rule (which is unchanged from the proposed November Rule) would...more
We hear the reports daily. COVID-19 cases are spiking nationwide. Hospitals and health care facilities are at maximum capacity. Even with progress toward the availability of a vaccine, it’s not clear exactly when things...more
On November 2, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announcing its plan to drastically change the way USCIS selects the H-1B Cap registrations of U.S. employers. If the...more
Yesterday, June 22, 2020, President Trump issued the anticipated Proclamation suspending the entry into the US of certain nonimmigrant visa holders. Specifically, the following new restrictions are in effect 6/24/2020
•The...more
On Friday, May 29, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced plans for the phased-in resumption of premium processing for eligible I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker petitions and eligible I-129...more
On May 11, 2002, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Memorandum relating to certain J-1 waivered foreign medical graduates during the COVID-19 national emergency. The memo, captioned “Temporary...more