The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reports that in the last fiscal year, 66,781 employment-based immigrant (Permanent Resident/Green Card) visas went unused and were “lost.” The USCIS is trying to prevent such a...more
This week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it would soon expand the availability of premium processing for certain petitions that have already been filed.
...more
On Wednesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a Temporary Final Rule to address the long delays in the approval of Employment Authorization Document renewal applications. Hundreds of thousands of foreign...more
In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement relaxed some of the I-9 compliance requirements because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these “flexibilities” ended this...more
5/3/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigrants ,
Inspections ,
Remote Working ,
Time Extensions ,
USCIS
Delays in the processing of petitions and applications filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have long plagued our immigration system. But that may improve before long.
The USCIS recently announced...more
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security relaxed some of the I-9 compliance requirements because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the DHS announced that one of these I-9 compliance flexibilities would end on April...more
Over the past several years, employment authorization and Advance Parole travel authorization could be applied for together as part of the permanent resident green card process without an additional fee. Beginning in February...more
The H-1B cap season is here for Fiscal Year 2023. Once again, there will be a two-step process – the registration step and then, if the registration is selected, the petition step.
This will be the third year that the...more
The Biden Administration has announced that it is undertaking efforts designed to attract and retain foreign students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. These initiatives will of course benefit...more
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has agreed to make policy changes that will benefit L-2 spouses and certain H-4 nonimmigrants filing renewal applications for Employment Authorization Document cards...more
The Biden Administration is ending worksite raids to catch unauthorized workers, according to a memorandum issued last week by Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In doing so, the...more
10/19/2021
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Exploitation ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ,
Joe Biden ,
NLRB ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour
Effective October 1, COVID-19 vaccination will be included in the list of vaccines that are required as part of the medical examination that is an integral part of applying for a “green card.” The Centers for Disease Control...more
We recently commented that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been making changes that were consistent with the Biden Administration’s plans to make the operation of the immigration system more efficient and...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently took action to update some of its policies. The changes evidence the Biden Administration’s positive view of immigration and its plans to make the operation of the...more
For the last year, the fate of the Public Charge Rule, which expanded the ability of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to deny green cards to lower-income foreign nationals, has been uncertain. In addition to the...more
3/17/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Dismissals ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Green Cards ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Interim Guidance ,
Joe Biden ,
Low-Income Issues ,
Medicaid ,
Permanent Residence Cards ,
Public Charge ,
Request for Evidence (RFEs) ,
SCOTUS ,
SNAP Program ,
USCIS
This is an update to what we reported in December on the status of the “Public Charge Rule.” The rule remains in effect, but it is likely to either be rescinded by the Biden Administration or enjoined by a court. In the...more
2/22/2021
/ Appellate Courts ,
Attorney General ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Green Cards ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Public Charge ,
SCOTUS ,
Secretary of State ,
USCIS
Last year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rolled out for the first time a new electronic registration tool for H-1B cap cases as part of its implementation of regulations issued in January 2019. The 2019...more
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued proposed regulations that would amend the H-1B cap registration selection process by replacing the current random process with one based on wage levels.
The proposed...more
Thursday, the Trump Administration published in the Federal Register two new Interim Final Rules designed to reduce significantly the number of H-1B workers in the United States. They are-
•A rule from the U.S. Department...more
10/12/2020
/ Comment Period ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Register ,
Green Cards ,
H-1B ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Software Developers ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS
The U.S. Department of State recently released its October 2020 Visa Bulletin reflecting an all-time high allocation of approximately 261,500 employment-based immigrant visas and signaling an unusually quick advancement of...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is poised to implement new filing fees on October 2, under regulations published in the Federal Register on August 3. However, two lawsuits were filed in federal court about a...more
Yesterday the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began phasing back in premium processing for eligible Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers. Premium...more
Last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it had completed pilot testing of its new electronic registration tool and would implement it for the H-1B cap season in 2020. The new electronic...more
As we previously reported, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued proposed regulations in December that would change the way that H-1B cap petitions were filed and selected.
In general, the agency proposed to...more
There have been many immigration policy changes in 2018 that affect employers directly or indirectly. Most importantly, there has been a significant shift to a more restrictive immigration philosophy that has affected the...more
12/20/2018
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Foreign Workers ,
Green Cards ,
H-1B ,
H-4 Spouses ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Registration Requirement ,
STEM ,
Temporary Protected Status ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS