Immigration Insights Podcast: International Entrepreneur Parole Program & Biometrics Requirement
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed its annual H-1B cap lottery selection process for fiscal year 2025. Given the high number of lottery registrations and the fixed number of...more
The H-1B Electronic Registration Selection Process debuted in March 2020 for fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions. The barrier to entry dropped significantly with the introduction of the electronic registration...more
The increasing need for talented workers in the United States has more and more employers considering eliminating bachelor’s degree requirements from job descriptions. A recognition of the value of skills and experience over...more
A variety of U.S. work visas require employers to pay a certain salary to foreign workers whom they employ in the United States. But one employer was recently surprised by an appeals court ruling that it was required to...more
The statutory limit of H-1Bs available per fiscal year is 65,000 for those who have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, with 6,800 reserved for citizens of Chile and Singapore. An additional 20,000 are reserved for those who...more
Employers know that U.S. immigration laws are complex, and the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) long processing delays – coupled with recent layoffs in the tech industry – have further complicated matters by adding new fact...more
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will soon announce the fiscal year 2024 H-1B registration period. This is an important time of the year for employers wishing to sponsor a candidate for a cap...more
It is no secret that certain sectors of U.S. employers have engaged in significant layoffs over the last six months. Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—laid off more than 11,000 employees in November...more
For the first time, USCIS has advised people with a pending green card application of its documentary requirements for transfers between employment-based classifications and issued an alert regarding the process...more
On December 14, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule that rescinds a previous DOL regulation implemented in January 2021. The January 2021 regulation would have led to a dramatic increase in prevailing...more
Federal agencies are providing leniency in light of the significant impact of Hurricane Ida on government operations, corporations, and those residing in the United States. Below we provide a summary of the flexibility that...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has further postponed the effective date of its prevailing wage final rule to November 14, 2022. The final rule significantly increases prevailing wage requirements for permanent resident and...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: This is the second installment in a series of recommendations to the Biden Administration on immigration reform previously published by the Cato Institute in “Deregulating Legal Immigration: A Blueprint for...more
USCIS’s FY 2022 H-1B Cap Electronic Registration Begins Beginning 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT) on March 9, 2021, until 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT) on March 25, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) will...more
On February 24, 2021, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would expand premium processing services to include change of status or extension of status petitions for E-3 nonimmigrant visa...more
On February 24, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that E-3 visa petitions will now be eligible for premium processing. Beginning on February 24, 2021, petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition...more
Executive Summary: USCIS has announced the timeline for the H-1B FY22 Cap Petition Cycle. Similar to last year, USCIS will require H-1B sponsor employers to register H-1B candidates online starting March 9, 2021. USCIS will...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will hold the H-1B electronic registration process for the fiscal year 2022 H-1B cap (from which the annual H-1B lottery will be run). Registration begins at...more
On February 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) formally proposed delaying the implementation of its final rule, entitled “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in...more
On Thursday, January 14, the Department of Labor (DOL) published a regulation which will significantly increase prevailing wage requirements effective July 2021....more
On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced an updated final rule designed to increase prevailing wages required for certain visa processes. The updated rule, entitled “Strengthening Wage Protections for...more
As a positive development for H-1B employers, on December 1, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a final ruling in Chamber of Commerce, et al., v. DHS, et al. set aside the Interim...more
On December 1, 2020, a U.S. Federal District Court in California set aside the two Interim Final Rules announced in October by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) and the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). ...more
The US District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday set aside two Interim Final Rules (IFRs) that sought to restrict severely eligibility for the H-1B Specialty Occupation nonimmigrant category....more
New rules published by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (specifically, USCIS) are intended to severely restrict the use of the H-1B and related H-1B1 and E-3 visa classifications for...more