While the peak of the COVID pandemic may be behind us, the United States health care industry continues to deal with unprecedented staffing shortages, particularly when it comes to nurses. Even a cursory Google search brings...more
Facing a severe nursing shortage, one option for the United States is immigration.
But even though the federal government has given registered nurses a special designation which streamlines the employment-based permanent...more
In a recent post, this blog covered the more-complicated-than-it-seems issue of how someone can best determine exactly when their lawful immigration status in the United States expires. We discussed the matter of how, in some...more
While that question may seem simple enough to answer, in many instances individuals may be mistaken or unaware of when their lawful immigration status in the United States expires. A common answer might be, “When my Visa...more
On January 21, 2022, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security jointly announced a flurry of new actions and policy changes relating to various visa classifications that open new potential pathways and...more
Concerns for public health and immigration law have been tied together in the United States for over 100 years. Since the Immigration Act of 1891, individuals seeking admission into the U.S. have been subject to potential...more
The Summer season often brings with it an increase in international travel, as people seek to take vacations, visit family, and attend to business around the world. That norm has been significantly disrupted for the last two...more
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was withdrawing a 2018 proposal to remove the International Entrepreneur (IE) Parole program from DHS regulations, effectively confirming to the public that...more
6/9/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
E-2 ,
H-1B ,
International Entrepreneur Rule ,
Investment Adviser ,
L-1 Visas ,
O-1 Aliens of Extraordinary Ability ,
Proposed Regulation ,
USCIS ,
Visas
In a welcome reversal of a Trump-era policy decision, on April 27, 2021, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual instructing officers to give...more
On Friday, March 12, 2021, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it may reopen and/or reconsider the denial of previously filed H-1B visa petitions, in cases where the denial was based on one or more...more
Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began in early 2020, there have been significant disruptions to certain U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) operations, particularly those involving local field offices...more
On November 17, 2020, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Alert, informing stakeholders of an update to its existing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding the discretionary factors...more
On December 1, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a decision overturning two recent Interim Final Rules promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and U.S. Department of...more
12/3/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Specialty Occupations ,
Summary Judgment ,
USCIS ,
Visas
Beginning October 2, 2020, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will be increasing its filing fees for many of the most commonly filed benefit requests. Applications or petitions postmarked on or after that date...more
U.S. immigration law recently has resembled a minefield, with potential risks and obstacles popping up nearly every week. Both employers and employees have been struggling to navigate these new rules and find ways to obtain...more
In an effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and tap into available healthcare workers from around the world, on May 5, 2020 a group of six senators introduced bipartisan legislation which seeks to enhance the healthcare...more
6/23/2020
/ China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Green Cards ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Immigrants ,
India ,
Lawful Permanent Residents ,
Nurses ,
Physicians ,
Proposed Legislation ,
USCIS
With many employees now working remotely or from home, and with businesses’ operations significantly impacted by government restrictions and social distancing efforts, the American Immigration Lawyers Association has engaged...more
It’s strikingly apparent that the current global pandemic of COVID-19 is impacting travel and visa/immigration processes worldwide. As of right now, all USCIS processing centers for visa petitions remain open and...more
With the increasing reliance of U.S. employers on high-skilled foreign workers, particularly those on H-1B visas, it is important that employers remain aware of the makeup of their workforce and the additional obligations...more
New immigration policy requires all U.S. Consulates to review applicants’ public social media history, past e-mail addresses and recent phone numbers when adjudicating visa applications....more
As another H-1B cap season comes and goes, tens of thousands of hopeful employers and employees will again be informed that their H-1B visa petitions were not among the 85,000 selected in USCIS’s random lottery for processing...more
The denial rate for H-1B petitions spiked through the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019 to over five times what the rate was just four years ago. That’s according to a report published by the National Foundation for American...more