The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a new fee rule that imposes significant increases, particularly for employment-based petitions. The rule, and the higher fees, will apply to any benefit request...more
The annual H-1B cap season has begun for Fiscal Year 2025. Once again, there will be a two-step process – the registration step and then, if the registration is selected in the H-1B cap lottery, the petition step. Now is the...more
1/17/2024
/ Beneficiaries ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
NAFTA ,
STEM ,
USCIS ,
Visa Caps ,
Visas
The annual H-1B cap season has begun for Fiscal Year 2024. Once again, there will be a two-step process – the registration step and then, if the registration is selected in the H-1B cap lottery, the petition step. Now is the...more
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
The U.S. Department of Labor has again issued a final rule on the computation of prevailing wage levels for high-skilled foreign workers. The rule is intended to replace a prevailing wage rule issued in October that was...more
We reported in October about two new rules that were issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor that would affect H-1B specialty occupation visas. The DOL rule significantly raised...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
For many years, U.S. employers have benefited from the “B–1 (Business Visitor) in lieu of H” policy. The policy allowed a business visitor to come to the United States as an employee of and on behalf of a foreign employer in...more
As we reported previously, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was due to increase filing fees by approximately 20 percent across many filing types, including new fees on asylum and additional fees for applicants...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
On August 14, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed it had run a second H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2021 and sent out notifications regarding new H-1B registration selections. The USCIS had not yet met the...more
The U.S. Department of State has issued some preliminary guidance on the application of the national interest waiver to foreign nationals from countries that are subject to a COVID-19-related travel ban.
Since late...more
7/28/2020
/ Child Care ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Educational Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
H-1B ,
Homeland Security Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ,
Immigration ,
Internships ,
J-1 Visas ,
L-1 Visas ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Secretary of State ,
Travel Ban ,
Travel Restrictions ,
US Department of State ,
Waivers
On June 22, as we expected, President Trump issued “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak.” The Proclamation temporarily suspends the entry of...more
The Trump Administration is reportedly contemplating a proclamation that will significantly affect a number of temporary work permit programs. Although we cannot predict with certainty what these restrictions will be or their...more
6/15/2020
/ Chamber of Commerce ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
H-2B ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
J-1 Visas ,
L-1 Visas ,
Popular ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Trump Administration ,
Visas
Health care providers are struggling with an acute shortage of physicians in medically underserved areas. Foreign-trained doctors in the J-1 exchange visa program play a critical role in filling this gap. As a result, the...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
On April 22, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation that suspends the ability of some foreign nationals living abroad to seek entry to the United States based on their applications for immigration status, more...more
As employers in the Commonwealth contemplate furloughs, temporary layoffs, or other forms of reductions in force amid the ongoing economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many H-1B workers scramble to figure out...more
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, U.S. employers are feeling the economic impact and the unintended consequences to their workforce. Many employers who supplement their workforce with foreign professional workers in H-1B...more
In recent years, if you have filed a petition for an H-1B professional worker or an application for your foreign national fiancé, you may have noticed more delays, more requests for evidence, and even more denials of cases...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