Last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced changes that will be good news for foreign students seeking Optional Practical Training in areas related to their major areas of study.
First, the 14...more
3/8/2021
/ Colleges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Foreign Students ,
Form I-765 ,
OPT ,
SEVIS ,
STEM ,
Universities ,
USCIS ,
Visas
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
Before his inauguration, President Biden expressed his commitment to keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program alive. On his first day in office, he issued an Executive Order directing the Department of...more
Last March, almost from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States put into place restrictions on admission of international travelers. The restrictions applied to most individuals who were physically present...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
Concerns about the spread of COVID-19 led U.S. and Canadian officials to agree that non-essential travel across the land ports of entry along the border should be temporarily suspended. These restrictions have since been...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. 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
Recently, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention announced that it would stop screening international passengers for COVID-19, even from what were deemed “high-risk” countries such as China, Iran, Brazil, and the...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
A federal judge in New York issued a nationwide injunction on Wednesday that temporarily blocks the Trump Administration from implementing or enforcing the “public charge rule” as long as the COVID-19 State of National...more
On July 14, President Trump issued the Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization, in response to a new security law published by the People’s Republic of China, Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National...more
We reported on July 16 that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had rescinded its directive that barred foreign students from taking 100 percent online courses for the fall semester even if that was all that was...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
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has agreed to rescind a directive that barred foreign students, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, from taking only the online courses offered by their colleges and universities....more
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 U.S. Supreme Court blocked the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on June 18, 2020, finding that the Department of Homeland Security’s actions in retracting the immigration relief program...more
6/22/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Citizenship ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Homeland Security v Regents of the University of California ,
Educational Institutions ,
Path To Citizenship ,
Rescission ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration ,
Trump v NAACP ,
USCIS ,
Wolf v Vidal ,
Work Permits
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
The President has issued a new “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic of China.” The Proclamation, which took effect on Monday, effectively...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