President Trump has issued a new Proclamation that immediately extends to December 31, 2020 its April 22 suspension of certain immigrant visas (family categories other than spouse and children of citizens; employment...more
President Trump has issued a new Proclamation that immediately extends to December 31, 2020 its April 22 suspension of certain immigrant visas (family categories other than spouse and children of citizens; employment...more
Baker Donelson has been closely monitoring serious developments in the White House concerning its possible use of emergency powers for development of an expanded proclamation to suspend the entry of certain nonimmigrant visa...more
President Trump's April 22, 2020 Proclamation narrowly delays for 60 days the issuance of immigrant visas for certain categories of family and employment-sponsored immigrants and diversity lottery winners. It has no effect on...more
As the White House extends its social distancing guidelines another month through April 30 in recognition of the still-increasing pace of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the U.S., it appears that many U.S. immigration...more
As governments around the world react with increasing vigor to flatten coronavirus curves, employers must urgently re-evaluate travel plans and immigration maintenance....more
To implement its new standards for assessing whether someone is "likely to become a public charge," the U.S. government now requires gobs of intrusive data and documents from almost every green card applicant. ...more
USCIS has been falling farther and farther behind on adjudication of EB-5 filings. Last week USCIS suddenly announced that, starting March 31, 2020, it will adjudicate first I-526 petitions from investors for whom a visa...more
The President of the U.S. has issued a Proclamation ordering the prevention of entry (including prevention of boarding a vessel traveling to the U.S.) people who are not citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. who have...more
On January 31, President Trump issued a new Proclamation not only keeping in place a prior ban on certain travel (having removed Chad from that ban), but imposing a ban only on permanent immigration from outside the U.S. of...more
Long after expiration of OMB's authorization for the most recent Form I-9, USCIS has published a new version of Form I-9, unchanged in substance from the prior form, and employers must use it with all new hires starting no...more
On November 6, 2019, USCIS updated its Policy Manual to incorporate changes made by the EB5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization Final Rule, published on July 24, 2019, and effective November 21, 2019, available at 84 FR...more
The Department of Homeland Security has published its plan to follow the State Department in collecting social media platforms and identifiers used in the preceding five years by applicants for immigration benefits, including...more
The impending "expiration" of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) clearance on the most recent Form I-9 calls into question how employers can know if they are using the correct version of I-9. ...more
It is time for employers to prepare H-1B filings for workers who have not held H-1B status before and are subject to the annual cap on visa numbers. The filings need to be submitted on April 1 to USCIS with full documentation...more
On November 19, 2018, the Department of Labor (DOL) implemented amendments to its attestation-based Labor Condition Application Form ETA 9035/9035E, which is a prerequisite filing by employers sponsoring workers in the H-1B,...more
Possibilities are brewing for a partial U.S. Government shutdown starting December 22 over the issue of funding "The Wall" after a very public contentious White House meeting yesterday. What is the potential immigration...more
In about 2015, USCIS started denying petitions of EB-5 investors who used the cash proceeds of a loan as their source of funds unless the loan was collateralized by the personal assets of the investor. ...more
President Trump’s endorsement yesterday of a bill proposed by two senators (the RAISE Act) tends to make people think that it has more likelihood of becoming law than it does. The President does not make laws alone or with a...more
On March 6, President Trump issued a revised Executive Order (EO), effective on March 16, 2017, to replace the prior order of January 27 with more limited and prospective restrictions on travel for nationals of six countries,...more
On March 3, 2017 USCIS announced that it will not honor any requests for premium processing for ANY H-1B petitions filed starting April 3 until further notice. That includes capped and cap-exempt petitions, and petitions for...more
On January 22, 2017, two days after President Trump was inaugurated but with no connection to that event, USCIS published a new Form I-9 for verification of employment authorization required for every new hire since 1986. ...more
On January 27, 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order 13769 entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” We’ll call this one the “Screening EO.” This is one of at least three...more
2/7/2017
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In finalizing a regulation focused on eligibility of workers being sponsored by employers for various temporary and permanent visas, USCIS has established some rules that affect all employers, even those not sponsoring...more
USCIS has published a final rule, to take effect January 17, 2017, ensconcing in regulations most of the policies it had long ago worked out in memorandums implementing provisions of 1998 and 2001 laws intended to bridge some...more