On June 28, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced a new online Biometrics Appointment Rescheduling tool, which allows immigration benefits applicants and their attorneys to reschedule biometrics...more
Over the past few weeks, there have been several immigration-related updates from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, USCIS, and other immigration-related agencies relevant to our clients. Below is a summary of these...more
Starting on November 1, 2022, employers verifying their employees’ identity and employment authorization eligibility must use the new I-9 Form version....more
This week, the U.S. State Department has announced that the dates for this year’s Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery filings will officially open on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. EDT, with the entry period closing on...more
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced on May 7, 2022, that it had selected this year’s Diversity Lottery (DV 2023) applicants. Since the DOS does not notify winners, entrants who submitted within the mandatory time...more
On March 18, 2022, U.S. Citizenship Services (USCIS) published further detail relating to employment authorization documentation for E and L spouses. By way of background, in November 2021, USCIS reached a settlement...more
On October 19, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Justice (DOJ) settled with Facebook over its alleged discrimination against U.S. workers relating to the manner it conducted recruitment under the permanent...more
11/5/2021
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Discrimination ,
Facebook ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration and Nationality Act ,
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ,
PERM ,
Recruitment Policies ,
USCIS
In a Twitter announcement on October 15, the White House announced that the U.S. will introduce a new travel policy that will begin on November 8, permitting foreign nationals access to the United States provided they have...more
On Friday, October 1, the State Department announced that the dates for this year’s Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery filings will officially open on Wednesday, October 6 at noon, eastern daylight time (EDT). The entry period will...more
On April 27, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated the USCIS Policy Manual in a Policy Alert to reinstate its policy of giving deference to prior determinations when adjudicating extension-of-stay...more
With the new Biden administration at the helm, we note that the H-1B final midnight regulations promulgated Friday, January 15, 2021, by the former administration have been rescinded. Those regulations, which set up a...more
On Friday, December 4, 2020, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to new applicants for the first time since 2017. This...more
12/10/2020
/ Chamber of Commerce ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DACA ,
Deferred Action ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
H-1B ,
Specialty Occupations ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS
President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s campaign website proclaims that “Immigration is essential to who we are as a nation, our core values, and our aspirations for our future… The United States deserves an immigration policy that...more
Friday, October 16, 2020, brought an unexpected announcement from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Effective Monday, October 19, 2020, USCIS will increase fees for premium processing as required by...more
A seemingly benign application form known as the DS-160 nonimmigrant visa application form is completed online by all applicants seeking to work in temporary visa status in the United States. The form, available on the...more
New regulations proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are slated to take effect for the 2021 H-1B cap filing period, which starts on April 1, 2020.
Proposed in January 2019, the new regulations mandate that...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its Spring 2019 Regulatory Agenda, announcing the agency's priorities and how it plans to continue furthering the current administration's immigration-related goals....more
6/27/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
F-1 Visa ,
H-1B ,
H-4 Spouses ,
I-485 Applications ,
Immigration and Nationality Act ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Non-Immigrant Visas ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Registration Fees ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Visa Waiver Program ,
Visas
Unannounced changes at the Canadian border have disrupted Canadian L-1 intra-company transferee visa applicants' admission to the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) appears to have shifted its...more
USCIS recently provided updated data showing there has been a decline in approvals and higher rates of requests for evidence (RFE) for several key employer-sponsored non-immigrant visa categories.
The newly released data,...more
The H-1B visa category has been modified many times over the past 65 years. H-1B visas facilitate the entry of foreign national professionals, while also providing safeguards that maintain the integrity of the U.S. labor...more
5/14/2018
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
OPT ,
STEM ,
USCIS ,
Visas
On Monday, October 16, the U.S. Department of State announced that due to a technical issue, the diversity lottery (DV-2019) entry period that commenced on October 3 has been closed. The Department of State further advised...more
On June 6, 2017, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) will conduct increased enforcement efforts encompassing all of the foreign visa worker programs it administers, including...more