Massachusetts has recently enacted its own pay transparency statute. These statutes vary from state to state, but they generally require that employers disclose the actual salary or salary range that the applicant or internal...more
Massachusetts is expected to enact its own pay transparency statute any day now. These statutes vary from state to state, but they generally require that employers disclose the actual salary or salary range that the applicant...more
A California staffing agency has recently settled a case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the employment authorization documents that its predecessor company reviewed before hiring. According to the DOJ,...more
Long processing times for renewal Employment Authorization Documents has resulted in the loss of work authorization for many individuals because their EAD cards expired before new cards could be issued. Individuals who filed...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for many years has used an online system for the annual March lottery for petitions that are subject to the H-1B Cap. The USCIS has now expanded this system to allow the following...more
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 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that fees will increase for all requests for Premium Processing. The increases will apply to all requests for premium processing that are postmarked on or after...more
Apple Inc. has agreed to pay $25 million to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, to settle claims that it discriminated against U.S. workers in recruiting and hiring...more
A variety of U.S. work visas require employers to pay a certain salary to foreign workers whom they employ in the United States. But one employer was recently surprised by an appeals court ruling that it was required to...more
Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published its new I-9 regulations, which will take effect next Tuesday, August 1. The regulations have two components: (1) a remote I-9 document examination procedure, and (2)...more
Employers are reportedly urging the Biden Administration to delay the current August 30 deadline for in person re-inspections of I-9 documents that were submitted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic....more
The filing of an H-1B petition requires submission of a Labor Condition Application certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA certifies, among other things, that the H-1B beneficiary will be paid the prevailing wage...more
One of the most dreaded things a foreign worker can hear while applying for a U.S. visa abroad is that the case has gone to “administrative processing.” That news typically meant that the applicant had to wait weeks, if not...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has expanded premium processing to certain I-140 petitions, and premium processing of certain I-765 and I-539 applications is expected to be in place this spring....more
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 week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced “Process Enhancements for Supporting Labor Enforcement Investigations.” Employers beware. This new process increases the likelihood that undocumented workers will...more
1/20/2023
/ Corporate Counsel ,
DACA ,
Deferred Action ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
EEO ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Exploitation ,
Foreign Workers ,
Investigations ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Prosecutorial Discretion ,
Undocumented Immigrants ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with fee increases for immigration filings. Under the proposed rule, the most dramatic increases would apply to employment-based...more
One of the most common types of employment-based green card sponsorships requires PERM labor certification. But do employers have to comply with applicable pay transparency laws when making their PERM recruitment efforts? At...more
It is a happy day when a foreign national becomes a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States and gets a Permanent Resident Card, commonly referred to as a “green card.” Permanent resident status provides important...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been making significant efforts to prevent the loss of available employment-based visa numbers for Fiscal Year 2022, as we reported in July.
The good news is that the...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced last week that it has reached the caps for the Fiscal Year 2023 regular and master’s (advanced degree) H-1B lotteries and has sent non-selection notifications to the...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reports that in the last fiscal year, 66,781 employment-based immigrant (Permanent Resident/Green Card) visas went unused and were “lost.” The USCIS is trying to prevent such a...more
This week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it would soon expand the availability of premium processing for certain petitions that have already been filed.
...more
On Wednesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a Temporary Final Rule to address the long delays in the approval of Employment Authorization Document renewal applications. Hundreds of thousands of foreign...more