Monthly Minute | Design Patents
For employers seeking to sponsor foreign national professionals, awareness of the H-1B cap registration deadline is critical. Registration for the FY 2026 H-1B Cap lottery will start at 12 p.m. Eastern Time on March 7 and end...more
The Department of Homeland Security recently published a Final Rule in the Federal Register establishing a filing fee increase that will go into effect on April 1, 2024. The new fee schedule significantly increases several...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has put forth a Proposed Rule in January 2023 (“Proposed Rule”), suggesting fee increases and other modifications. Under this proposal, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...more
Last January I posted about "An Unwelcome Update to Start 2023: USCIS Proposing Rule to Raise Filing Fees; Set Specific Filing Fees for Different Types of I-129 Filings". That unwelcome proposal to start 2023 may become an...more
Increases to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS’s) immigration fees are all but guaranteed as the White House reviews the agency’s final proposed fee schedule. The agency is working to publish the...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years — and this past...more
On January 4, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Notice of Prospective Rulemaking proposing a sweeping fee hike for immigration services across the board. The proposed fee increases range between...more
On January 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would increase fees for specific immigration and naturalization benefit requests. The department’s U.S....more
On January 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule seeking 60-day comment on proposed changes to the fee schedule for benefit requests before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...more
At the beginning of each fiscal year, U.S. government agencies announce their regulatory agendas, which guide the agencies’ future actions. Here are the most relevant short and long-term regulatory changes that have been...more
On October 1, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law a stopgap spending measure to fund the U.S. government through December 11, 2020. The spending measure includes a provision titled “Emergency Stopgap USCIS...more
On September 29, 2020, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will implement a new fee schedule on October 2, 2020 to account for increased costs in adjudicating immigration applications and petitions. The new fee schedule also ushers in...more
On August 3, 2020, USCIS published a final rule that will significantly change forms and increase fees for certain immigration and naturalization benefit requests effective October 2, 2020. Any application, petition, or...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
Updates to USCIS Policy on New Forms, Premium Processing, and Filing Fee Increases Take Effect on October 2, 2020 - As previously reported in Epstein Becker Green’s August 2020 Immigration Alert, U.S. Citizenship and...more
USCIS Will Increase Filing Fees as of October 2, 2020 - On July 31, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) announced it will increase filing fees effective October 2, 2020. The fee increases will...more
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration continues to install stringent measures that will impact employers hiring foreign national temporary workers. Fee Increases - On July 31, the Department...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
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released its spring 2019 regulatory agenda, highlighting the agency’s rulemaking priorities through 2019. While many of the agenda items appear to be carryovers from agendas past,...more
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finalized a rule that will increase immigration fees. The proposed rule was issued on May 4, 2016, and the final rule will go into effect on December 23, 2016 (60 days after...more