Immigration Settlement Clears the Way for Thousands of H-1B and L-1 Spouses to Work in the US
The 2025 H-1B visa lottery registration period starts today, March 7, 2025, at 12pm EST and runs until 12pm EST on March 24. The government issues 85,000 H-1B visa numbers each year, 20,000 of which are set aside specifically...more
This year’s H-1B Pre-Registration Filing Period is expected to run from early to mid-March 2025. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will announce the registration dates in the coming weeks. One significant...more
Share It is pretty clear what President-elect Donald Trump intends to do regarding border enforcement, honoring his pledge to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in U.S. history, but little has been reported on...more
It’s that time of year again when employers have to decide who they are sponsoring for an H-1B visa. For a brief background, H-1B work visas are the most common work visas for foreign nationals in professional positions...more
Beginning March 6, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will conduct its annual H-1B Cap Lottery to award H-1B slots for professional workers in specialty occupations. There are a total of 85,000 visas...more
A recent ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia provides added protection and work authorization safeguards for H-4 spouses of H-1B visa holders facing potential lawsuits and administrative challenges....more
On January 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reached a settlement in Edakunni v. Mayorkas. As a result of the settlement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has agreed to resume its...more
In the recent legal settlement of Edakunni v. Mayorkas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has agreed to resume adjudicating H-4 and L-2 dependent and H-4 employment authorization petitions at the same time...more
In a settlement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has agreed to return to processing dependent H-4 and L-2 applications at the same time as the H-1B or L-1 petition when filed concurrently. This...more
Federal immigration officials just agreed to streamline the process by which certain nonimmigrant dependent spouses are able to secure employment, reverting to a previous method that should reduce processing times and...more
In an excellent development, as of January 25, 2023, the U.S. government agreed to resume the process of “bundling” H-4 and L-2 dependent applications, – including I-765 work permission applications, with the H-1B and L-1...more
The USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Service) announced a new rule to aid in the recent dilemma many foreign national families and US employers have confronted; namely addressing the gap in work authorization and...more
Immigration Settlement Clears the way for thousands of H-1B and L-1 spouses to work in the U.S., Ulmer Immigration Group Leader David Leopold explains....more
The first two weeks of the Biden Administration have seen a flurry of activity indicating it will move away from the more restrictive immigration environment of the Trump era, including for employment-based immigration...more
On January 25, 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) withdrew its proposed rule that sought to eliminate the H-4 employment authorization document (EAD) program for eligible spouses of H-1B workers. The...more
On Monday, June 22, 2020, the White House issued a long-expected executive order outlining new U.S. immigration restrictions. The order extends and expands upon the earlier restrictions put in place by President Trump in...more
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed it will utilize a new electronic registration system for the Fiscal Year 2021 H-1B lottery. By way of background, the H-1B visa program allows companies in the United...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
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
As H-1B cap subject petition receipt notices begin to trickle in, and employers are being notified as to whether their foreign employees will obtain an H-1B visa this cap season, it is a necessity to think about other viable...more
DHS has made the first move to rescind the H-4 EAD Rule: sending the proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The H-4 EAD Rule provides work authorization for spouses of certain H-1B workers...more
Changes in the business immigration arena continue to affect non-immigrants in significant ways. Rescission of H-4 Dependent Visa Holder Employment Authorization- By March 18, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security...more
There have been many immigration policy changes in 2018 that affect employers directly or indirectly. Most importantly, there has been a significant shift to a more restrictive immigration philosophy that has affected the...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its fall 2018 regulatory agenda, laying out its rulemaking goals through 2019. The published timeline is aspirational and does not represent a strict schedule....more
In April 2017, three months after taking office, President Trump signed the “Buy American and Hire American” Executive Order, which confirmed that his administration would be taking a tough stance on business immigration,...more