On May 11, 2002, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Memorandum relating to certain J-1 waivered foreign medical graduates during the COVID-19 national emergency. The memo, captioned “Temporary...more
On Thursday, May 14, 2020, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a 30-day extension to its previously announced temporary flexibility provisions relating to I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification...more
With lightning speed, USCIS closed the FY2021 H-1B Cap Registration Process, conducted the lottery (random selection process), and issued the lottery results.
Since yesterday, March 27, 2020, the agency has been sending...more
Last Friday, March 20th at 12:00 noon US Eastern Time, USCIS closed the initial registration period for the Fiscal Year 2021 (FY2021) H-1B cap lottery. In order to be considered in the initial selection process for the H-1B...more
On March 16, 2020, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) sent a letter to the Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking guidance regarding employer I-9 Employment Eligibility...more
Without fanfare, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently updated its website with an Alert https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/public-charge relating to its Public Charge requirements in the context of the...more
US employers should be aware that as of the date of this blog post, Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification requirements remain in effect, including the requirement that an employee’s I-9 documents must be reviewed in...more
Ready or not, it’s time to electronically register for the upcoming H-1B Cap Lottery.
The registration period began at 12:00 noon Eastern Time on Sunday, March 1, 2020 and will end at 12:00 noon Eastern Time on Friday,...more
Ready or not, H-1B Cap Registration Season is upon us. And things are a little different this Cap Season. That’s because USCIS formally announced via a January 9, 2020 Federal Register notice that it will change the lottery...more
It has been widely reported, including by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, that on February 20, 2019 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as per...more
Beginning Tuesday, February 19, 2019, USCIS is resuming premium processing for H-1B petitions that were filed on or before Dec. 21, 2018.
In its February 15, 2019 announcement, USCIS explained that H-1B Petitioners in this...more
Cap-subject US employers and their prospective employees alike have been waiting on edge to find out whether the FY2020 H-1B Cap Season would proceed as before or whether US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS’s)...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to amend USCIS Regulations relating to cap-subject H-1B petitions filed under both the regular cap and advanced degree...more
Governmental workplace inspections are on the rise.
That means Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspections (audits) and raids on employers are likely to continue, especially in target industries such as...more
USCIS announced yesterday that it has returned all FY2019 cap-subject H-1B petitions that were not selected in the “lottery”.
You may recall that between April 2-6, USCIS received 190,098 FY 2019 cap-subject H-1B...more
Between April 2-6, USCIS received 190,098 cap-subject H-1B petitions from U.S. employers in need of the talents of professionals from abroad. This was more than enough petitions to meet the H-1B cap for FY 2019.
On April...more
On March 6, 2018, the US Department of State announced a change in the location of certain greencard interviews in India.
In summary, for interviews scheduled on or after April 1, 2018:-...more
On October 20, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General issued Report OIG-18-03, “USCIS Needs a Better Approach to Verify H-1B Visa Participants”, targeting fraud in immigration processes,...more
The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today, September 18, 2017, that it will again expand its resumption of premium processing for additional types of H-1B petitions.
Effective immediately, H-1B...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced July 24 that it will resume premium processing of certain additional types of H-1B petitions, effective immediately.
H-1B petitioners who are (or have a sound...more
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced yesterday that beginning on May 31, 2017, it will email reminders to Visa Waiver Program travelers notifying them of their “last possible departure date from the US”....more
During this time of increased unpredictability in US immigration law, it was good to see that the US Citizenship and Immigration Service had confirmed that the upcoming FY2018 H-1B random lottery will be conducted in the same...more
The Trump Administration issued a revised Executive Order on travel with an apparent desire to survive a court challenge by modifying some of the elements that judges found troubling in the January 27 travel ban....more
For businesses, universities, individuals and others potentially affected by Trump’s executive order, the situation remains far from certain because the government has vowed to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court....more
Moving quickly along, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) informed the public that it completed data entry of all “winning” fiscal year 2017 (FY2017) H-1B cap-subject petitions (i.e., petitions that were...more