The Social Security Administration (SSA) has quietly hit pause on a key program that streamlined Social Security number (SSN) issuance for nonimmigrant and immigrant applicants. As of March 19, 2025, the Enumeration Beyond...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted an April 14, 2025, temporary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) decision to terminate humanitarian parole for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and...more
6/2/2025
/ Appeals ,
Cuba ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Haiti ,
Humanitarian Assistance ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Injunctions ,
Judicial Authority ,
Nicaragua ,
Noem v National TPS Alliance ,
Parole ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Venezuela ,
Visas
On May 22, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem ordered the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to terminate Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (“SEVP”) certification for alleged...more
5/27/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Students ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Injunctions ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Students ,
Terrorist Organizations ,
Universities ,
Visas
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Justice Department’s request to lift U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen’s March 31 order halting the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) rescission of Temporary...more
Following his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump issued a number of immigration-related Executive Orders (EOs) sure to have impact on employers and their business operations. So far, the focus in the media has...more
1/30/2025
/ Citizenship ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Workers ,
Green Cards ,
H-1B ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Migrants ,
Temporary Protected Status ,
Trump Administration ,
Undocumented Immigrants ,
USCIS ,
Vetting ,
Visas
Humanitarian parole programs for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been cancelled by President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) on Securing Our Borders. USCIS’s Uniting for Ukraine application process has...more
1/29/2025
/ Advance Parole Documents ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Temporary Protected Status ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Visas
On Jan. 23, 2025, in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle by the attorneys-general of Washington State, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon to overturn President Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) banning birthright...more
1/24/2025
/ Citizenship ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Injunctions ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State and Local Government ,
Trump Administration ,
Undocumented Immigrants
As many expected, President Donald Trump has not only issued Executive Orders (EOs), but he has also rescinded many EOs issued by the Biden Administration concerning immigration, including the following: “The Restoring Faith...more
1/24/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Compliance ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Donald Trump ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rescission ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Visas
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its policy guidance on Jan. 15, 2025, to clarify how it will evaluate candidates’ eligibility for second preference employment based (EB-2) immigrant visa with a...more
This order directs federal agencies to refuse to recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers in the country illegally, or who are present in the United States on non-immigrant visas, if the...more
1/21/2025
/ Cartels ,
Catch and Release ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Ports of Entry ,
Refugees ,
Terrorist Organizations ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS ,
Vetting ,
Visas
The Department of State (DOS) revised the J-1 Skills List, which lists home countries to which foreign nationals are subject to a two-year foreign home residency requirement.
•The 37 countries that have been removed from...more
1/15/2025
/ Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
International Relations ,
J-1 Visas ,
Non-Immigrant Visas ,
Policy Updates ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Residency Requirements ,
US Department of State ,
USCIS ,
Visas
The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Proposed Rule to add new occupations to the Schedule A list is “dead,” at least for now. Stakeholders see this as a disappointment and a missed opportunity.
•The failure to move forward...more
1/14/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Shortage ,
PERM ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
STEM ,
Trump Administration ,
USCIS
USCIS announced that it is extending the validity of certain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries from El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan until...more
7/1/2024
/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
El Salvador ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Form I-9 ,
Honduras ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Nepal ,
Nicaragua ,
Sudan ,
Temporary Protected Status
USCIS has published a proposed rule that, once implemented, would significantly reform and modernize the H-1B Program. The Modernizing H-1B Requirements, Providing Flexibility in the F-1 Program, and Program Improvements...more
By September 30, 2023, Congress will again have to fund the government. Despite ongoing efforts by the administration and Congress, indications are that a shutdown may occur at the beginning of the fiscal year, on October 1....more
Proper completion of the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 is one of the most important responsibilities of employers, including retailers, at the beginning of the hiring process. Saying it learned from the...more
8/8/2023
/ E-Verify ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Required Forms ,
USCIS
DHS has today, July 25, 2023, published a new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Form. USCIS has made significant changes to the form and its instructions, including a checkbox to indicate that an employee’s Form I-9...more
On July 21, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule, which will be officially published on July 25, 2023, that will provide eligible employers filling out the Employment Eligibility Verification...more
7/24/2023
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
E-Verify ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Eligibility Verification ,
Foreign Workers ,
Form I-9 ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Required Forms ,
USCIS
The H-1B cap season for Fiscal Year 2024 is fast approaching. USCIS announced on January 27th that cap registration begins on March 1st. Employers should assess their hiring needs and determine if they will sponsor foreign...more
On April 18, 2022, USCIS announced that it had received 483,927 registrations for the FY 2023 H-1B Cap. This is the largest number ever received – almost 200,000 more than the total count of 308,613 for FY 2022....more
The Department of Homeland Security set out the specifics about the upcoming new premium processing benefits in the Federal Register on March 30, 2022. The details, however, did not include any specific implementation dates,...more
Just as the Biden Administration is proposing increased funding for USCIS to help reduce the agency’s backlog, USCIS is announcing future new actions to improve processing times....more
A series of significant developments in U.S. immigration law has already marked the beginning of 2022 and more can be expected.
In January, the Biden Administration unveiled a series of policies aimed at attracting and...more
3/15/2022
/ Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EB-2 ,
Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
J-1 Visas ,
Joe Biden ,
O-1 Aliens of Extraordinary Ability ,
STEM ,
USCIS
USCIS has announced that the Cap H-1B Electronic Registration will open on March 9, 2021 at noon EST and will close on March 25, 2021 at noon EST.
The process will mirror last year’s process.
USCIS also announced its...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced it is implementing an electronic registration process in the next H-1B visa lottery. Employers seeking to file fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions...more