Consistent with its goal of removing barriers to legal immigration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued guidance and launched initiatives related to individuals in the science, technology,...more
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instituted temporary accommodations governing the renewal of documents for Form I-9 purposes relating to employment authorization in all work...more
On January 28, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the registration dates for FY 2023 H-1B cap filings with the agency. Filing submission dates are March 1, 2022, at 12 p.m. ET and the registration...more
Background-
The H-1B nonimmigrant visa is one of the most highly utilized and sought-after temporary work visas and facilitates the employment of foreign nationals entering the United States to perform employment in...more
On December 23, 2021, the U.S. Department of State announced that it will temporarily suspend in-person interviews for some nonimmigrant visa classifications in order to expedite visa issuance as the pandemic heads into its...more
On November 19, U.S. Citizenship Services (USCIS) announced it had completed a third H-1B lottery selection for the fiscal year 2022 cap. This is the third H-1B lottery selection this year. USCIS allows for 85,000 H1-B...more
11/23/2021
/ Filing Deadlines ,
Filing Fees ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Lottery ,
USCIS ,
Visa Caps ,
Visas
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is expected to release new guidelines for employment authorization which will affect H-4 and L-2 spouses resulting from a settlement agreement reached in a federal court...more
On October 19, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Justice (DOJ) settled with Facebook over its alleged discrimination against U.S. workers relating to the manner it conducted recruitment under the permanent...more
11/5/2021
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Discrimination ,
Facebook ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration and Nationality Act ,
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ,
PERM ,
Recruitment Policies ,
USCIS
Congress has mandated that in a given calendar year, 140,000 employment-based green cards will be awarded to companies sponsoring foreign nationals for permanent employment in the United States. This mandate is effective on...more
8/26/2021
/ EB-1 ,
EB-2 ,
EB-3 ,
EB-4 ,
EB-5 ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Green Cards ,
Immigrants ,
Popular ,
Visas
On April 27, 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated the USCIS Policy Manual in a Policy Alert to reinstate its policy of giving deference to prior determinations when adjudicating extension-of-stay...more
On the latest Law Brief® episode, Immigration Partner Roxanne Levine joins Partner and Host Rich Schoenstein to delve into the new administration’s approach to U.S. immigration policy in 2021. They explore the impact of the...more
4/15/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Diversity Lottery ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Green Cards ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Path To Citizenship ,
Travel Restrictions ,
Visas
The temporary work travel ban implemented by the prior administration in the summer of 2020 expired on Wednesday, March 31. Proclamation 10052 blocked foreign nationals in certain nonimmigrant workers, including H-1B, J-1,...more
Rescission Of Presidential Proclamation 10014 – Travel Ban For Immigrant Visa Applicants
On February 24, President Biden issued a Proclamation revoking the immigrant visa ban that suspended foreign nationals’ entry to...more
2/26/2021
/ Australia ,
Biden Administration ,
Citizenship ,
Diversity ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Lawful Permanent Residents ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Revocation ,
SCOTUS ,
USCIS ,
Visas
With the new Biden administration at the helm, we note that the H-1B final midnight regulations promulgated Friday, January 15, 2021, by the former administration have been rescinded. Those regulations, which set up a...more
Recent developments which are likely to have a dramatic effect on certain foreign workers seeking entrance to the United States occurred earlier this week with the introduction of dual regulatory changes by the U.S....more
Immigration partner Roxanne Levine joined Litigation partner and host Rich Schoenstein to discuss the new filing process for H-1B visas, which provide a nonimmigrant temporary visa category for certain foreign nationals that...more
8/31/2020
/ Diversity Lottery ,
Filing Requirements ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Workers ,
H-1B ,
Highly-Skilled Workers Visa ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Non-Immigrant Visas ,
USCIS ,
Visa Caps ,
Visas
On April 22, 2020, an Executive Order entitled "Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak," outlined a 60-day pause for...more
U.S. employers are gearing up for H-1B cap season, which has traditionally commenced on April 1 each year. This year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has introduced an unprecedented procedure - an electronic...more
New regulations proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are slated to take effect for the 2021 H-1B cap filing period, which starts on April 1, 2020.
Proposed in January 2019, the new regulations mandate that...more
Updated news from USCIS this spring includes final H-1B lottery selection news and a boon for Israeli investors who will be eligible to apply for E-2 treaty investor visas at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.
On April 11, USCIS...more
On April 5, USCIS announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the Congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B regular "bachelor's degree" cap cases for this fiscal year.
USCIS will next determine...more
On March 19, USCIS made a surprise announcement - it will be phasing in a new two-tiered premium processing procedure and establishing a new H-1B data hub on its website.
On April 1, USCIS will commence accepting cap-subject...more
USCIS announced that, as of Tuesday, February 19, it has resumed premium processing for all H-1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018.
An expedited process for facilitating swift adjudication of non-immigrant...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its H-1B pre-registration policy for the upcoming cap season and clarifies new developments related to H-1B processing. In this alert, we explore how each of these...more
In November 2018, USCIS issued an updated policy memorandum clarifying the terms of visa eligibility for L-1 visa designates who may have worked abroad for a qualifying entity overseas and, in the interim, held a different...more