Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published an interim final rule (IFR) that provides a new online process for unregistered foreign nationals to comply with the decades-old but rarely enforced...more
On Monday, September 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), working in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced publicly that all available immigrant visas in the...more
On August 2, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a rule allowing the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States. In doing so, the Court rejected a longstanding challenge...more
Looking back at 2023, many of the employment-based immigration changes proposed and implemented by various U.S. government agencies focused on increasing efficiency and alleviating strain on our immigration system. ...more
On November 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it secured a landmark $25 million agreement with Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) to resolve allegations of discriminatory hiring and recruitment processes...more
In 1986, the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) was amended to require all employers to verify the employment eligibility of all newly hired workers. The regulations interpreting the INA require employers to physically...more
On September 6, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) filed a Court Declaration indicating that the agency has used nearly all available employment-based (EB) immigrant visas for this fiscal year (ending...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
In its waning hours, the Trump Administration announced comprehensive, burdensome changes to H-1B visa requirements for multiple firms across virtually all industries. Fortunately, however, the changes are set to detonate on...more
On December 1, 2020, a U.S. Federal District Court in California set aside the two Interim Final Rules announced in October by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) and the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). ...more
In a much-anticipated decision, on December 1, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of business and university plaintiffs (led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), setting aside...more
On November 17, 2020, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Alert, informing stakeholders of an update to its existing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding the discretionary factors...more
On October 8, 2020, the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security issued interim final rules changing the regulations governing the H-1B visa program. These rules sought to restrict access to H-1B visas by redefining the...more
The U.S. Department of State recently released its October 2020 Visa Bulletin reflecting an all-time high allocation of approximately 261,500 employment-based immigrant visas and signaling an unusually quick advancement of...more
The trend of recent months to curtail employment-based immigration, purportedly prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, continues unabated. On August 3, 2020 President Trump issued yet another executive order, this one...more
The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) sets forth preference classes to which the yearly allotment of 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas (or “green cards”) are allocated. A new yearly allotment of...more
As another year of medical residency registration begins across the U.S., J-1 physicians in their final year of training find themselves at a critical crossroads: they can return to their respective home countries at the...more
On July 31, 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Labor (DOL) signed an agreement that sets guidelines for inter-agency collaboration to combat suspected employer non-compliance with immigration laws....more
To boost innovation and remain competitive, employers often have no option but to sponsor foreign nationals for H-1B work visas to meet their labor needs, especially when it comes to workers in science, technology,...more
Effective January 17, new regulations have eased somewhat the issues that many foreign workers have faced with renewing their Employment Authorization Documents, also commonly referred to as “work cards.” Under the old...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Trump Administration will have the power to make significant changes to the business immigration landscape. Here is what we can expect. Immigration issues have become more important than ever for...more
On March 18, 2016, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a final policy memorandum that offers guidance on determining whether a new job is in “the same or similar occupational classification”...more
On November 20, 2015, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a highly anticipated draft policy memorandum for public review and comment that provides guidance to USCIS Immigration Services...more