Immigration

The Department of State’s Office of Private Sector Exchange Administration has announced that it will perform site visits to many J-1 Intern and Trainee host organizations beginning this month. Most individual participants and host organizations have received e-mails from the J-1 sponsors regarding these visits.

Companies of all sizes have increased workforce mobility needs arising from international short-term relocations, business visits, trade shows, conferences, speaking engagements, etc. It is critical for today’s business traveler to take advantage of accessible resources to ease the international travel burden, when fulfilling business obligations.

On February 2, USCIS announced that the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2015 has been reached. January 26, 2015 was the final receipt date for new H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date prior to April 1, 2015.

The Department of Homeland Security announced this week that the final rule, Notices of Decisions and Documents Evidencing Lawful Status, published for comment on October 29, 2014, is effective as of January 27, 2015.

In a novel case, a New York federal court judge recently denied an employer’s motion to dismiss a Section 1981 alienage discrimination class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company violated that Act by implementing a policy of hiring only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

On January 13, 2015 Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 into the Senate.  This bill, known as S. 169 or “I2”, clearly has bipartisan support, and aims to broadly reform high skilled immigration.

This alert is a reminder of the rapidly approaching April 1, 2015 deadline for the filing of H-1B visa petitions for Fiscal Year 2016. Petitions for the new fiscal year, which starts on October 1, 2015, will be accepted by the government beginning April 1, 2015.

In October 2014, the Department of State (“DOS”) amended Subpart A of the J exchange visitor regulations. These new regulations go into effect in 2015 and apply to all exchange visitor programs and program categories. There are two primary changes that will directly affect J-1 applicants:

It’s a little known fact that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) won’t approve an employment-based visa petition before checking the company information against the Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) database via the Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) system.

As a part of President Obama’s recent announcement regarding his executive action on immigration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson issued several memoranda to the directors of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Thursday, November 20th, coinciding with President Obama’s announcement regarding his forthcoming executive action on immigration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a memo to the directors of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directing the agencies to take action

While the three branches of federal government fire off salvos on immigration reform, states are finding ways to tackle challenges to the federal criminal immigration landscape.

During last night’s primetime television broadcast, President Obama announced steps to fix what he termed the “broken” US immigration system. The president focused his speech on increasing border security and providing a method for undocumented parents of US citizens and lawful permanent residents to “temporarily stay in the US.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has implemented changes recently that affect many individuals seeking to travel to the United States, US employers of H-1B and L-1 workers, and users of some USCIS services.

The Obama administration has touted a number of new initiatives aimed at encouraging immigrant entrepreneurship and retention of high-tech workers in the U.S. These are commendable and this author applauds these efforts.

It’s that time of year again. The Department of State will begin accepting requests to register for the 2016 Green Card Lottery. Online registration begins today, October 1, 2014 and will conclude on November 3.

Fiscal year 2015 cap-subject H-1B petitions selected and approved by USCIS will be valid starting October 1, 2014. However, as October 1, 2014 approaches, many cap-subject H-1B petitions remain pending at both the California and Vermont Service Centers.

It is almost October 1st, when thousands of new H-1B visas will become effective with the onset of the US government's 2015 fiscal year. In light of this, here are six little known but important facts about H-1B visas:

As we reported on Monday, due to a massive software failure of the Department of State’s Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), there continue to be delays in the issuance of visas at consular posts around the globe.

Multiple reports have confirmed that the U.S. Department of State’s global database for issuing travel documents recently crashed. While the system has been restored, it is operating at reduced capacity and significant backlogs have developed.