Barbara Chin

This alert reviews the Department of State’s updated guidance, issued March 2, 2021, on the National Interest Exception (NIE) waiver to the COVID-related travel ban affecting individuals traveling to the US from the Schengen Area, the U.K. and Ireland.

On March 9, 2021 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will no longer enforce the Public Charge rule that took effect on February 24, 2020. This alert provides background on the rule and reviews who is impacted by the change.

This Mintz immigration alert examines President Trump’s July 14 Executive Order and what it means for individuals holding Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) passports.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous travel bans and “shelter in place” orders which have been recently announced, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will extend certain filing deadlines by 60 days.

Anyone who works in legal or HR and handles work authorizations for their employees will agree that hiring foreign nationals or international transfers has become much more difficult under the current administration and its interpretation of President Trump’s Hire America/Buy America (BAHA) Policy, which he issued by Executive Order in April 2017. The latest statistics issued by USCIS confirm the difficulty of processing H-1B Petitions over the past three years.

This alert covers the USCIS announcement that it is resuming Premium Processing on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 for all H-1B petitions.

According to the State Department August Visa Bulletin, the Employment Based First Preference Category (EB-1) Final Action Dates for “Priority Workers” will retrogress for the month of August 2018.