On February 28th, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) submitted a status report to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, stating that it is now postponing the release of proposed H-4 regulations. In response to the litigation in Save Jobs USA v. DHS, DHS initially stated that it would release proposed […]
USCIS announced Thursday, February 22nd, that it is revising its mission statement. In a move that has many questioning the future impact of this change, USCIS changed its existing mission statement which read:
USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration […]
USCIS confirmed to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) that there would be no procedural changes in the the FY2019 H-1B Cap Process. This means that there will not be a H-1B Cap pre-registration process, as previously suggested. USCIS also indicated that, while it may suspend the option to premium process H-1B Cap cases again […]
By midnight, January 20th, 2018, the U.S. Congress failed to pass a budget which effectively shut down the federal government. While certain “essential” government positions remain unaffected, such as the U.S. military, the impact on the U.S. immigration system for employers and employees is significant. What follows is a brief breakdown of the impact on […]
It is currently unknown whether the U.S. Federal Government will shut down today, January 19th, at 12pm EST. While the House voted last night to avoid a shutdown, the vote still must happen in the Senate to avoid a shutdown.
If the Federal Government does shut down, it will impact the immigration-related government agencies as follows:
– […]
The media reported late January 8th that the Trump Administration, admidst strong pressure from the business and technology sectors, decided to back away from its proposal to remove the ability of Foreign Nationals to extend H-1B status past the six year limit. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) confirmed that it is still conducting […]
On January 4th, 2018, the United States Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) announced that it updated its guidance on how it will conduct border searches of electronic devices. The directive defines electronic devices as “any device that may contain information in an electronic or digital form, such as computers, tablets, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones […]
On December 30th, 2017, the media began reporting that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) was working on changing H-1B laws that permit certain H-1B employees to extend their H-1B status past the six year limit, pursuant to the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (“AC21”). A change of this nature would predominantly […]