April 2013

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have issued a joint interim final rule that establishes a new methodology for calculating prevailing wages under the H-2B low-skilled, nonagricultural guestworker program. This is in response to a March 21 district court decision, in Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas v. Solis, vacating…

AUTHOR: Melina V. Villalobos.
 
As we previously blogged about on April 17th, a comprehensive immigration reform bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.  While many critics have focused on the new pathways for legal migration to the U.S. contained in the 850-page bill…

The highly anticipated immigration reform bill has been formally introduced by a bi-partisan group of Senators.  The proposal for significant changes to the nation’s immigration system (consisting of almost 850 pages), the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, includes provisions for increased border security, legalization for individuals present in unlawful status,…

AUTHOR:  Davis C. Bae.

The USCIS announced on April 8, a week after it began accepting H-1B petitions, that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. It received approximately 124,000 H-1B petitions, including petitions for the advanced degree exemption. This likely will mean…

Author:  Harry J. Joe.

Job shops and staffing firms use of H-1B visas, but that do not actually and directly employ the alien workers, that assign such workers to third-party worksites and otherwise bench (practice of placing H-1B visa holders in nonproductive status, without pay, while they wait for placement with other employers), and not…

On April 9, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a notice in the Federal Register clarifying the date by which the new Form I-9 must be used instead of prior versions of the form.  Employers are advised that they must use the new Form I-9 beginning on May 7 or they will be…

USCIS announced today that it "received approximately 124,000 H-1B petitions during the filing period, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption." On April 7, 2013, these applications were processed through a computer-generated random selection process known as the lottery to determine which ones would receive the 65,000 visas generally allocated for H-1Bs as well …

AUTHOR:  Davis C. Bae

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.

A bill seeking to make the Conrad State 30 J-1 visa waiver program permanent and improve the pathway for physician immigration to the U.S. with changes to H-1B visas, Green card issuance and national interest waiver requirements has been introduced by a bipartisan group of four Senators: Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Susan Collins…