Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
As businesses begin to reopen after shutdowns to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers should anticipate heightened scrutiny by USCIS, ICE, and the Departments of Labor and Justice regarding wage and hour and immigration requirements.
The current surge in worksite enforcement is expected to result in as many as 10,000 I-9 audits…
The Department of Homeland Security announced that on May 14, 2020, a new temporary rule will go into effect giving employers in the food processing industry more flexibility to hire H-2B workers who are essential to maintaining the food supply chain.
Work essential to the food supply chain includes, but is not limited to,…
Recognizing that current travel restrictions and the closure of consulates and embassies abroad has made it nearly impossible to bring new H-2A workers to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to release a rule in the Federal Register on April 20 to address this problem. The unpublished draft of the…
Extra H-2B visas have been put “on hold” and would not be released “until further notice,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
Shortfalls of H-2B visas have been a perennial problem. Used for temporary, seasonal, non-agricultural workers, these visas are relied on heavily by the tourist, hospitality, landscaping, and constructions industries. The statutory…
The peak H-2B filing season opened on January 2, 2020, and by the next day the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) in the Department of Labor (DOL) had received approximately 5,000 applications for 87,000 seasonal workers. Only 33,000 are available for the spring/summer period, which starts on April 1, 2020. Another 33,000 are available…
Just as the H-2B visas for the first half of the fiscal year 2020 ran out (with some limited exceptions), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in cooperation with the Department of Labor (DOL), has released a new final rule on H-2B visas that changes and modernizes the recruitment process.
The rule, which becomes effective…
When Alexander Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor, his deputy, Patrick Pizzella, took over as Acting Secretary. Rather than keeping Pizzella in place, President Donald Trump announced on July 18, 2019, that he intends to nominate Eugene Scalia, the son of late-Justice Antonin Scalia, as the new Secretary.
President Trump tweeted that Eugene Scalia is…
Although the ongoing government shutdown is rooted in an immigration matter – the “wall” – its effect on other immigration processes is somewhat limited. Fee-funded activities are not affected, which means that USCIS offices will remain open, interviews and appointments will continue as scheduled, and most petitions and applications will continue to be accepted and…
Historically, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has been the primary auditor of companies using H-2B visa to hire temporary, seasonal workers. But amid debates over the cap on H-2B visas and an expressed need for more H-2B workers the USCIS’ Fraud Detection and National Security unit (FDNS) is getting into the…
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released proposed changes to ETA Form-9035, Labor Condition Application for Nonimmigrant Workers (LCA), that would require more details about the end-user clients and potential worksites specific to the placement of H-1B workers.
Current practice requires employers to list the addresses for all intended worksites. The proposed change…
