Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
By September 30, 2023, Congress will again have to fund the government. Despite ongoing efforts by the administration and Congress, indications are that a shutdown may occur at the beginning of the fiscal year, on October 1. Should a shutdown occur, it will affect a number of immigration- and visa-related agencies and processes.
USCIS
Because…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending and redesignating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for South Sudan for 18 months, from November 4, 2023, through May 3, 2025, due the ongoing armed conflict and other ongoing extraordinary conditions.
The Secretary of Homeland Security may designate and redesignate a “foreign country for TPS due to conditions…
DHS has today, July 25, 2023, published a new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Form. USCIS has made significant changes to the form and its instructions, including a checkbox to indicate that an employee’s Form I-9 documentation was examined using a DHS-authorized alternative procedure. USCIS has stated that the “newly updated Form I–9 contains myriad revisions…
On July 21, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule, which will be officially published on July 25, 2023, that will provide eligible employers filling out the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 an optional alternative to the in-person physical document examination method that employers have followed as part of the…
As part of the Biden Administration’s initiative to retain high-skilled foreign nationals in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it is adding eight new fields as qualifying fields of study for STEM (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) Optional Practical Training (OPT).
STEM OPT is a 24-month extension of Optional Practical Training…
On June 13, 2023, the Department of Homeland (DHS) announced that it would extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months for current beneficiaries from El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.
Soon-to-be-published Federal Register notices will explain the eligibility criteria, timelines, and procedures necessary for current beneficiaries to re-register for TPS. Indications are that individuals…
With the end of the COVID-19 National Emergency in the United States, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has reinstated its preexisting policy regarding online classes.
Accordingly, for the 2023-24 academic year (starting fall 2023), students will have to comply with the SEVP’s pre-COVID-19 restrictions. Students will be able to complete the 2022-23 academic…
As of July 1, 2023, all private employers in Florida with 25 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify, the federal government’s database for verifying work authorization. Enforcement of this new E-Verify requirement will begin one year after enactment on July 1, 2024.
These employers also must:
The last-standing COVID-19-related travel restrictions will soon expire. Bringing the United States in line with most countries around the world, after May 11, 2023, non-citizen, nonimmigrant air passengers need not show proof of being fully vaccinated to board a flight to the United States.
Until May 12, nonimmigrants must still document having a bivalent or…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that employers will have 30 days to comply with Form I-9 employment eligibility verification physical document examination requirements when COVID-19 flexibility sunsets on July 31, 2023.
This answers two pressing questions employers and attorneys have been asking:
