Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
Beginning on June 1, 2023, filers submitting PERM Applications for Permanent Employment Certification must submit the revised ETA-9089 in the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has announced.
A U.S. employer hiring a foreign worker and petitioning for that worker to be…
USCIS has expanded premium processing for F-1 students to pending Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) applications based on Optional Practice Training (OPT) and STEM OPT. On April 3, 2023, the same will be extended to new EAD applications for OPT and STEM OPT. The cost for this premium processing will be $1,500 and the timeframe will…
USCIS has proposed raising its filing fees – and the burden of those increased fees will fall primarily on employers large and small. For example, the filing fee for an H-1B visa would be raised by 70% from $460 to $780. The registration fee for Cap H-1Bs would increase from $10 to $215. On top…
In a settlement agreement signed on January 19, 2023, USCIS agreed to “bundle” the adjudication of dependent applicants’ Form I-539 (Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status) and Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization) with the primary applicant’s Form I-129 (Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker) if the forms are filed together as one package.
Stemming from a settlement…
Hoping to recover some of its operating costs, reduce backlogs, and reestablish timely case processing, USCIS is proposing to adjust its fees for the first time since 2016.
The proposed rule is predicted to generate close to an additional $2 billion per year, on average, for USCIS by keeping humanitarian case fees low and adding…
On September 27, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an amended version of California SB-1162, Employment: Salaries and Wages. Among the new provisions which will become effective on January 1, 2023 is the requirement that California employers with at least 15 employees include the pay scale for any position in any job posting, including advertisements posted…
USCIS is resuming the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) Program beginning with already pending CFRP applications. This program started in 2007 and has been on hold for some time. It allows beneficiaries of approved Forms I-130, Petitions for Alien Relative, to come to the United States on parole while waiting for an available visa number. …
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is trying to approve as many employment-based green card applications as it can before the annual deadline of September 30, 2022 (the end of the fiscal year).
Primarily due to COVID-19 restrictions, approximately 140,000 family-based visa numbers went unused last fiscal year. As a result, these unused visa numbers…
In March 2022, USCIS published a final rule expanding its premium processing service to include additional immigration petition and application types. This announcement was welcome news to businesses and foreign nationals dealing with extensive delays in the processing of immigration benefits.
On May 24, 2022, USCIS announced that premium processing will begin as of June…
The Jumpstart Our Legal Immigration System Act (Jumpstart), introduced by Zoe Lofgren (D-Calf.) in the House of Representatives, if passed, could revolutionize the green card process. The legislation would recapture thousands of unused family- and employment-based visas and allow beneficiaries to expedite their processes by paying additional fees.
The Jumpstart Act would help to…
