US Immigration

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The Center for Immigration Studies has published a detailed analysis of state-level E-Verify policies. Sixteen states require E-Verify in some form. According to the CIS report, South Carolina’s audit process has been the most robust, making the compliance rate with its law high and more effective than laws in states that do not have an…

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its much anticipated decision on Arizona’s controversial immigration statute, Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (“S.B. 1070”). In so doing, the Court affirmed, in a 5-3 decision, the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, agreeing that the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) had established a likelihood of success…

The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) is a bipartisan bill that has failed in Congress time and again since its initial proposal in 2001. The basic tenets of the Act would provide conditional temporary residency to certain illegal immigrants if the individuals are of good moral character, have graduated from U.S.

In early 2005, USCIS created the Benefit Fraud and Compliance Assessment (BFCA) program. The program was developed to “evaluate the integrity of various nonimmigrant and immigrant benefit programs” by reviewing petitions and applications for factors related to fraud.

The BFCA completed an assessment of the H-1B program in 2008. They reviewed 246 H-1B petitions drawn…

Senator Charles Grassley, a Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has requested the Comptroller General of the United States and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to “fully investigate” certain aspects of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The OPT program allows foreign national students who have completed their studies in the United…

AUTHOR : Melina V. Villalobos

The Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage provisions may apply to J-1 Exchange visitors regardless of their immigration status, a federal District Court for the Middle District of Florida has held. Chaturong Jatupornchaisri v. Wyndham Vacation Ownership, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63633 (M.D. Fla. May 7, 2012). The FLSA…

In November of last year, the cut-off dates for China and India Employment-based Second Preference Category (EB2) were at November 1, 2007.  This meant that Chinese and Indian national with priority dates of November 1, 2007, or earlier are eligible to file their I-485, Application for Adjustment of Status.  Unexpectedly, over the course of a…