USCIS

Subscribe to USCIS via RSS

A bi-partisan group has introduced a new bill in both the House and the Senate that would make additional immigrant visas (green cards) available to doctors and nurses. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA) would ease the long wait lines for green cards that make the U.S. a less attractive alternative to other countries that…

USCIS has announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has suffered a steep decrease in revenue and, without assistance, might run out of funding this summer. The agency has asked Congress for $1.2 billion in emergency relief (as a loan) along with a 10% COVID-19 surcharge (to repay the loan) on top of a…

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…

It has been five years since Save Jobs USA, a group of technology workers who claim to have been displaced by foreign nationals with H-4 EADs challenged the Obama Administration’s authority to enact the H-4 EAD Rule. In the years since that filing, the case has gone back and forth between the D.C. District Court…

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,…

The updated M-274, Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9, from USCIS offers some interesting substantive clarifications and developments.

Changes to match the most recent Form I-9 revisions include:

  1. Section 2.0 clarifies that any person can serve as an authorized representative of the employer to complete, update, or make corrections to Section 2

…

On April 23, 2020, at 11:59 p.m., President Donald Trump’s new proclamation limiting immigrant visa applications from foreign nationals living abroad became effective. That proclamation is hardly the only way the Administration is limiting immigration. Other restrictions on individuals include travel bans, the suspension of visa services, enhanced scrutiny of nonimmigrant visa petitions,…

Some registrants and their attorneys are complaining that some H-1B registrations submitted under the new, electronic process were denied as duplicates were not duplicates at all.

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced H-1B Cap electronic registration, there were concerns that some employers might abuse the system. DHS decided to impose a small registration…

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…