Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal court (State of New York v. Wolf et al, 1:20-cv-01127) over its new policy prohibiting New Yorkers from registering or re-registering for various Trusted Traveler Programs.
New York residents were singled out by the Trump…
International students at U.S. colleges and universities can feel a bit more secure now that a federal district court judge in North Carolina has permanently enjoined the government from enforcing its 2018 Policy Memorandum that changed how “unlawful presence” would be calculated.
Judge Loretta Biggs, in Guilford College et al. v. Chad Wolf, U.S. Department…
The long-promised new Form I-9 is now available for use and downloading from the USCIS website. Although it became available for use starting January 31, 2020, there is a grace period. Employers have up to 90 days (until May 1, 2020) to start using the new form which has the Revision date 10/21/19 on…
USCIS has announced the new Public Charge Rule will become effective on February 24, 2020, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has lifted the injunction.
This Rule affects legal immigrants (those who are legally in the United States and those who are seeking admission to the United States) and illegal immigrants (who have never been…
USCIS has announced that Iranians in the U.S. will not be eligible for extensions of E-1 or E-2 visa status or changes to that status from another visa classification. The announcement comes more than a year after the U.S. Department of State notified Iran on October 3, 2018, of the termination of the 1955 Treaty…
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed into law in 1993, eliminated trade barriers and increased investment opportunities between the three signatory countries, the United States, Mexico, and Canada. After more than 25 years, the agreement was seen to require revisions, particularly as to labor, digital trade, and data flows. A revision to NAFTA,…
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…
While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries await the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion and most Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries also are in limbo, Liberians have been given what appears to be a pathway to citizenship due to passage of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) Act as part of the National Defense…
USCIS is starting the year with a growing backlog of processing delays.
In May 2019, a bi-partisan group of Senators wrote to USCIS requesting information on why the service-oriented agency adjudicating immigration benefits, such as work authorization, is disrupting American businesses through administrative inefficiencies.
Here are some of the facts:
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After receiving several H-1B approvals for periods shorter than requested, IT consulting services company Flexera Global has sued USCIS in the federal court for the Southern District of Texas requesting an order directing USCIS to approve H-1B petitions for the periods requested.
The Trump Administration has made it harder to onboard workers requiring an H-1B…
