Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
Emails from clientverification@state.gov are legitimate, the Department of State Visa Office has confirmed to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Emails from the address clientverification@state.gov are from government contractors requesting confirmation that a visa beneficiary will be working for the employer. Employers should take the requests seriously and respond.
If you have any questions about how to respond to such an email, please contact your Jackson Lewis attorney.
DHS Secretary John Kelly has released new enhanced security requirements for screening of personal electronic devices and passengers and for explosives for approximately 2,000 daily flights to the U.S. from 280 airports in 105 countries. Airlines that meet the new requirements will not become subject to an expansion of the PED ban established in March.
Some airlines previously subject to the ban on personal electronic devices in airline cabins on direct flights to the U.S. have met those requirements and therefore are no longer on the restricted list. They include:
Please contact Jackson Lewis with any questions about this and other developments.
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order striking the 80-percent/three-week goal for interviewing nonimmigrant visa applicants following submission of applications.
Since September 11, 2001, the State Department has given priority to security over quick visa adjudications. For many reasons, including heightened security, between 2001 and 2010, the U.S. share of the global tourism market had dropped markedly. The Obama Administration, concerned about the effect on the U.S. economy, took measures to “support a prosperous and secure travel and tourism industry in the United States.” The first steps were in 2010, when the National Export Initiative and the Travel Promotion Act became law. They mandated intergovernmental cooperation to work to establish a stronger brand identity for the U.S. and to promote exports. By 2012, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to continue the process of fostering more tourism and travel: Establishing Visa and Foreign Visitor Processing Goals and the Task Force on Travel and Competitiveness Order. One section ordered Consulates to “ensure that 80 percent of nonimmigrant visa applicants are interviewed within three weeks of receipt of application, recognizing that resource and security considerations . . . may dictate specific exceptions[.]”
Although the Obama EO contained a security waiver, on June 21, 2017, Trump signed his own EO, striking the 80 percent/three-week goal. This is being done in conjunction with the travel ban partially reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court and the extreme vetting procedures instituted by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Pursuant to extreme vetting, if deemed necessary to determine eligibility, visa applicants may be asked to supply:
Assessing this amount of information and data obviously will take time. A White House spokesman stated that the elimination of the “arbitrary” three-week goal was needed because “[t]he president expects careful, accurate vetting of visa applicants, not a rushed process . . . .”
Business groups already troubled about possible deleterious effects from the travel ban and extreme vetting have expressed concern about additional delays in visa issuance. According to State Department’s own data, the nonimmigrant visa issuance rate has been dropping. In March, 907,166 were issued and the number was down to 735,000 in April.
New guidance explaining the criteria for visa applicants was issued by the Department of State to U.S. embassies and consulates late on June 28, 2017, according to reports. The guidance went into effect on June 29, at 8:00 p.m. EDT.
For our full article, please read here.
Amid criticism of outsourcing firms, at least one large Indian outsourcing company is planning to hire 10,000 U.S. workers over the next two years. Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka announced the company will open four technology and innovation hubs in the U.S. “focusing on cutting-edge technology areas, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, user experience, emerging digital technologies, cloud, and big data.”
The first will be in Vice President Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana. The Indiana campus also will have a training facility and a “skilling and re-skilling” facility. Scheduled to open in August, the Indiana campus alone is expected to employ at least 2,000 U.S. workers by 2021. Indiana reportedly offered Infosys incentives that include $500,000 in training funds and $15,250 in conditional tax credits per job.
Sikka has stated that there is “a strong desire by [President Donald Trump] and [the] administration to hire more locally and make things locally, and that’s something we deeply support.” The restrictions on H-1B and L-1 visas, along with the strict scrutiny of outsourcing companies by the Trump Administration and Congress, are also factors. On the other hand, the company also reportedly said that “more and more of the work that we do going forward . . . need[s] a great amount of presence locally.” Wages are increasing in India and it may be becoming more difficult to find Indian engineering graduates who can code software well enough to meet companies’ and clients’ needs. Automation and cloud computing also have led to a drop in outsourcing firms’ gross hiring numbers worldwide. The demand for H-1B visas from outsourcing companies, such as Infosys, decreased this year, but it also 37 percent lower than before the November presidential election. Market factors, as much if not more than the political environment and restrictions on H-1B and L-1 visas, may be the driving influence.
Infosys has not yet selected the locations of the three other promised hubs, but the company is looking for locations where there are economic incentives offered near their major clients and near universities. Infosys already has offices in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington, each with 100-200 employees. WIPRO and TATA also are moving toward more local hiring. The CEO of WIPRO told reporters, “In Q1, we expect to have more than 50 per cent of employees to be locals in our biggest market which is the United States.”
It comes as no surprise that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the travel ban case and will do so in early October. Meanwhile, the Court stayed lower court injunctions allowing President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban to go in effect, but only to the extent that it affects individuals with no bona fide connection to the United States. Those most affected will be tourists from the six banned countries and refugees fleeing hostile environments who have no ties to the U.S.
Individuals who have family ties to the U.S., jobs or job offers in the U.S., or who are attending school or have been accepted to school will not be subject to the ban. These individuals are being placed in a different category, not on account of their own merits, but as an indirect result of the Court’s efforts to protect the rights of the American citizens or entities to which they have ties.
This balancing of the equities may signal the Court is less focused on the Establishment Clause (“Muslim ban”) arguments, instead, focusing on the Executive’s interest in national security. The Court stated, “The interest in preserving national security is ‘an urgent objective of the highest order.’ . . .. To prevent the Government from pursuing that objective by enforcing [the provisions] against foreign nationals unconnected to the United States would appreciably injure its [the Government’s] interests, without alleviating obvious hardship to anyone else.”
The Court stated that a bona fide relationship cannot be established simply to avoid the strictures of the travel ban. It explained, “[A] nonprofit group devoted to immigration issues may not contact foreign nationals from the designated countries, add them to client lists, and then secure their entry by claiming injury from their exclusion.”
The Court’s opinion was a Per Curiam, not authored by any particular justice. However, Justice Clarence Thomas authored a concurring and dissenting opinion. He stated that he would lift the injunctions entirely, noting the potential complications of implementing procedures to determine bona fide connections. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined Justice Thomas in that opinion.
Attempting to avoid the original travel ban chaos, the Trump Administration had announced the ban would not go into effect for 72 hours after a stay of the injunction. Accordingly, it would seem that it will go into effect, to the extent allowed by the Court, on June 29th. Once in effect, it is possible that at least part of the ban that is being enforced will be moot by the time Supreme Court hears the case in October.
Jackson Lewis attorneys will continue to follow the issues around the travel ban. Extreme vetting is still the order of the day, but the Supreme Court’s latest action should not change things considerably for employers.
Simpler and less expensive travel to Cuba by Americans is apparently short-lived, as more difficult and costly travel to the island nation appears forthcoming.
In a recent speech in Miami outlining his policies on Cuban travel and commercial ties with the island country, President Donald Trump said the U.S. is not severing ties with Cuba and the U.S. Embassy will remain open, but he hopes to force the Castro government to reform, especially as to human rights violations, by reverting to some of the policies that had been in effect for close to 50 years before the Obama détente moves.
What will change and what will not change?
Trump stated he wants to force the Castro Administration to promote free and fair elections, release political prisoners, and allow Cuban workers to be paid directly. Those goals are seemingly shared by both the current and former administrations, but there are marked differences in how to accomplish them. Under the Obama Administration’s scaling back of restrictions, there was a surge in Cuban “capitalism.” More than 600,000 Americans visited Cuba last year and a Cuban entrepreneur class has been developing. Entrepreneurs have opened independent restaurants and have been selling their own “products,” such as tourist rooms and tours through Airbnb to cater to the revived American tourist industry.
The new rules will not go into effect immediately and it may take months before they become reality. The government has 90 days to start rewriting regulations.
The USCIS is requesting some applicants for Adjustment of Status to submit copies of the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms that they (and their employers) completed for current or former employment. These requests are coming as RFEs or from local USCIS field officers.
The stated purpose is to help determine benefit eligibility, particularly to determine whether any false claims to U.S. citizenship were made to obtain employment – a possible basis for inadmissibility. This focus on false claims to U.S. citizenship first appeared in the agency’s December 2016 update to its policy manual specifically identifying false claims on an I-9 Form as a possible basis for inadmissibility.
A finding that a foreign national has made a false claim of U.S. citizenship has very serious consequences. The individual can be permanently inadmissible and, although waivers are available for non-immigrant admissions, most foreign nationals will not be eligible for a waiver to obtain a Green Card.
Because there are strict limitations on the use of the I-9 and the severe consequences of a false claim finding, employers must be careful when providing copies of I-9s or information derived from the I-9, including requests from current or former employees. Consult with immigration counsel before providing any I-9 records.
DHS Secretary Kelly has rescinded DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanents). DAPA was meant to 1) provide undocumented parents of U.S. citizens or Green Card holders with a way to remain in the U.S. with work authorization and 2) expand DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) by encompassing a wider range of ages and arrival dates and lengthening the duration of deferred action and work authorization per application from two to three years. Created by President Obama by an executive order, DAPA was quickly enjoined by the courts as an unacceptable expansion of executive power. The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court, and just one year ago, the lower court ruling was affirmed by default as a result of the Supreme Court deadlocking at 4 to 4. The case has since been stalled.
Secretary Kelly made it clear that his memorandum does not affect DACA’s original terms. DACA recipients will continue to be eligible for two-year extensions. “DACA recipients who were issued three-year extensions before the district court’s injunction will not be affected, and will be eligible to seek a two-year extension upon their expiration. No [DACA] work permits will be terminated prior to their current expiration dates.”
This action is consistent with President Trump’s campaign promise to deport people who are in the country illegally. The Secretary noted that the order was rescinded because there “wasn’t a credible path forward” in terms of litigation. How Justice Gorsuch rules on President’s Trump’s revised travel ban executive order may provide some insight into how the Supreme Court might have ruled on DAPA had the Court had its full complement of justices to consider that executive action.
A federal citizenship statute setting different residency requirements for U.S. citizen fathers and mothers seeking to transmit birthright citizenship to their non-marital children born outside the U.S. violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. Sessions v. Morales-Santana, No. 15-1191 (June 12, 2017).
Please go to our publications page to read more.
