Two federal courts have struck down two government rules designed to reduce the number of visas issued to skilled foreign workers. It is anticipated that a third federal court will follow the same path. The two government rules (one from the Department of Labor and the other from the Department of Homeland security) impose salary...
Immigration Blog
USCIS recently updated its policy manual regarding the CSPA, to provide clarity on how it calculates a child’s age and the “sought to acquire requirement.” The CSPA provides age-out protection for children who are affected by the delay in adjudicating applications. Because of the long processing times the CSPA can prevent a child aging out...
The Department of Homeland Security (hereafter “DHS” or its agency “USCIS”) proposes significant revisions to the regulations governing the Affidavit of Support (I-864). These proposed revisions published on October 1, 2020, are set to take effect within 30 to 60 days from their publication. What is the Affidavit of Support? The affidavit of support, Form...
On October 8, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) published an interim final rule on prevailing wages drastically increasing the four DOL wage tiers of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) wage survey for H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 temporary work visas, as well as permanent labor certification (PERM) applications. See our article on this here. With...
The Trump administration has now issued a third rule, which radically alters the H-1B program. The first rule was a DOL rule, which significantly increased the wage levels. See our earlier articles which discuss these changes: https://patel-law-group.local/dols-interim-final-rule-implements-higher-prevailing-wage-rates/ https://patel-law-group.local/it-companies-file-suit-against-dol-over-its-new-wage-rule/ The second rule was a DHS rule which changes the definition of H-1B specialty occupation, employer/employee relationship...
Foreign nationals no doubt breathed a sigh of relief at the news that Joe Biden had beat Donald Trump to become the next U.S. President. However, what will change under a Biden Administration? Over the last 4 years the Trump administration has tried to do everything in its power (and often outside of its powers)...
Last month’s visa bulletin saw a surge in the priority dates for Indian Nationals and USCIS’ announcement that the filing date chart could be used was welcomed news. This allowed many Indian Nationals to file an adjustment of status application (sometimes with an EB-3 downgrade) and apply for employment authorization and travel document. Today, the...
After the Department of Labor (DOL) significantly increased the wages for all H–1B workers it is not surprising that a Federal Lawsuit has already been filed. ITServe Alliance along with several IT companies filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in New Jersey on Friday, October 16, 2020, challenging the unlawfulness of the...