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I am pleased to announce my participation in an online roundtable with immigration lawyers from the US and several other countries hosted by Corporate LiveWire. This interesting website provides business professionals and individuals with news about corporate transactions and deals, legislation and regulatory updates, information about international markets and business strategy, international law, marketing, and finance. Every year, Corporate LiveWire posts an immigration roundtable where … [Read more...]
Immigration and Firm News
July 29, 2015 by ·
USCIS issued its final guidance memo on when employers must file amended or new H-1B petitions for employee changes in job location or other material changes. The memo implements the April 9, 2015 AAO Decision in Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC. In a prior blog post, we discussed the case and USCIS' proposed guidance memo that was posted for public comment. The final memo issued on July 21, 2015 addresses a number of issues and scenarios about when an H-1B employer must file a new or amended … [Read more...]
July 24, 2015 by ·
On July 22, 2015, USCIS issued proposed rules in the Federal Register that expand Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility. Anyone can submit comments on or before September 21, 2015. They should be sent to uscisfrcomment@dhs.gov using "DHS Docket No. USCIS-2012-0003" in the subject line. Note, your comments will be publicly available. The proposed rule stems from one of President Obama's Executive Actions announced in November 2014 in which he stated that he wanted to expand … [Read more...]
July 21, 2015 by ·
On July 10, 2015 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) submitted its comments to USCIS on the proposed "Significant Public Benefit" Parole for Entrepreneurs program that I wrote about in a previous blog post, USCIS Holds Entrepreneur Parole Listening Session. As a recap, USCIS is looking at extending its already existing parole authority at 8 CFR 212.5 to certain entrepreneurs that do not fit easily into existing visa options in order to attract or retain start ups, and research and … [Read more...]
July 15, 2015 by ·
USCIS is asking that all DACA recipients of three-year work authorization cards (EADs) issued on or after February 16, 2015 return the EAD cards to USCIS no later than July 31, 2015. The reason for the recall is that the three-year extensions were part of President Obama's November 2014 Executive Order to expand the DACA program to more recipients and to extend their stay from two years to three years at a time. However, this extended DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) … [Read more...]
July 15, 2015 by ·
Premium Processing Extension Requests Update On July 13, 2015, USCIS resumed premium processing of H-1B extension request petitions. Previously, on May 19, 2015, USCIS announced that it would not process H-1B premium processing extension requests filed between May 26, 2015 and July 27, 2015 so that it could work on the new H-4 work authorization applications that began May 26, 2015. (See a previous blog post about the new H-4 work authorization (EAD) program for certain spouses of H-1B … [Read more...]
July 9, 2015 by ·
I am pleased to announce that I was invited to speak at the 2015 Community College Master Teacher Institute. This event will be held on July 9 and 10, 2015 at the University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. The program is sponsored by UW, the Northwest International Education Association, the University of Wisconsin, and the Global Business Center at the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. The theme for the institute is Human … [Read more...]
June 25, 2015 by ·
Today, USCIS held a teleconference “listening session” with stakeholders in order to get feedback and ideas about how to implement President Obama’s proposed "significant benefit" entrepreneur parole program. USCIS officials merely listened to ideas and gave very few comments except to clarify the points they were most interested in learning about. Anyone can submit suggestions or ideas to public.engagement@uscis.dhs.gov. They are particularly interested in feedback about minimum investment … [Read more...]
June 18, 2015 by ·
On June 17, 2015, the U.S. State Department reported that various U.S. consular and embassy posts around the world are experiencing technical problems issuing visas. It is unclear if the technical glitches are affecting both non-immigrant and immigrant visas. The State Department says on its web page that the problems are with its Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) and that they have government and private contractors working on fixing a patch. We have had several clients receive both … [Read more...]
May 28, 2015 by ·
On May 27, 2015, USCIS issued a draft guidance memo on when employers of H-1B visas workers should file amended petitions. The guidance attempts to implement the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision in Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC decided April 9, 2015. Specifically, the case and the guidance deal with when a change of employment location or other factors constitute a material change warranting the filing of a new Labor Condition Application (LCA) and thus an amended or new … [Read more...]
