Employment Based Immigration
Coronavirus Travel Restrictions Leave Some J-1 Exchange Visitors Stranded
Individuals participating in the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program were faced with a difficult choice in the hours after President Trump issued travel restrictions to Europe: leave their program in the United States or risk getting stuck until the coronavirus was contained. From then on, the clock was ticking for… Read More
Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to Challenge USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Filed by American Businesses
The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout, LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed a nationwide class action lawsuit today challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analysts positions filed by businesses in the United States. Read More
USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Spurs Class Action Lawsuit
This nationwide class action lawsuit challenges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analyst positions filed by United States businesses. Read More
Shortage of Farmworkers Threatens Americans’ Food Supply During the Coronavirus
The U.S. agricultural industry depends on seasonal guest workers to produce the food Americans eat. Since 1986, the H-2A visa program has allowed employers to fill labor shortages with temporary and seasonal workers from other countries. The Trump administration recently classified agricultural… Read More
Regulatory Comment on Establishing a System for Secretarial Review Over Cases Before the Department of Labor Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals
These comments were submitted on the regulatory changes in the Department of Labor’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Direct Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on March 6, 2020 by the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Read More
What You Need to Know About Public Charge and the Coronavirus
Immigrants living in the United States are eligible for unemployment benefits. But as the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus spread across the country, many are reportedly afraid to file for unemployment and other government benefits. Much of this fear stems from the Trump administration’s… Read More
The Rules for Immigrants Wanting to Work in the United States on a Permanent Basis
This fact sheet defines the various components of the permanent, employment-based immigration system—and then describes how those components relate to each other in the application processes for each of the five preference categories. Read More
The H-1B Registration Period Has Ended. How Did the New System Handle It?
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed its first registration period on March 20 for H-1B petitions. The H-1B visa category allows highly educated foreign workers to temporarily work for employers in the United States. This was the first year USCIS used a new registration process… Read More
H-1B Registration Is Almost Here: What We Do and Don’t Know About USCIS’ New Process
For the first time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is requiring U.S. employers to register in order to have a chance to file an H-1B petition that is subject to the annual limits. Registration begins March 1. The H-1B visa category allows highly educated foreign workers to temporarily work… Read More
What We Know About USCIS’ New H-1B Cap Registration System
The new process for petitioning for highly educated H-1B workers will officially begin on March 1, 2020. For the first time, a U.S. employer who wants to file a petition that is subject to the annual limits must first register with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The agency then… Read More
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