U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that employers will have 30 days to comply with Form I-9 employment eligibility verification physical document examination requirements when COVID-19 flexibility sunsets on July 31, 2023. This answers two pressing questions employers and attorneys have been asking: Since March 20, 2020, there has been an exception to... Continue Reading
Lawful permanent residents may receive temporary evidence of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status by mail, rather than physically visiting a field office, USCIS has announced. LPRs eligible for delivery of temporary evidence of status will be mailed a Form I-94 with ADIT stamp, DHS seal, and a printed photo of the LPR obtained from... Continue Reading
USCIS has proposed raising its filing fees – and the burden of those increased fees will fall primarily on employers large and small. For example, the filing fee for an H-1B visa would be raised by 70% from $460 to $780. The registration fee for Cap H-1Bs would increase from $10 to $215. On top... Continue Reading
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to an en banc rehearing in Ramos v. Mayorkas, potentially further extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for tens of thousands of individuals with current status from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan who have been in limbo waiting on a final ruling in the this... Continue Reading
The H-1B cap season for Fiscal Year 2024 is fast approaching. USCIS announced on January 27th that cap registration begins on March 1st. Employers should assess their hiring needs and determine if they will sponsor foreign workers for H-1B classification this year. Now is the time to begin preparing. The H-1B visa category is for foreign... Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti will be extended and redesignated for 18 months from February 4, 2023, until August 3, 2024. TPS for Haiti had been extended five times, until January 22, 2018, due to economic, security, political, health care, and humanitarian crises. DHS announced... Continue Reading
Starting on Jan. 5, 2023, COVID-19 travel restrictions are back for those traveling to the United States from China, Hong Kong, or Macau. Individuals will have to show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test or of recovery from COVID-19. Restrictions will apply to everyone over the age of 2 boarding a flight from China, Hong Kong,... Continue Reading…
Starting on Jan. 5, 2023, COVID-19 travel restrictions are back for those travelling to the United States from China, Hong Kong, or Macau. Individuals will have to show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test or of recovery from COVID-19. Restrictions will apply to everyone over the age of 2 boarding a flight from China, Hong... Continue Reading
In continuing its efforts to deal with processing backlogs, USCIS is allowing longer automatic extensions of green cards for lawful permanent residents who have applied for naturalization. Although legal permanent residence (green card status) must be maintained, it does not expire once it is granted. The card that is issued to memorialize the status, however,... Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and employment authorization are automatically extended until June 30, 2024, for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua who are subject to the Ramos and Bhattarai TPS litigations. The same extension applies to beneficiaries from Haiti and Sudan who are also subject to... Continue Reading
