Articles Discussing Employment-Related Visas.

On December 1, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs that had requested to set aside two new regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The

In a much-anticipated decision, on December 1, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of business and university plaintiffs (led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), setting aside two new interim final rules that would have instituted major changes to the H-1B

On December 1, Judge Jeffrey S. White granted the plaintiffs’ request to set aside two separate rules issued by the Trump Administration that would have drastically undermined the ability of employers to utilize both the H-1B and PERM visa programs. In Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. United

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is wrapping up a comment period regarding a proposed, substantial change to the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.

While the U.S. presidential election has come to an end, we continue to monitor changes in the Trump administration’s handling of ongoing agency immigration reforms through the end of 2020 and into early 2021 that may impact employers’ ability to sponsor foreign workers on visas. Of particular note is

On November 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule that, if implemented, would amend the process by which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects H-1B registrations for H-1B cap-subject petitions. The proposed rule would replace the current H-1B random selection lottery process with

Having instituted a new on-line registration process for Cap H-1B petitions last year, on November 2, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to replace the random selection process with a process that prioritizes H-1B petitions with the highest wage levels.

DHS sees wage

The B-1 in lieu of H-1B visa has been used by international companies to bring employees who remain on payrolls abroad to the United States for short periods of time (generally fewer than six months) to do professional level work that benefits the company abroad. Through the rulemaking process, the

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its interim final rule, “Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program,” which will become effective December 7, 2020. This rule brings clarity to prior U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudication policies that had been interpreted through two

Business groups, universities, and technology consulting firms have filed suits seeking to enjoin the new rules on H-1B and PERM labor certification programs issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) on October 8, 2020.

Those rules, both issued as Interim Final rules and

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its long-speculated interim final rule, “Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program.” According to the interim final rule’s summary, the purpose of the new rule is to “strengthen the integrity of the H-1B program during the economic crisis

On October 1, 2020, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a limited preliminary injunction enjoining the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from “implementing, enforcing, or otherwise carrying out” Section 2 of Presidential Proclamation 10052 of June 22, 2020, which suspended the entry of

On October 1, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law a stopgap spending measure to fund the U.S. government through December 11, 2020. The spending measure includes a provision titled “Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act,” which authorizes U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to expand the premium processing program and

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its long-speculated interim final rule, “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States.” The new rule will update how the existing “four-tiered wage structure based on the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released yet another rule that will make it harder and more costly for U.S. companies to employ highly skilled workers.

As a companion regulation to the “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States” rule,