On May 10, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718, which takes effect July 1, 2023, creating new employment mandates affecting Florida’s private businesses. Most important for businesses are the host of penalties for those who violate new E-Verify mandates.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the H-1B cap initial registration period for fiscal year 2024 will be from March 1, 2023, 12 p.m. EST to March 17, 2023, 12 p.m. EST. During this time, employers and their representatives may submit an H-1B registration for a chance to be selected among one of 85,000 employers to proceed forward to the next stage of the H-1B process.
Continue Reading H-1B cap registration period opens March 1, 2023
On Oct. 19, 2021, the Department of Justice, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) announced a settlement agreement with Facebook to resolve issues regarding Facebook’s practices to recruit for PERM applications. The settlement agreement requires Facebook to pay a significant fine, provide a fund for the settlement of individual claims and modify recruiting practices for PERM cases.
Continue Reading Lessons from the IER settlement with Facebook
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) changed the H-1B lottery last year with the introduction of a requirement that employers first register their interest to file petitions for the fiscal year beginning October 1 in an online system. The lottery was conducted from the registrations instead of the full petitions, as had been done in previous years. Only those employers whose registrations were selected were able to file H-1B petitions with USCIS. This registration system will remain in place for 2021.
Continue Reading New H-1B petitions for FY2022 again follow online registration and selection process, wage-based selection delayed
On Aug. 21, 2020, Chief Judge Algenon Marbley of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ordered the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to permit thousands of foreign nationals to work in the U.S. before they receive printed Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). These workers had already been approved to work by USCIS, but they had not received the EADs they must provide to their employers. Although these cards are usually issued within a few days of approval of an application for employment authorization, USCIS had slowed down its production of them earlier this year.
Continue Reading Immigration settlement allows thousands of foreign workers to get back to work
The President issued the “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak” on June 22, 2020, limiting the admission of certain foreign nationals to the United States. This Proclamation includes an introduction describing the high unemployment rate resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic dislocation as justification for this ban on the admission of certain temporary visas. The President also extended the 60 day limitation of immigrant visas announced in the April 22, 2020 Proclamation until Dec. 31, 2020. In addition to the bar for immigrant visas, the Proclamation also bars foreign national citizens outside the United States who seek to enter with an H-1B, H-2B, L-1 and certain categories of J-1 nonimmigrant visas. The Proclamation does not apply to any person currently in the United States, and therefore will not affect extensions of status for H-1B, H-2B or L-1 (Persons in J-1 status are admitted for the “duration of status” and therefore generally do not require an extension.) The Proclamation takes effect on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 and will continue until Dec. 31, 2020, although the text of the Proclamation suggests it could be continued beyond this date.
Continue Reading Presidential Proclamation limits nonimmigrant employment visas
President Donald Trump released a “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following COVID-19 Outbreak” on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. This proclamation provides the legal context and direction to implement a Monday night tweet asserting his intention to “suspend immigration.” While we analyze the legal implications of this proclamation below, it is also important to understand the context. As a practical matter, the limitation on the issuance of immigrant visas has been the result of the COVID-19 closure of consulates around the world. There have not been interviews in the past six weeks, and it is not certain when they will resume. Thus, there has already been a halt in the issuance of immigrant visas. Therefore, the practical effect of this order is limited.
Continue Reading Parsing President Trump’s latest tweet and proclamation on immigration
Public health experts recommend that companies encourage employees to work from home to stem the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in offices, large meetings, public transit and elsewhere. Remote work policies, coupled with travel bans and government-imposed quarantines, pose unique complications for employers and their employees holding nonimmigrant visa status.
Continue Reading Work from home and travel policy considerations for employees of nonimmigrant visa status during coronavirus outbreak
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has again released a new and updated version of Form I-9, the Employment Eligibility Verification document. Since November 1986, all U.S. employers have been required to complete and retain the Form I-9 for new employees. Effective January 31, 2020, employers should use the new Form I-9, available online in PDF format. The latest version of the Form I-9 is mandatory as of May 1, 2020, and it replaces the prior version in use since September 2018. You can identify the new version of the form by the date (10/21/2019) noted at the bottom-left corner; the prior version was dated 07/17/2017-N. Although employers may use the prior version up to April 30, USCIS recommends using the updated form for any new employees hired on or after January 31, 2020.
Continue Reading Employer Alert: revised Form I-9 effective January 31, 2020
On Dec. 6, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the H-1B cap season 2021 will begin on March 1, 2020 and end on March 20, 2020. Once selections have been announced, those selected will have 90 days to submit the petitions.
On Jan.