There’s never any good news coming from USCIS these days. The agency’s treatment of applicants changing status to F-1 is another prime example of a confusing policy change that has no basis in law and regulation, and which severely hurts the U.S.’s ability to hold on to talented students. To fully grasp the ridiculousness of […]
In most cases, termination of H-1B employment by either the at-will employer or employee is fairly straightforward. Once termination takes place, the employer in most cases is required to offer to pay the reasonable costs of the H-1B worker’s return transportation abroad, and the employer also should inform USCIS of the termination in order to […]
Employers of roving H-1B employees have scratched their heads in confusion over the Administrative Appeals Office’s April 9, 2015 decision, Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC, 26 I&N Dec. 542 (AAO 2015), discussed in detail in this blog here, here and here. This is because while the decision lays out the requirements for filing an amendment […]
Since writing last year on the challenges facing employers who wish to hire H-1B workers for uncommon specialty occupations, we have seen the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) present a novel way to push back on H-1B filings: by challenging whether the beneficiary’s degree is in a field related to the specialty occupation. This has […]
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS)”) announced in February 2015 that beginning May 26, 2015, eligible H-4 spouses of H-1B visa holders could begin applying for employment authorization documents (EADs) from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”). This change in the regulations was in keeping with President Obama’s efforts to encourage highly skilled […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regularly releases statistics on the H1B – the top occupations and the top employers that file Labor Condition Applications (LCA) for these nonimmigrant worker petitions. As of the Fourth Quarter of FY 2014, six of the top ten certified positions were computer-related occupations. The rest of the positions in […]
August 15, 2014 marks the two-year anniversary of the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The policy was announced through a memorandum by then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on June 15, 2012. The Memo directed the heads of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Citizenship […]
