On February 18, 2021, the Biden administration formally introduced a new immigration bill in Congress—the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. The bill, marshaled by Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), includes provisions that would impact all aspects of what the administration considers a broken immigration system.
On September 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a regulation that focuses on the expansion of the collection and use of biometric data in the enforcement and administration of immigration laws. The proposed rule would subject foreign nationals to periodic biometrics collection and continuous vetting after they enter the United States and until they become U.S. citizens.
The Beltway Buzz is a weekly update summarizing labor and employment news from inside the Beltway and clarifying how what’s happening in Washington, D.C. could impact your business.
On June 22, 2020, the Trump administration issued a presidential proclamation suspending the entry of individuals to the United States on select nonimmigrant visas, including H-1B, H-2B, J-1, and L-1 visa holders, as well as their dependents.
On April 18, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO), “Buy American and Hire American,” which aims to “stimulate economic growth” and “ensure the integrity of the immigration system.” Although this action provides impetus to federal agencies to propose changes to the U.S. immigration system, the EO itself does not present an immediate impact to immigration programs.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 17, 2017, that it had completed its annual H-1B lottery and had selected a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the 65,000 petition bachelor’s degree cap and the 20,000 petition U.S. master’s degree cap.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the annual H-1B quota for both the regular 65,000 visa petition bachelor’s degree cap and the 20,000 visa petition U.S. master’s degree cap has been met for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018.
In a policy memorandum published on March 31, 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued guidance that narrowed the eligibility for H-1B petitions filed in the computer programmer job category. The memo is in line with the agency’s recent announcements that signal its support for President Trump’s plans to revamp the H-1B visa program in an effort to protect U.S. workers.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) service centers are experiencing severe delays in processing immigration cases due to an overwhelming backlog. USCIS has not publicly identified the cause of the delays or offered an explanation, but the situation is causing problems for many employers.
Last week, the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) visa processing database, which controls the issuance of visas and passports at the U.S. consulates abroad, experienced system performance issues (including outages) leading to worldwide delays in visa issuances for individuals seeking entry into the United States. The malfunction in the Consular Consolidated Database stalled the processing
Last week, the U.S. Department of State’s visa processing database, which controls the issuance of visas and passports at the U.S. consulates abroad, experienced system performance issues (including outages) leading to worldwide delays in visa issuances for individuals seeking entry into the United States. The malfunction in the Consular Consolidated Database stalled the processing of
