Immigration

On July 14, 2015, the House Judiciary Committee met to discuss oversight of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Immigration was a major topic alongside border security and global threats of terrorism, domestic terrorism and cyber-security.

USCIS announced today, July 14, 2015, that it completed the return of  rejected fiscal year 2016 H-1B cap-subject petitions. It was previously announced on May 4, 2015, that USCIS completed data entry of all selected cap-subject petitions.

The Department of State issued an updated Form DS-7002, Training/ Internship Placement Plan for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a web-based information system maintained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yesterday, in an opinion authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court brought a measure of hope to non-citizens facing deportation on the basis of certain minor criminal convictions.

The diversity visa green card lottery has been an important part of U.S. immigration law for the last 20 years. It allows 55,000 foreign nationals to immigrate each year and was implemented to fulfill the worthy goal of increasing the diversity of immigrants in the United States.

In its most recent foray into utilizing technology at the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) expanded Mobile Passport Control ("MPC") to Miami International Airport.

Republican leaders and both branches of Congress failed Friday to come to a long-term agreement to provide fiscal year funding for the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and provide confidence that a DHS shutdown will be avoided. A one-week funding extension was passed, and now DHS is poised to run out of money at midnight on March 6th.

In a novel case, a New York federal court judge recently denied an employer’s motion to dismiss a Section 1981 alienage discrimination class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company violated that Act by implementing a policy of hiring only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

On January 13, 2015 Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 into the Senate.  This bill, known as S. 169 or “I2”, clearly has bipartisan support, and aims to broadly reform high skilled immigration.

It’s a little known fact that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) won’t approve an employment-based visa petition before checking the company information against the Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) database via the Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) system.

As a part of President Obama’s recent announcement regarding his executive action on immigration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson issued several memoranda to the directors of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Thursday, November 20th, coinciding with President Obama’s announcement regarding his forthcoming executive action on immigration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a memo to the directors of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directing the agencies to take action

While the three branches of federal government fire off salvos on immigration reform, states are finding ways to tackle challenges to the federal criminal immigration landscape.

The Obama administration has touted a number of new initiatives aimed at encouraging immigrant entrepreneurship and retention of high-tech workers in the U.S. These are commendable and this author applauds these efforts.

It’s that time of year again. The Department of State will begin accepting requests to register for the 2016 Green Card Lottery. Online registration begins today, October 1, 2014 and will conclude on November 3.

It is almost October 1st, when thousands of new H-1B visas will become effective with the onset of the US government's 2015 fiscal year. In light of this, here are six little known but important facts about H-1B visas:

Join two of our colleagues from the Employment, Labor & Benefits Practice for this free webinar on drafting restrictive covenants, to be held on May 28th. The panelists include Mintz Levin attorneys Bret Cohen and Mitch Danzig, and Jeff Lambert, the Chief Legal Officer of our client The Active Network.

In April 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) introduced electronic Forms I-94, enabling nonimmigrants entering the U.S. via air and sea to easily access their Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Records online. As of  May 1, 2014, this electronic system has been expanded to provide access to an individual’s full arrival and departure history for the past five years.

The following opinion piece by Susan Cohen appeared in the December 20, 2013 issue of VentureBeat and is reprinted here with permission. The U.S. market is a magnet for foreign entrepreneurs.

The April 1, 2014 deadline for filing H-1B visa petitions for Fiscal Year 2015 will be here before you know it. We recently published an alert with more information on when you should file and H-1B caps.