Immigration

In this short series on the new STEM OPT rules, Susan Cohen, Chair of Mintz Levin's Immigration Section will examine the top takeaways for students and their employers. The third post will focus on the eligibility and requirements for employers.

In this short series on the new STEM OPT rules, Susan Cohen, Chair of Mintz Levin's Immigration Section will examine the top takeaways for students and their employers. The second post will focus on the expansion of the regulation and related changes and reporting requirements for students.

In this short series on the new STEM OPT rules, Susan Cohen, Chair of Mintz Levin's Immigration Section will examine the top takeaways for students and their employers. The first post will focus on the timing rules related to the new regulation.

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 U.S.

USCIS announced that it completed the lottery for the new fiscal year's H-1B cap cases. The agency also released the final (approximate) count of cap-eligible H-1B cases filed for FY2017; a new record of 236,000 cases were filed.

On April 7, 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received more than enough H-1B petitions to meet the numerical limit for fiscal year 2017 cap-subject H-1B visas, which includes both the 65,000 general H-1B cap petitions as well as the 20,000 U.S.

As promised, I am following up on my email from last week regarding some additional resources for employees working abroad.

In a welcome move, on March 18, 2016 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released policy guidance for its officers to help them decide "green card portability" cases.

Although I have been writing offer and assignment letters for more than 15 years, I’m curious as to what are today’s best practices for preparing these documents as our company extends its global reach.

The Department of State’s Office of Private Sector Exchange Administration has announced that it will perform site visits to many J-1 Intern and Trainee host organizations beginning this month.  Most individual participants and host organizations will receive emails from the J-1 sponsors regarding these visits.

On April 11, Douglas Hauer, a Member in our Boston office, will moderate, and William Coffman, Of Counsel on our immigration team, will speak as part of a panel on German-American visa and immigration issues. Topics covered will include dual citizenship, work visas for employment in Germany, US green card issues, and changes in the US visa waiver program.

JD Supra has recognized seven Mintz Levin attorneys, including Bill Coffman, Of Counsel on the immigration team, as part of their 2016 Reader's Choice awards. Bill was recognized for being "a Top Author with readers in the semiconductor industry."

In an update to Canada's announcement of a new Electronic Travel Authorization Program (eTA), Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has relaxed the eTA registration requirement until "fall 2016".

At 4:50 p.m. today, one of our top software developers, Ben Bedraggled, stumbled into my office. He dropped his suitcase and computer bag on the floor and slumped into a chair looking like he had been on an airplane for about 24 hours - it turns out this was about right.

Today, March 9, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security previewed the final rule governing STEM OPT, to be released on Friday. This rule is effective May 10, 2016, except the addition of 8 CFR 214.16, which is effective from May 10, 2016 through May 10, 2019.

On October 1, 2015 USCIS announced the launch of the Known Employer Pilot Program. Yesterday, March 3, USCIS confirmed the participation of five employers in the pilot. The purpose of the Known Employer Program is to expedite processing of certain immigrant and nonimmigrant visa petitions via a "pre-approval" process of certain employer information.

From proposals to overhaul OPT to decreasing the number of H-1Bs, 2016 is already proving to be an interesting year for business immigration. In a series of posts, the Mintz Levin team will provide an overview of the cases, legislation, and regulations to look out for in the new year.

The US Consulate in Toronto has introduced "streamlined" registration for companies applying for E-1 Treaty Trader or E-2 Investor registrations. In addition, E-1 and E-2 visa processing for employees of companies with valid registrations has been expanded to the US Embassy in Ottawa and US Consulates General in Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal.

From proposals to overhaul OPT to decreasing the number of H-1Bs, 2016 is already proving to be an interesting year for business immigration. In this series of posts, the Mintz team will provide an overview of the cases, legislation, and regulations to look out for in the new year.

Tips for start-up companies building an immigration petition.