Since the U.S. Senate's passage of a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill this past June, the prospects for immigration reform appear to have dimmed. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives (House) has rejected the idea of a comprehensive immigration bill. Instead, the Republicans have focused...
As a result of the U.S. federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is temporarily not accepting or processing prevailing wage requests. A prevailing wage determination (PWD) is generally a required component at the outset of the PERM labor certification process that is used...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released two documents addressing the discretionary authority of CBP officers to overlook certain technical or minor background issues that would otherwise make a foreign national inadmissible to the United States. The two documents give insight into those...
As has been widely reported in the media, the U.S. government temporarily ceased operations deemed non-essential as of October 1, 2013. This is a result of the failure of the U.S. Congress to agree on a new budget for federal operations. Many normal government functions...
The U.S. government is in a state of partial shutdown as of October 1, 2013 due to an inability to obtain congressional agreement on appropriations. As of October 1st, the Department of Labor iCert system is unavailable. This system is used for both PERM labor...
If the U.S. Congress cannot reach an agreement on a funding extension before midnight tonight, there will be what is commonly referred to as a government shutdown, effective October 1, 2013. In such a situation, government services are not completely eliminated. However, government operations are...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Diversity Visa (DV) "Green Card" Lottery registration period for fiscal year 2015 (FY15) runs from October 1, 2013 through November 2, 2013. The DV lottery program allots up to 50,000 immigrant visa numbers annually to applicants who meet certain...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has confirmed earlier rumors that the employment-based (EB) visa numbers available for fiscal year 2013 (FY13) been exhausted. This is not uncommon, as FY13 ends on September 30. Thus, DOS seeks to allocate visa numbers in a manner that...
Individuals selected for the U.S. Department of State (DOS) diversity visa (DV) lottery program for fiscal year 2014 (FY14) are likely to have questions about how to move forward with permanent resident ("green card") applications. The system is based on the DOS visa bulletin, but...
The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) recently addressed questions related to efforts to verify the employment authorization of contractors. The issue is whether it is appropriate for a general contractor to request employment authorization documentation from...
