The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has been advised by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that during April 2017, a number of PERM filings were inadvertently denied for failure to respond to audit requests, even though the employers had actually submitted timely responses via...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division is reinstating its policy of issuing opinion letters upon request to provide guidance to employers and employees on the Fair Labor Standards Act and other U.S. labor laws. Per a June 27, 2017 DOL announcement,...
In a decision published June 7, 2017, an administrative law judge (ALJ) in the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) fined a staffing company $276,000 for various substantive violations related to its employees' I-9 forms. The violations included failure to prepare I-9s, failure...
The E-3 visa is a nonimmigrant, employment-based visa category available to qualifying Australian citizens. While very similar to the H1B classification, the E-3 classification has a few unique requirements and benefits. General Requirements Parallel Those of H1B Category The E-3 category allows an individual to enter the...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a news release on June 6, 2017, which details actions the agency is taking to combat entities committing visa fraud and abuse. The news release quotes Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, who states, "Entities who engage in visa...
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal by the Trump Administration regarding the decision of several lower courts to block President Trump’s March 6, 2017 executive order that was to impose a travel ban on citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries....
Earlier this month, the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) released the results of a new study on the use of H1B workers by Indian-based companies that undercuts many of the claims made by politicians critical of the H1B program. The study, which focuses on...
Since the inauguration of President Trump in January, there has been much uncertainty in the immigrant community, and information is key. The June 2017 teleconference in our series for U.S. employers of foreign nationals was on Investigations of U.S. Employers by Federal Agencies. A recording...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum on May 23, 2017 that adopts the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decision in Matter of A-T- Inc. The adopted decision serves to instruct USCIS personnel that, for purposes of determining whether a person qualifies...
By law, there is an annual limit of 65,000 new H1Bs that may be approved each year, not including the 20,000 available under the advanced-degree exemption (i.e. master's cap) and those filed for cap-exempt employment. As the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) typically...
