Shortly before the deadline on September 30, 2023, Congress passed and President Biden signed H.R. 5860, a short-term funding bill to keep the federal government funded for 45 days. A shutdown is still possible after November 17.
On September 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed rule to strengthen protections for temporary workers under the H‑A temporary agricultural and H‑B temporary nonagricultural worker programs. The proposed rule is intended to improve the H‑2 programs by providing more flexibility and protections for the workers, as well as improving efficiency.
On September 18, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman’s Office released a tip sheet for F-1 international students on how to avoid delays with adjudications on Form I-765, Applications for Employment Authorization.
Immigration Customs Enforcement and the Student and Exchange Visitor Program recently updated Form I-983 to remove the requirement for wet signatures.
On September 19, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget received a proposed rule from the Department of Homeland Security to amend regulations governing H‑1B specialty occupation workers and F‑1 students who are beneficiaries of timely filed H‑1B cap-subject petitions.
On September 20, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security announced the extension and redesignation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months. The extension and redesignation are based upon a review of country conditions and findings that Venezuela continues to experience increased instability and safety concerns.
On September 21, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security announced the extension and redesignation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, from November 21, 2023, to May 20, 2025. The extension and redesignation are based upon a review of country conditions and ongoing armed conflict in Afghanistan.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on September 27, 2023, that it is increasing the maximum validity period to five years for initial and renewal Employment Authorization Documents for certain noncitizens who are employment-authorized incident to status or circumstance, including those admitted as refugees, paroled as refugees, and granted asylum, as well as recipients of withholding of removal.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on September 25, 2023, that it is exempting the biometric services fee for Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status. Beginning October 1, 2023, applicants do not need to pay the $85 biometric services fee.
Effective September 29, 2023, Israel has been designated eligible for participation in the Visa Waiver Program.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reminded employers about the November 1, 2023, deadline for using the updated Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification with the 08/01/2023 edition date.
The Department of Homeland Security will extend and redesignate Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, beginning on December 8, 2023, and ending on June 7, 2025.
The Department of State announced that U.S. passport processing times have fluctuated several times in 2023. As of October 2, 2023, routine applications were being processed in eight to 11 weeks, and expedited applications in five to seven weeks. Processing times do not include mailing time.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has completed the second random selection process from previously submitted registrations for the fiscal year 2024 H-1B cap.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced changes to how the agency issues receipts for L-1 nonimmigrant intracompany transferees (executives, managers, or specialized knowledge professionals) under a previously approved Blanket L petition.
The Department of State's Visa Bulletin for September includes Diversity Visa 2024 lottery results, availability of employment-based visas during September and determination of the numerical limit on immigrants for fiscal year 2023.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reminded employers that the new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, is now available for use. The new version incorporates an alternative procedure for E-Verify employers to remotely examine employee documents. Other changes include shortening the form to one page and reducing the instructions to eight pages.
The Department of State released a fact sheet on August 7, 2023, on new family reunification parole processes for individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia, and updated processes for individuals from Cuba and Haiti. Nationals of these countries may be considered for parole on a case-by-case basis for a period of up to three years while they apply to become lawful permanent residents pursuant to their approved I-130 petition.
The Department of Homeland Security is extending and redesignating Ukraine for Temporary Protected Status. The extension allows approximately 26,000 current beneficiaries to retain TPS through April 19, 2025, if they continue to meet TPS eligibility requirements. An estimated 166,700 additional individuals may be eligible for TPS under the redesignation of Ukraine. This population includes nationals of Ukraine (and individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in Ukraine) in the United States in nonimmigrant status or without lawful immigration status. DHS also announced special student relief for Ukraine.
The Department of Homeland Security is extending and redesignating Sudan for Temporary Protected Status. The extension allows approximately 1,200 current beneficiaries to retain TPS through April 19, 2025, if they continue to meet TPS eligibility requirements. An estimated 2,750 additional individuals may be eligible for TPS under the redesignation of Sudan. This population includes nationals of Sudan (and individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in Sudan) in the United States in nonimmigrant status or without lawful immigration status. DHS also announced special student relief for Sudan.
Earlier this year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rolled out premium processing for F-1 students seeking optional practical training or science, technology, engineering and mathematics OPT extensions. As students began to file premium processing requests, stakeholders informed the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman that they were experiencing delays in receiving their Employment Authorization Documents. The CIS Ombudsman is reminding stakeholders that premium processing times are separate from work permit production timelines.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued policy guidance, effective August 16, 2023, to confirm the evidentiary requirements for physicians seeking a national interest waiver of the job offer requirement based on work in an underserved area or at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facility.
On August 21, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a new online form for individuals, attorneys and accredited representatives to request an in-person appointment at their local field office without having to call the USCIS Contact Center.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently announced that the Office of Refugee Resettlement has issued updated guidance clarifying that ORR benefits and services will be available to eligible Afghan parolees who have a pending re-parole application, a pending asylum application or a pending adjustment of status application with USCIS. This guidance applies to eligible Afghan parolees whose initial period of parole expires while their applications are pending with USCIS, the agency said.
In a recent ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the 2021 EPA standards regulating greenhouse gas emissions from domestic aircraft. California v. Environmental Protection Agency, 72 F.4th 308 (D.D.C. 2023). The EPA’s standards aligned with those adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Petitioners, made up of twelve states, the District of Columbia, and three environmental groups, challenged the EPA’s regulations, claiming they should have been more stringent than those promulgated by ICAO in an effort to combat climate change.
On July 13, 2023, the EPA published a final rule rescinding the agency’s 2020 Trump-era rule titled “Increasing Consistency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process” (the Benefit-Cost Rule or Rule). 88 Fed. Reg. 44710 (2023).
On August 2, 2023, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System/State Disposal System permit issued by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for a new copper mining project in St Louis County, MN, proposed by New Range Copper Nickel (formerly Poly Met Mining).
Since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Republic Bank, several agencies have issued reports on factors that contributed to the failures. If you have not added the recent post-mortem reports and speeches to your list of weekend or bedtime reading, you should do so. They provide an important window into the minds of bank regulators on what is to come.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010, but it seems like decades ago given what has happened since its passage—the regulatory agencies and financial services industry digested it and spent hundreds of thousands of hours issuing rules and more hours implementing those rules.
The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification reminded employers and other interested stakeholders that the three-day filing window to submit an H-2B Application for Temporary Employment Certification (Form ETA-9142B and appendices) requesting a work start date of October 1, 2023, will open on July 3, 2023 and close on July 5, 2023. October 1, 2023, is the first day of the semiannual visa allotment for the first half of fiscal year 2024. Applications will be denied if they are filed before July 3.
The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification has published the Assignment Groups for 2,157 H-2B applications covering 40,947 worker positions with a work start date of October 1, 2023. OFLC said it completed the randomization process on July 6, 2023, and assigned to National Processing Center analysts all H-2B applications placed in Assignment Group A for issuance of Notices of Deficiency or Acceptance. Group A includes enough worker positions to reach the H-2B semiannual visa allotment of 33,000.
A Federal Register notice published on June 16, 2023, by the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration updated the Adverse Effect Wage Rates under the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program that apply to a limited set of H-2A job opportunities for which the AEWR is determined using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Statistics Survey.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services seeks comments by August 28, 2023 on "E‑Verify NextGen" (I-9NG), a new online "demonstration project" intended to further integrate the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, process with the E-Verify electronic work eligibility confirmation process "to create a more secure and less burdensome employment eligibility verification process overall for employees and employers."
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has launched a new self-service tool allowing benefit requestors, and their attorneys and accredited representatives, to reschedule most biometric services appointments before the date of the appointment. USCIS also clarified its guidance on policies and procedures related to "good cause" in this context.
On July 7, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security announced the implementation of new family reunification parole processes for eligible nationals of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. DHS said the new processes are for "nationals from those countries whose family members are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who have received approval to join their family in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security has amended the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List by adding eight qualifying fields of study and a corresponding Department of Education Classification of Instructional Programs code for each. No CIP codes from the existing list are being removed.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on July 12, 2023, that it is expanding myProgress (formerly known as personalized processing times) to Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, and Form I-131, Application for Travel Document. MyProgress is also available for applicants with a USCIS online account who file Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card, among others.
The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification has issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the final rule, "Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United States," which was published on February 28, 2023.
On July 31, 2023, USCIS announced the second selection process is complete and all prospective petitioners with selected registrations have been notified that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary.
The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2023 examines the effects of backlogs and additional challenges facing the agency. It recommends actions USCIS can take to address the human consequences and detrimental effects on the agency of backlogs.
The Department of State recently clarified the Final Action Date retrogression applicable to employment-based third preference visa applicants chargeable to India, effective with the July 2023 Visa Bulletin, and explained the reason for prorating India EB-3 visas.
The Department of State's Visa Bulletin for August includes information on establishment of a Worldwide EB-1 final action date; retrogression in the EB-1 category for India; and retrogression in the EB-3 category for Rest of World countries, Mexico and Philippines.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on July 18, 2023, that it is updating its visa availability approach for managing the inventory of Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor.
Residential landlords in Iowa and other parts of the country continue to struggle with the inconsistency and confusion among state courts regarding whether the additional 30-day notice to vacate requirement of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 is still applicable.
January 1 is New Year’s Day, and it is also the opening of the H-2B filing season for employers seeking to sponsor H-2B workers on April 1, 2024, or later. Due to a steady labor shortage for essential workers, there has been exponential growth in the use of the H-2B visa.
On July 21, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new I-9 rule which will allow employers enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing an alternative option to remotely prepare Form I-9s for new hires.
The recently concluded Minnesota legislative session resulted in a historical amount of legislation across a variety of topics. One of these was a residential landlord-tenant law. The legislature enacted a number of tenant-friendly provisions, most of which will take effect on January 1, 2024.
Department of State has recently announced in the August 2023 Visa Bulletin that India will be subject to a final action cutoff date of January 1, 2012, within the Employment Based First Preference category (EB-1), having reached their limit for FY-2023.
The Department of State announced on May 30, 2023 that for the Diversity Visa program for fiscal year 2024 and onward, selectees only need initially to submit to the Kentucky Consular Center the DS-260 immigrant visa application form for themselves and any accompanying family members.
USCIS said it has received many duplicate filings of Form I-134A, Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support, and related inquiries. Some potential supporters are filing multiple Forms I-134A for the same beneficiary. "This adds to our workload, which delays processing," USCIS said, noting that potential supporters who wish to support more than one beneficiary must file one Form I-134A for each beneficiary.
