Legal Updates

Chaotic international politics—particularly the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the Trump administration’s increasing use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool—are complicating public companies’ SEC compliance obligations.

On August 23, the SEC issued a fee advisory, setting the filing fees that public companies and other issuers will pay in fiscal year 2020 to register their securities with the SEC.

If you appealed an IRF overpayment decision, you may be eligible to join this settlement. Instructions for submission can be found on the CMS website.

Until further notice, employers should continue using the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, currently available on I-9 Central, even after the August 31, 2019, expiration date has passed.

USCIS has changed the direct filing addresses for certain petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, as of September 1, 2019.

18 attorneys general have filed an amicus brief challenging a new DHS expansion of expedited removal of undocumented immigrants. The signers support a preliminary injunction to bar implementation while the court case is proceeding.

Among other things, the 217-page final rule defines certain terms and explains factors DHS will consider when making a public charge inadmissibility determination. Lawsuits have been filed.

The bulletin notes that it is “likely that corrective action will also be required for other preferences prior to the end of the fiscal year.”

New site visits are underway to question foreign students and company managers on optional practical training in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The first planned closures are the field offices in Monterrey, Mexico, and Seoul, South Korea, at the end of September 2019.