Spending a week helping women and children navigate the asylum process reminded me why I became an attorney:  to help those in need with complex legal issues. Representing clients in a detention facility allowed me to take my compassion and expertise to them. They certainly had the need, and their legal issues were more than […]

The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been a tear with worksite investigations and enforcement actions. Since January 2018, HSI has served more than 5,200 notices on businesses to conduct audits of their I-9 Forms. The I-9 is the document employers must complete, along with a new employee, within […]

It seems that there is no end to announcements from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that present new challenges for those who have been playing by the rules. The current administration’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order from April 18, 2017 has become a blueprint for USCIS to restrict lawful immigration. While it’s never […]

Until recently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allowed applicants for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) to contact USCIS after 75 days to initiate a service request if they had not received their EAD. Following updates to the USCIS processing times and case inquiry procedures this year, this option no longer exists. Now applicants must review […]

An April 4, 2018 letter from USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna to Senator Charles Grassley came to light this week. Director Cissna responds to the White House’s “Buy American and Hire American” Executive Oder from April 18, 2017, which called for agency heads to “suggest reforms to help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to […]

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services reported this week that it received 190,098 petitions for the next fiscal year’s H-1B quota of 85,000. USCIS completed the random selection process, i.e. lottery, and soon will be sending out notices for the petitions it now will adjudicate. This year’s filing period was April 2-6 for the federal […]

  Despite the need U.S. employers have for qualified workers, the Trump administration continues to increase its scrutiny of H-1B petitions through a new Policy Memorandum concerning H-1B workers assigned to third-party locations. Last year the focus was on prevailing wages, when adjudicators denied H-1B petitions for entry level jobs. The flawed argument was that […]

The U.S. State Department recently updated its guidance manual for consular officers who issue nonimmigrant (i.e. temporary) visas to persons seeking to enter the United States. A visa is the stamp the consular officer affixes to a passport. The visa is an entry document that must be valid upon arrival in the United States. In […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today announced two new compliance features to help Visa Waiver travelers track their period of stay in the United States. The first is a “View Compliance” tab on the right side of the I-94 Departure Record website, https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home. By entering biographic and passport information, Visa Waiver travelers can see […]

After a nearly three-month halt to regular visa processing at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara and Consulate General in Istanbul, those posts again are fully operational and accepting applications for persons seeking to travel to the United States. Following the October 8 halt, limited visa processing became available in early November. As of December 28, […]