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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held its annual H-1 visa cap lottery in late March 2022. As of this writing, the first 85,000 cases to be selected for the annual allocation are receiving notifications. Then, the successful employers have 90 days to complete and submit an H-1B petition to the agency for employment to […]
by Lori Chesser and Elizabeth Van Arkel On July 17, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an updated I-9 employment eligibility verification form to replace all prior versions. The new I-9 must be used by all employers starting September 18, 2017. The new version contains relatively minor technical corrections. Automatic EADs While it […]
by Jacob M. Monty No one looks forward to an I-9 audit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). I-9s are notoriously problematic because not only does the law dictate which types of documents an employer may accept, but it also stipulates that employers cannot demand or refuse particular documents. In other words, if a […]
by Lori T. Chesser Immigration law used to be something that few people thought about unless a friend or a relative was going through the system. Now, it’s a daily feature in our news and on social media. It’s likely that few of us have missed the news of President Donald Trump’s Executive Orders addressing […]
by Leigh Polk Cole Each year, employers looking to hire H-1B workers for hard-to-fill positions have to focus on preparing H-1B petitions for the April 1 H-1B lottery deadline. All you can do is hope for success in the lottery, which in recent years has led to H-1B approval in fewer than half the cases […]
by Jacob M. Monty Under federal immigration law, employers are required to verify the employment eligibility of their employees, and this includes completing a Form I-9. However, this process can be tedious and confusing to employers, and if it’s done incorrectly, it could result in large fines. In fact, on August 1, the U.S. Department […]
by Elaine Young In 2013, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was part of the group that drafted and passed a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate. The bill later fizzled out in the House of Representatives. This year, Senator Hatch introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2015, which addresses one aspect of comprehensive immigration reform—increasing the […]
by Jesse Goldstein The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently provided guidance on how employers are permitted to react when employees confess that they previously presented fraudulent documents in conjunction with Form I-9, which verifies workers’ employment eligibility. I-9 […]
by Mary Pivec Employers face a high cost if they are accused of engaging in discriminatory employment verification procedures. The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Discrimination (OSC) in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made it a priority to pursue employers that allegedly misuse or abuse their access […]
by Christine D. Mehfoud The government agencies responsible for immigration-related matters are talking to each other. They are monitoring your E-Verify use and referring anomalies for investigation. Companies participating in E-Verify expose themselves to increased government scrutiny. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) E- Verify Monitoring & Compliance Branch (M&C) regularly monitors use of the […]