Policy

This category displays articles relating to immigration and labor compliance policies coming from Congress or any of the executive agencies tasked with defining and enforcing the U.S. immigration policies.

GAO Report on the H-1B Program

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a January 2011 report on the H-1B program.    The GAO has produced a a comprehensive, 118-page, report which is intended to provide guidance to Congress with respect to amending or tweaking parts of the H-1B program. The conclusion of the report is that certain reforms are needed for [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:27-04:00January 20th, 2011|Articles, H-1B, News, Policy|

USCIS Proposes Employer Pre-Registration for H-1B Cap Filings

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") has proposed a change to the relevant regulations requiring all employers who wish to file for an initial H-1B cap petition to preregister with USCIS.    The proposal is for an electronic registration program for petitions subject to numerical limitations for the H-1B nonimmigrant classification.  In the future, other classifications [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:28-04:00January 1st, 2011|Articles, H-1B, News, Policy, USCIS|

U.S. Immigration on the Rise Again

It is normal that during recession, western economies are not so attractive to any kind of immigration as they are during boom times.  The U.S. is no exception.  A recent report by the Brookings Institution has confirmed that the number of immigrants in the U.S. was estimated to have risen by about a half a [...]

By |2010-12-23T16:27:27-05:00December 23rd, 2010|Articles, News, Policy|

USCIS Uses Social Networks to Detect Fraud

Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are great and very popluar tools for sharing information with friends, relatives and colleagues.  Their popularity is, partially, due to the fact that people are free to disclose personal information to their groups of friends, family or colleagues. Many privacy advocates are urging a more careful use [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:34-04:00October 15th, 2010|Articles, News, Policy|

AILA Sues USCIS Under FOIA For Release of H-1B Policy Documents

On Tuesday, July 20th, AILA filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) seeking the release of records concerning agency policies and procedures for the H-1B visa program.  AILA had attempted to obtain these documents under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request which had been denied [...]

By |2010-07-22T08:43:42-04:00July 22nd, 2010|Articles, H-1B, News, Policy, USCIS|

Developments in Neufeld Memo Lawsuit

We have previously written extensively about the January 2010 Neufeld Memorandum and the recent lawsuit challenging its validity.   We wanted to provide some recent updates on the case as it is of great interest to many of our clients and readers. On June 25, 2010, the government filed a Memorandum in Opposition to the complaint.    [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:42-04:00July 22nd, 2010|Articles, H-1B, News, Policy, USCIS|

USCIS Plans Increase in Filing Fees

In a recent announcement, USCIS, as part of their annual budget review and due to lower-than-estimated fee revenue collection, proposed a fee increase that will amount to an average increase of  10% across the board. A formal proposal has been published in the Federal Register and there is a 45-day comment period.   Some of [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:43-04:00July 8th, 2010|Articles, Fees, News, Policy, USCIS|

Warnings for TCN Visa Applications in Canada

Generally, the U.S. Department of State likes to process visas at the consulate located at the applicant's home country.  Howevre, U.S. consulates in Mexico and Canada have the practice of allowing third-country nationals (TCN) to apply for a U.S. visa stamp in addition to their home country.  However, recent AILA interactions with the Department of [...]

By |2017-05-20T21:48:50-04:00April 3rd, 2010|Articles, H-1B, News, Policy, Visa Processing|

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