USCIS has stated it will suspend the biometrics requirements for H-4, L-2, E-1, E-2 and E-3 applicants from May 17th, 2021 for a period of 2 years. The biometric requirement was introduced by the Trump administration and was particularly cumbersome for H-4 and L-2 applicants as it meant that their applications would no longer be...
Blogs
During an interview with Charlie Oppenheim of the State Department, the following statements and predictions were made in relation to employment-based and family-based categories. Employment-based visas In 2021 there are approximately 262,000 employment-based visas. However, it is expected that the Department of State (DOS) will not be able to process all these visas due to...
On his first day in office, President Biden sent a new Immigration Bill to Congress in an effort to modernize a very much outdated Immigration system. This bill is known as the “U.S. Citizenship Act” aims to introduce a number of key changes and was formally introduced in the House on February 18, 2021. An...
Feb92021
After over 15 years of practicing law and being fortunate to own my own law firm for most of that time, I began to ponder what clients really look for in selecting a law firm. Last year brought businesses many challenges that we never would have imagined we would face when 2020 started. With these...
(Updated 02/25/2021) For the past several years we have been publishing articles with the intent of keeping the Immigration Community fully informed. However, for most of these articles we have had to be the bearer of bad news. Under the Trump administration every change or measure was an attempt to restrict Immigration in some way,...
On January 15 DHS released the text of a new rule which will change the way USCIS will determine whether an Employer/Employee relationship will exist. Furthermore, on the same day, DOL also released a memo that now interprets the regulations to require end-clients to also file an H-1B petition. USCIS had previously relied on two...
Jan142021
Employers filing H-1B petitions need to be aware of the 240- day rule as it applies to filing H-1B extensions, as this rule allows employees to continue to work beyond the expiration of their authorized stay. This rule is particularly important when an Employer is filing an H-1B extension either when premium processing is unavailable...
DOL is publishing its Prevailing Wage Rule on January 14, 2021. This rule previously went into effect on October 8, 2020, without any notice and significantly increased the DOL wages. For further details of this rule please refer to our previous article, published on October 9, 2020. https://patel-law-group.local/dols-interim-final-rule-implements-higher-prevailing-wage-rates/ After the above rule was published, we...