In the wake of recent losses in the federal courts, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — on June 17, 2020 — issued a memorandum that rescinds two agency policies which, for more than ten years, had forced employers of H-1B (Specialty Occupation) workers stationed at customer worksites to submit voluminous and burdensome evidence. Thankfully,
"USCIS Policy Memorandum"
“Sue the miscreants!” – Challenging Unjust Work-Visa and Green-Card Denials with Flood-the-Zone and Head-Fake Immigration Strategies
Much digital ink has already been spilled reporting on the phantom tide of undocumented migrants supposedly breaching our Southern border. This article will address a different, but very-real immigration flood, and suggest ways U.S. employers, noncitizens, and their lawyers ought be emboldened to add to the deluge.
Ironically, it is about a dry subject –…
Revanchist Immigration: The Aftermath of “Buy American, Hire American”
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”
~ An unidentified U.S. major, referring to the February 7, 1968 bombing of the South Vietnamese town of Ben Tre that killed hundreds of noncombatants, as recounted by Associated Press reporter, Peter Arnett.
The Known and Unknown Future of the EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program at USCIS and the USCIS Ombudsman
Memes, apocrypha, obfuscation, head feints, hand-wringing, and supposition: These are the misleading and unreliable stuff of the Interweb. To a great extent, alas, they also infect the EB-5 ecospace. This article will avoid conjecture and look at the few hard facts we know about Trump Administration appointees and the positions they will hold, while encouraging…
An Immigration Opportunity Lost: USCIS Stiffens on Job Flexibility
[Blogger’s Note: This post is submitted as a necessarily-lengthy formal comment to the November 20, 2015 draft guidance of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, PM-602-0122, interpreting the phrase, “the same or [a] similar occupational classification” as used in the “increased job flexibility” provisions of Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §§ 204(j) and 212(a)(5)(A)(iv). This…
Immigration “Fire on the Ground” — What’s Next for the L-1B Visa?
Since 2008 American employers have been burning mad about how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has gone from fairly reasonable to highly restrictive in its interpretation of the L-1B “specialized knowledge” visa category. This statutory visa category allows certain “intracompany transferees” to enter and work in the U.S. for a qualifying employer if he…
Immigration Voices: “What the ‘L’ is Going on with USCIS?”
[Bloggers Note: Today’s guest column comes from noted Atlanta-based business immigration lawyer, Eileen M.G. Scofield, who addresses a subject covered often before on NationOfImmigrators, the business-critical L-1 Intracompany Transferee visa category. (See, e.g., “The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government, Part I and Part II…
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part II)
[Bloggers Note: The second of my two-part blog post below first appeared in Seyfarth Shaw LLP‘s September 10 and September 12 “Employment Law Lookout” Blog]
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part II)
By Angelo A. Paparelli
As noted in our last post, American businesses…
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part I)
[Bloggers Note: My two-part blog post below first appeared in Seyfarth Shaw LLP‘s September 10 and September 12 “Employment Law Lookout” Blog]
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack
— from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part I)
By Angelo A. Paparelli
U.S. employers have likely grown accustomed to the longstanding controversy…
Immigration Progress: A Good EB-5 Policy Memo Could Still Be Better
French philosopher and aphorist, François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, wrote in Italian that “Il meglio è l’inimico del bene [the perfect is the enemy of the good].”
The wisdom of this saying, championed by pragmatists everywhere, comes to mind upon reading a May 30, 2013 Policy Memorandum (PM)…