Immigration Insights & Issues Blog
Key legal insights into modern immigration challenges.
All applicants for a U.S. nonimmigrant visa at a consular post quickly become familiar with the DS-160, online nonimmigrant visa application form, which is available on the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) website. The form may seem fairly innocuous and many employers leave employees to fend for themselves to obtain their “visa stamp” from the …
Continue reading “Consular Application Challenges – Be Wary of the DS-160”
What is the VWP? The VWP is administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in consultation with the State Department. Currently, the program permits citizens of 38 countries[1] to travel to the United States (U.S.) for business or tourism purposes for up to 90 days without a visa, which is a major convenience. In …
Continue reading “Visa Waiver Program (VWP) Travel Challenges – Don’t Forget!”
The concept of a public charge ground of inadmissibility[1] has been a part of immigration law for more than a century and the current statutory provision [§212(a)(4)] of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (INA), has not been changed. Yet, based on a proposed regulatory change published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) …
Continue reading “Doubling Down on Public Charge to Deny Immigration Applications”
USCIS is moving forward with a plan to implement a preliminary registration system for cap-subject H-1B petitions that will drastically change the H-1B visa filing process employers have used for years. On September 3, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted a notice about its proposed rulemaking for its electronic H-1B implementation tool, which would …
Keeping it simple is often a key goal in any compliance policy for a company, but sometimes it may not be a best practice and indeed could cause a company to incur liability. Employers should consider onboarding personnel products carefully and it is important not to overlook if such products attempt to address the conundrum …
Continue reading “The Risks of Auto/Pre – Population and the Form I-9”
New Zealand and the KIWI Act Recently, Mission New Zealand for the U.S. Department of State posted the announcement that as of June 10, 2019, citizens and businesses of New Zealand will be able to apply for E-1 Treaty Trader and E-2 Treaty Investor visas to invest in and trade with the United States (U.S.). …
Continue reading “Welcome New Treaty Trader and Investors from New Zealand and Israel”
Applicants for immigrant and nonimmigrant visas must use the Department of State’s Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) to complete on-line forms for nonimmigrant (DS-160) or immigrant (DS-260) visas. This week, applicants have started experiencing a new question on the form related to their social media presence. A screen shot of the question is inserted below. …
More than 570,000 No Match letters (NML) have been sent by the Social Security Administration (SSA) starting in late March of 2019 with instructions for the Employer to review the name and social security number (SSN) provided on the W-2 form (Wage and Tax Statement) and to provide any necessary corrections to the SSA with …
A few weeks ago, stories of Canadian citizens being refused admission to the U.S. as individual or blanket L applicants requesting an additional period of stay in the U.S. started to increase. The sheer number of reports suggests a possible new policy versus an errant occurrence at certain ports of entry along the Canadian border …
On April 3, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release regarding its largest worksite enforcement action at one site in ten years against CVE Technology Group Inc. (CVE), a consumer electronics refurbishment and reverse logistics business, at its receiving center’s offices in Allen, Texas north of Dallas. The action resulted in the arrest …
Continue reading “Criminal Warrants for Employers and the Risk of “Knowing” Hires”