This article was updated after the 5th Circuit Court stayed the District Court case until a hearing on October 10. Meanwhile, USCIS is still accepting KFT PIP applications. On September 4, 2024, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, signed an Order denying the Motion of the U.S. …
OFLC Clarifies Telecommuting in the PERM Context for Both Prevailing Wage Requests and PERM Applications
Even before remote working considerations emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, employers filing applications for Program Electronic Review Management (“PERM”) were grappling with how to prepare Forms 9141 Application for Prevailing Wage Determination (“PWDS”) and Form ETA-9089 Applications for Alien Labor Certification in the PERM context for employees who were telecommuting. The concern has grown more …
USCIS Decouples EAD Card and Advance Parole Travel Documents to Speed EAD Card Processing for Adjustment Applicants
Without a formal news release, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) started prioritizing pending requests for employment authorization (Form I-765) by adjustment of status (“AOS”) applicants (often referred to as “green card applicants”). Later, the USCIS posted an alert that to “improve efficiency and reduce Form I-765 processing times” for pending AOS applicants, effective February …
I-9 Covid Employment Verification Compliance: ICE announces continuance of I-9 compliance flexibility
On September 14, 2020, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced an extension of its flexibility provisions related to Form I-9 compliance, which ICE granted earlier this year. The extended flexibility requirements are intended to address situations in which employers’ entire operations are being conducted remotely due to Covid-19 concerns. The Department of Homeland Security …
USCIS Accommodation on I-9 Completion Due to Its Inability to Issue Timely EAD Cards
On August 20, 2020, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that due to Covid-19 and because of its long delays in producing Employment Authorization Documents, Form I-766 (“EAD”) cards, that it would permit employees to present a Form I-797, Notice of Action, Approval Notice to prove work authorization for their Form I-9, Employment …
AM I AN ESSENTIAL TRAVELER BETWEEN CANADA AND THE U.S. OR MEXICO AND THE U.S.?
On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided formal notices in the Federal Register of an earlier Trump Administration order, which limited travel between Canada and the U.S. as well as Mexico and the U.S. at land ports-of-entry, and ferries service effective March 20, 2020, 11:59 p.m. through April 20, 2020, …
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Recent Changes to the H-1B Specialty Worker Program
Labor Condition Applications must be filed under the new DOL’S FLAG System As part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“USDOL”) technology modernization initiative, the FLAG System (Foreign Labor Application Gateway) was developed to replace the legacy iCert system with the USDOL’s stated goal of improving customer service, and modernizing the administration of foreign labor …
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