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 …
Canadian L Visa Admissions – CBP Changes Course without Prior Notice Creating New Non-Tariff Barrier
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 …
Criminal Warrants for Employers and the Risk of “Knowing” Hires
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 …
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The IRS and the FICA, FUTA and Federal Income Tax Traps for Employers with Non-Resident Alien Employees
With all of the payroll complexities that employers face, it is no surprise that a special set of rules that applies to only a small category of employees is frequently overlooked. Often, to the surprise of payroll and human resources staff, special Federal Insurance Contributions Act (“FICA,” composed of Social Security and Medicare taxes), Federal …
ESTA-Like Registration Process Spreads to Europe for U.S. Citizens’ Travel in 2021
Several media outlets recently reported on a new pre-registration requirement for U.S. citizens traveling to any of the 26 Schengen-area countries, plus additional participating European countries and microstates (34 total at present), which will become effective on January 1, 2021. The ETIAS registration will also apply to citizens of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Japan, New …
New Change/Extension of Status Forms (I-539/I-539A) Become Effective on March 22 – What is new (Biometrics for babies…)?
The use of new forms (Form I-539 and a new I-539A) seems like a very mundane subject to merit an alert, but indeed coming right before the start of the fiscal year 2020 H-1B cap filing season in April of 2019, it deserves attention and concern. On March 8, USCIS published a new I-539 form …
Employers Heads Up! – Spotting TPS Beneficiaries of the March 2019 Automatic Extension
On March 1, 2019, a notice was published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)[1] announcing that beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from: Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador will continue to retain their TPS status while the preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Ramos …
Avoiding Claims of Citizenship and National Origin Discrimination When Interviewing, Hiring, and Onboarding Foreign Workers
It is illegal to discriminate on the basis of citizenship or national origin in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, or employing workers. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) as well as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (“IRCA”) impose penalties on employers engaging in discriminatory employment practices. While prohibitions against citizenship and …
About Our Blog
Welcome to the Immigration Insights and Issues Blog! (III Blog for short) Immigration policies and practices are ever changing due to the political nature of the area and the complexity of the legal issues related to the subject. We and our clients are subject to the whims of adjudication shifts based on Executive Orders or …