By Roujin Mozaffarimehr On February 3, 2021, USCIS issued a new Policy Memorandum[1] that rescinds the Trump-era Computer Programmer Policy Memorandum.[2] This 2021 Policy Memorandum was issued in direct response to the decision issued in the Ninth Circuit in Innova Solutions v. Baran. By way of background, in December 2000, the Director of the USCIS…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr This week, two District Courts set aside the Interim Final Rule, Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States, 85 FR 63872 (Oct. 8, 2020), of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Chamber of…
by Roujin Mozaffarimehr On October 7, 2020, the Department of Labor published an interim final rule (IFR) (85 FR 63918) that dramatically changes the calculation methodology of the prevailing wage for OES-based wage levels for all occupations. This new rule took effect immediately on October 8, 2020 and impacts wage rates for H-1Bs, H-1B1s, and…
By Radhika Balaji, Associate Attorney On August 3, 2020, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO 13940) on “Aligning Federal Contracting and Hiring Practices With the Interests of American Workers.”[1] This EO directs heads of federal agencies to review federal contracts and assess any negative impact on U.S. workers stemming from the use of…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr On Friday July 31st, The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The MOA will allow the two departments to share immigrant and nonimmigrant petition records and data. This includes data within the Office of Foreign…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr As we reported back in June, on June 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation suspending the entry of H-1B and H-2B visas and accompanying dependents, certain J visas, and L visas and accompanying dependents, and extending the April 2020 suspension on certain immigrants. banning visa issuance through December 31, 2020. The…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr Today, USCIS announced that it plans to publish its final rule in the Federal Register on Monday, August 3rd, 2020 to increase fees across the board for immigration-related filings. A copy of the rule for public inspection can be found here. Notable changes include: I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (online…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr and Kalpana Peddibhotla On June 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation intended to suspend the entry of certain nonimmigrants purportedly present a risk to the U.S. labor market in the period of economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak.[1][2] The suspension is set to take effect at 12:01 AM…
By Radhika Balaji US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s settlement with ITServe Alliance will dramatically change the way H-1B visas have been adjudicated for the last 10 years for Information Technology companies. In its March 10, 2020 ruling in the ITServe Alliance lawsuit, the District Court opined that the two key policy memos from 2010[1] and…
On May 16, 2020 a landmark settlement was reached in the case, IT Serve Alliance, Inc. v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (IT Serve Alliance) after a decision was issued on March 10, 2020 by the District Court for the District of Columbia. The USCIS has agreed to rescind the February 2018 USCIS memo,…