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On October 28, 2009, President Obama signed into law the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The law (Pub. L. No. 111-83) extends four immigration programs: (1) the non-minister religious worker program (section 568 of the law), the “Conrad 30” program for certain foreign doctors (section 568), the EB-5 immigrant… Read More

Effective November 6, 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is rescinding the final rules (PDF) it promulgated in 2007 and 2008 relating to procedures that employers may take to acquire a safe harbor from receipt of “no-match” letters, which the Social Security Administration (SSA) sends to employers when the combination of an employee name… Read More

In August and September 2009, the ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received complaints concerning H-1B cases with incorrectly denied labor condition applications (LCA/ETA-9035) filed with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The ombudsman said that LCA processing delays and errors at DOL, coupled with USCIS’s current H-1B petition initial filing requirements, “are… Read More

The State Department’s Visa Bulletin for November 2009 notes that demand from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices has far exceeded earlier indications of cases eligible for immediate processing. As a result, the Department said, it has been necessary to hold most of the employment cut-off dates for November, and it is not possible to… Read More

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a controversial clarification on October 7, 2009, for performing arts associations and their members of the regulatory requirements for agents who file as petitioners for the O and P visa classification. The agency said it issued the clarification in response to inquiries “that reveal confusion regarding the circumstances… Read More