OCAHO reduced fine for a mom and pop family business, from $14,025 to $1,650, stating in the decision that “ICE overreaches when it issues a NIF and files a complaint containing allegations that the government actually knows to be false.” (U.S. v. Crescent City Meat Company, Inc., 4/22/14) This recently published case appears to demonstrate [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the June 2014 Visa Bulletin which is the ninth Visa Bulletin for the FY2014 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the significant retrogression in EB-3 ROW and China, the significant retrogression in FB-2A and the lack of movement in EB-2 India. Summary [...]
Every company's hiring objective is to find the best-qualified candidate, and in today’s global economy, often that candidate will be a foreign national who requires visa sponsorship. And employing a foreign national, even temporarily, requires a commitment of your company's Human Resources department, administrative time and financial resources. For this reason every employer, whether it [...]
Over the past few weeks (and months, really), there has been some chatter about a possible change in the regulations to allow certain H-4 spouses to apply for and obtain work authorization. In a press release today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that the proposed rules are to be published for review [...]
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just announced that they have launched an extension of their electronic I-94 arrival/departure system where now nonimmigrants can obtain their arrival/departure history going back five years from the requested date. As a result of the new enhancement to the electronic I-94 retrieval system, nonimmigrants (only) can access their entry and [...]
On behalf of our clients and readers we are always trying to obtain any reliable information on the movements in the cutoff dates for the upcoming Visa Bulletins. The best source of this information is the Mr. Charles Oppenheim who is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of [...]
The U.S. State Department has just released the May 2014 Visa Bulletin which is the eighth Visa Bulletin for the FY2014 fiscal year. The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is, well, the lack of movement in many of the major categories: no movement in EB-2 India, no movement in EB-3 ROW/China and [...]
We are frequently asked by our corporate clients what obligations an employer has when it terminates a foreign national employee who is an H-1B visa holder, and what options are available to the foreign national employee if he is terminated. Employers can terminate an H-1B visa worker at any time without penalty as long as [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced earlier this afternoon that, as of today, April 7th, they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the annual H-1B cap for the 2015 fiscal year (FY2015). According to USCIS, they have received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for beneficiaries with U.S. master’s [...]
What is BALCA? The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) is an administrative body which reviews mainly denials of PERM labor certification cases but it also handles a number of Department of Labor review cases. With respect to PERM denials, BALCA is the appellate body which reviews appeals for PERM denials. BALCA Reverses PERM [...]