The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report analyzing the current state of the L-1, intracompany transferee program. The report, entitled Implementation of L-1 Visa Regulations, addresses perceived problems with the processing of L-1 cases, and provides suggestions to make...
Now that the U.S. federal government shutdown has thankfully ended, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has resumed the processing of labor condition applications (LCAs). However, the bill to reauthorize funding for the federal government is only a stopgap, and is set to expire in...
Updated 7:00am (Eastern Time - U.S.) At 12:30am Thursday, 17.Oct.2013, President Obama signed a bill to reopen the U.S. government. Federal workers are returning to work today.----- NewsFlash! Senate Deal May End Government Shutdown - Updated 16.Oct.2013: Updated 4:27pm (Eastern Time - U.S.) Speaker Boehner has agreed to not...
Since the U.S. Senate's passage of a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill this past June, the prospects for immigration reform appear to have dimmed. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives (House) has rejected the idea of a comprehensive immigration bill. Instead, the Republicans have focused...
As a result of the U.S. federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is temporarily not accepting or processing prevailing wage requests. A prevailing wage determination (PWD) is generally a required component at the outset of the PERM labor certification process that is used...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released two documents addressing the discretionary authority of CBP officers to overlook certain technical or minor background issues that would otherwise make a foreign national inadmissible to the United States. The two documents give insight into those...
As has been widely reported in the media, the U.S. government temporarily ceased operations deemed non-essential as of October 1, 2013. This is a result of the failure of the U.S. Congress to agree on a new budget for federal operations. Many normal government functions...
The U.S. government is in a state of partial shutdown as of October 1, 2013 due to an inability to obtain congressional agreement on appropriations. As of October 1st, the Department of Labor iCert system is unavailable. This system is used for both PERM labor...
If the U.S. Congress cannot reach an agreement on a funding extension before midnight tonight, there will be what is commonly referred to as a government shutdown, effective October 1, 2013. In such a situation, government services are not completely eliminated. However, government operations are...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Diversity Visa (DV) "Green Card" Lottery registration period for fiscal year 2015 (FY15) runs from October 1, 2013 through November 2, 2013. The DV lottery program allots up to 50,000 immigrant visa numbers annually to applicants who meet certain...
