Category: Legislation

House and Senate conferees completed their negotiations on the final version of the fiscal year 2010 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892) on October 7, 2009. The final conference report includes a three-year extension for four immigration programs: the E-Verify program; the EB-5 immigrant investor regional center program; certain EB-4 religious workers; and… Read More

The Senate and House recently held hearings on various employment-based immigration issues: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on July 22, 2009, “Promoting Job Creation and Foreign Investment in the United States: An Assessment of the EB-5 Regional Center Program.” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) noted in his opening statement that the EB-5 Immigrant Investor… Read More

Congress has extended four immigration programs that were due to expire this fall: the EB-5 immigrant investor regional center program; the E-Verify program, which allows employers to electronically verify an employee’s work eligibility; the religious worker visa program; and the Conrad State 30 program for certain foreign doctors who work in medically underserved areas. The… Read More

The Senate recently passed legislation that would increase the H-1B education and training fee to $5,000 and allocate some previously unused green card numbers to nurses and physical therapists upon payment of a $1,500 fee. The House and Senate are now negotiating in conference the details of the legislation, which is part of Departments of… Read More