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July Visa Bulletin is now available. All employment preference categories, except for third preference “Other Workers,” have been made Current for July, the Department of State’s Visa Office announced in its latest bulletin. The Department said this has been done in an effort to generate increased demand by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for adjustment… Read More
The Department of Labor has released updated guidance for State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) and Employment and Training Administration National Processing Centers (NPCs) on processing H-2B applications in nonagricultural occupations. On April 4, 2007, the Department issued TEGL 21-06, which updated procedures for SWAs and NPCs to use in the processing of temporary labor certification applications… Read More
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has released new technical guidance on the return file format for online Social Security Number verifications, effective August 25, 2007. In general, there are two Internet verification options employers may use to verify that employee names and Social Security numbers match the SSA’s records. An employer may verify up to… Read More
The Senate’s bipartisan bill on comprehensive immigration reform (S. 1348) has passed a “test” vote, 69-23. Senators have now begun formal consideration of the legislation. Among other things, the new legislation would establish a guestworker program and allow many undocumented persons to remain in the U.S. under a new “Z” visa program. The bill features… Read More
The Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule, effective July 16, 2007, to “enhance program integrity and reduce the incentives and opportunities for fraud and abuse related to the permanent employment of aliens in the United States.” The provisions apply to permanent labor certification applications and approved certifications filed under both the Program Electronic… Read More
On May 10, 2007, the Department of Labor released the Tenth Round of Frequently Asked Questions on PERM labor certification. The FAQ includes information on notices of filing, advertisement content, and types of evidence in response to audit requests.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a final rule, effective 60 days from the May 30, 2007, publication date in the Federal Register, that, for the most part, drastically increases fees for many immigration benefits. USCIS said that without these fee adjustments, the agency would not be able to maintain critical business functions,… Read More
Because of the unprecedented volume of recent H-1B filings, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is temporarily experiencing a receipting/data-entry (DE) “frontlog” at its Service Centers. USCIS provided the following projections for fee receipting and data entry processing for H-1B cap cases currently at the Service Centers. These projections do not apply to Premium Processing… Read More
In early May, the Department of Labor (DOL) held two national briefing sessions in Chicago and Atlanta to discuss recently updated guidance for State Workforce Agencies and ETA National Processing Centers (NPCs) when processing H-2B labor condition applications in nonagricultural occupations. The purpose of the briefing sessions was to inform the user community of the… Read More
June Visa Bulletin. The current level of demand in many of the employment-based visa categories has been much lower than anticipated. As a result, the Department of State’s Visa Office has advanced the June cut-off dates significantly in an effort to maximize number use under the annual numerical limits. The Department said that additional advances… Read More