L. Francis Cissna, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), issued a letter on April 4, 2018, to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussing the agency’s review of existing regulations, policies, and programs and its development of “a combination of rulemaking, policy memoranda, and operational changes to implement the ‘Buy American and Hire American’ Executive Order.” Mr. Cissna said that, among other things, USCIS plans to propose regulations to revise the definition of specialty occupation “to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B program,” and to revise the definitions of employment and employer-employee relationship “to better protect U.S. workers and wages.” In addition, he said DHS will propose “additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders.” The letter does not specify how these definitions will be revised or when the proposed regulations will be issued.
The letter also confirms USCIS’ plans to propose regulatory changes to remove H-4 dependent spouses from the class of aliens eligible for employment authorization.
Mr. Cissna confirmed that USCIS is also drafting a proposed rule to remove the International Entrepreneur Rule, noting that the rule is currently in effect. He said USCIS has not approved “any parole requests under the International Entrepreneur Rule at this time.”
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