U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the overall employment-based annual limit for immigrant visas in fiscal year (FY) 2022 is approximately twice as high as usual, primarily due to consular closures abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic....
Topic: Immigration Updates
Labor Dept. Reports FLAG System Issues
The Department of Labor announced on August 24, 2022, that the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system "continues to experience intermittent issues when creating certain application forms, appendices, or other decision documents through Adobe PDF." DOL...
E-Verify Reports System Outages During Case Creation
E-Verify reported that it is experiencing intermittent system outages. As a result, "users may experience system timeouts and increased processing times when creating and submitting cases," E-Verify said, adding that it is working to resolve the issue. Employers must...
DV-2023 Selectees Only Need to Submit Application Form to Kentucky Consular Center, Not Supporting Docs, DOS Says
The Department of State (DOS) announced on August 25, 2022, that for the Diversity Visa (DV) program for fiscal year 2023 (DV-2023), selectees only need to submit to the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) the DS-260 immigrant visa application form for themselves and any...
USCIS Reaches FY 2023 H-1B Cap
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on August 23, 2022, that it received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B regular cap for certain temporary professional workers and the 20,000 H-1B U.S. advanced...
DHS Announces Final Rule to ‘Preserve and Fortify’ DACA Policy
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule to "preserve and fortify" the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for certain eligible noncitizens who arrived in the United States as children. DACA allows eligible beneficiaries an...
OFLC Releases Public Disclosure Data, Statistics, Foreign Labor Recruiter List and FAQ
The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification has released: Public disclosure data and selected program statistics for Q3 of fiscal year (FY) 2022 H-2B Foreign Labor Recruiter List for Q3 of FY 2022 FAQ on the Foreign Labor Recruiter List
USCIS Clarifies Eligibility Determinations for L-1 Nonimmigrant Managers, Executives, and Specialized Knowledge Workers
On August 16, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy alert to clarify how the agency determines eligibility for L-1 nonimmigrants seeking classification as managers or executives (L-1A) and specialized knowledge workers (L-1B). The...
Reports: Visa Delays and Unprecedented Wait Times Cause Problems for Workers, Employers
According to reports, visa delays, backlogs, and unprecedented wait times at U.S. embassies and consulates are causing disruptions for workers and companies, particularly those employing workers in temporary statuses who need to renew their visas outside the United...
DHS Proposes to Allow for Alternatives to Physical Document Examination for I-9 Verification
On August 18, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule to allow for alternative document verification procedures for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The proposed rule would create a framework under which the Secretary of Homeland...
