U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2020 H-1B lottery petitions, including those under the U.S. advanced degree exemption. The agency will begin returning all unselected H-1B lottery...
Topic: Immigration Updates
Trump Proposes Merit-Based Immigration Plan
President Donald Trump proposed an immigration plan on May 16, 2019, that shifts the emphasis to a merit-based system to admit highly educated, high-skilled immigrants. In a speech announcing the proposal on May 16, 2019, President Trump said the biggest change would...
OFLC Approves CW-1 Program Survey From CNMI Governor
The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) recently received and approved a CW-1 wage survey from the governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) covering 84 occupations. OFLC approved the governor's survey and...
President Trump Nominates Mark Morgan to Lead ICE
In a tweet, President Donald Trump named Mark Morgan to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): "I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as...
USCIS Names Mark Koumans as New Deputy Director
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on May 10, 2019, that Mark Koumans is the agency’s new Deputy Director, effective May 13. Mr. Koumans, a career federal employee, has served since September 2015 in a number of executive positions at U.S....
DHS Continues Documentation Validity for Beneficiaries of Nepal, Honduras TPS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will not implement or enforce the decision to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Honduras or Nepal pending resolution of an appeal in Ramos v. Nielsen or other order of the court, and as required...
DHS Increases H-2B Cap for FY 2019 by 30,000 Additional Visas
A temporary rule jointly issued by the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Labor (DOL), effective May 8, 2019, increases the H-2B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2019 by 30,000. The H-2B visa permits a foreign worker to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs in the...
USCIS Clarifies Period of Authorized Stay for P-1S Essential Support Personnel of Individual Athletes
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its Adjudicators Field Manual to emphasize that, under current regulations, the periods of initial authorized stay are different for individual athletes (P-1A visa) and their essential support personnel...
Miller Mayer’s David Wilks and Stephen Yale-Loehr Quoted Various Media Outlets
Stephen Yale-Loehr was quoted by the Associated Press in "Border Patrol Expands Fingerprinting of Migrant Children," which was published in many outlets. "DHS may claim that they can get around this bar [against taking biometric data from children] by getting parental...
USCIS Expands Fee Payment Changes to Additional Field Offices
In recent months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced an expansion of fee payment changes to additional field offices. Those offices now only accept payments in the form of a personal check, attorney check, business check, debit card,...
