News

Judge Michael L. Brown, a district court judge from the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division issued a decision requiring the U.S. Department of State to effectively recognize citizenship for the child of James Derek Mize and Jonathan Daniel Gregg. The U.S. Department of State had previously denied the child citizenship concluding she was not a U.S. citizen at birth.

USCIS announced on August 19, 2020, the production of certain Employment Authorization Documents (Form I-766, EAD) is delayed. Therefore, employees may in the meantime use their Form I-797, Notice of Action so long as the Notice date is on or after December 1, 2019, through and including August 20, 2020, informing an applicant of approval of an Application for Employment Authorization (Form I-765) as their List C #7 document for their Form I-9 compliance until December 1, 2020.

On August 12, the Department of State updated its official guidance regarding who is exempt from P.P. 10052, outlining new factors to be considered. We are pleased to confirm that H-1B and L-1 visas can now be issued for employees who are “seeking to resume ongoing employment in the United States in the same position with the same employer and visa classification.”  This means that if an H-1B or L petition is filed seeking “continuation of previously approved employment without change with the same employer” on page 2 of the I-129 form, the Department of State will be able to issue a visa at the consulate. In other words, if the petition is filed for an H-1B or L-1 extension, the visa ban will not apply. This is overwhelmingly positive news for H-1B and L-1 employees.

Starting October 2, 2020, employers with a high proportion of H-1B and L-1 employees will have to make additional border security fee payments when petitioning for these employees.

Currently, if a company with more than 50 employees has at least 50% of its workforce in H-1B or L-1 status, USCIS imposes a $4,000 fee on initial H-1B petitions and a $4,500 fee on initial L-1 petitions. Under the new rule, USCIS will also impose this fee for each H-1B or L-1 extension petition, when the fraud prevention and detection fee is not collected. Practically, this means that the fee will be required whenever an employee’s status is extended. Employers should note that amended petitions that do not request an extension will not be subject to this additional fee.

On August 3, 2020, USCIS published a final rule that significantly altered its fee schedule. The rule, which is set to take effect on October 2, 2020, increases fees for certain immigration and naturalization benefit requests. The rule also makes certain adjustments to fee waiver eligibility, filing requirements for nonimmigrant workers, premium processing service, and other administrative requirements. Any application, petition, or request submitted on or after October 2, 2020, must be accompanied with the fees established by the rule.

On July 29, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an injunction enjoining the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from enforcing, applying, implementing, or treating the February 20, 2020 Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds Final Rule made effective for the period in which there is a declared national health emergency as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

On July 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf issued a memorandum titled “Reconsideration of the June 15, 2012 Memorandum Entitled ‘Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children’” to announce its policy following the Supreme Court’s DACA decision.

On June 22, the President signed Presidential Proclamation (P.P.) 10052, which extends P.P. 10014 through December 31, 2020, and suspends the entry to the United States of certain additional foreign nationals who present a risk to the U.S. labor market during the economic recovery following the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak. The Department of State is committed to implementing this Proclamation in an orderly fashion in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and interagency partners and in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

President Trump promised new executive actions on immigration, creating confusing statements about plans involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and regarding merit-based immigration intended to bring in highly skilled workers into the United States. President Trump made statements regarding immigration such as “Nobody will have done what I’m doing in the next four weeks.” This comes after the U.S. President announced “very big” changes to merit-based immigration and announcing that he would sign an immigration bill as an executive order to give a DACA recipients a path to citizenship.

On Monday, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) announced modifications to the temporary exemptions regarding online courses which had been instituted for the Spring and Summer 2020 semesters. The previous exemptions allowed nonimmigrant students to take more online courses than normally permitted. Today, SEVP announced that online-only education in the fall will not be permitted. Any F-1 or M-1 students currently in the U.S. enrolled at an institution holding online-only courses for the Fall 2020 semester will not be allowed to remain in the U.S. unless they transfer to a school offering in-person instruction or take other action to maintain  their status. Any student who violates these rules and participates in more online education than what is permitted will face immigration consequences, including but not limited to the commencement of removal proceedings.