We are fast approaching the time of year when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducts its annual lottery to assign the limited number of H-1B visas available for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. USCIS has yet to announce the filings dates for this year’s lottery process, but we anticipate that it will be in the first weeks of March. The H-1B nonimmigrant status/visa is an employer-sponsored...

On January 21, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order, Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel, requiring international travelers to present a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the United States. This order takes effect on January 26, 2021. Consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) published an order in the Federal Register specifying that international travelers must produce a negative...

Among President Biden’s first actions upon being sworn-in as the 46th President of the United States was to issue a Memorandum to “Preserve and Fortify Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).” In the memorandum, issued on January 20, 2021, his first day in office, President Biden calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take all actions he deems appropriate, consistent with applicable law, to preserve and fortify DACA.” While the...

On his first day in office, President Biden has sent a sweeping proposal to Congress to reform our immigration laws. The bill addresses many areas of the current immigration law and contains reforms that immigration advocates have been urging for years. Of course, the bill is only a proposal.  If any immigration reform bill is to be passed into law, it will likely take months and would likely include changes from...

On the first day of his Presidency, the Biden Administration announced a temporary, 100-day pause on deportations/removals of foreign nationals from the United States in order for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to complete a comprehensive review and reset of its immigration enforcement priorities and policies. 100 Day Pause on Deportations Starting on January 22, 2021, DHS will pause removals for certain noncitizens who have removal orders entered against them....