Late Wednesday, President Joseph R. Biden issued a presidential proclamation that revokes two Trump Administration nationality-based travel bans targeting primarily Muslim-majority and African countries. Under the order, the Secretary of State must direct U.S. embassies and consulates to resume processing visa applications previously subject…
In one of the first executive actions of the President Joseph Biden’s term, the White House has requested a freeze on federal agency regulatory activity so that the new Administration may review Trump Administration agency rules and guidance documents either not yet…
President Trump issued a presidential proclamation ordering that on January 26, foreign nationals will no longer be subject to the regional COVID-19 public health bans in place for Brazil, the European Schengen countries, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Similar bans for China and Iran would…
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will continue to implement the Trump Administration’s ban on “non-essential” travel across U.S. land borders and ferry travel with Canada and Mexico through February 21, 2021, according to a set of notifications to be published in the Federal Register. The…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will suspend all in-person services at local field offices, application support centers and asylum offices on January 19 and January 20. It is assumed that the suspension is due to events surrounding…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ordered that starting January 26, 2021, airline passengers boarding flights to the United States from abroad will only be permitted to board an aircraft if they have received a negative COVID test result within…
The Department of Labor (DOL) has revised and reissued a prevailing wage rule that lifts wages for H-1B, E-3, and H-1B1 nonimmigrant cases and the PERM labor certification program. The new rule comes after three federal district courts struck down an earlier fast-tracked version…
On January 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule that would largely replace its random, computerized H-1B cap lottery with a system that allocates H-1B visa numbers according to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Statistics…
President Trump has extended the nonimmigrant proclamation suspending the entry of foreign nationals in the H-1B, H-2B, L-1, and certain J-1 categories, as well as related categories for dependents, to March 31, 2021. The proclamation also immediately extends until that same date the existing…
President Trump has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This Act funds the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, the State Department and other federal agencies through FY 2021. It also extends several expiring immigration programs…