Law and the Workplace

Category Archives: Immigration

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Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: H-1 Extensions for Applicants for Permanent Residence are Alive and Well

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
I guess it is not a surprise, there was another information leak. This time the leak was from USCIS, perhaps an accident or perhaps not.  Is it true or is it fake news that a regulation would be proposed limiting, at least in part, H-1B extensions beyond the normal 6-year limitation for individuals who have … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Abrupt Change to Advance Parole Adjudications Without Clear Policy Objective – A Modest Proposal

By David Grunblatt and Hallie Cohen on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
A learned colleague, Rob Cohen blogged, what could be called “a cry into the wilderness” in 2014 suggesting that the regulation at 8 C.F.R.§245.23(j) be amended so that an individual who departed the United States before an application for “Advance Parole Authorization” was adjudicated would not have been deemed to have abandoned her application for adjustment of … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: H-1B Entry Level (Level I) Wage Blues – Revisited: Why Can’t a H-1B Professional be Entry Level?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
My learned colleague, Cyrus Mehta, in his Blog “H-1B Entry Level Wage Blues”[1] posted on July 31, 2017 eloquently deconstructs the arguments made by USCIS when that agency challenges whether individuals can be qualified as participating in a “specialty occupation” or “profession” if they are classified for wage purposes as being at Level I. Cyrus … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Extreme Vetting or Just Extreme Record Keeping – What Will the Actual Consequences Be?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
On June 1st, the Washington Post reported that “Consular officers at U.S. embassies around the world have started more intensive vetting of some visa applicants, including asking for their social media handles, in an effort to block potential terrorism and other national security threats from entering the country.” In fact, a supplemental questionnaire to be … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Is There a Future for H-1b Visa Holders After The President’s Executive Order of April 18, 2017?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
We commented on all those public announcements about H-1B’s in our blog of April 5, 2017, skeptical as to whether they indicated that the program would really be restructured. Then on April 18, the President issued his Executive Order: Buy American and Hire American.  The prior agency announcements coupled with this Executive Order have created … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: More on CBP Searching Electronic Devices – What is Left of the Fourth Amendment?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
As mentioned in a prior blog post, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can conduct searches of individuals departing the United States, a fact that many are not aware of.  In fact, the rule that failure to declare monetary instruments in amounts of or over $10,000 can result in its seizure is applicable to … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: All Those Announcements About H-1B’s – Is the Program Really Being Restructured?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
Timed to coincide with the date when thousands upon thousands of H-1B petitions, subject to the quota cap limitation are filed with Service Centers of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, various government entities, talking tough, made announcements describing changes in how H-1B petitions would be handled. USCIS posted a notice “Combating Fraud and Abuse … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: CBP Searching Electronic Devices – A New Thing?

By David Grunblatt and Valarie McPherson on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
There has been heightened interest and concern regarding the potential for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to search laptops and smart phones at the port of entry, due to the mention of such searches in one of President Trump’s recent Executive Orders. But, the search of these devices is not new. In fact, this … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) When You Depart the United States – Cash in Hand

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
Moving forward in our series of separating fact from fiction, we address the question whether Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plays any role when a passenger, even a United States citizen departs the United States. It is widely known that if an individual brings into the United States currency or negotiable monetary instruments, they must … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Know Your Rights – 5 Things to Tell Your Foreign National Employee in the Current Climate

By David Grunblatt and Erica Loomba on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
On February 21, 2017, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released two memoranda signed by DHS Secretary Kelly addressing immigration enforcement.  While a sitting President cannot independently modify laws or regulations without going through the normal rule making process, he/she can significantly alter policy and enforcement priorities.  These two memoranda are a clear example of a … Continue Reading

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: Raids and Employers

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Fact and Fiction Series, Immigration
Proskauer is pleased to launch a new blog series seeking to separate fact from fiction as the public discourse on immigration issues continues. We will address, among other topics, the actual real world impact of the President’s executive orders; how inspections at ports of entry have changed, and new developments in the trusted traveler programs … Continue Reading

President-Elect Trump and Immigration Policy: The First Six Months – What Can we Really Expect

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that immigration policy has been a core issue for President-Elect Trump.  So, what can we expect, as a practical matter? Not Before January 21 We first must remind ourselves that President-Elect Trump does not become president until January 20, 2017.  As President-Elect Trump puts together his administration in … Continue Reading

Summer Slow Down: For the first time in memory, the quota reserved for the most desired immigrant applicants retrogresses for natives of India and China!

By David Grunblatt and Valarie McPherson on Posted in Immigration
The Department of State published its August 2016 Visa Bulletin and it has a few impactful surprises. This is not good news for companies and foreign nationals.  Indian and Chinese foreign nationals, as usual, are the hardest hit.  Specifically, the historically open First Preference Employment Based Category (EB-1) retrogressed to January 1, 2010 for Indian … Continue Reading

Proskauer Releases Survey Results on Value Insights: Delivering Value in Labor and Employment Law

By Katharine Parker on Posted in Accessibility & Accommodation, Class/Collective Action, Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, Hiring/Background Checks, Immigration, Independent Contractor, Leaves of Absences, Litigation and Arbitration, National Labor Relations Board, Non-Competes and Protection of Corporate Assets, Performance Management, Discipline & Termination, Strategic Corporate Planning, Vacation policy, Wage and Hour, Whistleblower, Workplace Policies and Procedures, Workplace Restructuring and WARN
Proskauer’s Labor and Employment Law Department is pleased to announce the release of its inaugural Value Insights: Delivering Value in Labor and Employment Law survey, a resource that includes input from in-house decision makers on labor and employment matters and provides in-house counsel with tools to both more effectively help their business partners achieve their objectives … Continue Reading

TRAVEL TO THE UNITED STATES IN 2016: THE YEAR OF FEAR – RESTRICTIONS ON THE VISA WAIVER PROGRAM (VWP) ESTA

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
On January 21, 2016, the United States began implementing changes under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. Nationals of Visa Waiver Program countries who have traveled to or been present in Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria on or after March 1, 2011, will no longer be able to participate … Continue Reading

L-1B Specialized Knowledge Visa Category Guidance Goes into Effect Today: Brave New World?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
While the L-1B Adjudications Policy Memorandum published by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on August 17, 2015, effective as of August 31, 2015, has many positive components, petitioners and practitioners are much concerned. The bottom line is that nothing in the Guidance “twists the arms” of adjudicators or strongly pushes them to change their … Continue Reading

Traveling to the United States: Restricting the Visa Waiver Program While Expanding the Trusted Traveler Programs

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The Department of Homeland Security continues in its attempts to balance security considerations and hospitality to foreign visitors. The fascinating dilemma it confronts can be highlighted by press releases issued on subsequent days, August the 5th and August the 6th. There was an August 5 announcement of a Tri-lateral agreement with Canada and Mexico to … Continue Reading

H-1B Update – New Petition Required When Work Location Changes – the World is Global, but U.S. Immigration is Local

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
While the 21st Century is a time of globalization, a time where with telecommuting and virtual offices there is a re-examination of whether there is still significance to your geographical location, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is decidedly “retro” in firmly planting its feet in the 20th Century, pursuant to an AAO decision … Continue Reading

USCIS Proposes: L-1B Adjudications Policy

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The Key – Applying the “Preponderance of the Evidence” standard”? Immigration practitioners are trying to figure out what to make of the proposed Policy Memorandum on L-1B Adjudications Policy (hereinafter “Guidance”) published by USCIS on March 24th. There will be much discussion and debate during the 45-day comment period as we all struggle to figure … Continue Reading

Traveling to the United States with Global Entry and NEXUS: Are my wife and me Trusted Travelers?

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
On January 19, 2015, my wife and I, Global Entry participants completed our NEXUS interviews at the Pearson Airport in Ontario, Canada, and were accepted into the program. *          *          *          *          *          * In an attempt to find the right balance between enforcement and service, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department … Continue Reading

Fourteen States and Four Governors Sue the President on His Immigration Executive Orders – The Battle Begins

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
It didn’t take long.  Fourteen states and four governors, led by Texas, filed a complaint in the Federal Court in Brownsville, Texas seeking to nullify the President’s Executive Order relating to immigration.  Texas has sued the Obama Administration thirty-one times.  The complaint hits all the “fear” buttons.  It includes a lengthy discourse on how the … Continue Reading

E-Verify Keeps Getting in the News – That is the Way USCIS Wants it

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is heavily invested in the success of the E-Verify program, which it sees as the core for all future employer compliance programs.  “E-Verify is an internet-based system that compares information from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security … Continue Reading
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