Law and the Workplace

Tag Archives: immigration

NYC Commission on Human Rights Issues Enforcement Guidance on National Origin and Immigration Status Discrimination

By Arielle E. Kobetz, Evandro Gigante and Laura Fant on Posted in Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation
NYC Commission on Human RightsThe New York City Commission on Human Rights has issued new enforcement guidance on discrimination based on actual or perceived national origin or immigration status in employment, as well as in housing and public accommodations.  While enforcement guidance does not have the same force of law as a statute or formal regulations, it provides significant … 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

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

Is Immigration Reform Really Possible Now? Let’s Make Some Predictions

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
All the pundits are now making their educated guesses as to whether immigration reform is finally possible or even remotely likely.  If there is a consensus on any one point, it is that Republican leadership, Democratic leadership and the President are looking forward to the 2016 elections when thinking about immigration reform.  The question is … Continue Reading

U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery Registration Dates Announced

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Registration for 2016 opens Wednesday, October 1, 2014. Qualified applicants are strongly encouraged to register as early as possible. Heavy demand may result in system delays in the final days of the registration period. The DV Lottery is administered annually by the Department of State, and provides for a maximum … Continue Reading

Delays at US Consulates Globally

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The Department of State (DOS) Bureau of Consular Affairs nonimmigrant visa system suffered an outage last week. Working over the weekend, DOS has made progress restoring the database and is now able to print visas. As such, DOS has resumed visa processing, giving priority to processing of immigrant visa cases. However, foreign nationals awaiting nonimmigrant … Continue Reading

DHS Announces New Rules To Facilitate Employment for Professionals in Efforts To Attract and Retain Highly Skilled Foreign Workers

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration, Workplace Policies and Procedures
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced two major advancements today to help businesses attract and retain professionals working in the U.S. The first proposed rule change extends employment authorization to spouses of certain H-1B visa beneficiaries. The second change would include workers from Chile and Singapore (H-1B1) and Australia (E-3) in the list of … Continue Reading

USCIS Reaches H-1B Cap for FY 2015 and Conducts Lottery

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The FY 2015 H-1B Cap has been reached. USCIS has announced it received approximately 172,500 petitions filed between April 1, 2014 and April 7, 2014 that were subject to the FY 2015 H-1B cap. It has conducted a lottery of all those petitions to select the 85,000 eligible under the general cap and U.S. advanced … Continue Reading

H-1B Cap Reached for FY 2015

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
USCIS announced today that the FY 2015 H-1B cap has been reached. USCIS will be conducting a lottery of all those petitions properly filed between April 1, 2014 and April 7, 2014. This alert addresses this important development. Read the full text of this alert.… Continue Reading

Employee Reveals Identity Fraud On Form I-9

By David Grunblatt and Valarie McPherson on Posted in Immigration
What should an employer do when an employee updates her personal information and it reveals that false information as to legal immigration status was previously submitted?  It may depend upon where she works.   Since the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986, employers have been “deputized” by the U.S. government … Continue Reading

USCIS Site Visits – Expanding to L-1 Petitioners

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service plans to begin conducting unannounced, post-approval site visits of L-1 petitioners under its Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) in the beginning of 2014. This new phase of site visits comes in response to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office … Continue Reading

Immigration News Flash: United States Diversity Visa Lottery Registration Opens Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 at Noon EDT and Will Close on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013 at Noon EDT

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
The Diversity Visa Lottery Registration for the next cycle of this popular program opens Tuesday, October 1, 2013. Entries must be submitted electronically at https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ between noon on October 1, 2013, and noon on November 2, 2013, Eastern Standard Time. Read this alert to learn more about the registration process and which applicants are encouraged to … Continue Reading

United States State Department Announces Visas for Same-Sex Spouses Are Now Available

By David Grunblatt on Posted in Immigration
On Friday, August 2nd, the U.S. Department of State announced its implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Windsor decision, confirming that effective immediately “U.S. Embassies and Consulates will adjudicate visa applications that are based on a same-sex marriage in the same way that we adjudicate applications for opposite gender spouses.” This alert addresses this important … Continue Reading
LexBlog

This website uses third party cookies, over which we have no control. To deactivate the use of third party advertising cookies, you should alter the settings in your browser.

OK