Today January 25, 2021, President Biden issued a “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease.” In regard to both immigrants and non immigrants:
Read MoreDALLAS – Managing Attorney Karen-Lee Pollak from the Dallas law firm Pollak PLLC, once again has earned recognition as a Texas Super Lawyer in 2020 by Texas Monthly Magazine based on her work in Immigration Law.
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The Trump administration announced new, long-anticipated restrictions for the H-1B high-skilled visa program on October 6, 2020, some of which will go into effect this week. The rules are "far and away, one of the most significant reforms made to the H-1B program in the past 20 years," said Deputy Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella. The rule from the Department of Labor, which will go into effect Thursday morning, will change how much employers will be required to pay foreign workers they hire on H-1B visas and Green Cards, forcing them to pay workers more. The rule may be viewed at https://s.docworkspace.com/d/ANohAcmTk6tJqNS2uqWdFA
Breaking: Tonight, the District Court for the Northern District of California in Immigration Legal Resource Centre v. Wolf enjoined the USCIS Final Rule increasing fees. The Final Rule was supposed to go into effect on October 2, 2020 and will not pending the final adjudication of the above referenced case. A copy of the Order is attached at https://s.docworkspace.com/d/AC_LxhOTk6tJkISSqqWdFA
Read MoreBreaking: Tonight the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan continuing resolution to extend federal government funding through December 11 and avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
The legislation is H.R. 8337, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act.
Part of this Act is Division D—The Employment Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act which increases the premium processing fee from $1440 to $2500 for Employment based Immigrant Visas in the EB1, 2 and 3 category and $1750 for nonimmigrant visas where premium processing was available as of August 2020.
It also expands premium processing to Multinational Executive and Manager Green Cards as well as EB2 National Interest Waivers. Cases must be adjudicated in 45 days. The cost is $2500.
Today, our client and 22 individual and organizational plaintiffs, including family-based immigrant visa petitioners, diversity visa lottery winners, and nonimmigrant visa sponsors, including those who want to bring in healthcare professionals from abroad to help during the pandemic, sued to prevent the devastating effects of President’s Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional immigration ban. Litigators from the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Justice Action Center and Innovation Law Lab, with pro bono support from Mayer Brown LLP as Lead Counsel, filed the plaintiffs’ claims as an amended complaint in Gomez v. Trump, (copy attached) which had initially challenged President Trump’s April immigration ban. Today’s amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, marks the first legal challenge to the entirety of President Trump's immigration ban, which has been extended through the end of 2020.
Read MoreOn July 6, 2020, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) announced that it would no longer provide exemptions for international students taking online classes due to the pandemic during the fall 2020 semester. ICE also issued a Broadcast Message with slightly more detail, and indicated the rule will be published in the Federal Register as a Temporary Final Rule.
Penn State University’s Immigration Rights Clinic has published this useful Frequently Asked Questions Sheet which may assist Foreign Students in answering common questions arising from this announcement.
Read MoreToday, Monday July 6, 2020 SEVP (student exchange visitor program) announced its modifying its requirements for foreign F and M students to study in the USA for the fall semester.
Previously, SEVP instituted a temporary exemption regarding the online study policy for the spring and summer semesters due to Covid-19. This policy permitted F and M students to take more online courses than normally allowed for purposes of maintaining a full course of study to maintain their F-1 and M-1 nonimmigrant status during the COVID-19.
