Business Immigration Insights

On the night of Monday, April 20, 2020, the President tweeted that he would “protect” American jobs during the COVID-19 crisis by issuing an Executive Order that would “temporarily suspend immigration.”  After several uncertain days of conflicting information, reported in the media, about how sweeping the scope of the order would be, it turns out to affect a very small subset of intending US immigrants:  those who are outside the United States and will immigrate here by obtaining an immigrant visa.

On April 22, 2020, the White House issued the order, entitled “Proclamation ...

Employers nationwide are implementing work reductions, closures and furloughs in order to reduce costs during the COVID-19 economic slowdown in the United States.  When employees are put on reduced hours or furloughed, employers face changing legal obligations in multiple areas of labor and employment law.  Companies that employ nonimmigrant workers should not overlook the additional legal obligations they have toward these employees, especially those who are on visas that have prevailing wage requirements.

The Retention of EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers rule was published in the Federal Register today. This significant rule codifies long-standing but unofficial agency practices under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (“AC21”) and establishes a variety of new provisions to further streamline business immigration processes, including the following: