Follow Us:

Posts Tagged ‘PERM Labor Certification’

DHS Announces Proposed Rulemaking for H-4 Spouse Work Authorization

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

Visa_iStock_000016934361_ExtraSmall (2)

Under existing regulations, DHS does not extend employment authorization to dependents (also known as H-4 nonimmigrants) of H-1B nonimmigrant workers. The change proposed by DHS, would allow H-4 dependent spouses of certain H-1B nonimmigrant workers to request employment authorization, as long as the H-1B worker has already started the process of seeking lawful permanent residence through employment.

Eligible individuals would include H-4 dependent spouses of principal H-1B workers who:

  • Are the beneficiaries of an approved Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; or
  • Have been granted an extension of their authorized period of stay in the United States under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (AC21) as amended by the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act. AC21 permits H-1B workers seeking lawful permanent residence to work and remain in the United States beyond the six-year limit.  Refer to AC 21 12/27/2005 Aytes Memo for details.

Proposal to Enhance Opportunities for Highly-Skilled Workers: H-1B1 (Chile and Singapore) and E-3

Specifically, the change to the regulation would:

  • Update the regulations to include nonimmigrant high-skilled specialty occupation professionals from Chile and Singapore (H-1B1) and from Australia (E-3) in the list of classes of aliens authorized for employment incident to status with a specific employer.
  • Clarify that H-1B1 and principal E-3 nonimmigrants are allowed to work without having to separately apply to DHS for employment authorization. Under current regulations, employers of workers in E-3, H-1B1, or CW-1 status must generally file a petition requesting the extension of the employee’s status well before the initial authorized duration of status expires.
  • Allow E-3, H-1B1 and CW-1 nonimmigrant workers up to 240 days of continued work authorization beyond the expiration date noted on their Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, while the extension request is pending.

It would affect workers in specialty occupation nonimmigrant classifications for professionals from Chile and Singapore (H-1B1) and Australia (E-3), as well as Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island (CNMI)-Only Transitional Workers (CW-1).

Finally, this proposal would also expand the current list of evidentiary criteria for employment-based first preference (EB-1) outstanding professors and researchers to allow the submission of evidence comparable to the other forms of evidence already listed in the regulations.  This proposal would harmonize the regulations for EB-1 outstanding professors and researchers with other employment-based immigrant categories that already allow for submission of comparable evidence.

Both Notices of Proposed Rulemaking will soon publish in the Federal Register. DHS encourages the public to comment on the proposed rules through www.regulations.gov.  All public comments will be considered before the final rules are published and go into effect.  We will keep you posted on next steps when this actually becomes effective.

The DHS Press Release

 

 

 

Immigration Solutions | DOL Update on PERM Labor Certification

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Department of Labor (DOL) announced in an October 28th meeting with representatives from the American Council on International Personnel (ACIP), the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and other groups that it has been transitioning to a new contractor, and expects the change to result in both better PERM case processing and increased efforts to ensure program compliance. Employers should be aware that there could be some temporary processing slowdowns during the transition.

DOL further stated that PERM program users could soon see improvements in customer service, but should also expect more frequent audits and increased use of supervised recruitment.

DOL additionally disclosed that a new version of the PERM application, Form ETA 9089, is expected to go live in the near future and that the revised form will be fully integrated into DOL’s online iCERT portal.  In other PERM news, agency officials noted that the labor certification backlog was cut in half in Fiscal Year 2010, and there were general improvements in processing times overall. Enhancements are expected to the iCERT portal and in labor condition application (LCA) processing.  As of September 30th, the agency was working on non-audited cases that were filed in July 2010 and audited cases filed in August 2008.

Immigration Solutions will continue to report on  developments from the Department of Labor as they are released.