Colorado's COVID-19 vaccination rollout will move into Phase 1B.3 beginning March 5, 2021. With this phase, the following Coloradans will become eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine: People age 60 and olderFrontline essential workers in grocery and agriculturePeople age 16-59 with 2 or more high risk conditions If you work in agriculture, meatpacking, or a grocery store, in close contact with others, you are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine beginning...

The United States Department of Homeland Security issued a statement earlier this month affirming its support for equal access to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine distribution sites for all, including undocumented immigrants: “It is a moral and public health imperative to ensure that all individuals residing in the United States have access to the vaccine. DHS encourages all individuals, regardless of immigration status, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine once eligible under local...

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the window for filing electronic H-1B registrations will open on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at noon Eastern and will close at noon Eastern on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Any employer seeking file an H-1B petition on behalf of a foreign worker must submit a registration on the worker’s behalf during this filing window. USCIS intends to notify employers of any selected...

We are fast approaching the time of year when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducts its annual lottery to assign the limited number of H-1B visas available for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. USCIS has yet to announce the filings dates for this year’s lottery process, but we anticipate that it will be in the first weeks of March. The H-1B nonimmigrant status/visa is an employer-sponsored...

On his first day in office, President Biden has sent a sweeping proposal to Congress to reform our immigration laws. The bill addresses many areas of the current immigration law and contains reforms that immigration advocates have been urging for years. Of course, the bill is only a proposal.  If any immigration reform bill is to be passed into law, it will likely take months and would likely include changes from...

An employer seeking to offer a foreign worker a job opportunity on a permanent basis may sponsor that foreign worker for employment-based permanent residency. Most often, this requires Labor Certification through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The Labor Certification process, also referred to as PERM, requires that employers “test the labor market” to see if there are any qualified and available U.S. workers for its job opportunity, prior to petitioning...

The U.S. Department of Labor has announced several important policy changes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which affect employers seeking to file Labor Certification Applications on behalf of foreign workers. On March 20, 2020, DOL announced that, in light of COVID-19, it would permit employers additional time to respond to requests from DOL regarding prevailing wage requests and Labor Certification applications. For deadlines that fall between March 13, 2020 through...

With the declaration of a State of Emergency in Colorado due to the global pandemic from COVID-19, many Colorado employers are facing difficult decisions about how to manage their workforce in an uncertain and quickly-changing environment. Employers who employ H-1B workers should understand what their additional obligations are, if any, when considering layoffs, terminations, and other employment changes in light of COVID-19. The information contained in this article is for general...

As of March 1, 2020, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) online H-1B registration tool is open for employers and their representatives to submit electronic registrations to seek acceptance under the annual H-1B cap lottery on behalf of potential H-1B workers. The online H-1B registration system is a new process this year and few details regarding its implementation or functionality were announced in advance. Employers and representatives access the...

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has formally announced that it will implement the new H-1B registration final rule for Fiscal Year 2021. The H-1B registration system will involve an initial electronic registration process, in which employers may register for potential H-1B workers to be entered into the annual H-1B cap lottery. Those whose registrations are selected will then be permitted to file H-1B petitions to be considered on...

On January 31, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a final rule making significant changes to how it will conduct the annual cap-subject H-1B lottery process. The rule creates an online “pre-registration” and selection requirement for companies intending to use the H-1B visa program to sponsor foreign workers. The Acting Director of USCIS, Ken Cuccinelli, recently announced that he believes USCIS will be ready to implement the...

On Saturday, November 2, 2019, a judge in the U.S. District Court in the District of Oregon issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the new presidential proclamation on health insurance for immigrant visa applicants from taking effect. The Presidential Proclamation on Health Care, if its policy had taken effect, would have required that all people applying at a U.S Embassy or Consulate abroad for an immigrant visa to the United...

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") has announced a new policy, scheduled to be in effect as of September 1, 2019, to expand the use of "expedited removal" to deport noncitizens from the United States. The Trump Administration had directed Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") in 2017 to expand the use of expedited removal. This new policy announcement is implementation of those directives, and means that the use of expedited...

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed a new rule making changes to the annual selection process for H-1B visas. H-1B visas are currently limited to 65,000 per fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 “Master’s cap” H-1B visas available to workers with a Master’s degree from a U.S. university. Each year for the past several years, the demand for H-1B visas has far outpaced this statutory limitation. The result...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has advised that it is on track to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) by the end of the year that would rescind the rule permitting employment authorization for certain H-4 spouses. This timeline was announced in a court filing last month by DHS in the ongoing litigation around the H-4 employment authorization regulations. H-4 non-immigrants are the spouses and children of non-immigrants in...

  On June 26, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the closely watched “Travel Ban” case, Trump v. Hawaii. The Court found that the Trump administration was within its authority in issuing Proclamation No. 9645, which suspends the issuance of visas to foreign nationals of seven countries. The Proclamation at issue was the third iteration of travel bans issued by the Trump Administration, which have been the subject...

On May 22, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the final registration period for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Nepal is open and beneficiaries must re-register before July 23, 2019. Beneficiaries of TPS from Nepal are currently granted protection and employment authorization until June 24, 2018.  Due to the anticipated delay in processing the re-registration applications, USCIS has automatically extended employment authorization for all Nepalese...

On May 15, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had completed its electronic data entry for receipt of all H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions selected for Fiscal Year 2019. USCIS previously announced on April 11, 2018 that it had completed the random selection process for H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions. The May 15 announcement indicates that each of those H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions which were selected under this “cap” have now...

On Wednesday, October 11 the White House announced that President Trump will nominate Kristjen Nielsen to serve as the new Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.  Elaine Duke has been Acting Homeland Security Secretary since General John Kelly left the post to serve as White House Chief of Staff in July. Nielsen is currently the principal Deputy Chief of Staff to Kelly and served in DHS as Kelly's Chief of...

On September 18, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the designation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Sudan would be terminated on November 2, 2018. The Acting Secretary of DHS, Elain Duke, accounced that she has determined that the conditions in Sudan no longer support its designation for TPS.  Sudan was originally designated for TPS in 1997, due to the ongoing armed conflict and civil war. The country...