Keeping Up With the Law: Potential Changes To Federal Regulations For Immigrant Visa Programs

As the new year rounds into full swing, it is important you are informed of any changes in the law that may affect how you account for your foreign national employees.  The Department of Homeland Security has recently proposed various changes to regulations that could have significant effects on the responsibilities your business has in relation to its foreign national employees.  It is important that you contact a local immigration attorney for help determining how any changes in the law will affect your filing requirements and the eligibility requirements of your employees.

Proposed Amendments

If the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed amendments are finalized, there will be some significant changes to regulations regarding permanent (employment-based immigrant visas) and temporary (non-immigrant visas) visa programs that may prove helpful to your business.

1. There will be more of a limit for grounds for automatic revocations of immigrant petition approvals that are 180 days or older.  Even if the employee’s previous employer is now defunct or requested to withdraw the employee’s immigrant petition, you (as a potential future employer or a current employer) will be able to reuse the priority date from the previous petition or use the approval from the former petition as a basis for H-1B employment beyond the six year mark.
2. There will be grace periods for employees when their non-immigrant employment terminates.  
3. There will be an automatic extension of Employment Authorization Document validity after you have made a timely filing of the renewal application.
4. In the event that AOS is not filed due to immigrant visa backlogs and compelling circumstances exist, a “highly skilled” approved immigrant petition beneficiary could request an EAD before AOS is filed.
5. The requirement that DHS adjudicates EAD applications within a time frame of 90 days and issue an interim EAD after the end of that 90 day period will be discontinued.
6. The H-1B admission limit date can be beyond the usual six-year limit when a new one is granted after approval of a petition to facilitate extension calculations.
7. There will be a requirement that an individual file AOS within one year of immigrant visa availability in order for them to maintain eligibility for an H-1B extension that goes beyond the typical six-year limit.  
8. AOS applicants will have a new supplementary form that will be specifically for the use of demonstrating that a job offer currently exists.

Contact A Chicago Visa Attorney At Kriezelman Burton & Associates.

As someone who employs workers from various backgrounds and with varying immigration and citizenship statuses, your responsibilities to your employees may seem endless.  However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.  Changes like those aforementioned could mean your life as a business owner could be much easier in many ways.  Although they have not taken place just yet, Kriezelman Burton & Associates can help you stay on top of the changes if and when they do happen.  Business owners are already busy ensuring that their clients, customers, and employees are all happy; let an experienced immigration attorney do the work when it comes to staying on top of changes in the immigration rules and determining how those rules change your responsibilities for your employees.  Contact us today and let us do the hard work.