High Skilled Labor
The Impact of COVID-19 on Noncitizens and Across the U.S. Immigration System
This report identifies disruptions throughout the immigration system because of the COVID-19 pandemic and makes recommendations for improvements to the federal government’s response. Read More
Government Takes Surprising Position to Preserve H-4 Work Permits – For Now
A long-running lawsuit over a rule allowing certain spouses of highly educated H-1B workers to work in the United States took an interesting twist. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has threatened to take away work authorization for this group of people since the start of the… Read More
USCIS Consistently Denies H-1B Petitions. This Lawsuit Argues It’s Misinterpreting the Law.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been denying many H-1B petitions by misinterpreting the law. On April 16, 2020, the American Immigration Council and partners filed a nationwide class action lawsuit challenging the agency’s pattern of unlawfully denying H-1B petitions for market research analysts. The plaintiffs—who are suing… Read More
Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to Challenge USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Filed by American Businesses
The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout, LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed a nationwide class action lawsuit today challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analysts positions filed by businesses in the United States. Read More
USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Spurs Class Action Lawsuit
This nationwide class action lawsuit challenges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analyst positions filed by United States businesses. Read More
Regulatory Comment on Establishing a System for Secretarial Review Over Cases Before the Department of Labor Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals
These comments were submitted on the regulatory changes in the Department of Labor’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Direct Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on March 6, 2020 by the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Read More
The Rules for Immigrants Wanting to Work in the United States on a Permanent Basis
This fact sheet defines the various components of the permanent, employment-based immigration system—and then describes how those components relate to each other in the application processes for each of the five preference categories. Read More
The H-1B Registration Period Has Ended. How Did the New System Handle It?
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed its first registration period on March 20 for H-1B petitions. The H-1B visa category allows highly educated foreign workers to temporarily work for employers in the United States. This was the first year USCIS used a new registration process… Read More
Immigrant Health Care Workers Play a Vital Role in the United States’ COVID-19 Response
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, the U.S. health care system will likely be pushed to its limits. During this time, it is important to remember the role that immigrant health care workers play alongside their native-born colleagues on the front lines of this fight—and how strongly our health care capacity… Read More
As Trump Slashes All Immigration, Other Countries Open Their Doors
The Trump administration has worked to close the door on all types of immigrants—including people trying to come to the United States on visas. Consequently, the United States is experiencing a severe drop in legal immigration. Other nations like Canada are picking up the slack and reaping the benefits. Between… Read More
