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Important new research concludes immigration restrictions that prevent companies from hiring high-skilled foreign nationals in the U.S. represent bad economic policy and are counterproductive. The first-of-its-kind study examining company-level responses to government immigration rules found H-1B visa restrictions carry the unintended consequence of pushing jobs outside the United States and lead to less innovation in America.
Read the rest of the Forbes article here.
Shumaker is pleased to announce that Mechelle Zarou, partner and Immigration practice group co-chair, was a presenter at a Diversity and Immigration seminar hosted by the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, Bowling Green Economic Development, and Welcome BG on October 2, 2019. Mechelle spoke about employment-based immigration to employers.
Svetlana Kuznetsova will not defend her Citi Open title because of visa issues.
Kuznetsova, who is Russian, announced Thursday on Twitter that she is withdrawing from the tennis tournament, which will begin next week in Washington.
“Wanted to apologize to all my fans who were waiting for me there ..Never had issues like this in my life, hopefully one day I can finally get a visa and play at list [sic] some events of the US swing!” wrote Kuznetsova, a two-time Grand Slam champion.
Two important lawsuits may affect whether international students and the spouses of H-1B visa holders will continue to be permitted to work in the United States. Adding to the complication, the Trump administration is expected to issue regulations that would affect the ability of one or both groups to work.
On a recent Tuesday, Neal Fachan walked down a dock in Seattle’s Lake Union and boarded a blue and yellow Harbour Air seaplane, alongside six other tech executives. He was bound for Vancouver to check on the Canadian office of Qumulo, the Seattle-based cloud storage company he co-founded in 2012. With no security lines, it was an easy 50-minute flight past snow-capped peaks. Later that day, Fachan caught a return flight back to Seattle.
Fachan began making his monthly Instagram-worthy commute when Qumulo opened its Vancouver office in January. Other passengers on the seaplanes go back and forth multiple times a week. Fachan says his company expanded across the border because Canada’s immigration policies have made it far easier to hire skilled foreign workers there compared to the United States. “We require a very specific subset of skills, and it’s hard to find the people with the right skills,” Fachan says as he gets off the plane. “Having access to a global employment market is useful.”
Business and education groups warn that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may court disaster if the agency implements a new electronic system for H-1B petitions without sufficient testing and input from employers. The registration system, based on a regulation finalized in January, is expected to be used in April 2020 for the FY 2021 H-1B cap season.
Continue reading “From Forbes: USCIS May Court Disaster With Untested H-1B Visa Registration System”
Trump administration rules that could deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance are going into effect, one of its most aggressive moves to restrict legal immigration.
Federal law already requires those seeking green cards and legal status to prove they will not be a burden to the U.S., or what’s called a “public charge,” but the new rules, made public on Monday, detail a broader range of programs that could disqualify them.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to deny H-1B petitions at an historically high rate, making it more difficult for international students to work in America and for companies to conduct research and service customers in the United States.
“Denial rates for H-1B petitions have increased significantly, rising from 6% in FY 2015 to 33% through the second quarter of FY 2019 for new H-1B petitions for initial employment,” according to a new National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP)analysis of USCIS data. “Between FY 2015 and FY 2018 the denial rate for new H-1B petitions quadrupled from 6% to 24%. To put this in perspective, between FY 2010 and FY 2015, the denial rate for initial H-1B petitions never exceeded 8%, while today the rate is 4 times higher.”
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could question international 
students and company managers during new site visits underway to investigate students on Optional Practical Training (OPT) in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. This is the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at companies, high-skilled professionals and international students.
If one looks at the May 2016 STEM OPT regulation, it’s clear ICE can review a number of aspects of an international student’s work at an employer that might not have been subject to oversight in the past. This includes examining documentation to determine whether a student in STEM OPT status is being paid properly according to the regulation. The 2016 rule states: “To guard against adverse impacts on U.S. workers, the rule requires terms and conditions of a STEM practical training opportunity to be commensurate with those applicable to similarly situated U.S. workers.”
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