The Future of the Work Visa Under Biden’s Presidency

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By: Rachel Horner Joe Biden has a long list of pressing issues awaiting him once he is inaugurated as the 46th President. For the immigrants affected by the Trump Administration’s policies on work visas, there’s hope that immigration is towards the top of that list. While the Trump Administration has made attempts to restrict who can enter the country by revising America’s immigration system, the H-1B program became a larger target after the pandemic began to affect the United States. In June 2020, Trump issued Proclamation 10052, which suspended H-1B visas from being issued. Soon after, with the sharp decrease in immigration , USCIS almost furloughed a significant portion of their employees. However, a judge in California ...

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Major Flaw in New DOL Rule Taken to Court

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By: Rachel Horner Only a few weeks after its publication, the DOL’s new IFR, “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States,” which restructured the wage level for H-1B employees, has been challenged to court twice. The first lawsuit, ITServe Alliance, Inc. v. Scalia, argued that the data behind the rule is inaccurate. Another lawsuit has since followed suit, led by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. According to Forbes, the lawsuit, entitled Purdue University et. al. v. Eugene Scalia et. al., argues that the new DOL rule unfairly mandates an annual salary of $208,000 for over 18,000 occupations.  Because the percentiles for many occupations have been increased ...

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Top 5 Things You Need to Know about Translations

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By: Rachel Horner Last month, following the October Bulletin, Park Evaluations dealt with a crush of translations projects brought on by I-485 Adjustment of Status applications. Luckily, Park’s Translations team offers a robust, diverse set of translation-related services in a wide variety of languages. In this post, we provide an overview of the process works from the perspective of clients hoping to supplement their H1B, L1, EB, and other visa petitions with certified translations. From our desk to yours, here are the top 5 things you need to know about Park's Translations services. 1. What does the Translations team do? We provide translations for documents of any kind—birth certificates, academic degrees, corporate papers, you name it. We have a network of third-party translators we ...

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First of Many Lawsuits Launched against DOL’s Wage Level Hikes

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By: Rachel Horner The federal court in New Jersey is now home to a significant new lawsuit, entitled ITServe Alliance, Inc. v. Scalia, regarding the recent changes to the H-1B program. Filed by ITServe Alliance, Inc., the lawsuit challenges the Department of Labor’s interim final rule, “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States.” The IFR was published October 8, just days after the DOL announced its proposal of the rule. The rule raises the wages of H-1B workers by up to 40% (you can read more about the rule here). ITServe claims that both the reasoning behind the rule and the ...

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Texan Immigrants Rely on Courts, Election to Protect Their Status

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By: Rebecca Anderson For many immigrants across the country, the upcoming presidential election will determine a number of factors that affects their temporary status in the United States. And for those living in Texas, everything is bigger—including the stakes. According to the American Immigration Council, one in six Texas residents is an immigrant, while another one in six residents is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent. Tens of thousands of immigrants hailing from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti, fled from their native countries to the U.S. over three decades ago due to dangerous gangs, drug cartels, natural disasters, and civil wars. Many received legal permission to stay in the U.S. under a humanitarian program called Temporary ...

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How The DOL’s New Wage-Level Rule will Affect the Work Visa Program

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By: Rachel Horner The Department of Labor has issued an interim final rule just days after a judge in California blocked both USCIS’ fee hike and the Trump Administration’s ban on entry for those with work visas. The rule, titled “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States,” will serve as an adjustment to the four-tier prevailing wage methodology used when applying for either an H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 visa. In the Level 1 tier, the minimum salary paid to those on a work visa will shift from the 17th percentile of their occupation’s income to the 45th percentile. Following the same trend, Level 2 will be moved from ...

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How New H-1B Visa Rules Could Harm the U.S. Economy

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By: Rebecca Anderson Last week, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor announced new rules for the H-1B visa system, changing the definition of “specialty occupation,” employee-employer relationships, and limiting the validity of an H-1B visa to one year for a worker placed at a third-party worksite. Overall, the new interim final rule will include fewer types of degrees, raise wages H-1B workers should be paid, and shorten the length of visas for contract workers. According to The Economic Times, the IT industry lobby group Nasscom said that the changes could potentially harm the U.S. economy by restricting access to talented workers from overseas and slowing down research and development processes due to the COVID-19 pandemic—a time ...

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Who is Amy Coney Barrett, and What is Her Stance on Immigration?

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By: Rebecca Anderson The Trump administration has officially nominated Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Many of Trump’s immigration policies, including the rollback of DACA and the Remain in Mexico policy will be upheld by her, analysts say. According to azcentral, Barrett, 48, a former University of Notre Dame law school professor and an appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, has written decisions in three major immigration-related cases. In those particular cases, Barrett's decisions suggest she is a judge who interprets laws based on a rigid reading of the texts, rather than trying to decipher lawmakers' intent. According to Vox, Barrett helped to advance one of Trump’s key ...

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