Business Immigration Insights

On March 8, 2013, USCIS issued a major revision of its Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form, pursuant to a Federal Register announcement.

The newly revised Form I-9 adds data fields, including the employee’s foreign passport information, telephone and email address; improves and expands the form's instructions (now six pages); and revises the form layout to two pages, one for the employee and one for the employer.

Employers should begin using the new Form I-9 immediately, but are required to use it beginning May 7, 2013.  On that date, all prior versions of Form I-9 – ...

Starting today, March 4, 2013, USCIS will begin accepting applications for “provisional waiver” of unlawful presence from spouses, children and parents of U.S. citizens on Form I-601A.

As we explained in more detail in a previous post, these “immediate relatives” who qualify for the provisional waiver may now apply while they are still in the United States, and before they depart for their immigrant visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates in their home countries.  Before the provisional waiver process was established, they were required to travel abroad and be ...

If automatic spending cuts ("sequestration") take place at midnight tonight, wait times for visa appointments at US embassies and consulates will likely increase.

At its Daily Press Briefing on February 27, 2013, the Department of State warned that it will have to reduce the numbers of officers who process visa applications worldwide, and said, "We could have major setbacks in really the herculean effort we’ve made to reduce wait times."

At its press briefing on February 28, 2013, the Department elaborated:  "Sequestration threatens all of our operations because it cuts across ...