Business Immigration Insights

In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, which invalidated the Defense of Marriage Act, the USCIS has issued some helpful FAQs pertaining to family-based immigrant visa petitions. The State Department has not yet issued guidance on nonimmigrant visa applications by same-sex spouses.  We will update this blog when that guidance is issued.

On July 1, DOL announced that its Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) is making publicly available redacted copies of all certified H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) and permanent labor certifications (PERMs) dating back to April 15, 2009, through the iCert “Labor Certification Registry” (LCR).  These certified documents can be searched by case number, case type, state, job location, employer name, posting range, or industry code.  The “LCR Document Availability Schedule” gives specific availability timeframes for each type of ...

Following the recent Supreme Court ruling holding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued guidance on the filing of same-sex marriage family-based immigrant visa petitions.  The guidance instructs the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to “review immigration visa petitions filed on behalf of a same-sex spouse in the same manner as those filed on behalf of an opposite-sex spouse.”  The DHS FAQs can be found here.

The State Department has yet to issue guidance on the adjudication of nonimmigrant visa ...