Effective November 3, 2019, applicants for an immigrant visa will be required to show their ability to obtain health insurance within 30 days of entry into the United States during their consular interview. Visa applicants should complete Form DS-5541 to provide information on their health insurance plan and date coverage will begin or ability to pay for healthcare for any “reasonably foreseeable” medical costs. Failure to demonstrate the financial resources to obtain health insurance will result in a denial of their visa application.
According to news reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have recently started on-site visits to employers of international students working on STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT). These visits are to confirm that the information on the training program, Form I-983, is accurate.
Three federal courts across the United States have temporarily suspended the enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security’s new “public charge” rule, which was set to take effect on October 15, 2019. This new rule redefines how the agency can determine whether a foreign national is at risk of needing public assistance, which would make the foreign national ineligible for admission, extension of status, or permanent residence.
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its November 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, most employment-based categories this month had little advancement. (Employment-based (“EB”) category 1 for all nationals (except for India and China) advanced by little over a month. EB-1 for China moves forward three months and EB-1 India remains the same. The EB-2 category for all nationals continues to be current. China has a two and a half month advancement, and India advanced by one day. The EB-3 category is current for all nationals except for China and India, which saw no change from last month. The Philippines moves forward by three and a half months.
The Department of State just announced that the online registration period for the annual green card lottery will begin at 12 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT–4), Wednesday, October 2, 2019, and end at 12 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT–5), Tuesday, November 5, 2019. We recommend registering as soon as possible because the DOS website does slow down or freeze due to very heavy traffic towards the end of the registration period.
The publication of a proposed rule that would rescind the H-4 EAD has been delayed until at least spring 2020. In a letter submitted by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week, the agency confirmed that while it still plans on publishing a rule to repeal the H-4 EAD, the proposed rule is still undergoing interagency review. DHS also stated that the spring 2020 date was “aspirational.”
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its October 2019 Visa Bulletin. October 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year so all the visa categories benefit from new visa numbers. As a result, most categories see sizable movement. Employment-based (“EB”) category 1 for all nationals (except for India and China) advances by six months. EB-1 for China moves forward nearly three years and EB-1 India goes from unavailable to January 1, 2015. The EB-2 category for all nationals is now current, except for China, which, unfortunately, has a two-year retrogression, and India, which advances by four days. The EB-3 category is current for all nationals except for China, which moves forward nearly two years; India, which moves forward three and a half years, and the Philippines, which moves forward by fifteen months.
USCIS has proposed a $10 fee for each electronic registration submitted by a sponsoring employer for the upcoming H-1B lottery. USCIS will accept public comments on the proposed fee until October 4, 2019.
Although the most recent version of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification expired on August 31, 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has advised employers to continue to use the July 17, 2017, version of the Form I-9 until an updated version is released. The revised version of Form I-9 is not expected to be significantly different from the current version.
The Department of State (DOS) has issued its September 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, most employment-based categories this month had little advancement or retrogressed. Employment-based category 1 (EB-1) for most nationals advanced by a little over a year, while for Chinese nationals it retrogressed by two and a half years, and for Indian nationals the EB-1 category is now unavailable. For the employment-based category 2 (EB-2), most nationals advanced by one year, while Chinese nationals had no advancement, and Indian nationals advanced by only six days. Lastly, the employment-based category 3 (EB-3) for most nationals saw no advancement. Chinese nationals retrogressed by 2 years and a half, Indian nationals retrogressed by six months, and Filipino nationals had no advancement. In fact, the DOS has indicated that the EB-3 category for all nationals other than India and China is unavailable for the rest of the fiscal year.
