Immigration law is at the forefront of public dialogue these days. Womble Bond Dickinson’s Immigration Solutions team helps employers navigate high-stakes, constantly shifting immigration challenges to avoid potential problems and secure the talent they need to make their companies thrive. The following newsletter, drafted by Womble Bond Dickinson Immigration Solutions attorneys, covers some of the recent and most important developments in immigration law.

11/30/2023    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) launched the ICE Portal, a public-facing website that centralizes communications between noncitizens and the federal government. Within this online portal, noncitizens can schedule appointments, update their address, and check immigration court hearing information in a consolidated location.

11/28/2023    Bloomberg Law reported that a limited number of H-1B workers will be able to renew their visas in the U.S. as soon as January 2024. The rollout of the H-1B domestic visa renewal pilot program will be limited to just 20,000 participants at first and will allow H-1B holders to renew their visas by mailing them to the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”) rather than travel outside the U.S. and face uncertain wait times to secure an appointment at a U.S. consular office before returning.  

11/21/2023    Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) issued a press release noting in the past two weeks they have conducted over 30 repatriation flights transporting thousands of individuals, enforcing the removal of single adults and family units to Venezuela, Central America, Brazil, Colombia, India, and Peru who lacked a lawful basis to stay in the U.S.  

11/17/2023    DHS and U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the numerical limit (or cap) on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for all of fiscal year 2024. Of the 64,716 additional visas, 44,716 are available only workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years. The remaining 20,000 visas are set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. Furthermore, these supplemental visas are available only to U.S. businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petition. The supplemental visas will be distributed in several allocations.
 
11/10/2023    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) determined that for December 2023, the Dates for Filing Chart must be used in all family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories to determine eligibility to apply for adjustment of status.

11/9/2023    DHS published notice of eighty-seven countries whose nations are permitted to take part in the H-2A program and eighty-eight countries whose nationals are permitted to take part in the H-2B program next year. Bolivia is a new addition to this list for both programs.  

11/9/2023    U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Apple reached a $25 million settlement to resolve allegations of employment discrimination.  

11/7/2023    The Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”) announced thirty-nine new immigration judges.

11/6/2023    USCIS announced that its Potomac Service Center is in the process of moving to a new facility and can no longer accept paper responses to correspondence, effective November 13, 2023.  

11/3/2023    DOS published the December 2023 Visa Bulletin.

11/3/2023    DHS announced the availability of 64,716 additional H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas, not including the 66,000 congressionally mandated H-2B visas already available each fiscal year.