New Proposals to Change Immigration Policies to Attract Highly Skilled Professionals
On 5/6/2014, the Department of Homeland Security announced new proposals to the existing immigration policies regarding highly skilled immigrants in an attempt to continue to draw in and retain skilled professionals.
Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that “The proposed rules announced today provide important support to U.S. businesses while also supporting economic growth here in the U.S. These steps will help the U.S. maintain competitiveness with other countries in our efforts to attract the best and the brightest high-skilled workers from around the world to support companies here at home. Businesses continue to need these high-skilled workers, and these rules ensure we do not cede the upper hand to other countries competing for the same talent.”
There are two overall policy changes aimed at high skilled immigrants. First, the DHS are aiming to allow dependent spouses of certain principal H-1B workers to apply for employment authorization. Under the current policy, the DHS does not authorize the spouses of H-1B workers to work in the U.S. This proposed change will allow the dependent spouses (H-4) of H-1B workers, who have been approved for the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (I-140) or have been granted an extension of their stay via the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (AC21), to apply for employment authorization.
The second proposal to attract highly skilled workers to the U.S is to remove some barriers for them to remain in the U.S. Specifically, the proposal would expand the current list of evidentiary criteria to allow for submission of evidence equivalent to other forms of evidence already listed for first preference (EB-1) outstanding professors and researchers. In addition, high skilled specialty occupation professionals from Chile, Singapore (H-1B1) and Australia (E-3) will be added to the list of aliens authorized to work without having to separately apply for employment authorization from the DHS. This proposal would also allow E-3, H-1B1 and CW-1 nonimmigrant workers to work 240 days beyond the expiration date on their I-94 while an extension request is pending. Under existing policy, employers of E-3, H-1B1 and CW-1 nonimmigrant workers will have to file a petition requesting an extension of employee status before the expiration date of the worker’s status.
If the proposed policy changes are enacted, we can expect an influx of H-4 request for employment authorization as well as H-1B workers petitioning for permanent residency because highly skilled workers will be more inclined to stay knowing that their spouses are able to work sooner. We can also expect to see more approvals for EB-1 as the list of evidentiary criteria expands for outstanding professors and researchers. The number of E-3, H-1B1 and CW-1 workers can also be expected to rise as various obstacles are taken down.
The information in this article was given by the Department of Homeland Security Press Office: http://www.dhs.gov/news/2014/05/06/dhs-announces-proposals-attract-and-retain-highly-skilled-immigrants.
Zhang & Attorneys, L.P. has successfully represented many H-1B and I-140 cases. If you would like to contact us, please email us at info@hooyou.com. Our attorneys will use their experience, expertise, and teamwork to ensure the highest quality of service.
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(05/09/2014)