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By TL Loke Walsh 2018 was another roller coaster year in the immigration world. Spurred by the implementation of Trump’s Buy American, Hire American (BAHA) executive order in April 2017, DHS has been quietly implementing significant change – all without…

By TL Loke Walsh In the last 1½ years, we have heard the never-ending negative rhetoric from the Trump administration with regards to the U.S. immigration system. Most immigration lawyers didn’t think that the rhetoric had a chance of becoming…

By TL Loke Walsh   DHS plans to collect social media information on all immigrants On September 18, 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly published a rule that extends the data collection system for storing information of…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh This article was updated with the new registration dates.   Yes, DV Lottery really exists! The government has 50,000 diversity immigrant visas available for FY 2018 (i.e. October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019). Why should…

By TL Loke Walsh Whether you are an immigrant or not, it’s been an anxiety-ridden 100 days under the Trump Administration. Here’s our summary of what has happened in the last 100 days — updates on travel, visa applications and…

On Friday, January 20, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The presidential transition has already begun to lay its foundation; but following the election of…

By TL Loke Walsh The results of Tuesday’s elections in the United States caught the entire nation by surprise. The election of President-elect, Donald Trump has generated fear, worry and uncertainty for many immigrants. However, it is unlikely that this…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh Yes, DV Lottery really exists! The government has 50,000 diversity immigrant visas available for FY 2018 (i.e. October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018). Why should you do it? It’s free – you just complete your…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh The H-1B season starts on April 1, 2016 when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) begins accepting H-1B visa petitions for FY 2017-2018 (i.e. an October 1, 2016 start-date). For the last 3 years, USCIS reached…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh In 1993, I came to the United States on an Exchange Abroad Program (EAP) as an F-1 student from the University of Sydney, Australia. Originally from Malaysia and after ten years in Australia, I arrived in…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh The H-1B season starts on April 1, 2014 when USCIS begins accepting H-1B visa petitions for FY 2015-2016 (i.e. an October 1, 2014 start-date). Last year, for the first time since 2008, USCIS reached the cap within…

Have a new foreign national hire that can’t obtain a SSN because of the federal government shutdown? Wondering how to put your new hire on payroll? The Social Security Administration (SSA) is just one of the many federal agencies that…

AB 1401 (http://goo.gl/3lgWEY), a bill that could make California the first state to allow “lawful permanent immigrants” to serve in the jury, clears the assembly floor (by a vote of 48-28), and heads to the Governor’s desk for signature.  …

Within two days of the monumental Supreme Court 5-4 ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Section 3, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced that it will grant green cards to petitioning same-sex…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh Despite the Senate’s passage of the the immigration reform bill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made it clear that he will not bring up the bill to a vote without that majority support of House Republicans. This Washington…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh A report entitled Analysis: A Minimum Wage of $128,000? The Impact of Immigration Legislation on Salaries and U.S. Competitiveness was released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).  It examines the provisions on pending bills…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh On Monday, the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, S.744 will be up for debate on the full Senate floor.While some senators, including one of the bill’s author, Sen. Marco Rubio, do not believe that it will get…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh After debating over 200 of the 300 proposed amendments to S. 744, “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” the Senate Judiciary Committee finally clears the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill for full Senate…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh and AILA Students & Scholars Committee (Reposted. Original article by +AILA National) Now that USCIS has completed the H-1B lottery, many F-1 students who filed H-1B petitions and were accepted as part of the lottery are eligible for cap-gap…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh “[T]he most controversial measure is a proposal to expand the visa program for highly trained workers, known as the H-1B program. The provision would raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 110,000, with…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh 1. Use the Right Version of the Form The current version of Form I-9 has an expiration date of 10/31/2022 in the upper right corner and a revision date of (10/21/2019) on the lower left-hand corner…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh U.S. employers face a logistical nightmare when it comes to complying with Form I-9 employment verification for remote employees. The problem has become increasingly challenging as more employers rely on telecommuters and remote employees across all…

By Tien-Li Loke Walsh USCIS announced that as of May 18,2012, it has receipted approximately 42,000 “general cap” petitions and 16,000 “Masters-cap” petitions. H-1B usage has been surprisingly strong this year in comparison to previous years. In FY 2010 (April…