Immigration Blog

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DOL Releases 2015 Labor Condition Program Performance Statistics for H1B

The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration released its OFLC H1B statistics from the fourth quarter of FY 2015. The data covers the H1B, H1B1, and E3 Specialty Occupations Labor Condition Programs. It includes statistics for the processing of labor condition applications as well as the top occupations, states, and employers.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

Close to 100 Mexican Nationals Seek Return to the U.S. Under Lopez-Venegas v. Johnson Settlement Agreement

In advance of the December 23, 2015 deadline, nearly 100 Mexican citizens who were identified by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought relief under the settlement agreement reached in Lopez-Venegas v. Johnson, No. CV 13-03972-JACK (PLAx), (C.D. Cal, Mar. 11, 2015). The settlement agreement was available to qualifying individuals who accepted voluntary return in Southern California between June 1, 2009 and August 28, 2014. In this post, I will review the settlement and the recent news about its effect on qualifying individuals.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

Controversy Over New Visa Waiver Program Laws

Since its passage, concerns have been raised about the portions of the legislation that restrict the VWP’s use by nationals of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Sudan (or people who have visited those countries within the past five years). I will discuss the concerns in my blog post.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

Thoughts on the End of the Lindsey Graham Campaign and the State of the GOP Primary

In this post, I share my thoughts on the end of Senator Lindsey Graham's presidential campaign. I also discuss the state of the GOP race as it stands today, and the increasing strength of the Chris Christie campaign.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

New Rules Expand Opportunities for Out-of-State Attorneys to Practice in New York

After months of review, the New York State Court of Appeals has made two important rule changes that will take effect on December 30, 2015. These changes have been added to title 22 (relating to the judiciary) of the New York Codes, Rules, and Regulations (NYCRR). I will review the two changes in this post.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

Increased Supplemental Fees for Certain L1 and H1B Petitions

As a result of the omnibus appropriation bill, supplemental fees for certain L1 and H1B petitions are increasing for certain companies. This blog post discusses the changes.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

2016 Presidential Candidate Profile: Martin O'Malley

Martin O’Malley is a fairly typical tax-and-spend liberal Democrat who seems to have virtually no chance of winning the Democratic nomination. It should go without saying that I do not consider this a great loss.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

2016 Presidential Candidate Profile: Bernie Sanders

Senator Sanders’ positions are catastrophically bad across the board. I find the Senator from Vermont to be an exceptionally poor candidate even after adjusting for my low expectations for Democratic candidates.

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2016 Presidential Candidate Profile: Hillary Clinton

Although Clinton would be an improvement on Israel over the atrocious Obama/Kerry policies of the last three years, she would be far worse for Israel than nearly all of the Republican candidates. I do not have a horse in the Democratic race, but a second President Clinton would probably be the least bad (everything is relative) of the three options. However, I hope that she is defeated in the general election by a strong Republican such as Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, or Jeb Bush.

Alexander J. Segal's picture

DOS Comments on Visa Bulletin Trends

Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, U.S. Department of State (DOS) provided his analysis of trends in the movement of filing dates and final action dates for filing for immigrant visas in the various preference categories. I will recap his analysis in this post.

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