News & Events

In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we talk to EIG attorney Ryan M. Knight about social media surveillance as part of the visa process. This level of scrutiny forces some tough questions: What is the price of freedom of expression in the Land of the ...

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the October 2019 Visa Bulletin. EB-2 and EB-3 categories for the worldwide quota have become current once again. Cut-off dates for the EB-2 and EB-3 categories for persons born in China have remained retrogressed since July 2019. For persons ...

The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the largest technology council in the country, has announced that Jerry Erickson, President and CEO of Erickson Immigration Group (EIG), has been elected to NVTC's Board of Directors. Also elected to the 2019-2020 board are Mr. Michael C. Condro, Partner Audit & Assurance, Deloitte ...

Today is a special episode — we are celebrating the Immigration Nerds podcast's first anniversary! We started in a tiny room with a few attorneys and a producer, all of us racking our brains to tackle the immigration issues of the day. We now have a guest list and audience that ...

The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business (“The Department”) has begun its annual review of the Skilled Migration Occupation Lists. The Department will meet with interested stakeholders, industries, and groups in Australia to learn about local labor markets and skill shortages. The ‘Traffic Light Bulletin’ ...

On September 4, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposal to collect social media user identifications in order to “assess an alien’s eligibility to travel to or be admitted to the United States or to receive an immigration-related benefit from DHS.” This change would ...

This week, the Trump Administration released a number of new restrictive immigration measures. To help make sense of the week and to address what is being done about it, we welcomed the Director of Government Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Greg Chen. ...

In a new Department of Homeland Security proposal released on September 3, employers who are applying for H-1B visas in next year's lottery would be required to pay an additional $10. This fee would go toward the electronic preregistration process used for the lottery. The fee ...

Last week, new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson advised Her Majesty the Queen to prorogue the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This has brought to an end the longest parliamentary session (sitting of the same Parliament) since the English Civil War. Parliament ...

On Wednesday, August 28, the Trump administration announced changes to the definition of residency as it relates to the citizenship of children of U.S. service members born outside of the U.S. The current policy states that certain children living outside of the United States were considered ...

In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast we take a historical approach to the idea of public charge and welcome history professor Hidetaka Hirota from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. We discuss how culture, religion, and race have explicitly been used to determine who would be ...

Beginning on November 1, 2019, non-resident foreign nationals wishing to join their Irish partners in Ireland for a period longer than 3 months, must apply for immigration preclearance before traveling to Ireland. Officials have emphasized that in-country applications will not be accepted. Officials have also announced ...

On August 19, 2019, the UK Home Office published a fact sheet to dispel some media reports related to the rights of EU citizens residing in the UK after Brexit. The Home Office confirmed that EU citizen residents will not be left in “legal limbo” as ...

On August 15, 2019, USCIS announced that it has issued return notices for all H-1B Cap Petitions that were not selected in the FY 2020 lottery. The lottery for successful H-1B Cap Petitions was completed by May 17, 2019, and USCIS has since taken steps to ...

Twenty states announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump Administration in response to its plans to amend the rule that limits the amount of time a migrant child may be held in detention centers to 20 days. Amending this rule would allow the ...

In this bonus episode, we continue our conversation with Dany Bahar of the Brookings Institution, and this time focus on Venezuela. In a time of civil unrest and economic distress, between 4-6 million Venezuelans — nearly 20% of the population — have fled the country. ...

In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we sit down with a fellow "immigration nerd," Dany Bahar. Mr. Bahar is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, an Israeli and Venezuelan economist, and an associate at the ...

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the September 2019 Visa Bulletin. Several Employment-Based preference categories have retrogressed or have become unavailable for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2019. For EB-1 categories, cut-off dates have advanced for persons born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Philippines, Vietnam, ...

Last fall, USCIS announced that changes would be forthcoming for the H-1B program, as soon as this year. The new plan would require companies who seek an H-1B visa for a foreign worker to first submit a free online registration form instead of an initial ...

On August 1, 2019, The Ministry of Public Security implemented new immigration policies aimed to attract highly-skilled foreign talent and outstanding youth to study and work in China.  These new policies will facilitate the process for foreigners to apply for permanent residency, long-term visas, and residence permits ...

In March 2019, USCIS announced its plan to close all of its overseas offices.However, on August 9, 2019, USCIS updated its plans and announced thatseven of the international offices will remain open. The field offices in Monterrey, Mexico and Seoul, South Korea will be the first ...

On August 6, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that USCIS acted arbitrarily, capriciously, and abused its discretion in denying an H-1B work visa to a Data Analyst on the grounds that Data Analysts do not require a bachelor’s degree in ...

On Monday, August 12, the Trump Administration said it would move forward with new regulations that would deny green cards and visas to immigrants who use or are expected to use a wide range of government benefits, including food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid. This ...

Boris Johnson is the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and carries the weight of the entire country, and holds the keys to its Brexit destiny. Is Johnson a Man of the People or a product of the Institution? Erickson Immigration Group legal writer ...

On Wednesday, August 7, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would introduce "a single, secure portal" for the public to report "credible and relevant claims of immigration benefit fraud." USCIS will accept additional public comment on the form beginning Thursday, August 8. Individuals will be ...

In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we're joined by Erickson Immigration Group senior attorney Storm Estep to discuss recent policy updates from the week of July 15 - July 24. Storm explains H.R. 1044 and the companion bill in the Senate, new asylum rules and ...

EIG is proud to participate as a featured speaker at the SHRM Global Mobility and Immigration Symposium in Washington, DC on November 3-5, 2019. Jerry Erickson, EIG Principal, and Justin Parsons, EIG Managing Director, will both be speaking on panels and participating in the conference, ...

EIG is proud to participate as a featured speaker at the Worldwide ERC Global Workforce Symposium 2019 in Boston, on October 16-18, 2019. Jerry Erickson, EIG Principal, and Alejandra Zapatero, Director, Client Relations, are featured speakers and will be joined by EIG leaders to participate ...

On July 9, 2019, the Irish Ministry for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation issued the Employment Permits (Amendment)(No. 2) Regulations 2019 which modified work permit regulations. Beginning January 1, 2020, the minimum salary threshold for Critical Skills Employment Permits (CSEP) will increase from 30,000 EUR to 32,000 EUR ...

On July 17, 2019, the Irish High Court ruled that a person applying to become a naturalized Irish citizen must have one year of “continuous” residence in Ireland immediately before filing the naturalization application. The High Court interpreted “continuous” to strictly mean “unbroken” with no absences for an ...