Five Insights on the State of Immigration, Politics and Business
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4. Other Developments
For foreign nationals with H-1B work visas–one of the most popular working visa categories– who are also recipients of approved immigrant visa petitions, changes in work authorization rules, effective as of May 26, 2015, are making it possible for their spouses to obtain an Employment Authorization Document so that they can be employed in the U.S. This rule change puts H-4 spouses on par with spouses of intra-company transferees, who have long been able to work in the U.S.
Still another effort was the issuance, after many years, of a policy guidance memorandum on the L-1B intra-company transferee visa, which allows employers to bring over from foreign affiliates to the U.S. foreign nationals with “specialized knowledge”. My own view is that I am not sure that the memorandum has made things any easier for companies seeking to bring over this category of workers, but at least the memo purports to make some sense of a range of often contradictory authorities going back more than 20 years.
5. The Take Away
The controversy over the President’s authority to issue executive orders and the wave of anti-immigrant feeling among segments of the electorate have essentially cast a shadow over meaningful immigration reform. A potential casualty of these forces could be the EB-5 program.
But there are also positive movements forward. The framework for the Significant Public Benefit Parole Program is evolving and could significantly promote foreign entrepreneurship in the U.S.; strides have been made to expand the category of non-immigrants who can qualify for work authorization; and the authorities have started a laudable effort to make more sense of standards governing important visa categories utilized by international businesses.
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