Immigration Reform Update

Yesterday President Obama announced a number of major policy changes related to immigration.  While much of the publicity on these possible “administrative fixes” has focused on relief from deportation for a portion of the undocumented population, particularly parents and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, there are a number of changes that affect foreign nationals working in the U.S. on an employment-based status and the companies that employ those individuals.  These changes include enhancing immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs, providing portable work authorization for highly-skilled workers awaiting their permanent residence classification, providing work authorization for certain spouses of individuals in H-1B status who are going through the green card process and streamlining the process for individuals and employers going through the legal immigration process.

The final details related to the implementation of these programs will become known as the agencies involved effectuate the same.   It will likely be several months before these programs are up and running.  But LLF’s Immigration Group will continue to keep you informed of any new programs and are available to answer questions and assist you and your employees to navigate through the complex maze of immigration-related programs.