The E-2 treaty investor visa allows foreign nationals to make an investment in an existing or new business venture in the United States. Advantages There are no numerical limitations on the number of E-2 visas that can be issued, and there is no set minimum level of investment required, however…
Articles Posted in Start-Up Immigration
Proposed Rule: Mandatory Registration Requirement for H-1B Petitioners
Today, November 30, 2018, the United States Department of Homeland Security announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks to impose a registration requirement for H-1B petitioners seeking to file an H-1B petition on behalf of beneficiaries under the regular cap and advanced degree exemption. An unpublished version of…
Exciting News: New Zealand joins list of treaty countries eligible for E-2 Visas
Citizens of New Zealand now qualify for the E-2 Treaty Trader Investor Visa thanks to a United States–New Zealand partnership recently signed into law. The KIWI Act, or Knowledgeable Innovators and Worthy Investors Act, signed into law on August 1st, adds New Zealand to the list of eligible countries participating…
USCIS Extends Temporary Suspension of Premium Processing to February 19, 2019
During March of this year, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the temporary suspension of premium processing services for all fiscal year 2019 cap-subject petitions, including petitions requesting an exemption from the general cap. USCIS announced that the suspension would last until September 10, 2018, in order…
DHS Proposal to Remove the International Entrepreneur Rule
Today, May 25, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will be publishing a proposed rule in the Federal Register on May 29th to end the International Entrepreneur Rule, a program that gives foreign entrepreneurs the opportunity to apply for parole to come to the United States for…
USCIS Completes the H-1B Selection Process for FY 2019
Great News! Today, USCIS announced that the computer-generated selection process has been completed to select the H-1B petitions necessary to fulfill both the general cap and master’s cap for this H-1B season. The randomized lottery was completed yesterday April 11, 2018. This H-1B season, USCIS received 190,098 H-1B petitions for…
USCIS Cautions Against Different Employers Filing H-1B Cap Petitions for the Same Beneficiary to Increase Success
A new policy memorandum issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes clear that different H-1B petitioners may not file multiple H-1B petitions for a single beneficiary. This applies in a situation where different employers seek to file an H-1B petition for the same person. According to…
International Entrepreneur Rule Wins Big In Court: Judge Overturns Delay of the Rule
On Friday December 1st, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a ruling in the lawsuit, National Venture Capital Association, et.al. v. Duke, et. al, in favor of the National Venture Capital Association, an association that brought the lawsuit to challenge the government’s…
The End of the International Entrepreneur Rule and H-4 Work Authorization is Imminent
The Trump administration has taken its first step toward dismantling the International Entrepreneur Rule, an Obama era program that would have given thousands of foreign entrepreneurs the opportunity to travel to the United States for a 30-month period, for the purpose of starting or scaling their start-up business enterprise in…
USCIS Introduces New Policies to Toughen the renewal process for H-1B visas, and other work visas
Unsurprisingly, this week we learned that the Trump administration is taking further steps to toughen the process of applying for an H-1B visa extension/renewal request, and that of other highly sought-after non-immigrant work visa types filed using Form I-129 Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker such as the H, O, P, L,…