Business Immigration in a Minute by Honigman LLP

• The Department of State recently released the September 2023 Visa Bulletin. In addition to the final action dates and dates for filing charts for employment-based immigrant visa and adjustment of status cases, it contains notes on the diversity lottery, availability of employment-based visas during September and numerical limits under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Notably, EB-2 final action dates for China and all other countries advanced by approximately three months. All other employment-based final action dates remained unchanged from last month. For September 2023, employment-based applicants must use the final action dates chart for adjustment of status applications.
  
  
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it completed a second random selection of H-1B registrations from the remaining FY 2024 registrations and has notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round of selection that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the selected registration. USCIS stated that it selected 77,600 registrations in the second selection for the FY 2024 H-1B cap.
  
  
• The Department of Homeland Security recently published a final rule implementing significant updates to the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification and related document inspection processes, which became effective on August 1, 2023. Notably, the new version of the Form I-9 includes a check box for certain employers to indicate that they have inspected copies of an employee’s identity and employment authorization documents pursuant to a new alternative virtual procedure. Employers may begin using the new Form I-9 on August 1, 2023 and must use this form version when using the alternative procedure as part of the I-9 process. All employers will be required to use the Form I-9 on November 1, 2023, regardless of whether they use the alternative virtual procedure. For more information on which employers are eligible to use the new alternative virtual procedure for document inspection and for information about the new Form I-9, please see Honigman LLP’s full client alert.
  
  
• USCIS announced that it will now issue two notices – a receipt notice and an approval notice (if approved) – when a Form I-129S, Nonimmigrant Petition Based on Blanket L Petition, is filed together with Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. Petitioners will no longer receive a stamped and signed Form I-129S in conjunction with the Form I-129 approval. Instead, the petitioner will receive a separate approval notice for the Form I-129S, which serves as the endorsement.
  
  
• The Department of Labor (“DOL”) updated its processing times for permanent labor certification (“PERM”) applications and prevailing wage requests. As of July 31, 2023, the DOL is adjudicating PERM applications filed in or before September 2022 and processing prevailing wage requests filed in or before January 2023.

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