Business Immigration in a Minute by Honigman LLP

• The American Immigration Lawyers Association’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection Liaison Committee confirmed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) that the implementation of new codes of admission for E and L spouses (E-1S, E-2S, E-3S, and L-2S) and children (E-1Y, E-2Y, E-3Y, and L-2Y) went live on January 31, 2022. This change is a part of the recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) settlement that provides employment authorization incident to status for E and L derivative spouses. Now, when an E or L spouse enters the United States, an officer will designate a specific code of admission for them on their I-94 that distinguishes them from their child counterparts in the E and L status. If someone already inside the United States wishes to receive the updated code of admission, they will be required to depart the United States and re-enter.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently updated its processing times for permanent labor certification (“PERM”) applications and prevailing wage requests. As of January 31, 2022, DOL is adjudicating ETA 9089 PERM applications filed in or before August 2021 and processing PERM prevailing wage requests filed in or before August 2021.
  
  
• USCIS is hosting a listening session on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, from 2 – 3 PM ET for stakeholders to provide feedback on the processing time webpage and how USCIS communicates processing times. This session will not focus on USCIS’ efforts to reduce processing times. This is part of a series of listening sessions that USCIS will host in the coming months to seek input on business and foreign worker-related policy considerations. To register, please visit the USCIS website here.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of State (“DOS”) announced in a recent Q&A session with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) that it is adding foreign service officers to help reduce global visa backlogs. Specifically, DOS stated that it is planning to hire foreign service officers and other personnel “above attrition” in FY 2022. However, DOS explained that the increased hiring will not have an immediate effect on reducing the current visa wait times in part because of local COVID-19 restrictions. In the Q&A session, DOS also answered questions from AILA on topics such as the vaccine and testing requirements for international travel, the Visa Bulletin, and immigration issues related to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The full Q&A transcript is available here.
  
  
• The DHS issued its quarterly report on migration flows and adjustment of status, providing additional data on lawful permanent residents, refugee arrivals, naturalizations, and nonimmigrant admissions. The data is sorted by type of adjustment, class of admission, and country of nationality.

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