Global Immigration Alert - United States
Katrina Cooper
Immigration Expert providing strategic & innovative solutions to support the movement of talent globally | Head of Immigration EMEA
A temporary spending measure to fund the federal government through 8 February 2018 has been passed. As Congress continues to debate the budget and legislative relief for DACA beneficiaries, the measure will allow federal operations to resume.
The short-term funding bill will have an impact on suspended immigration operations in a following ways:
- PERM, LCA, prevailing wage and temporary labour certification processing is going to be resumed at the Department of Labour. As the agency works to bring its application systems back online, delays are possible.
- E-Verify will be back online soon. E-Verify deadlines to account will be extended for the period during which the system was unavailable. Form I-9 deadlines are unchanged.
- Short grace periods are expected to be provided by USCIS and DOL for cases that could not be filed on time due to the shutdown. However, it is not yet confirmed.
What this means for you as an employer?
Federal immigration operations will continue for now. However, if Congress does not pass FY 2018 appropriations legislation or another stopgap by 8 February 2018, another shutdown could occur. Filing labour condition applications, prevailing wage determinations and PERM applications should be resumed by employers as soon as possible in order to minimise delays in case of a future possible shutdown.
Please do not hesitate to contact me or our global immigration team if you have any questions.