U.S. Immigration Updates- Week of June 13, 2022
The Biden Administration Rescinds Negative COVID-19 Test Requirement for Flying to the United States
As of June 12, 2022, air travelers to the United States no longer need to show a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery before boarding, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced.
CDC continues to recommend that travelers boarding a flight to the United States get tested for current infection with a viral test as close to the time of departure as possible (no more than 3 days) and not travel if they are sick. CDC said it “continues to evaluate the latest science and state of the pandemic and will reassess the need for a testing requirement if the situation changes.”
SOURCE: CDC, June 10, 2022: https://bit.ly/3Q9ZUEp
Office of Foreign Labor Certification Has Updated Its Standard Occupational Classification System
The Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) will begin using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system on July 1, 2022, in place of the 2010 SOC system. Since September 1999, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program has used the SOC system to classify occupational wage information. The SOC provides a common language for categorizing occupations and serves as the framework for information being gathered through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET).
OFLC’s National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC) will host a webinar on the implementation of the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, from 1 to 3 pm ET. During the webinar, the NWPC will present background and an implementation timeline and will review how the new classification will affect Prevailing Wage Determinations. This event will be recorded and all materials will be placed on the Prevailing Wage tab of the OFLC’s website for future access.
SOURCE: OFLC, June 10, 2022: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor
DHS Urged by Tech Giants To Revamp Policies on High-Skilled Workers’ Children
A coalition of U.S.-based tech companies sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayokas asking him to revamp the department’s policies for children of high-skilled visa holders.
In the letter sent on Tuesday, June 7, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the coalition asked the Biden administration to establish “more robust aging out policies” in an effort to address the issue of children of long-term visa holders being able to continue as beneficiaries of their parents’ pending green card applications even after they turn 21 years of age.
The coalition noted that more than 200,000 children have grown up in this country under their parents’ protected visa status, which included those who are holders of H-1B visas.
The letter was signed by tech companies such as Twitter, Uber Technologies Inc., Amazon, Google and IBM.
The coalition also encouraged Congress to the bipartisan legislation called America’s Children Act, which will create a pathway to citizenship for children of long-term visa holders, often referred to as “document dreamers,” and provides a long-term resolution to the issue.
SOURCE: Olafimihan Oshin, The Hill, June 7, 2022: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3514824-tech-giants-urge-dhs-to-revamp-policies-for-high-skilled-visa-holders-children/