The Presidential Proclamation issued yesterday (June 22, 2020) will be suspending entry into the U.S. for H-1B, H-2B, L-1, and certain J-1 visa applicants (and foreign nationals who are accompanying or following to join). These restrictions will be effective June 24, 2020 at 12:01am EST and will last until the end of the year.
If you are an employee abroad who is looking to apply for a new work visa (H, L, etc.) in the coming months, you should expect not being able to enter the U.S. until January 2021.
Apart from the suspension of entries of certain individuals, the Proclamation also calls for additional measures, where the Secretaries of the Department of Labor and Homeland Security will issue regulations or take additional actions to ensure that EB-2 and EB-3 immigrant petitions, and H-1B nonimmigrant petitions and current H workers, do not limit opportunities for U.S. workers.
What This Means
There will be stricter enforcement on worksite investigations on employers who have filed H visas to see if employers and their H employees have followed requirements related to the Labor Certification Application (LCA) requirements, including public postings, prevailing wage, work location, actual salary, hours, and job contents.
Processes and filings for PERMs, LCAs and I-140s will toughen, including the prevailing wage, job requirement, recruitment and salary. This is to ensure that hiring a permanent foreign worker will not adversely affect the U.S. labor.
The Presidential Proclamation can be found here.
ALG is closely monitoring the implementation of this proclamation and will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available.
In case of emergency, please do not hesitate to contact us!
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