WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced additional requirements for employers, who receive funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program or under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (covered funding), before they may hire a foreign national to work in the H-1B specialty occupation category. 

The new “Employ American Workers Act,” (EAWA), signed into law by President Obama as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17, 2009, was enacted to ensure that companies receiving covered funding do not displace U.S. workers. Under this legislation any company that has received covered funding and seeks to hire new H-1B workers is considered an “H-1B dependent employer.” All H-1B dependent employers must make additional attestations to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) when filing the Labor Condition Application.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, working in close partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the backlog for FBI name checks pending more than six months has been eliminated.  This is the fourth milestone met by the agency as part of its joint plan with the FBI to completely eliminate the backlog of pending name checks.

Just 16 months ago, more than 349,000 name checks were pending; of that, nearly 150,000 had been pending for more than six months.  All USCIS requests pending for six months or more as of February 28, 2009, have now been responded to by the FBI’s National Name Check Program (NNCP).