Employment Visas Archives

A multibillion-dollar shortfall at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is threatening to slow job growth and weaken the country’s first-line defense against national security threats.

We’re not talking construction of border “walls,” but a latent risk that could impact the readiness of the U.S. consular corps — the individuals responsible for the welfare and protection of U.S. citizens abroad, issuance of passports to U.S. citizens, and facilitation of travel to the U.S.

Primarily funded through fees generated from passport and visa applications, the bureau has lost out on nearly $4 billion in revenue since the pandemic led to the suspension of those services worldwide.

The result is predictable and unsustainable: Consular Affairs lacks money to hire and train employees. Critical anti-fraud programs are starved of people and resources. And continued budget shortfalls will prevent the government from modernizing its IT systems to enhance visa processing and protect against cybersecurity threats.

Visa and passport delays also mean fewer tourists, fewer jobs for Americans, and a slower economic recovery.

Pre-pandemic, the travel and tourism industry generated trillions of dollars for the economy and nearly 10 million American jobs. Travel industry experts estimate that the loss to the U.S. economy for 2020 alone totaled nearly half a trillion dollars.

As a former attorney in the State Department’s Visa Office, I believe the Bureau of Consular Affairs can expand capacity and restore financial stability by making common-sense changes to the way the government processes visa applications. These actions can be achieved with little to no legal or regulatory changes and, just as importantly, without cost to U.S. taxpayers.

This starts with the government maximizing use of its resources and streamlining visa processing. Under current Visa Office polices, most visa processing cannot be done remotely. COVID safety precautions also limit the number of staff that are able to be physically in the office. Opening up work streams that can be performed remotely will allow those in the office to focus on work that cannot be done outside the consular section.

Moreover, eliminating manager approval to grant exceptions to the COVID travel bans – a simple process change that could be implemented within weeks – would free up critical resources at consular posts around the world.

Moreover, the Visa Office could leverage the Secretary of State’s authority to waive in-person interviews for additional classes of low-risk applicants. The Biden administration deserves credit for using its authority to reduce the number of unnecessary interviews, but more could be done. Consider, for example, a foreign student who has been hired by a U.S. company and wants to obtain a work visa. The student has undergone extensive security vetting and has been monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since their entry into the United States. Expanding consular officers’ ability to waive interviews would help reduce visa backlogs by freeing up interviews for those who really need additional in-person screening.

The government should also re-open U.S.-based visa renewals to foreign temporary workers, allowing individuals who have lawfully maintained their immigration status to obtain new visas from within the U.S. rather than forcing them to travel abroad. Moving the work to the U.S., where it was performed several decades ago, would create jobs for American workers and help U.S. businesses avoid additional costs associated with lengthy travel delays. The agency could further increase revenue by imposing a surcharge for the convenience of not having to travel overseas. Government lawyers would be more likely to sign off on the change if Congress clarified that federal judges could not second-guess visa denials.

Each of these solutions supports the bureau’s mission by allowing consular officers to devote more of their time to advancing the security and economic interests of the U.S.

Travel and tourism in the U.S. have already been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting budget shortfall has further jeopardized American jobs and U.S. security interests. To jumpstart its recovery, we must have a capable, well-resourced consular corps to increase U.S. passport and visa issuance capacity and energize the American economy, while continuing to protect U.S. national security interests.

Tiffany Derentz is a Senior Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. She formerly served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs as a senior adviser to the Chief Legal Adviser for immigration affairs, and has been at the forefront of legal issues impacting consular operations at U.S. Embassies and Consulates.

This article was originally published in the California Business Journal on Sept. 20, 2021.

The information contained here is meant to be informational, and while BAL has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information, it is not promised or guaranteed to be complete. Readers of this information should not act upon any information contained on this alert/blog without seeking professional counsel. This alert does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Any reference to prior results, does not imply or guarantee similar future outcomes.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently resumed employer worksite visits that were put on hold because of COVID-19 and social distancing precautions. This may pose challenges for USCIS and your company, as much of the workforce is still working from home or telecommuting from outside the office. That means employees should be prepared if immigration authorities knock on the front door of their residence.

A home visit from USCIS may seem unusual and alarming to employers and employees alike, but this is not a new practice for the agency—in the family-based immigration context, USCIS officers visit individuals at their homes as a matter of course to confirm the information listed on their petition or application.

Now is a great time for companies to assess their administrative site visit policies and ensure that employees who may be visited at home by an immigration officer understand what to do, whom to contact and what questions they may be asked.

Employers are usually given notice of a verification check—in the past by letter, but recently via email—although the agency has the authority to show up at a work location unannounced to speak with employees, such as the HR or company representative and the foreign national employee who are named in an immigration petition. Immigration verifications are performed by the Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit of USCIS, and any employee receiving an officer at their home or worksite should promptly ask for a photo ID and a business card to confirm the officer is in fact from USCIS. For prescheduled or unannounced visits, the company is allowed (and recommended) to have an immigration attorney present.

Employees should know beforehand whom to call in the event of a site visit. During the visit, the FDNS officer may ask HR and immigration managers about its general business and its H-1B program, such as the number of H-1B employees and whether employees are sponsored for green cards, and ask about the individual H-1B employee, such as his or her job duties, work location and date of hire. Officers may also question the H-1B employee directly about his or her job, tenure at the company, immigration or visa status before obtaining an H-1B visa, education and work experience, and request documentation such as recent pay stubs, driver’s license and employee badge. More recently, we have seen FDNS officers question the employee’s work-from-home address, length of time the employee has been working from home, and other aspects of the employee’s telework. Finally, FDNS officers may ask to contact the employee’s direct manager separately to confirm the employee’s information.

Enforcement against employers who violate immigration rules has been a priority of the agency in recent years and the trend is expected to continue. In 2018, USCIS beefed up its FDNS unit and began hiring new officers and amplifying targeted site visits with the aim of doubling the number of worksite visits to 20,000 per year and increasing that number every year. The agency has also increased its information sharing with other agencies, allowing USCIS to access information contained in filings with the Labor Department, such as the labor condition application that companies must file to sponsor an H-1B worker.

It is important that companies review and update their policies and procedures for responding to a USCIS site visit or verification and that employees who are working at home understand the protocols. Although COVID-19 continues to keep most companies’ offices closed or at limited capacity, the pandemic is not preventing USCIS from restarting its site visit program—even when the “worksite” is an employee’s kitchen table or spare bedroom.

Kelli Duehning is a Partner and Michael Sela is a Senior Associate in the San Francisco office of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP.

This article was originally published in the California Business Journal.