In the wake of two court losses over the last few months, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has rescinded a February 2018 Policy Memorandum that required employers using workers with H-1B visas to provide substantial documentation, including contracts and itineraries, when placing the person at a third-party client site.
After application of the Policy Memo led to increased H-1B petition denials as well as the issuance of H-1B visas with validity periods shorter than the three-year periods requested, it became the subject of numerous legal challenges, mostly by employers whose H-1B petitions were denied outright or where visas were issued with shorter validity periods.
Earlier this year, two separate federal courts struck down the Policy Memo’s onerous contract and itinerary requirements, finding that they had no basis in the law. Rather than appeal, USCIS instead entered into a settlement agreement whereby it agreed to no longer enforce the 2018 Policy Memo requirements and it formally rescinded the Memo on June 17, 2020.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.