The Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers (ABIL) is a global alliance of 36 law firms and 1000 law professionals that provides immigration law services to companies in 50 countries (17 containing ABIL members, and the remaining containing affiliates). [1] Their services including helping companies with strategic planning of temporary assignments and long-term relocations, migration concerns of employees and their families, compliance with country-specific immigration status and work authorization requirements governmental advocacy, and the preparation and submission of necessary legal documents. [2]
ABIL serves a number of industries in the US and worldwide, including agriculture, arts and entertainment, automotives, biotechnology, construction, consulting, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, information technology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, religious workers, and sports. [3]
ABIL has funded non-profit work to advocate for changes to the migration regime, with a particular focus on the United States. For instance, it provided initial funding for a Green Card stories book to the Immigration Policy Center (a branch of the American Immigration Council). [4] It was also one of more than 450 business groups to sign on to an open letter to the United States Congress to enact immigration reform. [5]
ABIL was founded by immigration lawyer Angelo Paparelli, who also served as the first president of the organization. [6] [7] Paparelli runs his own blog-cum-website called "Nation of Immigrators" [7] and also posts to Immigration Daily, a leading website on US immigration. [8]
ABIL's current President is Sharon Mehlman, managing partner of an immigration law firm in San Diego, California. [9] [10]
The ABIL website claims that each of its 19 U.S. members is listed in two or more of the world's established ranking services for immigration lawyers: Chambers Global and USA, Best Lawyers in America, International Who's Who of Business Immigration Lawyers, Martindale Hubbell AV ratings, and more. [1]
ABIL is listed as a resource by EB5info.com, a website on the EB-5 visa. [11]
ABIL past president Charles Kuck as well as founder and past president Angelo Paparelli have been cited and quoted (in their capacity as ABIL affiliates) in The New York Times , [6] [10] The Wall Street Journal , [12] and Forbes . [13]
A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. Green card holders are formally known as lawful permanent residents (LPRs). As of 2019, there are an estimated 13.9 million green card holders, of whom 9.1 million are eligible to become United States citizens. Approximately 18,700 of them serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, is a landmark federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law abolished the National Origins Formula, which had been the basis of U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s. The act formally removed de facto discrimination against Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as Asians, in addition to other non-Western and Northern European ethnicities from the immigration policy of the United States.
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H), that allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent of work experience. The duration of stay is three years, extendable to six years, after which the visa holder can reapply. Laws limit the number of H-1B visas that are issued each year. There exist congressionally mandated caps limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year, which is 65,000 visas, and an additional 20,000 set aside for those graduating with master’s degrees or higher from a U.S. college or university. An employer must sponsor individuals for the visa. USCIS estimates there are 583,420 foreign nationals on H-1B visas as of September 30, 2019. The number of issued H-1B visas have quadrupled since the first year these visas were issued in 1991. There were 206,002 initial and continuing H-1B visas issued in 2022.
Reforming the immigration policy of the United States is a subject of political discourse and contention. Immigration has played an essential part in American history, as except for the Native Americans, everyone in the United States is descended from people who migrated to the United States. Some claim that the United States maintains the world's most liberal immigration policy.
An L-1 visa is a visa document used to enter the United States for the purpose of work in L-1 status. It is a non-immigrant visa, and is valid for a relatively short amount of time, from three months to five years, based on a reciprocity schedule. With extensions, the maximum stay is seven years.
In the United States, Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 status who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for one academic year are permitted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education. Foreign students currently enrolled at a U.S. university can receive full-time or part-time work authorization through Curricular Practical Training. In 2022, there were 171,635 OPT employment authorizations. In 2021, there were 115,651 new non-STEM OPT authorizations, a 105% increase from a decade ago.
Immigration law includes the national statutes, regulations, and legal precedents governing immigration into and deportation from a country. Strictly speaking, it is distinct from other matters such as naturalization and citizenship, although they are sometimes conflated. Countries frequently maintain laws that regulate both the rights of entry and exit as well as internal rights, such as the duration of stay, freedom of movement, and the right to participate in commerce or government.
A guest worker program allows foreign workers to temporarily reside and work in a host country until a next round of workers is readily available to switch. Guest workers typically perform low or semi-skilled agricultural, industrial, or domestic labor in countries with workforce shortages, and they return home once their contract has expired.
The United States EB-5 visa, employment-based fifth preference category or EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program was created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990. It provides a method for eligible immigrant investors to become lawful permanent residents—informally known as "green card" holders—by investing substantial capital to finance a U.S. business as long as it creates at least 10 new, full-time jobs for Americans and work-authorized immigrants. The EB-5 program is intended to encourage both "foreign investments and economic growth." The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program is one of five employment-based (EB) preference programs in the United States.
Visa requirements for Chinese citizens are administrative entry restrictions imposed on citizens of China by the authorities of other states.
The visa policy of the United Kingdom is the policy by which His Majesty's Government determines visa requirements for visitors to the United Kingdom, and the Crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man and those seeking to work, study or reside there.
Bernard P. Wolfsdorf is an American immigration lawyer, and former President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He is the founder and Managing Partner of Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group, located in Los Angeles and New York.
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 was a proposed immigration reform bill introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) in the United States Senate. The bill was co-sponsored by the other seven members of the "Gang of Eight", a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators who wrote and negotiated the bill. It was introduced in the Senate on April 16, 2013, during the 113th United States Congress.
The American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) was an act passed by the government of the United States in October 2000, pertaining to immigration to the United States. It was a complement to the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act that had been passed in 1998. The focus of AC21 was to change rules related to portability and caps for the H-1B visa to increase the effective number of visas available and make it easier for workers on those visas to switch jobs. Although the language of the Act references the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the INS would soon be restructured and the functions of the INS referenced in AC21 would be handled by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) was a component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama, then President of the United States, on February 17, 2009. The Act had a validity period of two years and was set to expire on February 17, 2011. It was not renewed, hence it sunset on February 17, 2011 and is no longer applicable.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, is an American law professor and immigration law attorney. Yale-Loehr earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Cornell University in 1977 and 1981, respectively. He was editor-in-chief of the Cornell International Law Journal during his time at the law school. Upon graduating he clerked for Judge Howard G. Munson of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, nominated by President Gerald Ford. Yale-Loehr has been a member of the Cornell Law faculty since 1991.
In the United States, the most common visa used for short-term trips is the B visa. This is a combination of the B-1 visa and the B-2 visa. People on B visas are generally not allowed to engage in productive work or study activities. However, in some cases, B visas can be issued that allow people to engage in some types of productive work and learning activity, in lieu of another visa. The three visa categories, for which a B visa could be issued instead, are the H-1B visa, H-3 visa, and J-1 visa. The U.S. Department of State recommends that consular officers clearly annotate such B visas to make the scope of the visa clear to the applicant and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at the port of entry.
The H-1A visa was a visa that was previously available to foreign nationals seeking temporary employment in the United States. These visas were made available to foreign nurses coming into the United States to perform services as a registered nurse in areas with a shortage of health professionals as determined by the Department of Labor. The creation of this visa was prompted by a nursing shortage.
Immigration policies of the United Kingdom are the areas of modern British policy concerned with the immigration system of the United Kingdom—primarily, who has the right to visit or stay in the UK. British immigration policy is under the purview of UK Visas and Immigration.
Sandra Feist is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2021. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, (DFL), Feist represents District 41B in the northern Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Columbia Heights and New Brighton, and parts of Anoka, Hennepin, and Ramsey Counties.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) See also, Julia Preston, "Business Leaders Tell Lawmakers Not to Forget About Immigration," The New York Times, Sept. 10, 2013. Available at: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/business-leaders-tell-lawmakers-not-to-forget-about-immigration/