China’s Ministry of Finance announced new tariffs of between 5 percent and 10 percent on $75 billion worth of imported goods from the United States, affecting products in the Midwestern states and deepening tensions between U.S. and China.
- Beginning August 3, 2019, all foreign-domiciled trademark applicants, registrants and parties will be required to have a U.S. attorney appear on their behalf in the U.S. Trademark Office.
- With immediate effect, DHS issued a notice to dramatically expand the process of expedited removal. The ACLU has promised to file a suit challenging the action.
- A long-anticipated final rule provides priority date retention for certain EB-5 investors, increases the required minimum investment amounts, changes the targeted employment area (TEA) designation process, and clarifies USCIS procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence.
Effective August 1, 2019, a new law requires vendors to check the exclusion list “on a monthly basis and document the date and time the exclusion list was checked and the name and title of person who checked the exclusion list.”
During the 2019 Iowa Legislative Session, there were developments that may impact employment-related decisions, especially related to hiring.
The national and local publications have been full of articles recently on the emerging agricultural crisis confronting producers. Now might be a good time for lenders to brush up on the most significant laws affecting their loan remedies in the event it becomes necessary to seek enforcement of their loans.
As of March 2019, a majority of states have legalized the use of cannabis products in some capacity, but cannabis-related businesses operating within the bounds of state law are still largely without access to basic financial services.
- As of March 2019, the Social Security Administration (SSA) resumed sending “no-match” letters to employers.
- A federal judge issued a nationwide order requiring USCIS to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a policy under which F-1/M-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors would begin to accrue unlawful presence as soon as they violate the terms of their visa status.
- Effective May 1, 2019, the E-2 investor visa program has opened to Israelis under a reciprocal treaty investor agreement signed between the United States and Israel.
- The letter asked the agency to explain the reasons for backlogged cases and how certain policies such as “extreme vetting” affect processing times and contribute to the backlog.
- Regarding EB-1 for China and India, the bulletin notes a continued “extremely high rate of demand” that may require temporary retrogression until October.
- Certain marijuana-related activities generally bar naturalization even if they are decriminalized under applicable state laws
- USCIS Completes H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2020, Reaches Advanced Degree Exemption CapOn April 10, 2019, USCIS used a computer-generated random process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated regular cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption for FY 2020.
- The study by the National Foundation for American Policy also details how expensive it has become to petition for an H-1B professional.
- The data hub allows the public to search for H-1B petitioners by fiscal year, NAICS code, employer name, city, state or zip code.
- A goal is to limit in-person support to those who truly need assistance that can be provided only in person, the agency said.
- The U.S. Government increased tariffs last Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, hiking the tariff rate from 10 percent up to 25 percent.
There has been a bloom of data analytics tools for patent practice, and some new features of these tools have profoundly enhanced patent practice. Here are five examples of how applicants and their attorneys can improve day-to-day patent strategy using the latest data analytics tools.
The USPTO recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, proposing to amend the Rules of Practice in Trademark Cases to require all applicants, registrants and parties to be represented by a U.S. attorney.
The U.K. governmental authority that publishes LIBOR may phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. Lenders who use LIBOR will need to determine what effect the phasing out of LIBOR will have for the lender and its borrowers.
Barlow Research’s December 2018 First Friday Web Conference, titled “Evolving Challenges and Competition for Small Business Banking,” focused on new challengers entering the financial services market. This article provides a summary of attorney Karen Grandstrand's comments during the Web Conference.
This article focuses on options available to Postdoctoral Scholars to attain permanent residence based on their professional skills.
USCIS will resume premium processing on Tuesday, February 19, for all H-1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018.
In the face of the nagging problem of fake products posing as genuine goods in online marketplaces, major e-commerce platforms are continuing to refine their strategies to address counterfeiting.
It is time to start preparing for H-1B cap season once again! This year, USCIS has proposed a new rule to implement a registry program requiring the sponsoring employer to electronically register online prior to formally submitting an H-1B petition with USCIS.
Due to recent amendments to the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, banks and other lenders who make loans to limited liability companies (LLCs) formed in the state of Delaware should carefully review their loan documents and modify restrictive covenants related to mergers, reorganizations, acquisitions, dispositions, and similar transactions to address a newly created form of transaction called a “division.”
This past July, the agencies released updated versions of several Interagency documents, one of which was the Interagency Bank Merger Act Application.
CMS’s David Wright has signaled that new provider-based guidance will be issued in early 2019.
Please be advised that as of Monday, November 19, 2018, employers who sponsor foreign nationals for H-1B, E-3 or H-1B1 status will be required to use a new version of ETA Form 9035/9035 to file Labor Condition Applications with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Major amendments to the Canadian Trademarks Act were passed in 2014.
The Internal Revenue Service has announced the 2019 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for retirement plans. Some limits have increased, and some have remained the same.
Over the last few years, the securities industry has seen increased efforts from the FINRA, the SEC and other state and federal regulatory authorities, to generally increase protections afforded to senior investors and prevent financial exploitation of seniors.
Occasionally, there is a legal or tax issue that continues to raise confusion even after guidance is issued that should resolve it. One of those issues relates to fundraising for youth activities.
Taxpayers looking for a way to defer and potentially reduce or exclude taxes on capital gains have their answer in a new tax incentive called a Qualified Opportunity Fund.
In recent remarks at the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s annual meeting, USPTO Director Andrei Iancu proposed a change to how USPTO examiners determine whether a claimed invention satisfies the patent eligibility requirements of 35 USC § 101.
Three new judges have recently joined the Minnesota federal bench, returning the District of Minnesota to full strength for the first time in more than two years.
Similar to players in baseball, patent applicants, when given more paths to choose from, can have greater potential for success.
Individuals or companies with undisclosed foreign financial assets or income have until September 28, 2018 to enter the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program.
The May 11, 2018, implementation deadline for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s Beneficial Ownership Rule has now passed, and there are fundamental changes in the daily customer due diligence obligations of banks and other financial institutions.
Community banks are no strangers to privacy and data security laws. The latest trends in privacy laws, however, are not limited to certain industries, and they include privacy rights for consumers that could have a significant impact on how companies treat customer information.
The number of FDIC-insured institutions in the U.S. was at 5,670 as of March 30, 2018, down from 8,534 as of December 31, 2007. Over the past five years, 1,292 institutions have been absorbed by mergers and 63 have failed. Another factor behind the reduced number of institutions, however, is the small number of de novo banks.
Beginning September 11, 2018, USCIS has announced that it will be expanding the temporary suspension of premium processing beyond cap-subject H-1B petitions to include certain additional H-1B petitions.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held today that a Native American tribe may not assert sovereign immunity to bar inter partes review proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
A Pre-Appeal Brief Review Request (PABR) offers an alternate to traditional options when applicants face a final rejection of their application. When is a PABR worth it?
The U.S. government’s first tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports come into effect on July 6, 2018.
On June 28, California enacted a sweeping new privacy law that will have significant implications for companies across the country.
A merchant of goods and services that makes sales in multiple states is no longer required to have physical presence in a state in order to be subject to sales and use tax in that state.
I-9 audits are up significantly in 2018 from recent years, continuing to be a cornerstone of the worksite enforcement strategy of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
