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United States
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USCIS Will Not Implement New Signature Policy Until After H-1B Filing Season Opens
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February 17, 2010
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Executive Summary
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In a meeting with immigration stakeholders held today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials confirmed that a revised policy memorandum regulating the use of powers of attorney would not take effect without notice, and would not be implemented prior to the start of H-1B filing season on April 1, 2010.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that it is planning to issue a revised policy memorandum that will restrict employers from authorizing their outside attorneys to sign immigration petitions and applications on their behalf under a power of attorney. According to agency officials, petitioners and applicants will be given sufficient notice of the new policy before it takes effect, and that it will not take effect until after the opening of the FY 2011 H-1B filing season on April 1, 2010.
Several weeks ago, USCIS issued a guidance memorandum on signature policies for individuals and organizations filing immigration petitions and applications. As originally written, the signature policy would require filings made on behalf of a corporation or other legal entity to be signed by an authorized officer or employee of the organization. Employers would no longer be able to authorize their outside immigration attorneys to sign applications and petitions on their behalf pursuant to a power of attorney a reversal of previous agency practice. Cases utilizing powers of attorney for business immigration filings were to be rejected.
The memorandum was abruptly withdrawn shortly after it was released, and the agency indicated that it would seek input from stakeholders before implementing its signature and power of attorney policies. In a meeting held today with members of the immigration community, USCIS officials reconfirmed that it expects to issue a new memorandum that prohibits immigration filings that are signed by outside counsel under a power of attorney, except in very limited circumstances outside the scope of business immigration. However, USCIS will accept Form I-907 requests for premium processing service that are signed by outside attorneys and will also accept responses to requests for evidence (RFEs) signed by attorneys. Earlier this month, some employers had premium processing requests mistakenly rejected because they were signed by outside counsel, but USCIS has acknowledged that this was a mistake.
While officials at the stakeholders meeting today suggested that reasonable notice of a revised policy would be forthcoming, employers that use powers of attorney may wish to discontinue this practice out of an abundance of caution. While USCIS Headquarters has withdrawn the earlier memo, it is difficult to predict how individual service centers will treat filings that utilize powers of attorney in the future. This is particularly critical in H-1B cap cases, which have numerical limits and where the option to re-file upon rejection may not exist.
Fragomen, along with the American Council on International Personnel (ACIP) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), continues to dialogue with USCIS on the impact of the signature policy on employers. We will issue further Client Alerts as developments occur. If you have any questions about this Alert, please contact your designated Fragomen professional.
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2010 Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP
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