Funding Update: Shutdown Looms. How—and when—the federal government will be funded after September 30, 2023, continued to be the main focus of our elected members of Congress this week. Of course, attention is now primarily trained on the U.S. House of Representatives, as for the second consecutive week, House Republicans were forced to scuttle their…

A recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a restrictive covenant case, Ascend Learning, LLC v. Bryan and SPIN-Learning, LLC, No. 22-cv-11978 (August 16, 2023), has implications for the “material change” doctrine under Massachusetts law, the state’s prohibition against noncompetition covenants for registered nurses, and personal jurisdiction over corporate…

Just days before New York State’s pay transparency law went into effect, the state labor department unveiled new proposed regulations that seek to clarify employers’ obligations under the new law.
Quick Hits

• The New York State labor department published proposed regulations clarifying the new pay transparency law requiring employers to disclose pay ranges in job

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The October 2023 Visa Bulletin has been released by the U.S. Department of State and shows some encouraging movement forward from last month, with the exception of the filing date for EB-3 worldwide, which will retrogress four months. This month’s bulletin is the first for the 2024 fiscal year, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration…

The U.S. Department of State recently announced that it is developing the capability to issue digital visa authorizations (DVA) instead of the traditional visas that are printed and placed in applicants’ passports. This development would streamline the travel authorization process by automating the transfer of data from visa application, to airline verification, to border inspection,…

All receipts for payment of Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fees issued prior to October 1, 2022, are set to expire on September 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of State recently announced.
Quick Hits

• Machine-Readable Visa fee payment receipts issued before October 1, 2022, will expire on September 30, 2023.
• The State Department is cautioning applicants who

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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that it is working to update and improve the protections available to H-2A workers. The proposed changes would include both worker protection measures and compliance and enforcement enhancements.
Quick Hits

• The DOL has released proposed regulations that would strengthen worker protection measures for H-2A agricultural workers and

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