Alerts

There were a lot of different angles to lead with this month to try to grab your attention. There was no shortage of news over the past month that impacted and will continue to impact the swaps and derivatives space.  But, I would like to start with a sincere thank you to everyone we’ve worked with this past year, everyone who has been available to connect, and everyone who reaches out – even if it’s at 5:30PM on a Friday (that’s what we’re here for).

Now that it is December 2nd, I move to my pants that are a size bigger for a few weeks and my kids have watched all six (yes, six) Home Alone movies. My four-year-old maintains that the third Home Alone is the best one, but I am a stickler for the first Home Alone. Although I must admit, I was initially not a fan of all the sequels or even the idea of unrelated sequels, but they’ve grown on me with time and constant repetition.

And now for sequels I absolutely did not see coming, Enron. Today Enron, the once scandal plagued and defunct energy trader, issued a press release announcing a relaunch with a new “vision to solve global energy crisis”. The press release includes a reference to a crypto/token move through its focus on “Permissionless Innovation”.

With the re-election of Donald Trump and upcoming inauguration on January 20, 2025, employers can anticipate significant changes to U.S. immigration policy that may impact their business and foreign national employees. Although the exact policies to be implemented by the incoming administration are not known, using his prior administration policies such as “Buy American, Hire American” and campaign promises as a guide, there likely will be a renewed focus on compliance and limiting various legal immigration programs. The prior Trump administration implemented changes with wide-reaching impacts, affecting everything from border security and asylum processes to employment-based immigration and travel bans.  Although the exact impact of a second Trump presidency remains to be seen, the most likely areas of focus include the following:

Over 100 Moore & Van Allen women attorneys and senior administrators attended the 2024 Women of Moore & Van Allen (WoMVA) Conference in May at The Casey. This year’s keynote address was, “Foundations for Flourishing: Leveraging the Science of Positive Psychology for Greater Well-being, Resilience, and Performance” by Jordana Confino, JC Coaching & Consulting Founder & CEO.

Welcome to the first installment of MVA’s Business Immigration Quarterly!  Each quarter we will be bringing you a roundup of current trends, important issues, and interesting topics in the business immigration community.  As always, we are here to answer any questions you have about specific immigration matters or any of the topics highlighted below.  We appreciate the opportunity to partner with you and we look forward to bringing you updates in this format.

On March 18, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") published updated guidance on the use of online tracking technologies by HIPAA covered entities and business associates (the "2024 Update"). The 2024 Update replaces the original guidance that OCR published on December 1, 2022 (the "2022 Guidance"). The 2024 Update attempts to clarify when information captured by tracking technologies constitutes individually identifiable health information ("IIHI") and provides guidance to covered entities and business associates on their obligations with respect to the use of online tracking technologies. 

The initial registration period for the FY 2025 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 6, 2024, and run through noon Eastern on March 22, 2024. USCIS has announced several significant changes to the H-1B program aimed at strengthening the integrity of and reducing the potential for fraud in the H-1B registration process. Steps have been implemented to reduce the potential for “gaming” the registration system and ensuring each beneficiary has the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf. USCIS is also making updates to the H-1B registration accounts, increasing fees associated with the registration and filing of H-1B petitions and launched online filing options for H-1B petitioners.