Adam S. Cohen, Immigration Attorney

12/22/2020

I am very excited to announce that our STEM OPT Assistant, a collaboration between Siskind Susser - Immigration Lawyers and Visalaw.ai (Greg Siskind, Josh Waddell, Jason Susser), is now entering into beta testing. The Assistant is a resource designed by immigration lawyers to help STEM OPT applicants and their employers smoothly navigate STEM OPT training plan and compliance obligations. STEM OPT regulations contain substantial eligibility and reporting requirements, including the completion of the I-983 Training Plan, and the potential for government site visits. Many employers and students go through this process without understanding this compliance structure, and the consequences could be severe, especially for students. The Assistant uses the latest in legal technology to fill in this vacuum of information, and it is designed to be completed by both the student and employer through separate accounts and apps. On a personal note, this has been a true passion project for me and my wife, Emily Cohen, who works in the legal tech space with Visalaw.ai. We hope you all find it valuable. Please visit visalaw.ai/stem-opt to join the beta test, which is currently open for 20 students and 10 employers. Happy holidays!

07/27/2020

Please join Greg Siskind and me tomorrow the 28th at 7pm central where we will be discussing F-1 developments and answering your questions. https://www.visalaw.com/weekly-call/. Register below. This will also be streamed live to our page.

Siskind Susser will be having a quick weekly zoom call to discuss immigration legislation and agency guidance, starting on Tuesday, May 26th. Priority will be given to questions submitted in advance. Topics will differ weekly. July 28th: F-1 Student Developments—sign up here.   Previous Topics  ...

07/24/2020

Just today, SEVP released a new Broadcast Message regarding the Fall school term. The main update from this message deals with F and M students in new or initial status after March 9, 2020 who will not be permitted to enter the U.S. to enroll in a U.S. school for the fall term "to pursue a full course of study that is 100 percent online." This is actually a helpful change, because the preexisting guidance excluded initial students outside the U.S. from any of the flexible procedural adaptations schools might employ. This would have generally meant only one online class per semester could be counted towards the course of study for initial F-1 students, and that no online classes could count for F-1 English language study students and M-1 students.

While these initial students cannot benefit from a fully online course of study, it appears any hybrid model where there is some in-person component or class will work for both F and M students. This is great news to close out the week! Kudos again to Harvard, MIT, and their legal team for getting SEVP to back off of its prior guidance that would have been quite destructive to F and M students. Now we have much more welcome guidance.

07/16/2020

There are new limited exceptions from the U.S. Department of State for the 6/22 Presidential Proclamation, including spouses and children of those excepted from or not subject to the PP (e.g. where the principal applicant is currently in the U.S.). This may help reduce the family separation misery caused by this PP.

DOS also mentions an exception for certain H and J traveling to work in support of a critical U.S. foreign policy objective (such as COVID-19 response) and/or traveling at the request of the U.S. government.

Meeting between the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Department of State Liaison Committee and the Visa Office of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs

07/16/2020

I'm excited to report we were able to get H-1B and H-4 visas for a doctor and his family, based on the doctors' treatment of hospitalized, COVID-19 patients and economic recovery arguments. This was at the Embassy in South Korea. It's encouraging to know that some of the national interest arguments are working to get individuals excluded from the June 22nd Presidential Proclamation.

07/15/2020

Today, USCIS issued a policy alert regarding its discretion. This is an outgrowth of the June 22, 2020 Presidential Proclamation, and USCIS is updating its Policy Manual (which guides USCIS officers).

I'm focused on representations made by USCIS as to what they do and do not have discretion over. They seem to think they have discretion over most processes, but we can't assume this is accurate. Looking over K-1s, just as one example, USCIS has discretion to waive the "in-person meeting" component and discretion in the weight to assign to evidence, but that doesn't mean they have general discretion, which they seem to claim.

USCIS also raises its discretion over Category C employment authorization. Category C includes pending adjustment of status, OPT, H-4 and J-2 EAD, etc. USCIS instructs its officers to determine baseline eligibility and then to consider discretionary factors. The regulation at 8 CFR 274a.12(c) states "USCIS, in its discretion, may establish a specific validity period for an employment authorization document," but this doesn't necessarily mean USCIS can deny the EAD based solely on discretion.

This may be the next "thing" we have to fight. The USCIS Policy Manual is not law, so it comes down to the statute and regulations ultimately.

07/14/2020

Great news! ICE decided to give up under pressure of litigation, and has rescinded its recent guidance that would have greatly decreased the discretion of academic institutions to make virtual learning decisions to protect students and faculty. The March guidance is once again in effect, which allows schools to continue fully virtual learning for its students without jeopardizing the status of its F-1 students. F-1 students do not need new I-20s for schools to implement procedural adaptations. Questions still remain about initial students outside the U.S., so hopefully there will be helpful guidance about this forthcoming.

07/10/2020

Adam Cohen, Esq. of Siskind Susser PC breaks down the following recent academic and healthcare immigration updates:
-SEVP Reverses COVID-19 Policy, hurting international students and universities (New Policy, Impact, Litigation, Options)
-Resources mentioned in this update
1) Past Siskind Susser PC Facebook Live on SEVP Update (July 6): https://www.facebook.com/siskindsusser/
2) SEVP Announcement:https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/bcm2007-01.pdf
3) Harvard and MIT Litigation:https://www.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/content/sevp_filing.pdf
4) F-1/M-1 Student Visa Changes - Media Accessibility (From Greg Siskind's Twitter Page ) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvLYOHLSq0S10zY8720dcqn1pgs20A4PQ_yUCADZ3S5DnI2w/viewform


https://youtu.be/jod-B9zXbVQ

07/07/2020

I'm honored to be quoted in this article about the latest SEVP guidance, which will be harmful to students and universities.

India Business News: International students will not be able to undertake ‘fully’ online courses for the Fall 2020 semester, if they wish to continue their stay in US. Thi