In this video, we'll talk about a new Executive Order
that was signed just this week. It's called Executive Order on aligning federal contracting
and hiring practices with the interests of American workers. This one is supposedly
protecting American workers. Let's see how it's going to impact immigrants. Let's see
how it's going to impact work visas. Stay tuned, and I'll see you on the other side.
Hello, everybody. In this video, we'll talk about the new Executive Order that was just signed
this week, specifically, protecting US workers, different things that are in this Executive Order
are concerning for foreign workers, specifically on H1B visas. So, we'll talk about that as well.
And also, we'll talk about how this Executive Order is going to impact the processing times
of the green cards in different EB categories. But before that, if you’re here for the first time,
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Once again, my name is Jacob Sapochnik. And I'm an immigration attorney here in San Diego,
California. And I practice immigration in all 50 states. And I'm excited to give you the news,
every time something new happens. I want to be the first to give, deliver that news to you, guys. So,
let's talk about this Executive Order. I have a copy of this order right here.
And we can read from it a little bit and also kind of go through the main things that are concerning
specifically for immigrants that are watching this video that has been waiting for that information.
So, part of this Executive Order is specifically calling for the different federal agencies
requiring them to review the contracts, and specifically, see whether they
have any connections with any foreign labor, and specifically, if they have contracts with
companies that employ H1B workers, very interesting. And also, in addition to
that review that they require from these agencies to see if they have contracts with
H1B workers in the US, they also want to see if they have any contracts
with overseas employees that are connected to these companies. So,
that's another interesting point in this executive memo. And we'll see why, and what is the point of
actually having that in there. Another point that is important to know is that this is
not an immediate Executive Order. It's going to start for about 45 days from now. And who knows,
maybe it's going to take longer for this to be implemented. But it's really important
to understand that unlike other Executive Orders, this is not an immediate impact. And it will take
effect probably about 45 days from now. And of course, I'll keep you posted. So, one of the most
interesting parts of this Executive Order, specifically as it applies to foreign workers
currently in the United States going through the H1B process or the Green Card process…
let's read section three of this Executive Order. And I'll put it right here on the screen.
“Measures to prevent adverse effects on the United States workers within 45 days
of the date of this order, the Secretaries of Labor and homeland security shall take action
as appropriate and consistent with applicable law to protect United States workers from any adverse
effect on wages and working conditions caused by the employment of H1B visa holders
at job sites, including third-party job sites, including measures to ensure that all employers
of H1B visa holders, including secondary employers, inherited requirements of Section 212-N
of the Immigration and Nationality Act.” The point here is that the USCIS
and the Labor Department, which are federal agencies, are giving a very, very broad power
to look at applications and see whether they need to review them further or take any further action,
which, in my opinion, will cause even further delay to a system that is already severely
delayed. So, this is really, really concerning, because that's really a broad power that these
agencies are given to review cases. And of course, if they have any reasons to think that
some of these cases are affecting US workers, they probably will pull those cases to audits,
or probably very, very lengthy processes of adjudication that will make this even a more
painful process for those that are going through these visa processes. Part of this Executive Order
is that all the agencies that are reviewing all these data are given about 120 days to provide a
report, to submit it to the President to determine whether any of these conditions are affecting
US workers. So again, this just gives too much power to these agencies to make these
kinds of determinations. Because, again, based on that data, based on those recommendations,
the government is going to take steps towards probably limiting H1B visa,
limiting probably the duration of visas. But more specifically, I think it's going to impact
the whole labor certification process, specifically, the recruitment process,
filing for green cards, the time it takes to get a labor certification approved.
And also, of course, if labor certifications are going to take longer to be adjudicated, of course,
it's going to impact also the immigration process of those people that are waiting,
and kind of like a domino effect. If you're not able to file for your I-140 and 45 on time,
then essentially, you're stuck in limbo. What if you get what if you lose your job? What if the
company is going to shut down? A lot of foreign employees are going to be essentially put in limbo
waiting for some sort of a report from an agency to make a decision whether their actions are
impacting US-citizen workers in the United States. So, this is essentially an Executive Order that
was kind of not so much advertised anywhere in the media. But I think it's important to understand
the significance of this particular Executive Orders. And if you look at the first and second
proclamation, they had provisions there where they were specifically saying that the government is
going to continue to review certain visas, certain processes, specifically referring to H1B visas
and other related visas that are, in their mind impacting US-citizen workers. So, this particular
Executive Order is focused specifically on the fact that the US government and agencies
that are involved in hiring, in labor, in working with companies that hire H1B workers should be
looking at their operation, examine whether any of these activities are impacting US citizens.
And if so, take specific measures, again, we don't know what kind of measures they'll be taking.
It is important to understand that this is not taking effect right now. [inaudible]
take about 45 days before they implement it. But it just gives us a hint that they are looking…
whatever they do right now, all their actions are designed to put some fear, anxiety, and concern
into foreign workers that are currently working, that are already delayed on their visas. They're
already increasing the fees on H1B visas. As you know, I reported that in a video a few days ago,
H1B visas are increased by 75% or the cost of filing an h1 b visa. Now, with this Executive
Order, if they're going to start to review certain companies that are working with contractors,
we know, they didn't specifically say what is the limit, to what extent a contractor is considered
to be involved with a company, which companies are going to be targeted or reviewed, so, just very,
very broad. Gives them a lot of authority, a lot of power to do things and puts our labor market,
our foreign labor market in fear. So, it's kind of all connected. The fee hikes, the further review,
do they have a limit on how much they're going to be able to delay these labor certifications,
green card cases. We don't know yet. So again, I don't think it's necessarily a positive sign.
But it's good to be aware of it. It's good to be prepared. And of course, I'll keep you posted
once I have more information about this Executive Order and when it's going to be implemented. Just
kind of keep in mind that it's happening. It was signed, and specific focus on Labor Department,
EB cases, EB2, EB3, and H1B workers that are currently working, either with government agencies
or projects that are related. So, I'll keep you posted. I'll put a link to the Executive Order
in the description of this video. And once again, if you have questions, please post them in the
comments below. Also, if you're here for the first time, do not forget to subscribe to our channel,
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of this video. So once again, thank you for watching and I will see you in our next video.