The President has briefed the nation regarding the much anticipated executive action on immigration! As expected, the President addressed plans that will impact the employment based immigration realm. He has provided us with a general outline of his plan, which will be signed tonight.  Here are some of the expected plans/areas to be addressed:

Those with an approved I-140 Immigrant Petition who are waiting for priority dates to become current will be allowed to FILE the I-485 Adjustment of Status Application. This means that the Adjustment of Status application can be filed (will not be approved until the priority date is current, but can be filed) and therefore the individual, along with eligible dependents, can also apply for an EAD. This is expected to impact 410,000 individuals.

Further, the President is likely to finalize the H-4 EAD regulation that was proposed earlier this year (H-4 dependent spouses can be issued an EAD, also known as a work permit). Again, for this to apply, an individual on H-1B has to have (1) extensions beyond the 6^thyear limit based on a PERM Labor Certification Application or I-140 Immigrant Petition that has been pending for at least 365 days or (2) an approved I-140 Immigrant Petition. The President will also address the possibility of expanding and extending the use of Optional Practical Training for foreign students.

The President is looking to take steps to modernize and improve the immigrant visa process: making optimal use of the number of visas available under the current law. This includes whether dependents of green card applicants should be counted towards the cap and whether past unused visas can be recaptured. We will see more on these issues in the weeks and months to come!

This is a very exciting time and change is on its way! I will be posting more details as they come in!

Memorandum from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security regarding Policies Supporting U.S. High Skilled Businesses and Workers, issued November 20, 2014.