Securities:
Artificial Intelligence Decree includes provisions related to immigration – On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued an “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” Article 5 of the order, “Promoting Innovation and Competition,” includes various provisions related to immigration.
DHS to Supplement H-2B Cap with Nearly 65,000 Additional Visas for Fiscal Year 2024 – On November 3, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of Labor, announced that it would make available an additional 64,716 temporary H-2B visas for non-agricultural workers for fiscal year 2024 via a final rule temporary. This is in addition to the 66,000 H-2B visas mandated by Congress and available each fiscal year.
ABIL Global: Austria – In an unprecedented ruling, the Vienna Administrative Court recently ruled that descendants of former concentration camp inmates and forced laborers, nationals of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia), had been expelled. in Austria during the Second World War and remained there after the liberation of the concentration camps on Austrian territory in the spring of 1945, even if only for a period of a few months, are entitled to Austrian citizenship within the framework of a preferred ancestry procedure if there are indicators that they attempted to establish a center of vital interests (or principal domicile) in post-war Austria.
Details:
Artificial Intelligence Decree includes provisions related to immigration
On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued the “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trusted Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” Article 5 of the order, “Promoting Innovation and Competition,” includes various provisions related to immigration. For example, the command:
- Calls on the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to streamline processing times for visa applications and applications, including ensuring the timely availability of visa appointments, for non-citizens seeking to travel to the United States to work, study or conduct research in artificial intelligence. (AI) or other critical and emerging technologies; and facilitate the continued availability of visa appointments in sufficient volume for applicants with expertise in AI or other critical and emerging technologies;
- Directs the Secretary of State to consider adopting regulations to establish new criteria for designating countries and skills on the State Department’s Exchange Visitor Skills List with respect to the requirement for 2-year foreign residency for certain J-1 nonimmigrants, including these skills. which are critical to the United States;
- directs the Secretary of State to consider implementing a national visa renewal program to facilitate the ability of qualified applicants, including highly skilled talent in AI and critical and emerging technologies, to continue their work in the United States United without unnecessary interruption;
- Calls on the Secretary of State to establish a program to identify and attract top talent in AI and other critical and emerging technologies to universities, research institutions and the private sector abroad, and to establish and increase connections with this talent to inform them of opportunities and resources for research and employment in the United States, including overseas educational components to inform top STEM talent of non-governmental visa options -immigrant and immigrant and a possible accelerated decision of their petitions and visa applications;
- Calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security to review and initiate any policy changes he deems necessary and appropriate to clarify and modernize immigration pathways for experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies, including non-citizens O-1A and EB-1 with extraordinary capabilities; EB-2 graduate degree holders and non-citizens with exceptional ability; and startup founders in the field of AI and other critical and emerging technologies, using the International Entrepreneur Rule; And
- Calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security to continue his rulemaking process to modernize the H-1B program and improve its integrity and use, including by experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies, and to consider Develop rules to improve the process for non-citizens, including experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies and their spouses, dependents and children, to adjust their lawful permanent resident status.
Details:
DHS to Supplement H-2B Cap with Nearly 65,000 Additional Visas for Fiscal Year 2024
On November 3, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of Labor, announced that it would make available an additional 64,716 temporary H-2B visas for non-agricultural workers for fiscal year 2024 through a final temporary visa. ruler. This is in addition to the 66,000 H-2B visas mandated by Congress and available each fiscal year. DHS said issuing additional visas “will help meet the need for seasonal or temporary workers in areas where too few U.S. workers are available.”
The H-2B supplement is expected to include an allocation of 20,000 visas to workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras, DHS said. Additionally, an additional 44,716 visas will be available to returning workers who received an H-2B visa, or were granted H-2B status, in any of the last three fiscal years. “The regulation would allocate these additional visas to returning workers between the first half and second half of the financial year to account for the need for additional seasonal and other temporary workers during the year, part of the allocation of the second half being reserved. to meet the demand for workers during the peak summer season,” DHS said.
Details:
ABIL Global: Austria
In an unprecedented ruling, the Vienna Administrative Court recently ruled that descendants of former concentration camp inmates and forced laborers, nationals of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Hungary, Czechoslovakia , Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia), were deported to Austria during the Second World War and remained there after the liberation of the concentration camps on Austrian territory in the spring of 1945, if only for a period of a few months , are entitled to Austrian citizenship under a privileged ancestry procedure if there are indicators that they have attempted to establish Austrian citizenship. center of vital interests (or principal domicile) in post-war Austria.
In September 2020 and May 2022, the Austrian Citizenship Act was amended to allow Holocaust survivors, as well as descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors, to acquire Austrian citizenship under the an accelerated ancestry procedure, without being required to have resided in Austria or to renounce it. their current citizenship(s).
Applicants must prove that their ancestors were Austrian and that they:
- Were citizens of a successor state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or stateless persons, had their principal domicile in Austria, within the post-war borders defined in the Treaty of Saint-Germain, after January 31, 1933 and before May 15, 1955, and moved abroad “voluntarily” (i.e. not as a result of expulsion) because they feared or had suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazis or because that they were part of the Austrian resistance movement against the Nazi regime;
- Had their main residence outside Austria between January 30, 1933 and May 9, 1945 and were unable to return to Austria (or settle there for the very first time) due to fear of Nazi persecution; Or
- Were citizens of a successor state to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or stateless persons, had their principal domicile in Austria and were deported abroad from Austria.
Since May 2022, Austrian citizenship is also available to descendants of Holocaust victims whose ancestors were Austrian, citizens of a successor state to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or stateless and were killed by agents of the Nazi regime in Austria or abroad.
However, there are still several gaps in the legislative framework, one of which until recently concerned descendants of Austrians, citizens of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or stateless persons deported and imprisoned in concentration camps and forced labor in Austria. territory. Citizenship authorities and administrative courts have ruled that such detention would not create a principal domicile within the meaning of the Citizenship Act.
In a recent case, the Vienna Administrative Court rejected this argument and ruled that the descendants of former concentration camp inmates and forced laborers, nationals of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had been deported to Austria during World War II and remained there after World War II. After the camps were liberated in the spring of 1945, if only for a few months, they were entitled to Austrian citizenship under a privileged ancestry procedure if there was evidence that they had attempted to establishing a primary domicile in post-war Austria. In its judgment, the court recognized for the first time the continuing effects of Nazi persecution even after the end of World War II, due to widespread Nazi sentiment among the Austrian population until 1950 and beyond, and the right to Austrian citizenship for the descendants of tens of thousands of elders. concentration camp inmates and forced laborers who were deported to Austria and who, after the liberation by Allied troops in the spring of 1945, were prevented from establishing a primary residence in Austria, at least for a few months, and were forced to leave post-war Austria before August. 15, 1955.
Details: