USCIS Issues Guidance on H-1B Hiring Limitations for TARP, Federal Reserve Act Section 13 Funding Recipients
On March 26, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued guidance on the application of newly-enacted H-1B hiring requirements for employers that receive funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or Section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (FRA). An employer that has received TARP or FRA Section 13 funds and is seeking to hire a new employee for H-1B employment must attest that it took good faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the position for which the H-1B worker is sought and that no U.S. worker was displaced by the H-1B worker in an essentially equivalent position. However, the guidance clarifies that these additional hiring requirements do not apply to petitions that are filed on behalf of current employees seeking an extension of their H-1B stay or a change of status to H-1B.
The additional H-1B requirements for TARP or FRA Section 13 recipients were put in place by the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA). EAWA took effect on February 17, 2009 and will sunset after two years.
Though the government has made public the names of companies that have received funds under TARP, the names of organizations that have received FRA Section 13 funds are not publicly available. Therefore, an employer's human resources and immigration professionals may need to make internal inquiries to obtain the necessary information about potential receipt of funds under FRA Section 13, in advance of any planned H-1B sponsorship of new employees.
