The gaming industry is on a rise and a huge part of that is contributed to esports. Professional sports leagues and teams continue to enter the world of esports in hopes of finding new ways to gain a bigger fan base. As more leagues like NBA 2K and eMLS League search overseas for talent, foreign national esports athletes should be aware of what visas to explore should they be offered an opportunity to play in the United States.

Implementation of the new and more restrictive DHS public charge regulations that were scheduled to become effective on October 15 have been blocked by Federal District Court Judges in New York and California.

The US Department of State has announced that the validity period of E-1 Treaty Trader and E-2 Trader Investor visas for French nationals will be reduced significantly from 60 months to 15 months.

The August 2019 Visa Bulletin released by the Department of State announced significant retrogression for all employment-based green card categories. The retrogression is anticipated to be relatively short for certain categories. However, it appears other categories will remain backlogged for longer than expected.

In February, USCIS will accept employment-based adjustment applications from foreign nationals with a priority date that is earlier than the Final Action dates listed in the State Department's February Visa Bulletin.

Ellis Porter’s analysis of the most recently published Visa Bulletin from the Department of State

DOL expects to bring iCERT back online at 2:00 p.m. EST on January 7. When the system resumes operations, employers will once again be able to create, edit and file H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 labor condition applications, H-2A/H-2B temporary labor certification applications and prevailing wage requests.