On August 18, 2023, the Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (DOL OFLC) published a round of FAQs on the wildfires in Hawaii. The FAQs cover deadline flexibilities, communication matters, LCAs and the relocation of H-1B workers, and other details.

On August 24, 2023, the Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (DOL OFLC) published a fourth round of FAQs on the H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 programs. Rounds 1-3 were published between 2011-2015. Most of the FAQs are helpful restatements of policy regarding LCA obligations when a worker is moved to a location that was not intended when the LCA was filed.

On August 24, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) rescinded its 4 rounds of COVID-19 FAQs from 2020.

A reminder that F-1 cap-gap employment benefits last only through September 30 each year. If USCIS has not yet approved the H-1B petition and change of status application on which a student's cap-gap benefit is based, the student cannot work beyond September 30, 2023, until USCIS approves the H-1B petition.

NAFSA's Nonimmigrant Visa Toolbox for Advisers page has links to NAFSA's visa refusal survey and to useful visa-related resources. 

On August 15, 2023, the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman) sent the following email to stakeholders to clarify that "premium processing timelines are separate from EAD production timelines," and to repeat USCIS's message that "F-1 EADs May Take One to Two Weeks to Produce After Adjudication," even for premium processing cases.

NAFSA is upgrading its online systems from noon on July 27–August 7, 2023. This upgrade will affect all systems that require a NAFSA login, including access to the NAFSA Adviser’s Manual 360 and parts of the NAFSA website. We thank you for your patience during this time as we work to make these important improvements to better serve international education professionals.

Under normal I-9 rules, an employer must "physically examine" the documents an employee presents to establish identity and employment authorization. Generally, the employer examines these documents in the physical presence of the employee presenting them. Under Optional Alternative 1, effective for hires made on and after August 1, 2023, an E-Verify employer in good standing may choose to examine I-9 identity and employment authorization documents remotely if certain conditions are met.

DHS has added eight new fields in the latest revision to the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List, effective July 12, 2023. The new fields are: Landscape Architecture (04.0601), Institutional Research (13.0608), Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering Technology/Technician (15.0407), Composite Materials Technology/Technician (15.0617), Linguistics and Computer Science (30.4801), Developmental and Adolescent Psychology (42.2710), Geospatial Intelligence (43.0407), and Demography and Population Studies (45.0501). There is an annual deadline of August 1 for interested parties to nominate new CIP codes for the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List. The next annual deadline is August 1, 2023.

"OFLC's National Prevailing Wage Center will host a two-hour webinar on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, to provide general filing tips and trends for the Prevailing Wage Determination process in the Permanent and Labor Condition Application programs. Please be advised the webinar is available to a maximum of 1000 participants but will be recorded and posted to our website for future reference."