Recent Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification announcement relevant to institutions of higher education.

U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) California Service Center will conduct an open house stakeholder event on June 11, 2014. Registration is limited to 150 people. This invitation provides additional information and registration instructions.

On April 3, 2014 NAFSA hosted a virtual brown bag, "How SEVP Field Representatives Will Interact with Designated School Officials." During the event, Steve Acton, Unit Chief, SEVP Field Representative Unit, explained the role of the Field Representatives and what Designated School Officials (DSOs)

SEVP resources for schools to assist in the one-time conversion of the school accreditation/recognition information on fields 10 and 11 of their electronic Form I-17. All SEVP-certified schools had to participate by updating their Form I-17 by July 18, 2014.

Air and sea ports of entry have transitioned to an electronic Form I-94 record that is "created during the inspection process at the time of admission or parole when the CBP Officer pulls information from the traveler's APIS (Advance Passenger Information System) record and any CCD (Consular

In a May 8, 2014 letter to exchange program sponsors, Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Private Sector Exchange Robin Lerner provided a recap of new directions and focuses of the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program.

On September 8, 2014, NAFSA submitted comments on the Student and Exchange Visitor Program's (SEVP) Draft Guidance for Adjudicators 1402-07: The Form I-20 and the English Proficiency Field. The draft guidance is part of SEVP's multi-part development of guidance on the topic of conditional admission

NAFSA Retention Research

This liaison call conducted by NAFSA's ISS-RP Travel Subcommittee addressed a number of topics.

NAFSA submitted this comment letter to the U. S. Department of Labor's Standard Occupational Classification Policy Committee, recommending the following improvements to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) manual that is used in the prevailing wage determination process.