The January 8, 2010 “Neufeld memo” on the “employer-employee relationship” has created a lot of contention and two listening sessions by USCIS. At the latest listening session held March 26, 2010 in Washington D.C., the USCIS said they would look further into the legal reasoning of the memo and provide follow up by the middle of April.

The USCIS has yet to rescind the memorandum or provide corrections to it. So far, the USCIS has just issued an Executive Summary within the last few days. The Executive Summary is a simplied summary of the March 26 listening session on the impact of the memo to healthcare industries. The Summary merely points out some of the issues raised at the meeting but does not issue an opinion on those comments.

On a related note, the Administrative Appeals Office is currently taking 14 months to decide appeals on H-1b denials. With that long waiting period and the low number of H-1b petitions filed this year, it is usually more advantageous to re-file an H-1b petition rather than appeal, except when re-filing will generate the same wrong interpretation of the law.