Employment Standards Administration June 30, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is amending its regulations regarding temporary employment of foreign professionals to implement procedural requirements applicable to the H-1B1 visa category. The H-1B1 visa category permits the temporary entry of professionals in specialty occupations from countries that have entered into agreements with the United States as identified in section 214(g)(8)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Congress created the H-1B1 visa category as part of its approval of the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement and the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. This Final Rule reflects the public comments received on the interim final rule that the Department published on November 23, 2004 at 69 FR 68222. As a result, the Department did not make any substantive changes; however, this Final Rule reflects one technical change as described in this Part. The Department made this technical change as a result of the recent regulation amendments to the H-1B and H-1B1 regulations that were published on December 5, 2005 at 70 FR 72556. The regulation published on December 5, 2005 generally requires employers to use web-based electronic filing of H-1B and H-1B1 application forms. The Department made the technical change to this Final Rule consistent with the previously published amendments.