US Immigration News

The US Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) 1996 is unconstitutional. This means that it is no longer permissible in the US to treat same-sex spouses differently from heterosexual spouses. The US government has since changed the law so that same-sex partners and spouses can now apply for US family-based immigrant visas.

DOMA was passed in 1996 with bipartisan support with the stated aim of "defending marriage". To that end, section 3 of DOMA denied certain federal benefits and legal rights to same sex spouses.

US government figures show that an increasing number of Australians are choosing to live and work in the US. British government figures show that, over the same period, fewer Australians have chosen to live and work in London, traditionally the first port of call for Australians looking for a new home overseas.

A senior Republican Congressman has said that he is opposed to the creation of a 'pathway to citizenship' for all illegal immigrants in the US. This may signal a hardening of attitudes of Republicans in Congress against immigration reform.

The US Senate passed a bill in June 2013 that would, if it became law, create such a pathway for most of the estimated 11.5m illegal immigrants living in the US. For the bill to become law, however, it must also be passed by the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives (known as The House).

US IT workers are suing Indian software giant Infosys over alleged abuse of two US visas; the H-1B 'specialty occupation' visa and the B-1 business visa. It is also accused of discrimination against workers who are not from South Asia.

Brenda Koehler, a software engineer from Wisconsin has lodged a lawsuit in the US District Court in Eastern Wisconsin on behalf of herself and other US IT workers after she was refused a job working for Infosys.

Congressmen and women have gone home for the summer recess while Congress is closed in August. President Obama had hoped that Congress would, by now, have passed an immigration reform bill but there is still no new law.

The President promised to make immigration reform a priority in his second term. The White House has since thrown its weight behind a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the US who have valid work visas could be prevented from taking up employment due to a faulty government database. The E-Verify system is a web-based database which is used by employers to check potential employees' immigration status.

Although they are not meant to, many employers use it as a screening system to weed out employees before offering them a job. This may mean that those who are wrongly listed as being ineligible for work never discover that their data is incorrect.