A challenge brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the new
H-1B wage levels and the new definition of “Specialty
Occupation” was upheld by the United States District
Court for the Northern District of California on December 1, 2020.
The plaintiff's Summary Judgement motion was granted when the
Court held that the government failed to demonstrate good cause for
not following the normal notice and
comment procedures required for immigration
regulations. The government's failure to follow the
proper rulemaking procedures makes the new rules invalid and
requires them to be rescinded by the government.
This is a huge win for foreign national employees and their
employers, as the now rescinded Department of Labor (DOL) rule
wreaked havoc with H-1B and PERM wage levels to the point
where employers, in many cases, were not able to file the necessary
wage certifications due to a lack of wage data or wage data that
was totally out of sync with industry wage levels.
