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Ian Macdonald

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Ian R. Macdonald Co-Chairs the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice’s International Employment, Immigration & Workforce Strategies group. He focuses his practice on developing, assessing and managing global mobility programs for multinational companies on a range of challenges affecting the movement of people capital domestically and internationally, including secondment agreements, benefits transferability, local host country employment concerns and immigration.

Ian and his team work closely with companies to manage and modify, where needed, corporate immigration programs to maximize efficiency, service and regulatory compliance levels. He is experienced with the full range of business immigration sponsorship categories (visas and permanent residence), anti-discrimination rules to reduce or eliminate risk of employment litigation, employer sanction cases, and I-9 and E-Verify compliance. Ian assists clients with establishing risk-based performance standards (RBPS) and Department of Homeland Security protocol, providing risk assessment assistance to corporations subject to Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) and assisting clients with ITAR/Export Control compliance within the immigration context.

Ian has developed strategic relationships abroad that he utilizes when working with clients to ensure compliance with foreign registration requirements. He is experienced with analyzing complex global mobility opportunities on country-specific matters to facilitate the transfer of personnel. Ian is also experienced in counseling employers on immigration strategy as well as immigration consequences of mergers and acquisitions, reduction in workforces, and furloughs.

Prior to joining the firm, Ian worked for the United Nations, various non-governmental think tanks and corporate law firms in London, Washington, D.C., New York and Atlanta.

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Under a new State Department policy, virtually all visa applicants to the United States are now required to submit information about social media accounts they have used in the past …
Continue Reading The United States Will Now Require Visa Applicants to Provide Social Media Information

In an apparent change in policy, U.S. immigration authorities are now taking a hard-line approach to individuals who have alcohol-related charges or offenses, marking a significant shift in how U.S.
Continue Reading GT Alert – New Immigration Policy Focuses On Alcohol-Related Charges

USCIS announced today that it will resume its premium processing service for all H-1B petitions that are subject to this year’s H-1B cap.  This news provides much needed relief to employers and foreign nationals, particularly in those situations where an employee is relying on F-1 optional practical training (OPT) cap gap provisions for work authorization. F-1 OPT cap gap work authorization will expire on Sept. 30, 2017, leaving foreign nationals unable to work unless their H-1B petition is approved before Oct. 1, 2017, or they are able to secure alternative work authorization, which is unlikely for most.
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Continue Reading USCIS to Resume H-1B Premium Processing for Petitions Filed under FY2018 Cap

On Sept. 1, 2017, the U.S Department of State (DOS) updated the Field Adjudicators Manual (FAM) at 9 FAM 302.9-4(B)(3).  The Field Adjudicators Manual (FAM) serves to guide consular officers…
Continue Reading New DOS Rule Regarding Misrepresentation – An End to the 30/60 Day Rule

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is denying Advance Parole (AP) applications when an applicant travels internationally while the application is pending with USCIS.  This represents a big adjudication shift…
Continue Reading Denial of Advance Parole Applications Due to International Travel Adversely Impacts U.S. Companies

Late Friday evening on March 3, 2017, The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it will temporarily suspend its premium processing service for all H-1B petitions, including CAP-subject…
Continue Reading Effective April 3, 2017, USCIS Will Temporarily Suspend Premium Processing for All H-1B Petitions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has reached the 2017 H-1B cap, and will no longer be accepting H-1B cap cases under this year’s cap. USCIS has yet to provide the number of petitions received for this year’s caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption. However, we anticipate the numbers to be even higher for FY2017 than the 233,000 H-1B petitions filed in the 2016 cap. This means a greater number of employers and individuals will be looking to alternative visa options when they leave H-1B cap season empty handed.

USCIS has further announced that it will conduct a computer-generated random selection process (also known as the “Lottery’), first on petitions filed under the 20,000 U.S. Master’s Degree exemption and then on cases filed under the 65,000 regular category, to select a sufficient number of petitions for the cap. USCIS has yet to announce when they will begin this selection process. From past experience, we expect the process to occur immediately and notices of acceptance will start to be sent out to employers and their representatives in the next 5‑10 days. We expect rejected cases that do not make this year’s H-1B cap to be returned to employer representatives in the next 3-6 weeks.…

Continue Reading 2017 H-1B Cap Met, USCIS to Conduct Lottery