By: NPZ Law Group, P.C.
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​On October 15th, a Twitter announcement by the White House stated that beginning November 8th, the United States will implement a new travel policy. Accordingly, foreign nationals will be permitted entry to the United States, provided only that they have been fully vaccinated. Moreover, there will be very limited exceptions to these vaccination requirements. Importantly, the travel ban will effectively be lifted for both land and air entries.

A list of vaccines has been approved and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has updated as the list of vaccines accepted for air travel to the United States. Moreover, an Emergency Use Listing (EUL), updated by the World Health Organization, has also been included in the accepted vaccines. FDA-approved vaccines include those vaccines produced by Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech. Vaccines approved for emergency use include Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India.

Notably, international travelers will be required to show vaccination evidence and a negative COVID-19 test to be taken before boarding the flight. On the other hand, those travelers entering the U.S by land will not need to show proof of undergoing a negative test for COVID-19.

The travel bans in question were first imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 by the Trump Administration. Countries on which the travel bans were imposed include China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa, the 26 countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Moreover, non-essential travel from Canada and Mexico was also restricted through separate travel bans, specifically regarding land entries from these two countries. Notably, it was not until earlier this week that it was announced that the travel ban for Canada and Mexico would be loosened.

As indicated in the White House’s Twitter announcement, the travel ban will be lifted via a phased approach, with November 8th set as the date to effect the first phase, under which travel restrictions for non-essential travel will be lifted. The second phase will be initiated in early January of 2022.

For many business travelers worldwide, the lifting of the COVID-19 travel bans is welcome news, as many of them have been frustrated by the lack of possibility to enter the United States. The exception to this is the possibility of securing national interest exceptions in advance from U.S ports of entry or consular posts.

However, it must be noted that the lifting of travel restrictions does not offer any relief to the consular backlogs wrought by the pandemic concerning immigrant and non-immigrant visa appointments. Lastly, it is expected that a more formal announcement detailing access to the United States will be forthcoming.

If you have questions or want to access additional information about US or Canadian Immigration and Nationality Laws, please feel free to get in touch with the immigration and nationality lawyers at the NPZ Law Group. If you have more questions about how these laws in the US may impact you or your family, contact the lawyers specialized in US Immigration and Nationality laws at our law firm. You can always send us an email at [email protected], or you can call us at 201-670-0006 (x104). In addition, we invite you to find more information on our website at www.visaserve.com
 

By: AIMS International 

Recently, during an enlightening conversation discussing sustainable business practices with an AIMS Belgium client, Mr. Rohit Sathe, commented that he only employs leaders who are open minded and inclusive, because, they – in turn – will do the same. This way, he ensures that the culture is built top-down. Sounds simple?

Indeed, if you are lucky enough to have these kinds of leaders as executives and decision makers, chances are that you would already have created an inclusive and gender diverse workforce. On the other hand, it is not always that straight forward. Cultural bias and systemic preconditioning means that governance is often needed to push boards in the ‘right’ direction. 

Just recently, in March 2021 the U.A.E. regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), announced that all listed companies need to have at least one female board member. According to Aurora50 (a social enterprise co-founded by Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa), which aims to increase the number of women on the boards of both public and private UAE companies, only 110 listed companies in the U.A.E. currently have women on their boards. That number accounts for only 26 per cent of the total. However, they only make up around 3.5 per cent (29 of a total of 823 board members) of the board directors of these firms. This might sound like progress, however, if we consider that, almost a decade ago, the New York Times reported that the U.A.E. Government has made female representation in the boardroom compulsory, one may raise the question; what have we been doing in the last ten years? The author made the staggering comment that; ‘even though 70 percent of university graduates in the U.A.E. are women, men still completely dominate boardrooms in the workplace’. This would follow that more than 70% of board executives in the region are chosen out of a pool of ONLY 30% of university graduates.

In other parts of the world, the picture is not necessarily any better. According to Bloomberg, following the racial injustice protests last year, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock said it may vote against directors at companies that aren’t diversifying their ranks. Yes – it appears that, (finally) diversity is not only a ‘nice to have’ but that companies may actually see serious repercussions if they do not reach required diversity targets. In fact, BlackRock put their money where their mouths are and voted against the re-election of 1,862 directors at 975 companies because of a lack of board diversity. This vote clearly shows that ESG is at the top of their agenda when it comes to looking at the ‘investability’ of businesses. One may argue that they are simply ‘following the money’ and that this is not necessarily for humanitarian reasons. In 2018 the Financial Times reported that, according to Black Rock’s Larry Fink, the Asset Management giant was ‘staking its claim on sustainability investing’.

According to their own website; “In 2021, our priorities reflect our continuing emphasis on board effectiveness alongside the impact of sustainability-related factors on a company’s ability to generate long-term financial returns. We have mapped our priorities to specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, such as Gender Equality and Clean and Affordable Energy, and provided high level, globally relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each priority so companies are aware of our expectations. Where we believe a company is not adequately addressing a key business risk or opportunity, or is not responsive to shareholders, our most common course of action is to hold the responsible members of the board accountable by voting against their re-election.”

I say, whatever the motivation, the goals will achieve the same results and these are, in my opinion, long overdue results. For years, many case studies reported that companies with more female leaders show better results. For example, in this article written in 2015, Fortune reported that a comparison showed that 80 women CEOs during the 12 years from 2002 to 2014, produced equity returns 226% better than the S&P 500! 
 
Today’s reality is that you, too, could show excellent results by having a more diverse leadership team. Alternatively, whether due to mediocre financial results, investment decisions or governance, you might be out of business soon. AIMS International can show you how to transform your organization by starting at the top. Whatever your motivations, he time is now.

By: Joseph Imperato, Sr., Partner,
XSolutions Consulting Services, LLC
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Introduction

Using work computers for personal use can have unintended consequences.

Employers may have added more resilience with the proliferation of Work-From-Home (WFH) strategies, but they also inherited some headaches. Here’s what we mean.

A Scenario That Can Easily Happen To Anyone

Harry had been working from home since the pandemic started using his company-issued laptop to log into the corporate network.

Harry works in the HR department and deals with highly confidential data, so he had admin-level rights to the network. As a result, he often copies classified documents from the server to his laptop to work on them and then copies modified versions back to the server when finished. He knows he shouldn’t do that, but it is easier since he typically works on files over several days.

One Friday night after a long week, Harry’s 12-year old daughter, Nikki, asked if she could use the computer to log onto her school’s website to download assignments for Monday. Covid-19 required all children to work remotely as well.

Although Harry had some misgivings, he thought, “what’s the harm?” and allowed it anyway.
After getting her assignments, Nikki decided to look for cool music videos on the web she could share online with her friends.

Shortly afterward, Nikki came running to Harry, claiming that something was wrong with the computer. Harry rushed in and saw the hideous ransom note on the screen saying all files were encrypted and he had 24 hours to pay the ransom or lose his data forever.

Harry had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach because earlier that morning, he downloaded the company’s Payroll file containing names, addresses, pay data, email addresses, and social security numbers. He knew he was in big trouble, so he kept quiet until Monday morning when he came clean with his manager.

Disaster Strikes With Catastrophic Results

The criminals responsible for the ransom demand on Harry’s computer could hardly believe their good fortune. Before sending Harry the ransom note, they downloaded all of Harry’s files.
Criminals are energetic, if anything else, so they didn’t waste time, they infiltrated the corporate network using Harry’s admin account and accessed more confidential documents. They didn’t need Harry’s ransom money—they had bigger fish to fry! They immediately sold the data on the Dark Web.

Then the hackers extorted the company, upping their ransom demand by thousands of dollars, and threatened to expose the data on the web if they didn’t pay up.

Even though they had viable backups, Harry’s company paid the ransom to keep the data off of the internet. But, as we said before, the data was already sold. As the saying goes, “there is no honor among thieves.”

Harry was fired that Monday, but the damage was already done.

What Were The Red Flags?

• Harry was operating his computer with administrative rights rather than using a basic user-level account for everyday work. So, hackers had full rights to the corporate network.
• Harry should NEVER have saved confidential company data on this laptop. All data should be saved to the company’s servers where it could be adequately protected. Allowing files to be copied to individual PCs makes it almost impossible to backup and protect appropriately. This also causes multiple versions of files to exist.
• Harry should never had his daughter, or any family member, use his work computer. Even though the device has the latest security software, users can bypass security measures by clicking infected links or downloading bogus attachments, especially with an admin-level account.

Conclusion

All companies, large and small, need IT policies to govern behavior in addition to the latest cyber tools to protect data. However, management can do very little when an employee disregards the rules and intentionally bypasses policies and security measures.

The only defense against this is monitoring the network for suspicious activity, and once found, remediate as quickly as possible.  Additionally,  all companies should have a robust Security Awareness Training program to teach employees how to keep themselves and their companies safe.
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XSolutions is an IT Services Provider serving New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ), and Connecticut (CT). We provide Managed IT Services | Managed IT Security | Backup & Disaster Recovery| Cloud Data Protection. Call (845) 362-9675 for a free consultation.
By: Joseph Imperato, Sr., Partner,
XSolutions Consulting Services, LLC

By: NPZ Law Group, P.C.
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According to the June 2021 America Works Report released by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the United States is facing an unprecedented labor shortage. Can the U.S manufacturers’ labor shortage be solved by leveraging immigration? Read on to find out.

The America Works Report analyzed over 20 years of employment data and federal jobs. Among the analyses within the report is the concerning finding that there are approximately half as many available workers for every currently open job. Moreover, the U.S Chamber of Commerce found that this number continues to decline.

What Is Causing the United States’ Skill Shortage?

While the COVID pandemic is certainly a major contributing factor, it would not be fair to put the entire blame on the pandemic as there are many other factors that have contributed to the United States’ skills shortage.

One of the primary contributing factors to the United States’ skills shortage is the dearth of highly skilled workers in emerging technological spheres such as automation, robotics, and mechatronics. While these spheres are crucial to the further modernization of society, they have hit the manufacturing industry quite hard.

Like many other employers, manufacturers are implementing the offering of benefits in order to retain skilled labor in the industry. However, before employers can implement any such benefits, they have to find the workers who will receive them.

How Can Immigration Be Leveraged to Fill the Labor Gap?

Historically speaking, immigration has been vital to the economic growth of the United States by providing an alternative source of labor to employers in various industries with labor gaps. Similarly, the manufacturing industry can turn to immigration to fill the skills shortage, both for skilled labor and high-level professionals.

While there are certainly limitations in the current system of immigration, such that the needs of all spheres cannot be met, there are still some viable options.

• Under the L-1 visa, manufacturers that operate internationally can transfer existing employees of a foreign entity to the United States in the form of intracompany transferees. Essentially, the U.S based manufacturer transfers from within the international organization. Therefore, the manufacturer can benefit from specialized knowledge of the company’s products or systems that were gained by the transferee during their employment abroad.
• The United States can also leverage its international trade agreements with several countries, which include work visa options for the citizens of those countries. The most well-known trade agreement is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which provides work visa options for citizens of Canada and Mexico for work in the U.S. in a large number of professions. These include engineering technicians, technologists, and computer systems analysts. Notably, most of the professions covered by the USMCA require the worker to have a bachelor’s degree. However, the categories of technologists and engineering technicians allow the worker to qualify for work in the U.S. based on the possession of theoretical knowledge of engineering principles. This option could prove useful for U.S. manufacturers in the effort to fill specialized robotics and mechatronics technician jobs.
• For more advanced positions, the H-1B work visa can be leveraged by manufacturers, particularly for those jobs that qualify as “specialty occupations.” However, notably, the H-1B visa carries crucial limitations, such as a lottery-based selection process and an annual quota.
• In order to fill temporary, seasonal needs for both skilled and unskilled labor, manufacturers can also leverage the H-2B work visa.

Final Words

It is important to note that in the United States, there is currently a lot of emphasis on obtaining a four-year bachelor’s degree rather than obtaining technical skills. This results in an ever-increasing skills shortage and labor gap. Meanwhile, other countries such as Germany, Spain, and Finland have highly robust vocational training programs. This large resource of skilled labor in various industries can be tapped into by the United States to ease its labor shortage problem.

The modern focus on innovation means that the skilled workforce needs of the manufacturing industry are evolving. Suppliers must start training employees to work with advanced robotics, high-speed video cameras, precision assembly, software development, and data sciences. Lastly, each manufacturer is unique in its operational needs and hence should evaluate with great care how immigration can be leveraged to fill their specific skills shortage.

If you have any questions or need any additional information about US or Canadian Immigration and Nationality Laws, contact the immigration and nationality lawyers at the NPZ Law Group. If you have more questions about how these laws in the US may impact you or your family, contact the lawyers specialized in US Immigration and Nationality laws at our law firm. You can also send us an email at [email protected] or you can call us at 201-670-0006 (x104). In addition to that, we invite you to find more information on our website at www.visaserve.com