Shutdown puts businesses, foreign workers in limbo

WASHINGTON (AP) — The partial government shutdown has left high-skilled immigrant workers and the companies that employ them in limbo.

The Labor Department's Office of Foreign Labor Certification is closed and applications for job changes, new hires or any other adjustments for foreign workers are on hold until the government reopens.

Laura Foote Reiff, a Northern Virginia immigration attorney, said while the Labor Department remains closed any business in the process of hiring foreign workers who already have a valid visa may also be missing various filing deadlines, which could force companies to start the complicated hiring process over again.

"It can be costly and time consuming," Reiff said.

The Labor Department said today that it could not answer questions about the issue because the shutdown had closed the Office of Foreign Labor Certification.

Reiff said government contractors whose projects are on hold during the shutdown face a dilemma: to furlough or fire foreign workers.