Immigration Nerds

What is a plate of food supposed to do in a room full of diplomats? Make the room go quiet. Craig Harnden was seven when he asked his mother what you call someone who cooks for a living. From packet cake mixes in a Bristol kitchen, he went on to Michelin-starred kitchens in England — including seven years at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons — and four and a half years on Richard Branson’s Necker Island. Then a job at the French Laundry fell through, and he spent two years lost: couch surfing, out of work, in debt. A recruiter finally called with a job he never would have chosen for himself — head chef at the British Embassy in Washington. Fifteen years later, he is still there. He joins host Lauren Clarke to talk about the mother who called his cooking “edible,” the mentors who taught him what it means to cook, the hard first years in Washington, the afternoon tea for 700 guests on the first day of the King and Queen’s state visit — nine and a half thousand sandwiches, crusts off, real butter — the dish he eats the minute he lands back home, and the kitchen of immigrants that makes it all work: a Polish sous chef worth a six-month wait, and two women from the Dominican Republic. Plus, Erickson Immigration Group partner Rob Taylor with the news: what the new H-1B integrity executive order does and doesn’t do, expanded social media vetting for TN, TD and I visa applicants, movement in the October 2026 visa bulletin, a federal court blocking the $100,000 H-1B fee, and steep new fees DHS has proposed for OPT and STEM OPT filings. Resource Links: British Embassy Washington GUEST: Craig Harnden, Head Chef, British Embassy Washington HOST: Lauren Clarke NEWS NERD: Rob Taylor PRODUCER: Adam Belmar Interview Date: 10/2/26

What if the thing an immigration lawyer did all month was lunch? Once a month, on a Sunday, a group of AILA DC attorneys and paralegals sits down at a restaurant chosen to match the book they have all just read — a Salvadoran kitchen for Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, Dominican food for Angie Cruz’s Dominicana. They call it the Belonging Book Club, and since late 2024 it has become the place where people in a hard profession get to be readers first. Ariel Rawls of Grossman Young & Hammond runs it. She picks the restaurants, posts the polls, and drives a couple of hours from central Virginia to be the first one at the table. She joins host Lauren Clarke on the single question at a committee meeting that started the whole thing, why the food does more than feed people, the five-hundred-page first pick that nearly sank it, the afternoon a Palestinian milk drink sent one member straight back to her childhood, and what a novel can show a lawyer that a client never will. Plus, Erickson Immigration Group partner Rob Taylor with the news: a federal judge blocks the duration-of-status rule for F-1 and J-1 visa holders, DHS moves to eliminate the 60-day grace period for workers who lose a job, and a new executive order tightens oversight of the H-1B program. Resource Links: AILA DC Chapter — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Belonging) Committee Bookclubs — where the Belonging Book Club runs its polls and meetings GUEST: Ariel Rawls, Attorney, Grossman Young & Hammond; Chair, AILA DC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee HOST: Lauren Clarke NEWS NERD: Rob Taylor PRODUCER: Adam Belmar Interview Date: 9/17/26

The wage floor for H-2A got rewritten on August 3, 2026, and farm workers stand to lose up to $5.4 billion a year. The worker protection rule is rescinded, demand is at a record high, and a federal court just called the whole thing unlawful. LJ D'Arrigo, Immigration Practice Leader at Harris Beach Murtha, returns for his third visit to tell Lauren Clarke what it means at the kitchen table — and why dairy is no longer out to pasture. Plus, Rob Taylor reports on the $103,265 H-1B fee proposal and the immigrant visa appointment pause. GUEST: L.J.” D’Arrigo, Immigration Practice Leader, Harris Beach Murtha HOST: Lauren Clarke NEWS NERD: Rob Taylor PRODUCER: Adam Belmar Interview Date: 8/27/26 Resource Link: No Longer Out to Pasture: USCIS Clears H-2A Path for Dairy Employers https://www.harrisbeachmurtha.com/insights/no-longer-out-to-pasture-uscis-clears-h-2a-path-for-dairy-employers/

On June 30th, the Supreme Court struck down the president's birthright citizenship order 6–3 in Trump v. Barbara, with Chief Justice Roberts writing that children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily present here are citizens at birth. Six weeks later, two new executive orders arrived — one narrowing who qualifies for birthright citizenship, one titled "Ending Birth Tourism." Host Lauren Clarke is joined by Jack Chin, the Edward L. Barrett Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Davis and one of the country's leading scholars on the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause, to pull the two orders apart. Why the citizenship order likely fails where it stretches the "closed set" of exceptions the Court recognized. Why the birth tourism order may survive unchallenged — and why it's still, in Chin's words, a solution in search of a problem, aimed at an estimated 20,000–26,000 births out of 3.6 million a year. Plus: what this means at the consulate for pregnant applicants and women of childbearing age who aren't birth tourists at all, where consular non-reviewability leaves them, and how to build a visa package that heads the question off. First, EIG partner Rob Taylor covers the week's news: a proposal to eliminate the 60-day grace period, USCIS denials without RFEs, mandatory e-filing, a proposed N-400 fee hike, 175,000+ visa revocations since January 2025, and stepped-up H-1B enforcement. Resource Links: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/ending-birth-tourism/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/continuing-to-protect-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ GUEST: Professor Jack Chin, UC Davis School of Law HOST: Lauren Clarke NEWS NERD: Rob Taylor PRODUCER: Adam Belmar Disclaimer: This episode is intended for educational and informational purposes. Views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Erickson Immigration Group or its attorneys.

For nearly 50 years, international students could stay in the United States as long as they continued to make progress in their programs. No fixed deadline. A PhD candidate who needed a sixth year could take it. A doctor could finish a residency and move into a fellowship. An adviser at the school made that call. On September 15, that ends. Students arriving after that date get a firm expiration date — four years at most — and must file a formal application, with a fee, to stay any longer. The government hasn't said how it will decide those applications, or how long they'll take. Immigration attorney Dan Berger joins Lauren Clarke to explain who this reaches, what happens if you miss a deadline, and why he expects a court challenge within weeks. Resource Links: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-does-the-new-duration-of-status-rule-mean-for-international-students-and-workers/ https://www.internationalstudent.us/ GUEST: Dan Berger, Partner, Green & Spiegel HOST: Lauren Clarke NEWS NERD: Rob Taylor PRODUCER: Adam Belmar INTERVIEW RECORD: Tuesday 7/28/26 @ 17:30 ET