U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that employers who have received funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (FRA) must make "additional attestations" to the U.S. Department of Labor that they have taken good faith steps to recruit a U.S. worker for the position. U.S. workers are described as "workers other than non-immigrant aliens." These new requirements do not apply to employers who are filing for an extension of a current employee's H1-B stay.

These changes are not permanent according to USCIS, but will be in effect for any new hires on or after February 17, 2009 and before February 17, 2011.

More information can be found here.

EM