Federal Government Officials: Immigration Processing Panel

SHRM Global Mobility and Immigration Symposium
This session will bring together policymakers from across the federal agencies to discuss the latest developments with visa and benefits processing at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Labor and Department of State.

The Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Labor each have a vital role in the processing and adjudication of visas and other immigration benefits. The past year has brought several changes within these agencies, including a new registration process prior to the H-1B lottery, a new system (FLAG) for the processing of Labor Condition Applications, and new social media checks and policies at the consulates. This session will bring together government policymakers from these agencies to discuss these issues as well as overall processing efficiency, the PERM process and the visions of the agencies moving forward.

Date(s) & Time(s): 
Tuesday, November 5, 2019 - 1:15pm to 2:15pm
Presenter: 

Elissa M. McGovern

Elissa M.
McGovern

Elissa M. McGovern is the Chief of Policy at the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a position she has held since September 2014.  In this role, she is responsible for the office’s Annual Report and recommendations to USCIS.  She was formerly the Director of Policy for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification in the U.S. Department of Labor.  A graduate of the New York University School of Law, Ms. McGovern has also been in private practice (most recently as counsel with the firm of Greenberg Traurig), specializing in immigration law and compliance.  She has served on the American Immigration Lawyers Association Board of Governors and as president of the Washington, DC Chapter, as well as on the staff of the Association.  She is a frequent speaker on immigration topics. 

Edward Ramotowski

Edward
Ramotowski

Edward Ramotowski assumed his current position as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services at the U.S. Department of State in July 2012.  In that position he oversees the Visa Office in Washington DC, two domestic processing centers, as well as visa operations at over 200 U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad. 

From August 2006 to July 2009 he served as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara, Mexico, followed by three years as Managing Director for Visa Services.  He has previously worked as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Chief of the Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, Bahamas and as U.S. Consul in Warsaw, Poland.  Other tours of duty have included service as a consular and political officer in Bogota, Colombia and consular officer in Kingston Jamaica.  Mr. Ramotowski has also served in Washington as a country officer in the Office of Andean Affairs, as well as a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center and on the White House Situation Room staff.  He has received several Department of State Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards, and in 2000 was recognized with the Barbara Watson Award for consular excellence.

Mr. Ramotowski joined the Foreign Service in 1986.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the National War College.  He is married with two children.

Bill Rabung

Bill
Rabung

Bill Rabung is the Director of Operations, for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification.  In this position, he is responsible for the operations of the three OFLC National Processing Centers in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington D.C.  He previously served as the National Director of the PERM program, the Director of the National Prevailing Wage Center, and several other management positions in the OFLC National Office. Bill has been with the U.S. Department of Labor for over 35 years, and has worked in a number of management positions within the Employment and Training Administration and Employment Standards Administration.  Bill is a multiple recipient of the Secretary’s Exceptional Achievement award, and he has made numerous national presentations and conducted workshops on labor force and performance topics.  Bill started his public service career with the State of California, Employment Development Department where he worked in a variety of programs including Unemployment Insurance, Job Service, and Labor Market Information.    

Donald J. Monica

Donald J.
Monica

Don Monica has been the Division Chief for Adjudications since April 2019. He manages a staff of subject matter experts at USCIS Headquarters who develop operational guidance to implement USCIS policy and assure adjudicative consistency across the five Service Centers.Prior to his current position, Mr. Monica spent four years as the Director of the USCIS Asia-Pacific District, where he had oversight of offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Manila, New Delhi and Seoul. These offices adjudicated naturalization applications for United States military members and their spouses, refugee resettlement applications and family-based immigrant petitions.


Mr. Monica began his government service in 1980 with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and served in numerous adjudicative and enforcement positions. His duty stations included domestic postings in Champlain (NY), Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Miami. Outside the United States, he served with INS in Toronto, Montreal, Nairobi and Moscow.

When INS was abolished 2003, Mr. Monica was posted to Chicago as the USCIS District Director and later served as a District Director in Philadelphia and Atlanta. In 2008 he transferred to Orlando as the Southeast Regional Director. He moved to the Field Operations Directorate at USCIS Headquarters in 2010, first as Deputy Associate Director and later as Associate Director, with management responsibility for 4,500 staff at over 100 domestic locations throughout the United States.

Mr. Monica is a native of Cleveland and graduated from Cleveland State University. He also holds an M.A. from the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto, Canada.

Moderator: 

Tracy Schauff

Tracy
Schauff

Before joining FGI, Tracy Schauff had accumulated over twenty years of experience in immigration law within traditional law firms, as a solo practitioner, and as in-house counsel. Prior to returning to private practice, she was Assistant Director of the International Center at the University of Michigan.  Tracy works with FGI clients in the automotive, IT, academic, and medical fields and specializes in all major areas of employment immigration law practice with a particular focus on compliance issues. She enjoys, as she describes it, “working with clients to audit and streamline processes to ensure that we are meeting their goals and maintaining compliance.”

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and a Masters of Arts in political science, both from Bowling Green State University, and her J.D. from the University of Toledo College of Law. She is licensed with the Supreme Court of Ohio. Tracy is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), former Board Member of the American Council on International Personnel (ACIP), Global Detroit (Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce), Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and conducts numerous presentations, webinars and training sessions to employer and student groups and professional organizations.

Location: 
Mount Vernon AB
Session Type: 
Concurrent Session
Intended Audience: 
All Levels
Track: 
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