The Department of Homeland Security has issued proposed regulations to address retention and portability of high-skilled workers in the U.S. in response to President Barak Obama’s November 2014 directives to relieve the worst ills of the immigration code.

The proposed changes target U.S. businesses and their employees. According to DHS, the laws are “intended to better enable US employers to employ and retain high-skilled workers who are beneficiaries of employment-based immigration visa petitions, while increasing the ability of such workers to further their careers by accepting promotions, changing positions with current employers, changing employers, and pursuing other employment opportunities.” However, DHS clearly indicates that most of the changes simply codify current practices. Many of the proposed changes will have no practical effect, including the seemingly most dramatic change relating to work authorization for certain individuals with approved I-140s.

Highlights of the proposed regulations include provisions:

Codifying and clarifying how to extend beyond the sixth year of H-1B, when an H-1B nonimmigrant can change jobs or employers without affecting his or her approved immigrant visa petition, how to calculate H-1B recapture time, and who qualifies as “cap-exempt” employers.