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.

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