Here is the June, 2008 Visa Bulletin. I would only point out that Section D notes expected retrogression in the Family 2A category for Mexico and that Section E notes that the Employment Third preference (EB3) category is close to the annual numerical limit.
On April 12, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began processing applications for the Global Entry pilot program. The program is intended to expedite processing for low-risk, frequent international travelers entering the United States.
The actual start of the program will be June 10 at JFK International in New York, George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Washington Dulles International Airport.
The Global Entry program will be available for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who travel internationally on a frequent basis and who have no criminal record or customs or immigration offense.
Applications for enrollment in the Global Entry program are available through the Global On-Line Enrollment System (GOES) here Global Entry Program – Applications Are Available Now!
Basically, the process has three steps:
• An applicant must complete and submit an on-line application through GOES and pay a $100 fee. Pay.gov
• CBP officers will review the applicant’s information and conduct a background investigation.
• Finally, the applicant will undergo an interview with CBP officers at an Enrollment Center at JFK, Houston or Dulles Airports.
When the Global Entry passenger returns to the U.S. after international travel, he or she will be able to bypass the regular passport control line and go directly to the Global Entry kiosk. They will then insert their passport or U.S. permanent resident card into the document reader and be directed to electronically provide their fingerprints which will then be compared with biometric data already on file. Their digital photograph will also be taken.
The traveler will be prompted to answer several CBP declaration questions and then, once the process is successfully completed, he or she will get a transaction receipt which they will present to the CBP officer as they leave.
The USCIS has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that, if enacted, would increase the maximum amount of time a TN visa holder can remain in the United States before needing to renew his or her stay from one year to three years. The TN visa is a nonimmigrant visa that is available under NAFTA and it’s available to Canadian and Mexican citizens who have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree or who have appropriate professional credentials, who work in certain professions that are listed in the NAFTA regs (Appendix 1603.D.1 to Annex 1603)
Under the proposed rule, the TN visa holder would also be able to apply for extensions of stay in 3 year increments rather than the present one year increment.
The current rule that TN visa extensions can be granted indefinitely would remain the same.
This change would be a welcome, common sense change to the TN visa program. The three year stay would put the TN visa holder on par with H1B professionals who can be granted stays in 3 year increments (although H1B visa holders are generally limited to a maximum of 6 years in H1B status).
The rule change will make it administratively much easier for both U.S. employers and the TN visa holders, not to mention cheaper, too.
Here is the actual proposed rule. The USCIS will accept comments for 30 days before taking further action.
The USCIS and the attorneys for certain class members in federal litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania based in Philadelphia have announced a settlement agreement that provides for expedited processing of certain naturalization and adjustment of status applications for individuals at risk of loosing SSI benefits. The case is Kaplan v. Chertoff.
The settlement allows for a class member who has an application pending for more than six months to request expedited processing of his or her application.
The settlement also creates a way for the Social Security Administration to contact individuals who were terminated from the SSI program or who are at risk of termination from the SSI program while they were waiting for their delayed naturalization application.
Here is the announcement of the settlement.
On April 29, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced a bill (that has been co-sponsored by Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)), that would eliminate the arbitrary per-country caps for employment-based immigrants.
Currently, the number of employment-based immigrants that can come from any one country per year is capped at 7% and because of this, certain Chinese or Indian employment-based immigrant applicants face up to a decade or longer for a green card. So a top post-graduate at the top of his or her class at a school such as Johns Hopkins or MIT, for example, can sometimes wait much longer than a student from a less-populated country.
The cap is completely arbitrary and makes no sense at all.
The bill is a good example of a lawmaker offering a common sense solution to a problem that presently restricts the opportunity for U.S. employers to employ the talent they want to employ based on just that—talent alone and not country of origin.
I’ll post updates on the bill.
According to a study published in Business Week’s on-line April 25, 2008 edition, the Administration’s effort to get tough on immigration enforcement (perhaps in an effort to get everyone back to the table to agree on comprehensive immigration reform) (see my posting of April 22, 2008 here) will cost U.S. employers more than $1 billion a year and U.S. workers $billions in lost wages. These numbers are not from some left-wing think tank—they are from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
According to the study, the Administration’s proposed "no match" rule (which will effectively require employers to fire workers when a social security number mis-match cannot be resolved in time) will impose a heavy cost on employers.
By the Department of Homeland Security’s own admission, two percent of legal workers a year will lose their jobs because they can't resolve the mismatch. Translated, that means between 37,000 to 137,000 legal workers will be unable to get work and lost wages will be from $8 billion to $37 billion.
Hopefully studies like this in combination with the constant news of ICE workplace raids will get all sides to agree that somehow, either before or soon after the presidential election, work on comprehensive immigration reform has to be a priority.
I recently obtained H-1B approval (not a FY 2009 cap case) for a therapist who required licensing in the State of New Jersey but who could not obtain that licensing until after the H-1B petition was approved.
Matters like this can present a classic Catch-22 situation: on the one hand, the H-1B Beneficiary cannot obtain the required license that is necessary to practice his or her profession from a State but they can’t get that license without first obtaining H-1B approval; on the other hand, the USCIS may not approve the H-1B petition without proof that the Beneficiary has obtained the required license.
A recent Memorandum by the USCIS provides common sense guidance to adjudicators in deciding such cases. The Adjudicators Field Manual (Chapter 31) has now been updated to allow for a temporary, one-year USCIS approval of the H-1B petition (assuming all other requirements have been met) that then allows the State (or other licensing authority) to issue the license.
In order for the USCIS to approve the H-1B petition for this one year period, the Beneficiary must prove that he or she has filed an application for the required license and that they are fully qualified to receive the license (that is, that the H-1B beneficiary has met all the educational, training, experience and any other requirements required for the license).
It is incumbent upon the employer and Beneficiary to file a timely request to extend the H-1B status during this one year time period with proof that the Beneficiary has, by then, obtained the license.
The USCIS makes it very clear in the Memorandum that this one year approval does NOT imply that it is authorizing the Beneficiary to actually work at the job that requires the license—the State must issue the license first.
Here is a copy of the USCIS Memorandum.
On April 24, 2008, the USCIS announced that it is modifying Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to include additional eligibility codes so that the application is consistent with the DHS new rule for extending OPT status for certain qualified F-1 students. A deadline for using the old edition has been announced. Here is the announcement.
For all I-765 applicants, the USCIS will accept the July 30, 2007 edition of the form only through July 8, 2008.
Starting July 9, 2008, however, the USCIS will only accept the new, revised Form I-765 which has an edition date of April 8, 2008.
Here is my prior entry providing the detail on the new eligibility codes.
On April 22, 2008, the USCIS released its latest projected processing times for N-400 naturalization applications at local offices filed during the summer of 2007 when 460,00- N-400s were filed--three times the prior monthly record.
Here is the USCIS memo with all the processing times listed by city. The processing times are projections by the end of September, 2008. The projection for the Philadelphia office is 11.8 months.
Anecdotally, here is the time frame for the most recent naturalization interview notice I just received for a client of mine in Philadelphia. We filed the N-400 with the Vermont Service Center on October 26, 2007, biometrics were taken on February 7, 2008 and the naturalization interview is now scheduled for June 10, 2008. So, at least in one case, where there are no complicating factors, the process is taking somewhat less than the projected time.
Every applicant for naturalization as a U.S. citizen must, among other requirements, demonstrate 1) an understanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language and 2) a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the history and government of the United States.
There is an exception to the English language requirement for anyone who, on the date they file, is over 50 years old and who has been living in the United States for at least 20 years after becoming a permanent residence (or if one is over 55 years old if they have been living in the United States for at least 15 years after becoming a permanent resident).
But there is another important exception to both the language requirement and the civics requirement for those who are unable satisfy these requirements because of “a medically determinable physical or mental impairment or combination of impairments which has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months”
Medically determinable means that the impairment has to result from “anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities which can be shown by medically acceptable clinical or laboratory diagnostic techniques”. If you need to apply for such an exception, you do so by submitting Form N-648, Medical Certification for Disability Exceptions, which has to be completed by a U.S. licensed medical or osteopathic doctor. You then submit the completed N-648 with your N-400 Application for Naturalization.
It’s essential, of course, to be completely honest in consulting with the doctor who is preparing the N-648 and, if the applicant entered the U.S. on an immigrant visa from overseas, it would have been equally important to be honest with panel doctor who conducts the medical exam prior to the applicant’s immigrant visa interview.
If there is a mental health issue at the time of the applicant’s immigrant visa application, the applicant should not pretend that there’s not in the hope that the doctor will write up a fully favorable report. If that happens, and then years later when an applicant files for citizenship and needs a medical certification for disability exception, that panel doctor’s report may be completely inconsistent with the N-648—so much so that it could raise issues of fraud.
Reference to a chronic, lifetime mental impairment on an N-648 when compared to a panel doctor report that makes no reference to any history of a mental impairment is going to be very problematic at the time of a naturalization interview.
At the time of a panel doctor’s exam, an applicant must bring all medical records of vaccinations, prior illnesses, and treatments and has to be prepared to discuss their medical history and current medical conditions, treatments, and medications with the panel physician, including mental health issues. Be honest with the doctor. If there is a problem, it is entirely possible that there is a waiver that is available to allow the immigrant visa to be approved despite the mental health issue.
In its April 21, 2008 edition, the Houston Chronicle reports on what many businesses are already learning the hard way – that ICE workplace enforcement of immigrant law is way up and still increasing. ICE raided the Shipley Do-Nuts warehouse complex in Houston last week as a part of a very concerted effort at what is calls “interior enforcement” of the law.
The raid followed another high profile ICE raid of a chain of Mexican restaurants in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio in which the owner of the restaurant chain and nine of his managers were arrested on criminal charges.
The raids appear to be part of an effort by the Administration to get comprehensive immigration reform back on Congress’ agenda. The Administration’s thinking may be that if the raids make life so untenable for everyone - - the undocumented workers, the business community, local politicians who feel enforcement has been hoisted on them - - then maybe everyone will come back to the table and talk about real and comprehensive reform. Company owners, managers (including middle managers) and supervisors, human resources managers, union business agents are all being targeted; they are hardly immune from prosecution. Worksite criminal arrests by ICE increased to 863 in 2007 from 176 in fiscal year 2005 which is an increase of 490 percent.
We’ll see. But in the meantime, employers and undocumented employees have to understand that the USCIS is serious about enforcing immigration laws related to hiring undocumented workers and the penalties are harsh.
I was pleased today that I received the last of the receipt notices for all of the premium processed H-1B applications that I filed on April 1.
The last receipt notice was emailed to me today by the Vermont Service Center followed later tonight by an emailed approval notice on the same matter.
I have not received receipt notices on non-premiumed processed H-1Bs yet.
