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THE OH LAW FIRM

Dedicated Professionals in Immigration Law for Over 24 Years@

The posting in the Breaking News requires visitors' some level of knowledge of immigration issues. Reading one posting without closely following previous postings will result in reading it out of context. The laws, policies, and practices of agencies are constantly changing and people should be careful in reading old postings. People should not take the news in this page as a legal advice. The purpose of Breaking News is to feed into the immigrant communities up to the minute news, especially inside information of agencies' decision making. Just like any other news reporting, the life span of the news can be very short. This is not a text book or a law book. It is a "news report." This site will welcome "only" those visitors who follow the news reports everyday just like the subscribers of daily newspapers. The sole purpose of this site is to serve the immigrant communities..

Current Page[06/01/2008 - Present]/Archive XVII[03/31/2008 - 05/31/2008]Archive XVI[08/01/2007 - 03/31/2008/Archive XV [04/30/2007 - 07/31/2007]/Archive XIV[06/15/2006 - 03/31/2007]Archive XIII [12/01/05 - 06/14/06]/ Archive XII [08/01/05 - 11/30/05]/Archive XI [04/30/05 - 07/31/05

07/31/2007: Rep. Zoe Lofgren Introduced Bill to Void USCIS Filing Fee Increase

• The Chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee Immigraton Subcommittee introduced a legislative bill to void the immigration fee increase which took effect on July 30, 2007. For the press release by the Congresswoman, please click here. We will monitor the progress of this legislative bill in the House. Under the U.S. Constitution, any legislative bills that are related to the tax burden must be initiated by the House and not the Senate. The support of the bill in the House and the Senate is unclear at this point. People may contact the House members in their districts to solicit the support for this bill.
• The fee increase is also destined to face a challenge in the federal district court. The AILF is currently preparing for the lawsuit against this regulation. Details have yet to be developed but the community should show their appreciation for the AILF's continuing actions to achieve the justice in the immigration management. People may contact the AILF through www.ailf.org.

07/31/2007: Employment-Based Immigrants Schedule to Stage a Rally in DC on 09/13/2007

• The professional foreign worker groups have been suffering from the Congress' inaction on the employment-based immigration reform and in order to make their voice heard, they are reportedly scheduling to stage a rally in the Hill. Those who are interested in participating in the rally and supporting the rally may contact immigrationvoice.org for the details.

07/31/2007: House Passed Liberian TPS Extension Bill for One Year from October 1, 2007

• The USCIS failed to extend the TPS for the Liberians and the Houe has come forward to extend the TPS for the Liberians legislatively.
• The text of H.R. 3123 is as follows:
  • SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF DESIGNATION.
  • (a) In General- The designation of Liberia under section 244(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a(b)(1)) is extended through September 30, 2008.
  • (b) Applicability- Subsection (a) shall be applied so as to render eligible for temporary protected status and work authorization, in accordance with subsections (a), (e) and (f) of section 244 of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a), an alien who is a national of Liberia (or in the case of an alien having no nationality, is a person who last habitually resided in Liberia) and is otherwise eligible under subsection (c) of such section, if the alien--
  • (1) was granted such status under the designation of Liberia that is effective until October 1, 2007 (71 Fed. Reg. 55000);
  • (2) applied for such status under such designation, and such application is still pending; or
  • (3) is eligible for late initial registration under section 244(c) of such Act and the regulations implementing such section.
  • (c) Requirements- Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall publish in the Federal Register procedures for aliens to register for temporary protected status under the extension made by this Act, and to apply for any applicable work authorization or extension of work authorization. Such registration period shall be not less than 60 days long.
  • (d) Extension of Current Work Authorizations- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any work authorization provided under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the designation of Liberia that is effective until October 1, 2007, is extended until not earlier than April 1, 2008.
    

07/31/2007: USCIS Suspends July 2007 VB EAD and Advance Parole e-Filing Between 07/30/2007 and August 17, 2007

• USCIS announced that on or after July 30, 2007, those applications (paying old fees and filing using July 2007 Visa Bulletin) may not be electronically filed and must be submitted to a Service Center via regular mail or courier service. Read on.

07/31/2007: Correct Filing Fees for July 2007 VB I-485 Filing

• The immigrant community is confused by the filing fees that should accompany the I-485 applications between July 17 and August 17, 2007 for July 2007 Visa Bulltin filing. The USCIS is scheduled to release a federal register to clarify the filing fee issues. There correct filing fees for these cases are:
  • I-485: $325 for adults and $225 for children under 14
  • Biometric Fee paid with the I-485 applications: $70 for adults
  • I-765 EAD application: $180
  • I-131 Advance Parole application: $170
• Please stay tuned.

07/31/2007: Lapse in This Website Reporting

• This reporter has been extremely tied up with July VB 485 filing for the past three days and was unable to update this website. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused to our loyal visitors.

07/28/2007: Time for Democrats in the Senate and House to Give Equal Shake to Employment-Based Immigration Relief Legislation

• Even since the CIR failed, the Democratic leaders in the Senate have moved and introduced such important legislations as AgJOBs, DREAM, and other blls to deal with the low-end industry and undocumented alien relief legislations. We whole-heartedly welcome such move. The Senate Democratic leaders have attempted over and over again the passage of these bills as a rider to other unrelated legislation bills. We regret that the Senate failed to pass these bills.
• We, however, want to call these Democratic leaders' attention to the importance of the high-end and professional foreign workers employment-based immigration reform legislation. They will agree with this reporter that the employment-based legal immigration system is currently facing a serious crisis when the nation increasingly needs the services from these foreign talents. We have already reminded these leaders in the earlier posting that the total annual allocation for the entire employment-based immigration visas (including high-end and low-end industries workers) is limited to 140,000 including the foreign workers and their accompanying or following-to-join spouses and children. It de facto means that the actual number of foreign workers the U.S. businesses can sponsor is probably less than 70,000 or even 60,000 for an entire year!! The July 2007 Visa Bulletin debacle one time totally shut the doors to all the new foreign workers for applying for green cards, but later the agencies turned around and decided to open the door wide for the submission of green card applications to practically all types of foreign workers with the exception of "unskilled other workers." Only God knows how many applications the U.S. Citizenship and immigration services will receive during the period. Conservative estimate may turn out to be upper 6-digit figures. Considering the fact that currently annual quota is limited to 140,000, one can easily imagine the number of years these immigrants should endure to leave the "grren card pipeline." This is not acceptable. The immigration restrictionists often advanced their anti-immigration campaign with their demagogues that the foreign workers would massively take away Americans jobs. Really? 60,000 for the entire year is a massive number? Can the current American educational system produce and meet the market's demand for these number of high-end workers of higher education with maths and sciences? Granted there is a fallacy in their statistics. Don't they also know that their campaign will lead to the increased "oursourcing" of American jobs and business to foreign countries? Which is more damaging to the American job market, foreign workers's contribution in the U.S. or outsourcing of the number of jobs and businesses to foreign countries? C'mon! Report indicates that AFL-CIO has come to the terms of the reality and is not as opposed to the foreign workers in the same fervor and passion they one time took. There are some American high tech worker groups who want to close the workforce supply pipeline as narrow as possible so that they can take advantage of the shortage of the needed high tech workers and pressure the businesses to pay them higher wages to an unreasonable rate. The impact of these groups on the future of this nation's economy and economic growth does not need elaboration.
• Senators, the legislators should not ignore the needs of the high-end industries in the country. This reporter supports the Senate Democrats' continuing efforts to pass legislation to address the need for foreign workers in certain service industries and low-end industries. This reporter, however, wants to see the Senate Democrats to show a same kind of attention to the high-end industries at the same time. These industries need at least "equal shake" in the nation's legislative policy. This reporter keeps hearing from some busnesses that under the circumstances, they would not be able to do business unless they outsource part of their businesses. Unless these Democratic leaders pay attention to this critical issue, they may pay a good and high price for their anti-business stance in the upcoming 2008 national election. The southern border workforce issue and global high-end high tech workforce issue need same amount of attention and deserve an equal shake. We also take this opportunity to encourage Rep. Lofgren to intiate the employment-based immigration legislation on the House side as soon as possible.

07/28/2007: 140 e-Filing Link

• As is made clear in the CIS 485 filing FAQs, people can e-file I-140 petitions. The USCIS previously announced that e-filing system needed maintenance and would be shut down for a few hours on July 27, Friday. However, July 27 was a critical day for the last minute filers to pay the old filing fees and to avoid the increased filing fees which was scheduled to take effect on July 30, Monday. Considering the special needs of the customers under the circumstances, the USCIS generously withdrew and postponed the e-filing system maintenance schedule. According to the AILA, they might reschedule the maintenance on July 31, Tuesday. On July 26, 2007, however, we posted on this site not to reschedule the maintenance with the consequences of the system outage on July 31 for the reason that July 31, 2007 might turn out to be more critical day than July 27 in that July 27 would have affected only the amount of filing fees for filers but July 31 would constitute the last day for filing of labor certification waiver I-140 filers and failure of I-140 petitions for these filers within July would result in very serious consequences in that they would not be allowed to file July 485 applications by August 17, 2007. The CIS FAQ1 clearly stated that unless the priority was established by filing of the LC waiver I-140 petition within July 2007, they would not be able to file I-485 applications using the July 2007 Visa Bulletin.
• We note that the USCIS announcement did not set rescheduled maintenance date. It just postponed the maintenance schedule. We welcome such decision. It is thus likely that the USCIS might not perform the e-filing system maintenance on Tuesday, July 31, and people may be able to use e-filing system to file the last minute I-140 petition on July 31, 2007. Again we thank the leaders of the USCIS for their thoughtful postponement of maintenance schedule indefinitely. It is hoped that the maintenance is not undertaken until after August 17, 2007 such that people can file the last minute I-140 petitions timely online.

07/27/2007: USCIS Releases Important FAQ2 for July-August 485 Filing and Fees

• People must have noticed that the USCIS has extended compassion and extreme generosity on behalf of the July 2007 Visa Bulletin I-485 filers to releasing very "liberal" policies on the I-485 filing procedures between July 2 and August 17, 2007. They truly deserve a BIG applause and hats-off.

07/26/2007: USCIS Cancels Scheduled e-Filing System Outage Tomorrow

• As seen on the USCIS website, they removed the announcement of e-filing outage tomorrow, Friday. According to the AILA, they will reschedule on next Tuesday, July 31, 2007. This rescheduling announcement has yet to be published.
• What does this mean? People can keep filing I-140 petitions tomorrow for the purpose of paying the old filing fees. However, as it is always true to any news, there is a downside to this rescheduling. Those who try to file labor certification waiver I-140 petition online at the last minute on July 31 which is working day will not be able to do so, depending on the start time of the rescheduled outage. It is hoped that they do not reschedule on July 31. If they indeed need system maintenance, they should rather schedule on Wednesday, August 1 or during the weekend after August 17, 2007.

07/26/2007: BEC Labor Certification Status as of 07/20/2007

• AILA's teleconference with DOL on 07/24/2007 reflects as follows: [Courtesy of AILA]
  • Total balance: 28,300
  • RIR=Fewer than 1,000
  • TR=More than 27,300
    • Recruitment process has yet to be initiated=2,000
    • Recruitment process underway=More than 25,300
• Obviously, these cases will have to be adjudicaed within the next two months. The positive side of this report is that most of the cases are currently undergoing the supervised recruitment process and some of these cases are likely to be adjudicated as soon as they receive the recruitment result report. We thank these officials for their hard work at the BECs despite their uncertain future for their employment. However, we urge the BEC leaders and officials to give a special consideration to the USCIS deadline for accepting concurrent I-140/I-485 cases by August 2007 only and unless such concurrent filing is completed, these foreign workers will have to suffer from a unknown tremendous delays before they could file I-485, work permit, and international travel. These people are those who have gone through a long and long process to reach the current stage. Acceleration of the backlog cases before August 17, 2007 is strongly urged.

07/26/2007: USCIS Issues Guidance for Immigration Filing Fee Waiver Determination

• On July 20, 2007, the USCIS issued an Inter-Office Memorandum to give a guidance for the USCIS field offices to determine fee waivers under the new fee increase rule which takes effect on July 30, 2007. Read on.

07/25/2007: USCIS e-Filing System Outage on Friday, July 27, 2007

• The e-Filing System will be temporarily unavailable on Friday, July 27, 2007 from 3:00 PM EDT until 11:00 PM EDT for necessary maintenance.

07/25/2007: USCIS Inadvertent Publishing of 07/30/2007 Version I-485 Form on 07/23/2007

• USCIS has announced that on Monday, July 23, USCIS inadvertently posted on its website a version of Form I-485 that reflected the fee increase which does not take effect until July 30, 2007. USCIS has now posted the correct version of the Form I-485. The new version will be published on 07/30/2007.
  

07/25/2007: Special Information on Filing Form FB-485 for Persons Living in the Jurisdiction of the Dallas, El Paso, and Oklahoma

• As we reported earlier, in these districts, the I-485 filers at the local jurisdiction cases have two alternative filing options: By mail or in person. This USCIS release gives a specific instructions on procedures how to file in one of the two options. Read on.
  

07/25/2007: I-140 Premium Processing Unavailability and Its Impact

• The premium processing services for I-140 petition has offered a number of benefits to the foreign workers who are going through a long immigration journey. Accordingly, its extended temporary suspension of this services indefinitely will affect the following foreign workers in some cases seriously:
• Problem of Retention of Priority Date: There are a number of people who filed the traditional labor certification application many years back and expect to obtain the approval of these labor certifications from BEC in the next two months. Most of them involved EB-3 labor certifications. The ongoing frenzy July-August 2007 massive EB-485 filings are likely to affect the future immigrant visa numbers and visa bulletins. Accordingly, the past record reflects that these workers file an EB-2 PERM labor certification through the same employer or a different employer. The need for such option may turn out to be increasingly demanding because of the unavailability of the labor substitution opportunity in the market. In such case, the sole purpose of filing EB-2 PERM application is to transfer the priority date from the tranditional labor certification application. However, such transfer of priority date is not available unless the priority date of the traditional labor certification is "retained." Under the immigration rules, the priority date is retained for the purpose of the priority transfer only if the I-140 petition is filed using the approved labor certification application and, more importantly, "approved." Once the priority date is retained by such approval, such priority date is available for the transfer in the future unless the petition is revoked for fraud or meritlessness. Consequently, the approval of the I-140 petition will be crucial for some foreign workers, particularly those who filed the EB-2 PERM labor certification application through another employer to continue their immigration journeys with a less amount of impact from the changes in the circumstances. For the reason, the foreign workers have been seeking an earlier approval of I-140 petiion through the PPS.
• Problem of Extension of H-1B Status Beyond Six Year Limit: There are a large number of people who have stayed in the U.S. for a long period of time with some previous efforts to complete the labor certification process or I-140 or EB-485 but because of the changes in the employment, who became ineligible for the 7th-year H-1B extension since the one-year increment 7th-year H-1B extension beyond the six-year limit requires that the labor certification or I-140 or I-485 has been pending 365 days or longer before the alien reaches the 6th year limit. For these workers, the only means to extend the H-1B status beyond six year limit was the three-year increment H-1B extension opportunity under AC 21 Act when the alien has obtained "approval" of I-140 petition and the visa number was not available for him/her at the time of filing such H-1B extension. In August and September 2007, visa numbers will not be available and the visa numbers for the coming years appears to be not too promising. Accordingly, most of these people may not have an opportunity to file I-485 applications for a long time and need the continuing exension of H-1B petition at least until they file I-485 applications. For the reason, people used the PPS in the past to survive and continue the immigration journey. The longer the suspension of PPS lasts, the riskier these workers will face because of their inability to maintain a nonimmigran status through the H-1B extension beyond the six-year limit.
• Problem of Change of Employment Pending EB-485 Application: As an immigrant worker goes through a "long" road, obviously there arises an increased risk of termination of employment that supports the green card petition either because of the employer decision or sometimes because of the alien worker decision. Currently, AC 21 Act allows such change of employment after the I-140 petition is approved and I-485 application has been pending for 180 days or longer inasmuch as the new job is a similar or same job with the labor certification job. In the worst case, this opportunity may also be available even before the I-140 petition is approved inasmuch as 180 days has passed after filing of I-485 application and there is a solid and sufficient evidence to prove that the I-140 petition was "approvable" at the time of filing of I-140 petition by the former employer. The latter situation will however go through a tough evidentiary fight and scrutiny by the USCIS, especially when the former employer is an "angry" employer. Supposedly withdrawal of the I-140 petition by the former employer after 180 days of filing of I-485 application should not affect the I-485 application unless there was a fraud involved, but the angry employer can use a tool not to cooperate in providing evidence to establish "approvability" at the time of I-140 petition filing. For this reason, the foreign worker has been seeking earlier I-140 petition approval through the PPS for the portabilility to the new job after 180 days of I-485 filing.
• The July-August 2007 I-485 involves a substantial number of concurrent I-140/I-485 filing additing a tremendous workload and burden to the I-140 petition processing and adjudication resources within the Servvice Centeres. Besides, in view of the number of applications which they will receive during July-August 2007, the Service Centers may have to switch around the available resources within the Centers. This may affect the processing times for I-140 petitions in the future. Remember that the USCIS has just decided to extend the temporary suspension of I-140 petitions exactly for this reason. The I-140 petition processing time has been already bad for the last few months and it may turn worse. This will indeed present a hardship for those who need earlier I-140 approval for the foregoing reasons, particularly those who will have to use one of the foregoing processes just to survie in their immigrant journey.
  

07/24/2007: USCIS Indefinitely Suspenses I-140 Premium Processing Services

07/24/2007: USCIS Generous Interpretation of Priority Date Based July 2007 EB-485 Filing Eligibility and Our Urge for OFLC's Certification of PERM Applications Before 08/17/2007

• The USCIS FAQ indicates that those who filed a PERM application in July 2007 establishing his/her priority date and and will receive cerification of these PERM applications will be eligible to file a concurrent I-140/EB-485 application on or before August 17, 2007. The current DOS and USCIS actions following the July 2007 VB fiasco is giving a life-time opportunity for these filers to file EB-485 applications such that during the forthcoming long backlogs in adjudication of their applications, they could at least work and travel internationally using EAD and Advance Parole, and when they should be laid off, they could still complete the green card process inasmuch as they would find a similar job after 180 days of filing of the EB-485 applications. We thus urge the leaders of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification, particularly Dr. William Carlson, Chief of the National Program of U.S. Department of Labor, to acclerate the July PERM applications such that they are certified at least within the first two weeks of August 2007. We also urge the AILA to work with the OFLC to seek such cooperation from the agency. As affected by the surge of H-2B applications, we understand that Atlanta National Processing Center has been experiencing some delays in the processing of PERM applications and we strongly urge the Atlanta Center leaders to consider the current exigent circumstances and to accelerate the July 2007 cases adjudication within the next two weeks. Those who should desperately seek such help will include:
  • Those who have already filed and are waiting for the certification at this time.
  • Those who will file the PERM application on or before July 31, 2007 in the next one week. Those employers who will complete the required recruitment process by July 31, 2007 should make it sure that the PERM applications be filed online "on or before" July 31, 2007 so that once the PERM application is certified in the first two weeks of August, they submit the concurrent I-140 and EB-485 applications "swfitly" not missing the deadline of August 17, 2007. These aliens may also want to prepare for such potential opportunity and start collection of required supporting documentation in preparation for the situation. This will be particularly true for EB-3 filers as they are the ones who will suffer the most from the upcoming severe visa retrogression in coming years.
• We thank in advance for Dr. Carlson's special attention to this request on behalf of the U.S. employers and the foreign workers.

0724/2007: AC 21 Three-Year Increment H-1B Extension Petition Availability in July and August 2007

• Under Section 104(c) of AC 21 Act, those who have an approved I-140 petition or pending EB-485 application with the approved I-140 petition are eligible for the H-1B extension in three-year increment, if they cannot file EB-485 or EB-485 is pending but cannot be adjudicated because of the visa number unavailability for him/her. The question remained whether visa number should be unavailable at the time of filing of H-1B extension or at the time of adjudication of filing. The USCIS FAQ indicates that it will be determined by the date of filing rather than date of adjudication.
• Under the update July 2007 VB, visa number was unable for the entire July 2007. It remained such until July 17, 2007 when both DOS and USCIS reversed their positions. There could be some 104(c) H-1B three-year extension petitions filed in July bore the 17th. Since the July 2007 VB has been reversed and remains "current" in July, it will remain a challenging issue for these filers. Those who file after July 17, 2007 and before August 1, 2007 may not be entitled to the benefit of 104(c) extension. Accordingly, those who need three-year extension under 104(c) should not file the H-1B extension until after August 1, 2007 to obtain three year extension, even though they will have to pay the increased filing of $320 rather than the current $190. In August, the EB visa number will remain "unavailable" for the entire EB classifications, presenting the best opportunity to file such 104(c) three-year increment H-1B extension petition. What a twist and irony of the development of events?

07/24/2007: Confirmed Cases of No Cause for Rejections of July-August 2007 EB-485 Filing Under USCIS FAQ1

• The FAQ confirms that the USCIS will not reject the EB-485 application in the following situations. However, readers are cautioned that FAQ does not have a legally binding force, even though the Service Centers are likely to follow the FAQ.
  • No medical examination report enclosed
  • Concurrent I-140/EB-485 filing accompanied by a labor certification which was filed in July 2007 or earlier date and thus has a priority date of July 31, 2007 or earlier date, but it was certified by the DOL on or after August 1, 2007. Such EB-485 application should be filed on or before August 17, 2007. Any similar filing on or after July 18, 2007 will be rejected.
  • Filing with a wrong Service Center. Obviously, such filing is likely to be forwarded to the right Service Center, and a question remains what would be date of receipt, wrong Service Center receiving date or the right Service Center receiving date. The practice in this situation varied in the past to a great extent.
• Again, the foregoing is not the entire situations where the USCIS may not reject applications in excercise of discretions. But such discretion is likely dependent on each individual adjudicator rather than the entire USCIS policy or practice.

07/24/2007: Confirmed Reasons for Rejection of July-August EB-485 Filings, Particularly Between 07/17/2007 and 08/17/2007 Under USCIS FAQ

• According to the FAQ, the following EB-485 applications will be rejected, meaning the cases will not be considered filed. Since it is likely that the rejection notice and return of the papers can arrive after 08/17/2007, those who have detected the following problems may consider refiling:
  • No certified labor certification in concurrent I-140/EB-485 packet
  • Incorrect or missing filing fee checks
  • Missing employer or alien signatures on the forms
  • After 07/30/2007, enclosing check in the amount of $195 for concurrent I-140/EB-485 packet rather than new I-140 filing fee of $475. This will result in rejection of both I-140 petition, EB-485 application, I-765 EAD application, and I-131 Advance Parole application in the packet
  • After 07/30/2007, enclosing check of new EB-485 filing fees instead of $395 (adult) or $225 (minor) of current fee in the concurrent I-140/EB-485 filing. If the new filing fee of $475 is paid for I-140 petition, the I-140 will not be rejected and will be continuously process. However, accompanying EB-485 application will be rejected and return. For the accompany EAD and AP applications, regardless of whether correct fee amount is paid or not, these applications will also be rejected and returned once the EB-485 is rejected for the incorrect amount fee payment. If correct amount is paid for I-140 and EB-485 but incorrect amount or no fee is paid for EAD and AP applications pursuant to the new filing fee schedules, only EAD and AP will be rejected and I-140 and EB-485 will be accepted and processed without EAD and AP applications. If one check is written to cover fee payment for I-140, EB-485, I-765, and I-131 and any one of payment is incorrect, entire packet of I-140, EB-485, I-765, and I-131 will be rejrected. People should never write a check to cover fee for more than one specific petition or application.
  • After 07/31/2007, concurrent I-140/EB-485 application with a priority date of August 1, 2007 or any later date. In labor certification-based cases, if PERM application was filed on or after August 1, 2007, EB-485 application will be rejected. But again, the underlying I-140 petition will be continuously processed. In labor certfication waiver cases of EB-1A, EB-1B, EB-1C, EB-2 NIW, Schedule A, unless the I-140 petition was filed before August 1, 2007, the EB-485 applications concurrently filed with such petitions will be rejected and return. However, such I-140 petitions will be continously processed as a stand-alone I-140 petition.
• The foregoing reasons have been confirmed by the USCIS HQ through the Q&A. There may be additional reasons causing rejections. People are thus warned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive.

07/23/2007: USCIS July-August VB 485 Filing FAQ Released: CIS 485 Filing FAQ

• Summary of USCIS Announcement:

Concurrently filed I-140 Filing Fee: $475, new fee, from 07/30/2007
Concurrently filed I-765 and I-131: Old fees, $180 for EAD and $170 for AP until 08/17/2007
USCIS will accept EB 485 if the priority date is before July 31, 2007 but the certification is granted after August 1, 2007 and such 485 is filed by August 17, 2007!!
USCIS will reject EB-485 application with a labor certification waiver EB petitions ( such as EB-1, NIW, etc) concurrently filed with the I-485 if the priority date is not established before end of July 2007. It is thus extremely important for the labor certification waived I-140/I-485 concurrent filers to immediately file I-140 petition first before the end of July 2007!!!!!!!! Please use e-filing.
USCIS will not, repeat will not, reject EB-485 applications which are not accompanied by the medical examiantion report.
Without I-797 of pending I-140 notices, USCIS will accept EB-485 if certain information which is described in this announcement is provided.

• Since USCIS has released the FAQ, we are removing our own FAQ to remove potential confusion.
• We are very happy that some of our recommendations which were posted on 07/21/2007 are reflected in the FAQ. Thank you, USCIS leaders for leniency!

07/22/2007: Service Centers Receipting Update As of 07/20/2007

• The update reflects the status "three days after 07/17/2007 announcement." It indicates that Texas Service Center's receipting compliance will be 10/26/2007. The Nebraska Service Center situation appears better: 08/01/2007. Remember, though, most of these cases are those which were received before the announcement and once new cases are flooded into the system, it is expected that the receipting frontlog may turn indeed terrible. One cabeat: Close reading of the NSC reflects that it includes not only employment-based but other I-485 cases such as refugees and asylees I-485 applications and others, while the TSC counted only EB-485 cases. Accordingly, should the NSC have counted only EB-485 cases, the situation could have been worse than August 1, 2007. There is no noticleable report that July 2 filers are receiving receipt notices en masse from the NSC. One unconfirmed report indicates that NSC alone received 8000 by Fedex alone on July 2, 2007. It appears that people should be prepared for the potential delays in receipt notices for post-July 2 receipt notices.

07/22/2007: Increased Piecemeal Immigration Legislative Activities Post-CIR with Disappointing Results

• As we reported earlier, the Congress and the nation are in a better mood to resolve the immigration issues on a piecemeal basis after the devastating failure in passage of the CIR. Senator Feinstine introduced AgJOBS bill again which was part of the CIR which is pending. Senator Durbin introduced DREAM bill for illegal youngsters which was also part of the CIR. He agressively pushed this as an amendment to H.R. 2669, FY 2008 Budget bill, but unfortunately, the Senate passed H.R. 2669 on July 20, 2007 without the DREAM bill. Without doubt, he will keep pushing this bill as he has a passion over the issue. We are grateful for that. On the other hand, Senator Durbin has been pioneering a move to restrict H-1B and L-1 visas for the alleged misuse and abuse by foreign job shop employers. He introduced this bill in the Senate and eventually pushed it as part of the CIR, which resulted in the misfortune as like any other part of the CIR. He apparently has a passion on the issue of abuse and fraud in the H-1B and L-1 visa and pushed this bill again as an amendment to H.R. 2669, FY 2008 Budget bill. For good or for bad, his bill failed to make it in H.R. 2669 which was passed on Thursday. The bill will go to the Conference, but the House passed H.R. 2669 did not include this part of legislation. Accordingly, his zeal for the restriction of H-1B and L-1 visas is likely to remain under control for awhile. Republican Senator Cornyn tried again his SKIL bill in the Senate as part of the CIR and faced same misfortune. Senator Cornyn is facing reelection for his Senate seat in 2008 facing an anti-immigration constituency back home in Texas. He is a strong supporter of the business and employment-based immigration, but does not appear to project the image of an immigration advocate in his constituency. His fight against the CIR reflected his political reality in the coming Republican Primary and national election in November 2008. He discreetly, though, introduced an employment-baeed immigration bill as an amendment to H.R. 2669, FY 2 008 Budget bill, but it was not the SKIL bill. It was a bill to recapture of unused visa numbers and temporary relief for the H-1B shortage. A soft-touch approach, one may call it. However, one cannot deny that had the bill made it, the employment-based immigrant community would have benefited from the legislation tremendously as a large number of the EB visa numbers could have been recaptured, giving the immigrants a relief from the retrogression. Unfortunately, his amendment failed to make it.
• The piecemeal immigrations bills have been continuously struck down in the Congress, but this should not end the efforts. Eventually, the legislators will come to realize that the actual annual visa numbers which are currently available to the "foreign workers" may be not 140,000 but less than 70,000 as the rest of the numbers are used by the spouses and children at the rate of approximately average 1.5 per each foreign worker. The number is indeed "striking and shocking!" Particularly considering the total demand for high level foreign workers by the world-leader economy, the current employment-based system has a serious problem, continuously inducing increased outsourcing of employment and the business to foreiign countries. Lou Dobb is right on this issue, even though he has a distorted view of immigration and has been fighting against immigration. We are firmly convinced that the Congress and political leaders of far right and far left will eventually come to the realization of the damage they are causing to the nation's sustained growth, not only economically but all other aspects of a society "in the long run." We thus keep our hopes high and remain optimistic rather than pessimistic for the future.

07/22/2007: Rep. Lofgren's Statement on July Visa Fiasco Resolution

• With graditude, we are pleased to link to her statement on July 17, 2007 relating to the Secretary of Chertoff's phone call informing her of the DOS and USCIS reveral decisions. We are also happy and grateful to hear a rumor that Rep. Lofgren, the Chairwoman of Subcommittee of Immigration, Judiciary Committee, The Houe of Representatives, is looking into a possibility of introducing an employment-based immigration reform bill to increase the annual EB numbers after realizing that VB Fiasco was not a solution for anything when it came to the shortage of annual employment-baed immigrant visa allocations under the current law. We truly hope that she takes up such a bill soon. Again, Thank You!

07/21/2007: RFE/NOID Flexible Time Frame Rule and Need for USCIS Discretion for Pe-July 17, 2007 EB-485 Filers

• July VB Fiasco was a tragic event in the American immigration history and we are grateful that the USCIS rectified the problem on July 17, 2007 by reversing its decision to deny July 2007 EB-485 applications. We do not have specific statisics on EB-485 filers from July 2, 2007 until July 17, 2007. However, for the two reasons, among others, a large number of applicants sent in EB-485 applications during the period. Firstly, they more or less anticipated that either DOS or USCIS would rectify the problems because of the potential serious flaws in their decisions. Secondly, AILF was preparing class action lawsuits and they wanted to make it sure that they took advantage of being a member of the class without actually being named as plaintiffs. One time, people thought it was a smart move and right thing to do it, even though this reporter suggested to the people to wait until August VB was released.
• Currently, these early filers are literally going through nightmares, hardships, and sleepless nights because of the two reasons. The first reason is that their cases have been on hold and no Receipt Notices have been issued. The second reason is that recently the USCIS revised its rule (1) allowing the adjudicating officers to exercise a discretion and issue a RFE with the response time of less than 12 weeks and (2) to exercise a discretion to either reject or deny a petition or an application without issuing RFE when the "initial evidence" is missing in the filing. Combination of these facts is currently creating a turmoil to these filers for the two reasons. There are some filers who submitted I-140/I-485 application without a sufficient documentation in haste, for instance, medical report, or other flaws in the submitted evidence. These people are restless not knowing whether their application could be rejected or denied, indeed a truly deadly consequences. The circumstances force them to wonder whether they should refile the petition/application before August 17, 2007 not to take any chances. There are, however, two hurdles to such decision. One is the recent denial of I-140 petitions by the adjudicators if the petition was not accompanied by the "original" labor certification. The another reason is no fixed rule or policy on the filing of multiple I-485 applications. This creates a fear that their second filing may also be rejected or denied. They are thus trapped! The second victims are international travelers. If the application is either rejected or denied and they are present in the U.S., they will be able to refile it after correcting the flaws in their initial evidence before August 17, 2007. However, when they are not present in the U.S., they will be deprived of such opportunities, which may be considered "deadly." Some people are still present in the U.S. at this time, but because of business or personal emergency, they will have to travel outside of the country using their H-1B/H-4 or L-1/L-2 visa. If their cases are rejcted or denied during their absence, they will not be able to refile it timely before August 17, 2007. They are trapped again! Their act which was considered a right thing to do to one time turns out to be a nightmare. Who would have anticipated the nightmare?
• We urge the USCIS to consider the following actions to relieve these applicants from the unnecesary hardship:
  • Under he RFE/NOID Flexible Timeframe rule, a decision to reject or deny without a RFE remains a "discretion" of the individual adjudicator in each case. This reporter proposes that considering the unusual circumstances involving the July VB fiasco and the USCIS unusual remedial action at the last minute, the USCIS exempts these filers from the rule and make it mandatory to issue RFE before rejection or denial unless the following flaws are found in the filing:
    • No filing fee checks or flaws in the filing fee checks
    • Missing signatures in the forms
    • Missing forms
    • Missing underlying certified labor certification application for I-140 petitions (either original or copy).
  • Should the filers decide to refile it before August 17, 2007, the USCIS should accept a copy of the certified labor certification application rather than rejection or denial of the refiled I-140 petition. In fact, it has been the INS/USCIS tradition to accept I-140 petition with a copy of the certified labor certification application inasmuch as the original was on file with the agency, albeit in other file of the same applicant or other applicants. Accordingly, it should be a matter of adhering to the tradition and to instruct the adjudicators not to reject such refiling on the issue of a copy of the certified labor certification application. Additionally, inasmuch as there is an evidence that the labor certification has been certified by the DOL but the applicant was unable to submit the original or copy because the application was lost or yet to be delivered to the applicant, such I-140 which was filed during the period should not be rejected or denied. Again, it has been a tradition of the agency to request a duplicate certified labor certification from the DOL by the agency itself when there was a proof of certification. We urge the USCIS to exercise the discretion and instruct the adjudicators not to reject or deny I-140 filed during the problem period for the reasons of missing "original."
• Foregoing actions will relieve these filers from most of the nightmares or status of being trapped. It is thus strongly urged that the leaders of the USCIS extend a compassion on a human level and exercise a discretion immediately to take the foregoing actions. This reporter has been receiving hundres of emails from these filers and had to share the pains and emotional despair since there was no answer to the foregoing issues under the curcumstances. Since the deadline of filing is August 17, 2007, the USCIS should swiftly release an announcement to relieve these people from the problem "effectively." On behalf of all these trapped, this reporter personally pleas the leaders of the USCIS to act quickly.

07/20/2007: DOL FY 2008 Budget Proposal Passed the House 07/19/2007

• Yesterday, the House passed the DOL FY 2008 budget proposal. As we reported earlier, DOL budget proposal includes user-fee based PERM labor certification system. It is not clear whether this legislation to charge filing fees for the PERM labor certification applications will be legislated as part of the budget bill or a separate bill. We predicted that the likely fee may amount to between $750 and $500. This prediction is based on its proposal to charge $1,500 years ago to raise the fund for the backlog elimination program as well as the PERM program. Since the Backlog Elimination Program will be ended, the fee income needs to support only PERM Program. Please stay tuned.

07/20/2007: Senator Cornyn's Amendment for Temporary Relief of Employment-Based Immigration Failed

• Yesterday, Senator Cornyn introduced on the Senate floor Amendment 2339 to H.R. 2669, FY 2008 Budget, proposing the following temporaary relieffor the employment-based immigrants. Sadly, the bill was rejected. Do you want to know who supported this bill? Click here.

SEC. __. EMPLOYMENT-BASED VISAS.

(a) Recapture of Unused Employment-Based Immigrant Visas.--Section 106(d) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note) is amended--

(1) in paragraph (1)--(A) by inserting ``1994, 1996, 1997, 1998,'' after ``available in fiscal year'';(B) by striking ``or 2004'' and inserting ``2004, or 2006''; and C) by striking ``be available'' and all that follows and inserting the following: ``be available only to--

``(A) employment-based immigrants under paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of section 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b));
``(B) the family members accompanying or following to join such employment-based immigrants under section 203(d) of such Act; and
``(C) those immigrant workers who had petitions approved based on Schedule A, Group I under section 656.5 of title 20, Code of Federal Regulations, as promulgated by the Secretary of Labor.''; and

(2) in paragraph (2)--(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``1999 through 2004'' and inserting ``1994, 1996 through 1998, 2001 through 2004, and 2006''; and
(B) in subparagraph (B), by amending clause (ii) to read as follows:

``(ii) DISTRIBUTION OF VISAS.--The total number of visas made available under paragraph (1) from unused visas from fiscal years 1994, 1996 through 1998, 2001 through 2004, and 2006 shall be distributed as follows:
``(I) The total number of visas made available for immigrant workers who had petitions approved based on Schedule A, Group I under section 656.5 of title 20, Code of Federal Regulations, as promulgated by the Secretary of Labor shall be 61,000.
``(II) The visas remaining from the total made available under subclause (I) shall be allocated equally among employment-based immigrants with approved petitions under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (and their family members accompanying or following to join).''.

(b) H-1B Visa Availability.--Section 214(g)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(1)(A)) is amended--(1) in clause (vi), by striking ``and'' at the end; (2) by redesignating clause (vii) as clause (ix); and(3) by inserting after clause (vi) the following:

``(vii) 65,000 in each of fiscal years 2004 through 2007
``(viii) 115,000 in fiscal year 2008; and''.

• Congressional Record:

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, no one disputes that a key part of America's economy is our ability to innovate and retain the most qualified workers, especially in areas such as math, science, and engineering. There is one step Congress can take this year to help provide at least temporary relief. My amendment would allow the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to recapture unused employment-based visas. These unused visa numbers would go to nurses, physical therapists, and other key areas for people with extraordinary ability with advanced degrees. This amendment would also include a one-time H-1B visa increase of 115,000 for fiscal year 2008 only, given if that cap was hit in the first day this year. This amendment will go a long way to help provide the legal workers who are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this H-1B visa issue was debated during the course of the immigration bill. We decided to increase the number of the H-1B visas but also increase the safeguards against abuse. We know abuses are taking place. We wanted to be sure American workers have first chance at these jobs, No. 1; and, No. 2, we want to stop these foreign job shops that are using thousands of these H-1B visas to outsource jobs in the United States then back to their home country. None of those reforms are included. All we have is an increase in the H-1B visa numbers. We need a balanced and coordinated approach that increases the numbers with the safeguards. Unfortunately, Senator Cornyn's amendment does not do that, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 55, the nays are 40. Three-fifths (60 votes) of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected. The point of order is sustained and the amendment falls.

• The foregoing record reflects that as we predicted earlier, employment-based immigration reform requires a compromise with Senator Durbin's proposal on prevention and abuse of employment visas at some level. Accordingly, the reform in employment-based "immigration" and employment-based "non-immigrant" visas may have some room to succeed if the two Senators negotiate towards a compromise bill. As it is made clear in the foregoing record, the Senator is not necessarily opposing adjustment of visa numbers and other reforms inasmuch as legal devices to prevent frauds and abuses in the visa processing systems. At this point, Senator is seeking a very hard-line device which is not workable by any means. It is thus obvious that Senator Durbin must tone down his position to procedure a workable compromise bill. We urge Senator Cornyn and Senator Durbin work together to produce and introduce a compromise bill in the near future either as an attachment of another bill or as a separate bill. This reporter takes this opportunity to thank Senator Cornyn for his continuing support for the employment-based immigration reform. We also thank Senator Durbin for not opposing employment-based immigration reform inasmuch as the reform would include legal mechanisms to prevent frauds and abuses. We look forward to Senaotor Durbin's continuing interest in the employment-based immigration reform.
• We also urge Madame Pelosi and Madame Lofgren to initiate the employment-based immigration reform legislation in the House as soon as possible.

07/20/2007: Draft of AILF Class Action Lawsuit on VB Fiasco

• AILF has released the drfat of complaint which could have been filed, had the DOS and the USCIS not reversed themselves on July 17, 2007. This will be an interesting reading material for the readers during the weekend. Here we go!

07/20/2007: Business Week Report of Potential Congressional Action on Employment-Based Immigration Reform

• Our visitors will recall our report and call for Congress action on the employment-based immigration refom on July 18 nd July 19, 2007. We now see a newsreport that is consistent with exactly what we advocated. It appears that the immigration.voice group is also acting on the lobby move to push forward such legislation. As we reported on July 18, the Congress and the public are not on our site at this time, but we should still try it rather than giving up. We hope this

07/19/2007: What Does 140,000 Annual EB Visa Number Mean and EB Reform Legislation is Urgent

• Probably the public is mislead by the information that the current immigration law allows the U.S. employers to sponsor and bring in 140,000 foreign workers for the permanent employment every year. Is that so! No, that is absolutely not true. 140,000 includes not only the foreign workers themselves but also the spouses and children of the foreign workers. Then what would be the actual numbers which the foreign workers themselves are allowed to be brought in? Go figure. This reporter is not a math major. How much of this reality does the public know? The public talk a lot about numerical figures of "foreign workers" this country needs, but they are not aware of the actual number of "foreign workers" the U.S. employers are allowed to bring in for the permanent position annually. It is indeed small in number. For this reason, the CIR or other legislations which were introduced and failed by the "do-nothing-Congress" proposed to take out the spouses and children of the foreign workers from numerical limit and from counting the employment-based immigrant annual quota. The July VB fiasco is just a reflection of a serious flaws of the current immigration system and the stress and frustration of the U.S. employers that need educated foreign workers to sustain their businesses. Business leaders, stand up and whip the legislators and political leaders to wake them up so that they can act and work for the American business!

07/19/2007: H-2B Nonprofessional Temporary Worker Frequently Asked Questions and Answers by Office of Foreign Labor Certification, DOL

• This Round 1 FAQ provides answers to questions on the details of new filing procedures and other guidance. Read on.

07/18/2007: Reinstated July Visa Bulletin, August Visa Bulletin, and H-1B Three-Year Extension Under AC 21 Section 104(c)

• The State Department apparently withdrew prior update July VB and reinstated the original July VB which was released on June 12, 2007. There are people who are not eligible for the 7th-year extension under AC 21 because 365 days have yet to pass before the current six-year limit H-1B status expires. There may be three group of AC 21 H-1B extension people: (1) Those who filed H-1B extension petition between June 12 and June 30, 2007; (2) Those who filed the H-1B extension petition between July 2, 2007 and July 17, 2007; (3) Those who filed or will file the H-1B petition after July 17, 2007. It is likely that the group one filed one-year increment H-1B petition since they learned that visa number will become current in July 2007.

07/18/2007: July-August 485 Filing Q&A

• Filing papers frawlessly will be extremely important so that the filing is not rejected and returned after the visa numbers become unavailable. Additionally, there are many other questions including filing fees and family members that will have to be answered. Accordingly, we will start answering some of the questions from tomorrow just as we did in the past relating to the visa number retrogression and new legislation issues. Those who have questions may send us email using ohlaw@immigration-law.com. The questions and answers will be formated by this reporter such that no identity information is part of the Q&A and people understand that the answers are not a legal advice to any individual or to anyone for that matter. People should avoid any information in the questions that can identify the person or persons.

07/18/2007: On the Occasion of Closing the Chapter of Visa Bulletin Fiasco

• This reporter cannot close the fiasco chapter without addressing his personal gratitude to the leaders of the DOS and the USCIS. Whether in personal matter or public business, reversing one's decision before the millions of people needs a tremendous courage not necessarily because of the potential embarassment but more because of the potential risk which people may take it as a wrong message. We want to thank the leaders of the DOS and the USCIS for showing such courage and close the chapter of the visa bulletin fiasco. We should move on.

07/18/2007: Reinstatement of Original July Visa Bulletin and Uncertain Impact on Pre-July "Tagged" EB-485 Applications and Processing Time of I-485 Applications in the Future

• As we explained it at the beginning of the visa fiasco, when it comes to the visa number requirement in the green card proceeding, there are two different steps which should be clearly distinguished. First step is "permission to enter the door in the form of filing of a permanent resident status application, I-485" and second step is "permission to leave the door as a permanent resident through its approval." Both of the steps fall under the jurisdiction of the USCIS. Under the USCIS regulation, the controlling standard for the first step is the monthly Visa Bulletin and not actual visa number availability, meanwhile for the second step, the controlling standard is not monthly visa bulletin but actual visa number availability. Accordingly, if all the visa numbers are exhausted, the USCIS will be unable to approve any I-485 applications regardless of the Visa Cut-Off dates in the Visa Bulletin as the DOS will be unable to authorize a visa number beyond the annual cap under the statute. For this reason, the USCIS first contacts the DOS in each and every I-485 application case to obtain the visa number authorization before they "finally" approve the I-485 application for a specific individual. However, the job for the USCIS is totally different when it comes to decision of "accepting" I-485 applications. They totally rely on the monthly Visa Bulletin regardless of the actual visa number availability and the agency is not required to first contact the DOS to determine whether they should accept the I-485 application for each individual I-485 filing. The USCIS thus automatically performs "receipting" I-485 application inasmuch as the priority date of the specific individual I-485 application is the same or earlier date of the cut-off date shown in the Visa Bulletin.
• In the present situation, the USCIS has taken out almost all the EB visa numbers for FY 2007 (09/30/2007) before July 1, 2007 to adjudicate the pending and backlogged I-485 applications. Most of these applications have yet to be adjudicated using the visa numbers which have already been authorized. When it comes to these two cases, there are two open questions which have yet to be answered. The first question is whether the USCIS will continuously return the visa numbers for these cases. Report indicated that the USCIS started returning some of these numbers back to the DOS. Should this take place, the existing EB-485 waiters will expererience a long-wait to obtain approval of their backlogged EB-485 applications. The second question is "whether one's EB-485 application was tagged before July 1." At this time, this information is not available to anyone other than the USCIS itself. It is likely that this information will remain under the rug indefinitely. Accordingly, once his/her case was tagged, even though there is a chance that his/her visa number has been returned to the DOS, he or she will have a good chance to get I-485 application approval in the coming months. We may call them "lucky devil you!"
• The other EB-485 waiters will turn out to be a big victim to the DOS/USCIS decision yesterday. Since there will be no visa numbers available until October 1, 2007, the people whose EB-485 applications were "not tagged" before July 1 will experience a tremendous delay in obtaining the green card. When it comes to the delays in obtaining the green card approvals, the new filers in July and those filers before August 17 will also witness a tremendous delays and will have to endure a long and long journey to leave the pipeline of the green card process. Why? As we reported quite earlier in this visa fiasco, we even estimated that approximately 750,000 individual EB-485 applications can be poured into the system during this unusual period of visa number availability as affected by the upcoming filing fee increases and more importantantly the anticipated potential huge visa number retrogression ahead during when they may not be able to file their 485 applications because of the retrogression. After all, the system has only 140,000 numbers for the entire EB categories for each year. Go figure! What would look like the waiting time for the current EB-485 filers and the current EB-485 filers before July 1, 2007!
• We have no intention to spoil the exhuberation which a huge number of new filers will experience for the next 30 days. We are writing this just to remind the immigrants that the journey is not over and there is more important task ahead for the foreign workers. It is a legislative fight. The current employment-based immigration system is horribly broken and choked to the level of Microsoft Corporation proclaining that they would outsource the work to Canada. The system has failed to meet the new challeges under the ciber age and globalization of world economy by refusing to reform the employment-based immigration system years and years. The current employment-based annual quota, annual national limit, and prohibition of recapture of unused EB visa numbers are just a tip of iceberg which were enacted years and years before the current new age arrived. The system is too archaic to meet the new challenge in the current global economy and the ciber space technology age. The country has grown from a child of 10 years in age to an energetic teen-ager and still asks the child to live on with the outfits which were given to them when they were ten years old! The country desperately needs the reform of the employment-based immigration system, even for the purpose of just updating and accomodating the changes during the last two or three decades. It cannot go on with the current system. America should remain a vibrant society and keep remain a leader of the global world. America cannot retreat to the old archaic isolationism and a nationalism under the ever changing global world. Rather than breeding a fear of growth into the global economy, the leaders of the country should come forward to squaredly meet the new challenges with a vision under the inevitably changing global economy. The America started with pioneers whom the nation cherishes. We should never abandon the sprit of a pioneer and lose the identity of "America."
• We call on the political leaders and legislators to collect pieces together which were smashed and buried during the difficult political battle of CIR and introduce a bi-parisan employment-based immigration reform legislation as soon as possible. Madame Zoe Lofgren showed an incredibly powerful strenth and leadership in the very difficult visa number viasco. We urge Rep. Lofgren continuously show such leadership and initiate the legislative process for employment-based immigration reform in the House. During the visa number fiasco, we were somewhat disappointed with the Senate leaders distancing themselves from an issue that touches lives of hundreds and thousands people. However, we want to look at the situation from moe positive perspectives of the event and believe that the Senate leaders had enough confidence in the leadership of Rep. Lofgren and did not disrupt the political process which was initiated by the Congresswoman. However, it is time for the Senate leaders to actively initiate and participate in the employment-based immigraion reform legislation. We understand that Senator Cornyn's SKIL bill had a bi-partisan support for the past two years in the Senate and we urge the Senate to work on this bill again. We understand that current employment-based immigration system has a room for correction to prevent frauds and abuses. In a way, we understand Senator Durbin's leadership to clean up the problems in the current employment-based system. The Senator has been working on introducing H and L visa reform bill for preveention of frauds and abuses to pass as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, H.R. 1585. We urge Senator Durbin to also join in the Senator Conyn's SKIL bill incorporating his H and L reform proposal. We realize that the H.R. 1585 bill is about to complete the process and head for passage soon, and under the circumstances, it may already be too late to reintroduce the SKIL Act as an amendment to this bill. But the legilstive process should not end with the Defense Authorization bill. We strongly urge Senator Cornyn to work with the leaders of both sides of the aisle in the Senate to reintroduce the SKIL bill as soon as possible. We understand the passion of Senator Cornyn against certain issues in the CIR. That issue should be left to another chapter of the future legisaltive process. We urge him to keep his same passion for needs for reform of employment-based immigration system and quickly work on reintroducing the bill in the Senate. The public opnion appears to be skeptical about such bill in the aftermath of the CIR death, but the nation desperately needs political support for the businesses, research industry, academic institutions, small and medium businesses, and continuous new bloods flowing into the nation by the foreign brains. Time appears to work against us, but we should try. Otherwise, millions of talented foreign workers and their family members will suffer for a long time with no clear light at the end of tunnel for their journey for immigration.

07/17/2007: Our Website Server Was Down

07/17/2007: USCIS Accepts EB 485 Cases Until 08/17/2007 As We Reported Earlier

• Please see the USCIS announcement!

07/17/2007: 4:20 p.m. Hurray for July Visa Bulletin

• State Department has withdrawn Update July 2007 and reinstated original July 2007 where all the EB categories other than "other workers" were current.
• Congratulations to all the July filers. The ordeal is finally over.

07/17/2007 4:10 p.m. August Visa Bulletin

• EB number will not be available for every single category and every country.
  • July EB Visa Availability: After consulting with Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Visa Office advises readers that Visa Bulletin #107 (dated June 12) should be relied upon as the current July Visa Bulletin for purposes of determining Employment visa number availability, and that Visa Bulletin #108 (dated July 2) is hereby withdrawn.
    

07/17/2007: USCIS Deal Reached

• Various sources confirm that the USCIS has finally reached the deal, which will be announced within today. As to the specifics of the deal, there are differences in reports that one report indicates that the USCIS will retreat from their July 2 announcement that they will reject all the EB-485 filings received on or after July 2, 2007 and will announce that they will accept the EB-485 applications based on the DOS' initialy July Visa Bulletin (everthing was current other than other workers). Besides, in order to recover the past 17 days in July during when people could not file, they will accept the applications until August 17, 2007, which will be 30 days (one month) from the date of announcement, July 17, 2007.
• It still remains a rumor until the USCIS announces and the actual announcement can be different. Please do not jump into the water yet. Please stay tuned.

07/17/2007: USCIS Transformation Program and 07/17/1007 GAO Report to Congress

• The future of the USCIS services system will depend on the success of the web-based Transformation Program which the USCIS has been pushing on very hard. However. the GAO has just reported to the Congress that the Transformation Program needs a careful review owing to some potential issues. It is coincident that this GAO report is released the same day when the USCIS launched the Pilot Transformation Program in Inter-country Adoption to test this program. Read on.

07/17/2007: AILF Class Action Status Report

07/17/2007: CIS 07/16/2007 Processing Times Report

07/17/2007: DREAM Act Introduced as Amendment to H.R. 1585 Defense Authorization Act

• Yesterday, Senator Durbin, for himself and Senators,Hagel, Lugar, Leahy, Obama, Lieberman, Feinstein, Kerry, Feingold, Clinton, Bayh, Menendez, Murray, Boxer, Cantwell, Salazar, and Dodd, submitted an amendment SA 2237 to the bill H.R. 1585 which was ordered to lie on the table. It is a bi-partisan amendment with a strong support from both sides of the aisle. We will report the full text soon.

07/17/2007: Government Scheduled to Announce Something "Today"

• AILA has reported that the government is scheduled to announce something which can be bad or good. Bad means that the government could not find appropriate fix for the problem, and good means some relief may be provided. It sounds that they appeared to have been in discussion of a number of options and may not have reached yet an agreement. It is indeed a difficult time for the government as well as the immigrants and employers.

07/17/2007: C'mon, Who Is Going to Announce First, DOS August Visa Bulletin or CIS VB Fiasco Relief?

• Clock keeps ticking towards the end of July and not much time has left for these two federal departments to answer the call for fix of the VB fiasco. Currently rumors abound for these agencies' potential actions to fix the problem, but nothing is coming out of wires. The nation just wants to know who intents to fix the problem, the State Department or the USCIS. It is submitted that enough time has been spent for them to relieve hundreds of thousands of immigrants and employers from emotional pains, agonies, and distress.We call for their immediate actions and announcement. No matter whether August Visa Bulletin first or the USCIS relief actions.

07/17/2007: Passport Processing Meltdown to Receive Some Help from Retired Diplomats

• Currently, the department is receiving more than 1 million passport applications a month and holds a backlog of about 500,000 that have been pending more than 10 weeks, instead of the usual six to eight The Senate passed S. 966 bill late last month to allow State to rehire retired Foreign Service employees to staff overwhelmed passport processing centers across the country. Retirees now have little incentive to return because current law cuts their salaries by the amount of their pensions. The House yesterday agreed to the Senate bill and passed it yesterday which is likely to grant the State Department the flexibility to rehire retired and fully trained passport processors on a temporary basis to help existing processors manage the increased demand. The President is likely to sign the quickly. Read on.
  

07/16/2007: USCIS Launches First Transformation Program ("Account System")

• We reported a few days ago that the USCIS has been actively developing the so-called Transformation Program which will convert the current petition and application process and system into the "account" based system for all the petitions and applications in the future. Accoun system is to develop database for each employer, legal representatives, aliens, etc in the form of accounts which will allow sharing of the data and information in the accounts in all the petitions and applications filed by each party. As a pilot program of this program, the USCIS is launding inter-country adoption program as the first transformation system. Read on.
• See Q&A

07/16/2007: Advisory for Labor Certification Employer on Employer Obligation from Fraud Prevention and Cost Payment Obligation

• The commonly called "labor certification elimination" final rule which took effect today covers three broad subjects: (1) Elimination of labor certification beneficiary after July 16, 2007; (2) Limitation of validity of approved labor certification for 180 days after the date of certification; (3) Prohibition of sale, bargain, etc of labor certiication, employer obligation of the cost of labor certification, debarment of labor certification for violation, and sanctions for violation of violations by the representatives.
• The rules on the third subject is vary vague, complex, with serious consequences for violations. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has just released Frequestly Asked Questions (FAQ), answering some of the questions. It is extremely important that the employers and legal representatives make themself knowledgeable of these questions and answers. This FAQ is a employer's "must read" material.

07/16/2007: AILA Statement on Current Rumor

• As everyone will agree, when it comes to this issue, the AILA should be on the top for the breath-taking events within the government. For the obvious reasons, AILA has remained silent apparently not to affect the negotiation process and the behind the door activities to pressure on the agencies. However, considering the ongoing rumors which have been going out of control, it has just broken its silence at about 5:30 p.m. EST, with a statement that the situation is extremely fluid and they will report the outcome of the ongoing events to the members on the Infonet when time comes.

07/16/2007: Notice to The Oh Law Firm July 485 Clients

• Please send us emails tonight.

07/16/2007: Ongoing Wild Forest Fire of Rumor for USCIS to Accept July EB-485 Filing

• There is a rumor speading fiercely like a wildest forest fire to the effect that the USCIS is imminent to release an announcement that they will accept July 2007 filings of EB-485 applications. This is more or less consistent with the Wall Street Journal report this morning but the details on definition of "July 2007" filing have yet to be clarified, to wit, whether there is certain cut-off date in July that will be covered by this announcement or any filings in July 2007. Please stay tuned.

07/16/2007: Advisory for H-1B LCA Filers

• DOL has updated the online wage library reflecting data for 7/2007-6/2008. The new wage data is effective as of 07/16/2007. Accordingly, those who file the LCA based on the wage determination using SOC/OES wage data on Online Library, must use this new wage figure. If internal notices were posted yesterday or last week and the prevailing wage failed to meet this new prevailing wage, they are likely to violate the labor condition application using the wrong prevailing wage and outdated and invalid wage data. People may want to print out a copy of new wage data "today" to post a notice and file the LCA today.

07/16/2007: USCIS Reportedly To Accept Some July 2007 EB-485 Filings

• Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the USCIS is poised to announce its change of initial decision to reject all the July 2007 EB-485 new cases. The report indicates that they intend to accept and process some early July filing cases. The report indicates that AILF will file the class action lawsuit this week. The report also indicates that on July 5, Microsoft Corp. announced that it plans soon to open a software-development center in Vancouver, Canada, with a view to "recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." to send a clear signal to the government of the high-tech industry's dissatisfaction with the visa situation.
• However, as the newspapaer also make it clear, the details have yet to be known. Please stay tuned. Hmm...................................
• For those who have yet to make a decision as to whether to file it before the end of July, there are couple of questions which have yet to be answered. One is the involvement or strategy of the AILF lawsuit team. There has been a report that the team has been negotiating wit the USCIS behind the scene. The second question is August 2007 Visa Bulletin. Granted that people understand the fluid situation and almost moment by moment changing situation, overall the situation appears to suggest that they may consider filing the applications as soon as the August Visa Bulletin is released.

07/15/2007: Immigrants Start Reporting EB-485 Approvals After July 1 Using Visa Numbers Taken Out Both Before and After June 30, 2007

• There are fairly large number of reports by both immigrants and immigration lawyers that they received I-485 application approvals which were decided in the last few days. These approvals include two groups. The first group is those whose visa numbers were available but not decided in June but after July 2, 2007. The second group is those whose visa numbers were not available in June but decided after July 2, 2007. The lawyers use a term "tagged" to explain the situaiton where visa number was taken out but the case has not been adjudicated until the visa number became "unavailable" because of the reconfigulation of July Visa Bulletin by the State Department on July 2, 2007.
• Obviously for the first group, the visa numbers were massively taken out before July 1, 2007 using the June Visa Bulletin. For the second group, the visa numbers were again massively taken out on July 1 and part of July 2. The evidence reflects that at 11: 27 a.m. of July 2, 2007, the Visa Control Office of the State Department frantically sent out an "Urgent" fax to the Adjudication Office of the USCIS notifying that all the FY 2007 EB visa numbers had been authorized and exhausted and effective July 2, 2007, there would be no more visa authorization available for the EB 485 cases. The fax notice advised the USCIS to quickly notify all the officials involved in the EB-485 processing and adjudications. Considering the fact that these officials are located in the four Service Centers and local fields offices in 50 states and other locations, these officials might not have received actual notice quite late afternoon on the date. Assumedly, the second group are those people whose visa numbers were authorized by the State Department on July 1 and July 2, 2007 using the July 2007 Visa Bulletin before reconfigualtion. Obviously, the USCIS has been continuously processing and approving these cases at a late date in July 2007. As we all know, there was information that the USCIS had been returning the visa numbers to the State Department on the ground that they could not determine the cases. Soon, we will find out what type of cases have been returned and how many, but from the fact which was described above, the most typical cases could have been those which they took out on July 2, 2007. Accordingly, the total number of visa authorization which the USCIS has returned to the State Department may not turn out to be that large in numbers.
• Assuming that the visa numbers have indeed been returned to the State Department, it is mysterious why the State Department has not revised again the July Visa Bulletin to reflect the visa numbers which have become available through such recaptures. Considering the fact that they made July Visa Bulletin "Current" in all categories in the inital release on June 13, 2007, but they reconfigured July Visa Bulletin "Unavailable" effective July 2 based on their record that all numbers had been exhausted, obviously the reconfigured July Visa Bulletin is no longer correct since some numbers have been made availabve since then because of the returning of some numbers by the USCIS. Notwithstanding the fact, the State Department has remained silent. There has been delay in releasing the August 2007 Visa Bulletin, but without doubt, it may be released tomorrow or very soon. It is interesting to watch how the State Department will handle the situation in the August 2007 Visa Bulletin. Educated guess is that they may not be able to say in the August 2007 Visa Bulletin that the visa numbers will be totally unavailable when the fact of the matter is that some visa numbers may be there in the Department's storage. Please stay tuned.

07/14/2007: Silence of Employment-Based Immigration Legislation Sponsors and Backers Post CIR Death

• A few days ago, we stated that after the failure of the CIR in the Congress, the Congress and the Nation are better prepared to take "piecemeal" immigration bills. However, the employment-based immigration backers show loosing steams and energy to collect themselves together to work on the piecemeal employment-based immigration legislation. Amidst the ongoing Visa Bulletin fiasco, the lobbysts and supporters of the employment-based immigration legislation appear to fail to seize an important opportunity to bring back the SKIL bill into the Congress. Currently, the Senate is actively debating and poised to pass H.R. 1585, FY 2008 Department of Defense Authorization bill and there have been "hundreds" of amendments introduced some to attach the non-defense related important legislative bills to this critical legislation. Considering the fact that the Visa Bulletin fiasco is an important but small part of overall employment-based immigration issues and unless the SKIL Act type of legislation is enacted, the employment-based community will continuously remain "choked" due to the limited visa numbers and annual national limitations, etc., the employers, businesses, academic institutiions, and foreign workers and their backers appeared to miss a momentum to bring this important legislation back to the center of national attention and debates.

07/14/2007: DREAM Act Bill to Return to Congress

• The Senate is currently debating on one important legislative bill, FY 2008 Department of Defense Authorization, H.R. 1585, and Senators Durbin, Hagel, and Lugar are poised to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment. The DREAM will relieve millions of undocumented youngster from the closet and granted permanent resident status. As soon as this amendment is on the floor, we will monitor the progress of the amendment. In the meantime, the youngsters and their parents should start contacting their Congressmen and Senators in support of this amendment.

07/13/2007: Persons Obtaining Permanent Resident Status in 2006 by Type of Immigration and by Country

• This statistics shows people from which countries obtained the permanent resident status in 2006 through what types of immigration. Read on.

07/13/2007: USCIS Updates Service Centers Receipting Status as of 07/13/2007

• The Service Centers experienced receipting and approval notice backlogs as affected by the H-1B cap and lottery fiasco. However, this week it has witnessed a substantial catch-up, particularly in California Service Center. Please click here for the updates.

07/13/2007: USCIS Issues Correction of Previous Guidance Regarding Form I-140 Immigrant Alien Worker Filings with Labor Certification Substitution Requests

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will accept labor certification substitution requests in the context of Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, filings that it receives on Monday, July 16, 2007. USCIS previously announced, on May 24, 2007, that it would reject all labor certification substitution requests filed on or after the effective date of the Department of Labor (DOL) substitutions regulation, which is July 16, 2007. The new DOL regulations prohibit substitution of an alien beneficiary on any application for permanent labor certification after July 16, 2007. The new procedures outlined in the previous USCIS announcement will now take effect on July 17, 2007 instead of July 16, 2007.

07/13/2007: Agonizying Moments for DHS/USCIS Leaders

• There is no doubt that people from time to time go through a tense and agonizying moment while the noise of clock ticking is getting louder and lauder. Reportedly, that is what the leaders of the agencies have been going through to abate things going out of control politically. Rep. Zoe Lofgren is a powerful chairwomea of the Judiciary Committee Immigration Subcommitee of the House of Representatives. Day before yesterday, she served a request for information, record, documents, and evidence in the tone of a discovery in the court proceeding. The letter resembled the combination of request for admission and demand for records in the federal court proceeding. The Secretary of Homeland Security was given only three days to meet the demand. Apparently, the leaders of the DHS and USCIS have been struggling to work out some kind of solutions and thereby prevent thing going out of control as the records, emails, documents, etc. etc. can turn out to be very smelly and juicy depending on which side of the party politics one is involved. Under the circumstances, the leaders have been talking about various options with the departments and pending the discussions, everything has been on hold including the visa bulletin release schedules.
• Yesterday, we described potential four options for the DOS and the USCIS. Unconfirmed sources indicate that the last option appears to be "out." Obviously there are still under a tremendous pressure to work out a solution before the three-day deadline of the Congresswoman's investigatory demand. It is going to be a very tense and stressful weekend for these officials. For that matter, the immigrants may also go through a similar process emotionally during the weekend, not knowing when and what information will be released during the weekend or Monday. Eyes of the many immigrants will be glued to the computer monitors.

07/13/2007: DOS Issued Guidance for Visa Posts on Processing Visa Applicants with Drunk Driving Hits

• According to the Guidance, while alcoholism constitutes a medical condition, INA 212(a)(1)(A)(iii) does not refer explicitly to alcoholics or alcoholism. Evaluation for alcohol abuse or dependence is included in the evaluation for mental and physical disorders with associated harmful behavior. An alcoholic is not ineligible to receive a visa unless there is harmful behavior associated with the disorder that has posed, or is likely to pose, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others. To ensure proper evaluation, you must refer applicants to panel physicians when they have a single drunk driving arrest or conviction within the last three calendar years or two or more drunk driving arrests or convictions in any time period. You also must refer cases to a panel physician if there is any other evidence to suggest an alcohol problem.
• Requirement of mandatory referral to the panel physicians in most cases may delay the visa adjudication process. Readers should remember that this applies not only to the charged or convicted but also "arrested" as reflected in the fingerprint hits. People should not take a drunk driving lightly. For the full text of the cable guidance, please click here.
  

07/13/2007 01:00 AM: Watch for August Visa Bulletin to be Released Shortly

07/12/2007: Original July 2007 Visa Bulletin and Long Overdue Change of Immigration Procedures

• Thus far, the issue of Visa Bulletin fiasco has been focused on the potential sources of the problem particularly as related to the decisions of the two agencies, Department of State and USCIS. However, we should not neglect to look at the issue from the perspectives of the immigrants and the employers, a positive review rather than a negative review of pointing a finger at the agencies that are involved in the sources of the problem. The first question the immigrants and the employers should ask themselves should be what the original Visa Bulletin meant to them. We all know that it is not the total number of green cards the Visa Bulletin would have produced within the fiscal year as opposed to a Visa Bulletin that retained cut-off dates for the EB immigrant visa categories. In either situation, the system could probably have produced a similar number of green cards or immigrants as, without doubt, they would have processed about the same number of backlog 485 applications to exhaust the FY 2007 EB visa numbers. Accordingly, the real issue is not that the visa fiasco prevented or will prevent the system from producing certain number of green cards or immigrant visas with the given fiscal year but that it prevented hundreds of thousands of "legal" immigrants who have been suffering from the flaws in the immigration procedures that did not permit those who had obtained the labor certification approvals from applying for I-485 application, employment authorization, and travel documents while they waited for severely retrogressed EB visa numbers, despite the fact that they have passed the test of the nation's need for their workforce through the labor certification process. The orignal July Visa Bulletin would not have affected the first issue in one way or another, but it could have brought about the solution to the second issue by allowing the immigrants with the approved labor certifications to file I-485 application, employment authorization application, and travel documents, even during the period of visa number unavailability and while they had to wait for the visa numbers. The original July Bulletin could have brought about this "dream come true" as it opened all the EB visa categories current other than "other workers," whereby it could have allowd those with the appproved labor certification application to apply for I-485 application, I-765 employment authorization, and I-131 travel document "even during the period of the EB visa number unavailability at any point of time in July 2007. Accordingly, as we guesstimated earlier, the orginal July 2007 visa bulletin could have permitted approximately 750,000 skilled and talen foreign workers, their spouses and children, to file these applications. The benefits which the July Visa Bulletin fiasco have taken away afterwards were not green cards but the opportunity to file I-485 application, employment authorization, and travel permit, potentially even during the time of visa number unavailability.
• The foregoing review would suggest that there might be potentially four options to correct the current visa bulletin fiasco. One option is for the USCIS to reverse itself and abandon its decision to reject the I-485 applications and start accepting the I-485 applications under the original July Visa Bulletin. In fact, this is do-able regardless of legality of the DOS act to revise, if there was revision at all, the visa bulletin in the middle of the month, or the legality of the releasing "updates" without revision of the visa bulletin and changing it to "unavailabile." Probably, there was no precedent of such action in the DOS history. From the perspectives of the USCIS, they do not have to follow such an act of the sister agency. They should just stick to the USCIS own regulation to authorize accepting I-485 applications when the visa number was available since the legality of the DOS act was arguably of suspect in all accounts. Sometimes, however, reversing one's decision may not be that easy because of potential complex political and legal issues involved. The second option is to release August 2007 Visa Bulletin with all the EB visa categories other than "other worker" categories "current." This option will save the face of the both agencies and achieve the purposes of removing the current debacle. The information that the USCIS is probably sending back the visa numbers may allow the DOS to such Visa Bulletin which may be released tomorrow. We really hope that the DOS shows a courage to take such an action. The third option, which is likely another way to save the faces of both agencies, is for the DOS releases the revised July visa bulletin probably with some cut-off dates for different categories based on the number of visas which have been returned by the USCIS. The open question is how far the USCIS has gone in returning the visa numbers to allow the DOS to release such August Visa Bulletin or another Revised July Visa Bulletin. The fourth, which is important but difficult, option might be to change its rule to permit I-485 application, I-765 employment authorization application, and I-131 applications for the foreign workers and their spouses and children if the foreign workers have obtained the labor certification approvals. Without doubt, the USCIS has been looking into the feasibility of changing the policy without legislation on the procedural issues which are described here. The fact that this reform was introduced in the Congress as part of the SKIL bill or Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act bill would not preclude the USCIS from looking into feasibility of achieving such changes in the procedures under the given legislative authority. All of the current debacle or fiasco would have been prevented, had the Congress passed the SKIL bill or CIR. At this juncture, though, the nation and EB immigrants do not have a luxury to point a finger at the failures of the Congress as it serves no purposes whatsoever. We really hope that the USCIS will work out one of these two solutions promptly to save the nation from further confusion and nightmare.
• Again the current issue is not directly related to the annual EB visa quota issues as there is nothing any agency can do about the law that stipulates the numerical limits. However, the Congress should take the current event as a momentum to fix the long ailing and suffering "legal" employment immigration system as related to the needs for increase in total numbers for the employment-based immigrant visas and other reforms that were incorporated in the SKIL bill or other bills. We urge Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren to pick up this employment-based immigration legislative bill as soon as possible to fix the employment-based immigration system aside from the anticipated remedial action for the current and immediate visa bulletin fiasco by the agencies. The nation's economy and international competition cannot afford any further delays in fixing the current employment-based immigration system. We admire the Congresswoman's courage and leadership that have been demonstrated during the last few days and urge the Congresswoman to keep a similar courage and and leadership in the overall employment-based immigration reform legislation initiatives in the House.

07/12/2007: USCIS Confirms That Sub I-140 Will Be Received Monday, 07/16/2007

• AILA reported that the USCIS had confirmed that the substitution I-140 petition which would arrive at the appropariate Service Centers would be considered timely filed for the purpose of the elimination of substitution I-140.

07/12/2007: USCIS Reportedly Returning Visa Numbers to DOS

• AILA has reported that when Rep. Lofgren issued a letter to Secretary Chertoff, she also disclosed that "It has also come to my attention that USCIS began returning visa numbers to the State Depaartment as early as Thrusday, July 5, 2007." It could be the answer to our question why they are holding July filing cases and why they stopped adjudicating 485 cases for which they pull out the numbers before July 2, 2007. What a mess! See Rep. Lofgren Statement.

07/12/2007: Truth to Rumor of Resrictionist Senators Having Influenced USCIS Decision of July 2007 EB New Filing

• There is an unconfirmed source of information that a couple of restrictionist U.S. Senators influenced the USCIS decision to reject July applications for their alleged fear that since July 2007 Visa Bulletin would open a flood gate of hundreds of thousands of 485 applications, the public might take it as the government giving out a sort of "amnesty" to these floods of people. We hope that there is no truth to such rumor. However, if it is true, it is indeed shocking that individual legislators could interfere with the government process on "personal" basis and without the formal legislative process of public notice and participation. We urge the U.S. Senate to get to the bottom of this rumor and take appropriate action for correction under the Senate rules.

07/12/2007: Pre-July 2 EB-485 Cases - Where Is the Beef?

• According to the government announcement, the USCIS took out more than 60,000 EB immigrant visa numbers and 25,000 during the two-day weekend bofore the fiasco started on July 2, 2007. Common sense should then dictate that a flood of mail-out of the approved EB-485 should have followed to such visa numbers take-out. However, there is no noticeable report that the applicants and their representatives have since been receiving a flood of approval notices in the mail. That includes this reporter's office. In the mid-June, we witnessed some approval notices, but that did not last too long. The USCIS status site shows no noticeable changes in the status of pending 485 cases. What is going on? Are they holding actual adjudication of the visa-number authorized EB-485 applications pending FBI security clearances or these cases are also on hold? 60,000 is a large number!

07/12/2007: OES/SOC Wage Update Delays and Advisory for H-1B LCA Filing

• DOL was supposed to release new wage library effective July 1, 2007, but they are currently experiencing delays. However, the site indicates that the new wages are likely to be relased mid-July. Accordingly, those who file the labor condition application for H-1B using the current wage library without checking it "at the time of LCA filing" may learn that it was precarious. Since the OES/SOC wages must be current in the notice posted and at the time of online LCA filing, if the wage library date was printed out one day earlier and the new wage is released on the date when the LCA is filed using such notice posting and such wage data, they may learn that they violated the labor condtion application using outdated wage. It is thus recommended that people not only double check the wage library but print out and keep a copy on the day of actual LCA filing for potential audit in the future. Just reminder.
• The wage library update delay for PERM filing does not raise such problem as the wage must be determined by the SWAs.

07/12/2007: USCIS Announcement of Scheduled Websites Systems Outages

• On Thursday, July 12, 2007, at 9 PM EDT, certain USCIS web-based systems will be taken out of service for maintenance upgrades. They should be restored in approximately three to four hours. These systems include:

Case Status Online (and processing times)
Field Office Locator and Information
Civil Surgeon Locator; and
Change of Address Online

• The outages are expected to give de minimus inconvenience to the community considering the time and the duration.
  

07/11/2007: California Service Center System Problem Fixed and Approval Notices Due Delivered by 07/20/2007

• USCIS has announced that the CSC system problem has been fixed and all the approval notices would be delivered by July 20, 2007.

07/11/2007: Rep. Zoe Lofgren's Demands Records and Evidence Relating to July Visa Bulletin Fiasco

July 11, 2007

The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

On July 2, 2007, the Department of State (DOS) issued an "Update to July Visa Availability," which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) apparently relied on to suspend its acceptance of adjustment of status applications based on employment-based immigrant petitions. DOS and DHS acted on these matters despite my request that the agencies provide the Subcommittee with certain information before taking such actions.

At no point since my letter to you dated July 2, 2007, have I received any information in writing from the Department. Given this failure, I am now requesting that you provide to me, within three days of the date of this letter, the following information:

1. All correspondence, e-mails, memoranda, notes, field guidance or other documentation relating to the issuance of or the Department of Homeland Security's actions regarding the July Visa Bulletin, which made all employment-based immigrant visa categories (except the "other worker" category) current. The term "Department of Homeland Security" includes DHS or any component thereof.

2. All e-mails, correspondence, memoranda, notes, field guidance or other documentation relating to the issuance of or the Department of Homeland Security's actions regarding the "Update to July Visa Availability" issued on July 2, 2007. The term "Department of Homeland Security" includes DHS or any component thereof.

3. All correspondence, e-mails, memoranda, notes, field guidance or other documentation between the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Justice and/or the Federal Bureau of Investigation relating to the availability of visa numbers for the month of July 2007, the issuance of or the Department of Homeland Security's actions regarding the "Update to July Visa Availability" issued on July 2, 2007, the processing of security or name checks in connection with visa number requests through the end of FY 2007, and/or the determination to suspend or reject the acceptance of adjustment of status applications. The terms "Department of Homeland Security," "Department of State," "Department of Justice" and "Federal Bureau of Investigation" include DHS, DOS, DOJ, FBI or any components of those agencies.

4. A detailed description of any existing or proposed understanding, arrangement and/or agreement between DHS