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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.

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Question & Answer Discussions [Latest Update: 10/09/2011]

Please present the questions anonymously or in general question format rather than your own individual problems for the security sake. Email should be sent to Matthewoh.Attorney@Gmail.Com. The answers be posted as a "hypothetical" Q&A. Those who are in similar fact situation should not take the answers as a legal advice for their individual question. Please do not use the term "I" or "My." Just ask "what happends if ..............."

02/03/2012: USCIS EB-485 Inventory Update 01/12/2012

• This long awaited inventory has just been released. This data would be able to figure out how many EB-485 cases are ahead for each of EB-485 waiters as of January 12, 2012. This also gives exact number of total EB-485 cases pending by priority date and give clues to future Visa Bulletin prediction.

02/03/2012: Current Visa Reciprocity Schedule by Each Type of Visa and By Each Country

• State Department's soon-to-be-published official L-1 visa validity rule depends on the reciprocity schedule for each country. L-1 visa holders may check their country reciprocity schedule which is currently in place with the U.S. Department of State. Here is the Reciprocity Tables by Country.

02/03/2012: Another State Department Move to Make L-1 International Multi-National Corporate Employees' Admissions to the U.S. Convenient and Smoother

• On January 26, 2012, the State Department submitted to the White House OMB for approval a final rule of Issuance of Full Validity L Visas to Qualified Applicants. This final rule permits the issuance of L visas with validity periods based on the visa reciprocity schedule; whereas the current rule limits L visas to the petition validity period, which is determined by the Department of Homeland Security. The change will benefit beneficiaries of L-1 petitions who are nationals of countries for which the reciprocity schedule prescribes visa validity for a longer period of time than the initial validity indicated in the USCIS approved L-1 petitions and who have extended their L stay while in the United States. Thus such individuals generally will not need to again apply for an L visa at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas if they were to travel outside the United States during the period indicated in the applicable reciprocity schedule, as is currently required when petition validity has been extended. Under 8 CFR 214.2(l)(11), an alien may apply for admission in L status only while the individual or blanket petition is valid.
• Guess what! This rule was approved in five (5) days(!) on January 31, 2012 so that the rule can be published in the federal register and implemented by the State Department quickly. Such quick approval rarely happens unless there is an extreme emergency. Way to go, leaders of the State Department. This final rule will be published soon. In the meantime, international multi-national corporations and their employees may read the advance copy.

02/03/2012: Reminder for Ombudsman Office Teleconference on 02/07/2012 for L-1B on "Specialized Knowledge" Hurdles

• We posted earlier this conference schedule. But we are posting it again as a reminder. The teleconfeence is scheduled on next Tuesday, 02/07/2012, 2:00-3:00 pm EST. The subject is: "The Adjudication of L-1B "Specialized Knowledge" Worker Petitions: How Is It Working for You?" This teleconference presents an opportunity to learn about the experiences of employers filing L1-B nonimmigrant petitions with USCIS. The L-1B classification allows an employer to petition for an employee who has "specialized knowledge" of the employer's products, services, research, equipment, techniques, management, or other interests and its application in international markets, or expertise in the employer's processes and procedures, from a qualified affiliated entity outside the United States. For details for participation, please click here.

02/03/2012: USCBP Final Rule of International Trusted Traveler Program Named Global Entry

• The Global Entry expedites clearance of preapproved, low-risk air travelers arriving in the United States. This final rule adopts some changes to previously released proposed rule. The only significant change is that minors under the age limit of 14 are now permitted to apply to the Global Entry program. This final rule will be published next Monday, February 6, 2012, and take effect in 30 days from February 6. 2012. For the full text of the final rule, please click here.

02/03/2012: USCIS Schedules Teleconference on E-Verify Self Check, Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm EST

• This conference can be participated in person or by telephone. To learn about the Self Check, please click here.

02/02/2012: Senate Passed STOCK Act Bill and Gone to Recess About 06:30 PM 'Til Monday 02/06/2012 Without Taking Up H.R. 3012

• Wow, STOCK Act bill completely exhausted the Senate floor for last few days. It is now finally over. But the Senate is gone until next Monday.

02/02/2012: USCIS Consular Notification Engagement Slide Presentation

• USCIS had engagement session yesterday on the consular notification process. To view the presentation, please click here.

02/02/2012: Unanimous Consent Sought for H.R. 3012 in the Senate

• Report indicates that the chance for passage of H.R. 3012 in the Senate has turned more promising by attaching Irish E-3 visa provision to the pending H.R. 3012 which is likely to come on the floor in the near future. Apparently, Senator Chuck Schumer is pushing for passage of H.R. 3012, as amended, attaching E-3 visa provision to the bill and pass the bill on the Senate floor in the form of 'unanimous' consent. This is a new development and the supporters of H.R. 3012 and Irish community are hopeful for the passage of the bill soon. The unanswered question is which Irish bill will be attached as amendment. If it is Schumer's initial proposal which includes undocumented Irish relief provision, H.R. 3012, as amended, is likely to face some challenges in the House, when the bill is returned to the House. If the amendment is Sen. Scott Brown bill that does not include undocumented Irish relief provision, the future for H.R. 3012 will be indeed promising even in the House.

02/02/2012: OFLC Launch Initiatives of iCERT Prevailing Wage Module Enhancements After iCERT System Upgrade on 02/06/2011

• We reported earlier that iCERT portal system will be down from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm on next Monday, 02/06/2012, the system maintenance. Today, the OFLC released the details of the purpose, which is to improve the prevailing wage determination part of the iCERT system. The employers should read this report and beware of the changed prevailing wage determination process in part.

02/02/2012: State Department Officially Publishes Revised Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Taking Effect on 02/02/2012

02/02/2012: USCIS Initiates Proposed Rule-Making Process for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives

• USCIS released earlier its "intent" to propose this 'stateside processing' of unlawful presence waiver for the certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to minimize family separation. After a period of time of collection of comments and views of stakeholders, USCIS just submitted to the White House OMB its "proposed rule" yesterday for the approval. It is a good news that eventually they have officially started the rule making process, but since proposed rule will take some period (from one month to three months) to be approved and published in the federal register, after which the agency will have to draft the final rule and submit to the OMB for approval again afterwards, for this rule to see the light into a final or interim final rule, it will take several months from hereon.

02/01/2012: State Department Revises Schedule of Fees for Consular Services

• State Department will publish the new schedule of fees in the federal register tomorrow in the form of final rule. This rule will then take effect tomorrow. As readers can imagine, the new schedules of consular services fees will be changed upward in most services. Employment-based immigrant visa application fee will increase from current $355 to $720, more than double!

02/01/2012: USCIS Local Field Offices I-485 Cases by Types of Applications at the End of November 2011

• The USCIS updated and released this statistics on 01/18/2012. This data covers all types of I-485 applications which are pending and resolved at the local field offices of the USCIS at the end of November 2011. The data for EB-485 in this report includes only those cases which have been transferred from either Nebraska Service Center or Texas Service Centers to the field offices for interviews or other actions at the local level. Thus this data does not cover EB-485 cases which are pending at the Service Centers. These data are valuable for non employment-based I-485 filers at the local offices, including family-based I-485 applications. No matter where you are located, if your EB-485 cases have been transferred to the local field offices in your jurisdiction, your case is included in this report.

02/01/2012: Senate Floor Schedule Today

• The Senate floor has been tied up by a highly politically charged legislative bill of 'Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act' bill, S. 2038, for several days. When the Senate returns tomorrow at 09:30 a.m., the Senate floor will be again tied up with this bill to deal with a whole list of amendments to this bill. It is hoped that the Senate floor wraps up with this bill and vote for this bill so that the floor can move onto other bills within the week. At this point, it is uncertain whether there will be a vote for this bill today. Therefore it is unlikely that H.R. 3012 will come up on the Senate floor today, but we will keep watching on the Senate floor.

02/01/2012: OFLC iCERT System Outage Alert - 02/06/2012 08:00-13:00 (EST)

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certifications releases an alert that the iCERT System will be unavailable from 8AM to approximately 1PM Eastern Time on Monday, February 6, 2012 so that they may implement enhancements to the iCERT Prevailing Wage Module. For a summary of the enhancements, please click here. In addition, you may refer to the updated Prevailing Wage External User Guide which is available under the User Guides tab on the iCERT Visa Portal System. Visit OFLC site.

02/01/2012: U.S. Department of State Officials Name and Telephone Contact Directories

• The following directories will provide a valuable contact information for those who have to deal with the State Department officials in the U.S. and their visa posts throughout the world. These directories are fairly upto-date information:
  • Telephone Directory
  • Names of Officials Directory
• People should not abuse these directories to unnecessarily make contact with these offices by telephone calls.

02/01/2012: Rising H-1B Visa Denials at Visa Posts in India and Frustrated Indian Government's Efforts

• Indian H-1B professionals are well aware of by now the increasing denials or Administrative Processing decisions by the American visa posts in India. In order to deal with the problem at the international trade policy issues, report indicates that Indian government requested a talk with the U.S. government on the issue but the talk schedule has been shelved by the U.S. government. As we reported earlier, the U.S. government has been pumping up its policy to increase incoming foreign traffics with an arrangement to make visitor's visa applications smoother, while it has been tightening up the H-1B visa application process affecting the traffic of these Indian professional traffics which are critically important for the nation's economy and welware. Hmm..... The State Department may as well give an equal attention to this trafficl, should it really follow the President's initiatives to attract and retain valuable skilled foreign professional workers.

01/31/2012: Sponsors of AGREE Act, S. 1866, Hails President's START UP American Legislative Agenda

• On November 15, 2011, this bi-partisan bill was introduced in the Senate. The Title III of this bill proposed the text of the House bill, H.R. 3012. After the H.R. 3012 was introduced in the House and in progress, Senator Mike Lee of Utah who was one of the 11 co-sponsors of the S. 1866 bill introduced a separate bill in the Senate as a companion bill of H.R. 3012. Guess what. Another two co-sponsors of the S. 1866 bill introduced separate bills in the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York introduced S. 1983 combining the text of H.R. 3012 and Irish E-3 visa, while Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts introduced the Irish E-3 visa bill as a separate stand-alone legislative bill. Accordingly, these three Senators have more or less long history of supporting H.R. 3012 bill texts.
• Now, Senator from Delaware, Christopher Coons, who was a sponsor of S. 1866, comes forward and releases a news on January 31, 2012 hailing Obama initiatives including the Senator's initial proposal in S. 1866, AGREE Act. The co-sponsors of the AGREE Act were as follows:
  • Sen Rubio, Marco [FL]
  • Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [NY]
  • Sen Blunt, Roy [MO]
  • Sen Casey, Robert P., Jr. [PA]
  • Sen Begich, Mark [AK]
  • Sen Wicker, Roger F. [MS]
  • Sen Lee, Mike [UT]
  • Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY]
  • Sen Risch, James E. [ID]
  • Sen Brown, Scott P. [MA]
  • Sen Boozman, John [AR]
• Please note in the co-sponsors list that Hispanic caucus rising star Tea-Party Senator Marco Rubio even supported the bill!

01/31/2012: President Obama START UP America Legislative Agenda Calling for Congress Action to Eliminate EB Per Country Limit

• Today, the White House released its legislative agenda reiterating his earlier START UP America legislative agenda. This agenda includes key components of H.R. 3012 as follows:

III. RELIEVING THE BACKLOG OF IMMIGRANT VISAS
A. ADJUST EXISTING VISA CAPS:
The President is committed to fixing our broken immigration system through comprehensive immigration reform. This includes creating a legal immigration system that meets our diverse economic needs and honors our rich traditions as a nation of immigrants that attracts entrepreneurial immigrants and strengthens the American workforce. In an effort to reduce backlogs in the legal immigration system, the President is calling to:
Eliminate the per-country caps on employment-based immigrant visas ("green cards")
Raise the caps on family-based green cards from 7 percent to 15 percent.
These small but meaningful reforms represent a balanced approach to addressing some of the long-standing problems with our broken immigrant visa system. These measures would not increase the total number of available immigrant visas but it would help address some of the longest backlogs that occur because of annual per country caps. For the White House release today, please click here.

• It is likely to help the H.R. 3012 which may come on the floor soon in the Senate.

01/31/2012: DHS Releases Today "DHS Reforms To Attract And Retain Highly Skilled Immigrants"

• In line with the White House press release of Obama legislative agenda, DHS releases its administrative fix agenda to attract and retain highly skilled immigrants, including the following:
  • Expand eligibility for 17-month extension of optional practical training (OPT) for F-1 international students to include students with a prior degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Presently, an F-1 student may only engage in optional practical training (OPT) for 12 months. F-1 students who graduate in programs of study classified as STEM can obtain a 17-month extension of OPT as part of their F-1 status if the degree they were conferred is included on the DHS list of eligible STEM degree programs. This proposed change would expand eligibility for extension of OPT by including students with a STEM degree that is not the most recent degree the student has received. Furthermore, because of the dynamic nature of STEM related education and training, DHS will continue to review emerging fields for possible inclusion in the list of eligible STEM degree programs.
  • Allow for additional part-time study for spouses of F-1 students and expand the number of Designated School Officials (DSOs) at schools certified by DHS to enroll international students: This regulatory reform would allow spouses of F-1 students to enroll in additional academic classes on a part-time basis while their spouse is pursuing full-time studies. Presently, under the current regulation, spouses may only take part-time vocational or recreational classes. Schools would also be given increased flexibility to determine the number of DSOs needed at their institution to meet both the administrative and guidance needs of students.
  • Provide work authorization for spouses of certain H-1B holders. This proposed change to the current DHS regulation would allow certain spouses of H-1B visa holders to legally work while their visa holder spouse waits for his or her adjustment of status application to be adjudicated. Specifically, employment will be authorized for H-4 dependent spouses of principal H-1B visa holders who have begun the process of seeking lawful permanent resident status through employment after meeting a minimum period of H-1B status in the U.S. This effort will help retain talented professionals who are valued by U.S. employers and who seek to contribute to our economy.
  • Allow outstanding professors and researchers to present a broader scope of evidence of academic achievement: This proposed change to the current DHS regulation would increase the types of evidence that employers can submit to demonstrate that a professor or researcher is among the very best in their field. Presently, applicants for the employment-based immigrant visa category of "outstanding professors and researchers" are limited to specific types of evidence listed by regulation. This would allow "comparable evidence" beyond the specifically articulated regulatory list. This change will harmonize the evidentiary standard for this category with the other exceptional ability immigrant visa categories.
  • Harmonize rules to allow E-3 visa holders from Australia and H-1B1 visa holders from Singapore and Chile to continue working with their current employer for up to 240 days while their petitions for extension of status are pending: This proposed regulation would treat E-3 and H-1B1 visa holders the same as other employment-based H-1B and L-1 visa holders by allowing them to continue employment with their current employer for up to 240 days from the expiration of their authorized period of stay, if a petition to extend their status has been timely filed.
  • Launch Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative: On February 22, 2012, USCIS will launch its Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative with an Information Summit in Silicon Valley, CA, that will bring together high-level representatives from the entrepreneurial community, academia, and federal government agencies to discuss how to maximize current immigration laws' potential to attract foreign entrepreneurial talent. The Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative builds upon DHS's August announcement of efforts to promote startup enterprises and spur job creation. The Information Summit will focus on ensuring that immigration pathways for foreign entrepreneurs are clear and consistent, and better reflect today's business realities. The Summit will include a special recognition of outstanding contributions made by immigrant entrepreneurs to our nation's economic growth and prosperity. The input gathered at the summit will inform the work of the Entrepreneurs in Residence tactical team, which will bring business experts in-house to work alongside USCIS staff for a period of approximately 90 days. Following the summit, the tactical team will convene in Washington, DC to begin its work. To learn more about the summit, please visit Entrepreneurs in Residence Information Summit.
• Wow, it ain't beautiful!!

01/31/2012: Irish Lobbyist Anxious to See Irish E-3 Visa Bill Coming on the Senate Floor This Week

• As the showdown is inching close to the floor of the Senate, Irish community is anxious to see the fruit of their efforts soon. Read on and on and on.

01/30/2012: USCIS Stakeholder Teleconference on Consular Notification Process By Service Centers on Immigrant and Non-immigrant Approvals as Related to Visa Issuance

• This Stakeholder Teleconference is scheduled for Wednesday, February 1, 2012 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm EST. The Vermont Service Center will host the February teleconference with assistance from the California Service Center with the topic of: “Consular Notification Process on Immigrant and Non-immigrant Approvals as Related to Visa Issuance.”
• For details of participation, please click here.

01/30/2012: DHS Ombudsman Office Teleconference on L-1B "Specialized Knowledge" Adjudications by USCIS

• This teleconference is scheduled on Tuesday, February 7, 2012,2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST. This teleconference will give an opportunity to learn about the experiences of employers filing L1-B nonimmigrant petitions with USCIS. The L-1B classification allows an employer to petition for an employee who has "specialized knowledge" of the employer's products, services, research, equipment, techniques, management, or other interests and its application in international markets, or expertise in the employer's processes and procedures, from a qualified affiliated entity outside the United States. The Ombudsman's Office would like to hear about multi-national corporate employers' experiences with USCIS adjudications of "specialized knowledge" filings. For details, please click here.
• With reference to this teleconference, readers are advised that the State Department has just lanunch a final rule making process on "Issuance of Full Validity L Visas to Qualified Applicants." No details of this final rule is available at this time. As soon as we learn the details, we will post it.

01/30/2012: Reported List of Lobbyists Involved in H.R. 3012

• As the H.R. 3012 bill is likely to come up sooner or later on the Senate floor in the form of motion to proceed, followed by motion to cloture to break filibuster of Sen. Grassley, one wonders what stakeholders are involved in lobbying relating to this bill. Obviously, it is strongly backed by the business community, particularly in the west and south coasts, but this report shows a list of organizations have been working behind this bill. It is interesting to notice the two leading immigration stakeholder organizations of American Immigration Lawyers Association and NAFSA. The list represents lobbying in 2011 without any specifics. If these organizations support the bill, it will be a tremendous support to the bill's sponsor.

01/29/2012: Mushrooming EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Pilot Program

• As the country focuses on flow of foeign investment into this country and increase of foreign business traffic into this country, there have been noticeable government actions to promote and boost such traffics. The latter traffic promotion programs are particularly actively pushed by the U.S. Department of State using change in the visitor visa processing and Senator Chuck Shumer's legislative proposal to entice inflow of rich foreigners. The former actions have been pushed by the USCIS through the EB-5 immigrant investor program. The Regional Centers alone, the number has grown to 217. As for the investment immigration, there are other traditional investment immigration programs that are restricted to the nationals of coutries that have investement treaty with this country. For the latter program, the two most growing economic powers in Asia, China and India, do not have such investment treaty with this country and investors from those countries are actively seeking investment immigration opportunities through the Regional Centers programs that do not require investment treaty with this country under the immigration statutes. Traditional immigrant investor program is focused on small businesses, while the investment in Regional Center program is focused on equity investment in medium or large business ventures.

01/28/2012: Up-to-Date Report of Irish S. 1983 Lobby to Secure 60 Votes in the Senate to Break Sen. Grassley's Potential Filibuster

• Irish community appears to work hard in a fashion of all court pressing in support of the Senator Schumer bill, S. 1983, according to the Irish Central news report today. In a way, this can also be a good news for the H. R. 3012 supporters in that they can enjoy double dipping in the event that the stand-alone H.R. 3012 fails on the Senate floor, even though there is no information available about the Irish lobbyists' action on the stand-alone H.R. 3012. Should S. 1983 pass in the Senate, the bill should face some problem in the House because of the undocumented Irish relief provision. This site will keep monitoring the move in the Irish community. In the meantime, please click here (page 40) to learn how Irish government is involved and concerned.

01/27/2012: ICE Publishes 01/27/2011 SEVP Spotlight January 2012 Edition

• Read on.

01/27/2012: Top Ten (10) H-1B Users in Year 2011

• As usual, the Computerworld obtained this information from the USCIS and has published. Read on.

01/27/2012: Will Advocates of Stand-Alone H.R. 3012 Alienate Irish Supporters?

• Irish support of the elimination of per country limit in employment-based immigration system is obviously conditioned upon their Irish E-3 visa legislation being attached to the H.R.3012. In other words, Irish community is supporting the Senate bill which is sponsored by Sen. Schumer tacking their E-3 visa legislation on the text of H.R. 3012 and not the House bill H.R. 3012 itself. From the perspectives of the Irish community, passage of the stand-alone H.R. 3012 implies a requiem for their Irish E-3 visa legislation. For the reasons, advocates of the stand-alone H.R. 3012 can take a risk of alienating their ally, Irish community, that can potentially work against the passage of the stand-alone H.R. 3012 bill in the Senate. Something to think about for the advocates of legislation to eliminate per country limit in the employment-based immigration. Wishful thinking can blind one from seeing the reality and importance of compromise and negotiation in the legislative process. Elimination of per country limit is important from the perspectives of fairness. It is just the reality of process of legislation in this country which the advocates should not ignore.

01/26/2012: Irish Lobby Update - White House Meeting Results

• Read on. This lobby is for the Senate bills, one of which includes the text of H.R. 3012, and a longer shot activity unlike the H.R. 3012 bill itself in the current Senate legislative calendars.

01/26/2012: H.R. 3012 in the Senate

• The Senate convened today to take care of Motion to Proceed to H.J. Res. 98 (Relating to the disapproval of the President's exercise of authority to increase the debt limit). The motion was not agreed to by vote of 44-52 today. The legislative calendar number for H.J. Res. 98 is 294, while the legislative calendar number for H.R. 3012 is 293. Sometimes a bill is passed in the Senate by unaimous consent without vote if both sides of aisle agree to the bill. No one can however imagine such scenario at this point. The Senate floor monitor indicates that no motion to proceed for H.R. 3012, General Calendar 293, has thus far been presented on the floor. Senate's session will continue until 5:00 p.m. (est) during when Senators are permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each without any votes, and curretly each Seantor is speaking about the issues they currently have passion for.
• There were two or three other bills which were voted but H.R. 3012 was not taken up. Senator Dick Durbin passionately talked about importance of DREAM Act legislation, but it appears no one spoke up H.R. 3012. One might have hoped that Sen. Mike Lee, the sponsor of the companion bill of H.R. 3012, could have said something about the importance of legislation to remove per country limit in the immigration statute, but there is no information that he did. Senate ten adjourned until Monday, 01/30/2012 with Sen. Harry Reid announcing the Monday schedule of debate on Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 2038, the STOCK Act and vote on the motion at 5:30 PM, Monday.
• Well, for now, for both pros and cons of H.R. 3012, they can at least enjoy a peaceful weekend.

01/25/2012: USCIS Processing Time Update of January 25, 2012

• See our home page. Please note that it is posted today, 01/25/2012, but the processing time data is as of the end of November 2011, about two months back. In H-1B cases, California Service Center was within the target timeframe of two months but Vermont Service Center was experiencing substantial backlog. In immigrant cases, Nebraska Service Center was within the target timeframe for both I-140 and I-485, but Texas Service Center was experiencing a backlog in both I-140 and I-485.

01/25/2012: USCIS Q&A on Use of VIBE Online Data Provided by Dun and Broadstreet (D&B)

• USCIS has been using online data which are commercially made available by a company named D&B in processing cetain employment-based applications, I-129, I-140, and I-360 to collect and check information provided by the employers. Selectively they then either issue RFE or NOID based on the VIBE check. According to this Q&A, they do not necessarily issue RFE in all cases. However, there have been a few reports that raised some concerns with the legal issues and practical issues. Attorneys reported that the private and commercial entity sometimes called the employers or their representatives asking information or questions, apparently as authorized by the government to do that. This raises some issues on legality of such authorization under the privacy act. There have also been reports of problems of practicality in nature. For multinational corporations, the employers must prove their relationships and other information on their foreign subsidiaries or parents in such proceeding as L-1 intracompany transferee petitions and certain other immigrant petitions. Unfortunately, D&B does not collect international entities information regularly unless the foreign businesses or their related U.S. businesses regularly report to the D&B voluntarily. Therefore, there have been some instances where the VIBE check indicated and learned that there was no information available about the relationship between international businesses and U.S. businesses on the database and for obvious reasons the agency had to issue RFEs.
• We are certain that along the way, the USCIS will address various issues involved in VIBE program in the future.

01/25/2012: Senate Out of Session Today - H.R. 3012 Supporters Anxiously Awaiting Taking Up of Calendar 293 Bill on the Floor

• The H.R. 3012 is on the Senate Calendar 293 which has to be taken up on the Senate floor with Motion to Proceed/Motion to Cloture to see the light at the end of tunnel for the supporters of this bill. Please stay tuned to this website for the progress of this bill in the Senate.

01/25/2012: HHS Poverty Guidelines for 2012

• The HHS has been releasing update of Poverty Guidelines early each year. Based on the HHS Poverty Guidelines, USCIS and DOS have been releasing their implementation dates multiflying by 125% of the HHS Poverty Guideline income figures. USCIS will officially release it as its Poverty Guidelines for immigration on its website, usually followed by the DOS release of the same on its website to implement in the non employment-based immigrant visa processing. The USCIS poverty guidelines are crucial for the family-based immigration proceedings since the sponsor of the family-based immigration of their relatives must prove in the form of I-864 Affidavit of Support that they have minimum of such income to execute I-864 and sponsor immigrant petition for their relatives. We expect that the new I-864 Poverty Guidelines may be issued and implemented in the near future, probably in February. Please stay tuned.

01/25/2012: Rep. Rivera of Florida Introduces H.R. 3823 on 01/24/2012 to Grant Residency Status to DREAMERs

• This is a hybrid DREAM Act bill, named Adjusted Residency for Military Service Act, which proposes long-time undocumented youngsters who landed in this country as children accompanying their undocumented alien parents. For details, please read the bill.

01/25/2012: Sen. Chuck Schumer Asks DHS to Grant Deferred Action Relief to Those Whose Deportation Cases Have Been Administratively Closed per Ongoing Prioritization of Prosecution Review

• The letter of Sen. Schumer which would be handed over to the Secretary of DHS and ICE Director asks that "any individual who is granted an administrative closure as part of your prosecutorial discretion initiative is essentially being conferred the ability to remain in the United States for at least one year. If a small number of individuals are being permitted to remain in the United States for one year, this one year status should also contain the ability to work. That is why I respectfully ask you to confer the status of deferred action for a one-year period to the immigrants you identify as meriting an award of prosecutorial discretion due to deep roots and family ties in the United States. Deferred action also has the additional advantage of not requiring DHS to waste resources potentially rounding up individuals it has just given prosecutorial discretion to—only to give these individuals prosecutorial discretion again—squandering enforcement resources that should have been expended on other higher-priority foreign nationals requiring removal."
• The relief of Deferred Action is a more traditional relief that has been granted to those who were found deportable but the INS/DHS is authorized to defer the enforcement of deportation action due to extreme humanitarian concerns involved and equitable considerations. This reporter reported earlier his own experience of seeking the relief of deferred action for a woman who was married to an American GI in Korea and had accompanied her husband who was killed by the communists in the demilitarized zone in Korea to the U.S. to bury him in his home town. Even though she had two minor children born of the marriage in the U.S., for fear of her leaving him, her husband never filed immigrant petition for her, pretending however that he filed and was waiting for the decision. The American consulate in Korea gave the woman only one month visitor's visa to enter the U.S. for her to carry her dead husband and when one month passed, she fell out of status and faced enforcement action despite of two minor U.S. citizen children. This is the classical type of humanitarian concerns the deferred action relief was instituted in the immigration policy and the agency has been granting such relief from time to time. The deferred action relief includes grant of employment authorization. Even though it does not give a legal status in this relief, it allows such peope to live a normal life of staying and working in the country. Sen. Schumer is asking to extend the relief to undocumented aliens, mostly Hispanics, who have been determined beneficiary of administrative closure of enforcement action under the ongoing Obama and DHS enforcement prioritization policy. Absent comprehensive immigration reform, such relief can give a room for certain undocumented aliens to breath a fresh air. Without doubt, the most typical group of such relief would be DREAMERs.

01/23/2012: H.R. 3012 Update in the U.S. Senate

• The Senate convened today. In the today's session, H.R. 3012 (Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011) was read for a second time. Further readings were objected to and the bill was placed on the calendar. In a way, it is a positive news to see resolution of this bill soon. It is interesting to see whether Sen. Harry Reid, Majority Leader, will introduce Motion to Cloture to break the potential filibuster by Senator Chuck Grassley.

01/23/2012: Six Months Move-Up of EB-2 Cut-Off Date Possible in March 2012 Visa Bulletin?

• AILA reports that according to Mr. Oppenheim of Visa Bureau of DOS, he does not have exact prediction for March, but because of the unusual slow demand by the USCIS, upto six months move-up may be possible, even though one-year move-up may not be likely. Reportedly, at this time, they have used up 34% of total FY 2013 visa numbers and must use upto 45% by the end of February 2012. After such rapid progression, depending on the demand, they will have to decide whether the cut-off dates should remain in stay-put or even retrogress during the Summer.

01/23/2012: USICE 01/17/2012 Information on Timing of Getting Driver’s License or Social Security Number for Foreign Students

• This material will be very helpful and important for the foreign students and this reporter encourages them to read this material. Read on.

01/23/2012: USICE Releases 01/09/2012 the Updated List of Foreign Students Sponsorship (SEVIS) Schools as of 01/12/2012

01/23/2012: USICE Considers Potential Options to Current 29-Month STEM OPT Program

• It is known that the ICE has been reviewing the current 29-month OPT program to consider other options in order to spur the STEM OPT students continuing contribution to the nation's economy. The STEM OPT students are considered valuable resources for the nation's competitive edge. Options being considered appear either no action or further extension of the OPT. This is a long haul review process of the policy change and STEM opt students may not see any changes to the current 29-month OPT program in the near future, but it is a positive sign that the government values STEM OPT students and look into options to keep them in this country longer. Please stay tuned.

01/23/2012: Apparent No Change in the USCIS Intent to Propose Certain H-4 EAD

• We reported earlier that the USCIS was considering employment authorization to H-4 dependent spouses of principal H-1B nonimmigrants who have begun the process of seeking lawful permanent resident status through employment and have extended their authorized period of admission or "stay" in the U.S. under AC-21 104(c) three-year increment H-1B extension upon approval of I-140 petition or AC-21 106(a) one-year increment H-1B extension upon filing of foreign labor certification application (so-called 7th year extension rule) in order to encourage the H-1B professionals with high demand skills to remain in the country and help spur the innovation and growth of U.S. companies. It appears there is no change for this plan and may be initiate the rule-making process soon. Currently the spouses of multi-national corporation's intra-company transferee (L-1) visa spouses are given EAD if they want to work to encourage international business for the economic growth of this country. Please stay tuned.

01/23/2012: USCIS AAO Considers Reform of Motion and Appeal Procedures and Requirements for Efficiency

• USCIS AAO has been experiencing backlogs and delays in processing benefit application denial reopen-reconsider motions and appeals due to the limited resources as well as some flaws in the current motion/appeal procedures. The USCIS is considering reform of the current procedure this year. Please stay tuned to this website for the upcoming release of the reform plan details.

01/23/2012: Push-Off of USCIS Final Rule-Making of H-1B Cap Online Pre-Registration Program to Next Fiscal Year

• In October 2011, the USCIS Director announced that the USCIS initial plan to launch the requirement for online pre-registration of H-1B cap petitions in 2012 would be delayed since the agency needed additional time to look into the details. According to the new rule-making calendar of the USCIS, the final-rule of this program will be pushed off at least until October 2012. It is thus obvious that the employers filing FY 2013 H-1B cap filing beginning from April 1, 2012 will not have to go through the online pre-pregistration of the H-1B petitions for the FY 2013 H-1B cap petitions.

01/21/2012: State Department Moves for Capitalizing on Visa Demand to Spur Economic Growth in the United States

• As related to the Visa Pilot Program which we reported yesterday, the State Department recognizes that inefficient and ineffective visa application processing can pose a bottleneck for the country's economic growth and takes an action to spur incoming international human traffic flows. Unfortunately, it appears that the action totally focuses on the visitor traffics. However, one cannot deny the importance of foreign workers and foreign brains traffic to the economic growth of this country. Currently, important foreign worker visas such as H-1B and L-1 face identical issues and we hope that the State Department authorities pay an equal attention to the issues and take an action to remove bottlenecks for these foreign worker nonimmigrant visa applications. Currently, these nonimmigrants experience delays in their visa applications at the visa posts for the issues which have already been thoroughly scrutinized and resolved by the USCIS. Some of the overlapping scrutiny in the visa application adjudication process at the visa posts may be justified for the "national security," but when it comes to the "integrity" issues, the visa posts should give due deference to the decisions of the USCIS and remove the overlapping adjudication process in the visa application adjudication process to speed up the foreign worker traffics. Having said that, we salute leaders of the State Department for their ongoing initiatives to remove the bottlenecks for international human traffics.

01/20/2012: PERM Site Outage Alert Change

• OFLC will not conduct the system maintenance on 01/23/2012 and the site has removed this alert. The site outage will take place only on 01/20/2012 between 7:30 pm and 11:00 pm EST.

01/20/2012: USCIS Schedules a First Chinese Language Engagement Session in San Francisco Field Office 02/16/2012 at 10:30AM - 12:00PM (Pacific Standard Time)

• This is reportedly the first such Chinese language engagement session. This session is to focus on the naturalization procedures and requirement. Chinese people can participate in the session either in person or by telephone. For details, please click here.

01/20/2012: State Department Visa Pilot Program Implementing Just Released President's Executive Order - Interview Waiver for B-2 Visa Renewal for Qualified Visitors

• The State Department initiate changes visitor's visa application process in line with the Executive Order by waiving interview requirement for visitor's visa renewal in select circumstances. Under the initiative, qualified foreign visitors who were interviewed and thoroughly screened in conjunction with a prior visa application may be able to renew their visas without undergoing another interview. Eliminating interviews for these applicants will save them time and money and encourage them to choose the United States again as their tourism destination. It will also free visa posts resources to interview more first-time applicants. The pilot program will streamline visa processing for certain low-risk applicants, such as individuals renewing expired visas, or some categories of younger or older first-time applicants. The State Department expects that this will benefit tens of thousands of applicants in Brazil and China, saving them time and money, and encouraging them to choose to visit the United States again. However, given that national security remains this Administration’s highest priority, individuals identified as higher-risk will remain subject to interviews — in addition to the full screening and review all visa applicants receive. This will make it much easier for many Chinese tourists to renew their visas — a group that spends more than $6,000 per person, per trip, according to the Department of Commerce. Over the course of the year, this policy could open as many as 100,000 interview appointments for Chinese travelers applying for visas for the first time. That increase in tourism could support as many as 1,500 travel and tourism-related jobs.
• This initiatives will help for this country to lure Chinese tourists and visitors who are given a tourist visa for limited entries. This initiative may not affect too much for those visitors from countries whose nationals are issued a long-term visa such as 10-year visa.

01/20/2012: DOL Seeks OMB Clearance for Revision of LCA Form, ETA 9035 and ETA 9035E

• This notice, which will be published next Monday, intends to revise the forms. However, the revisions might not affect the current LCA either procedurally or substantively because it would bring only two minor changes., adding an acknowledgement sheet for Form ETA 9035 and ETA-9035E and removes appendix materials that are now obsolete. Nothing to worry about.

01/19/2012: White House Relases Today Executive Order -- Establishing Visa and Foreign Visitor Processing Goals and the Task Force on Travel and Competitiveness

• Read on.
• In order to improve visa and foreign visitor processing and travel promotion, the following are ordered:
  • The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary, maintain an interagency process for coordinating the implementation of regulatory improvements and the evaluation of legislative proposals to enhance and expedite travel to and arrival in the United States by foreign nationals, consistent with national security requirements.
  • Secretaries of DOS and DHS shall develop an implementation plan, within 60 days of the date of this order, describing actions to be undertaken, including those that build upon efforts underway, to achieve the following:
    • (i) increase nonimmigrant visa processing capacity in China and Brazil by 40 percent over the coming year;
    • (ii) ensure that 80 percent of nonimmigrant visa applicants are interviewed within 3 weeks of receipt of application, recognizing that resource and security considerations and the need to ensure provision of consular services to U.S. citizens may dictate specific exceptions;
    • (iii) increase efforts to expand the Visa Waiver Program and travel by nationals of Visa Waiver Program participants; and
    • (iv) expand reciprocal recognition programs for expedited travel, such as the Global Entry program.
    • This plan should also identify other appropriate measures that will enhance and expedite travel to and arrival in the United States by foreign nationals, consistent with national security requirements, as well as any potential challenges in achieving the stated goals of this subsection.
  • Seretaries of DOS and DHS shall, within 180 days of the date of this order, and periodically thereafter, jointly submit a report to the President describing the progress on achieving the goals set forth in this section (as well as areas of concern or barriers to achieving those goals) to ensure the country remains secure while increasing travel and tourism to the United States.
  • The Secretary of Commerce shall establish and maintain a publicly available website that provides updated metrics from across the Federal Government to assist industry and travelers in understanding the current status of the industry and its relevance to the economy, statistics on visa processes in key travel and tourism markets, and entry times into the United States
• For additional and other details, please read the full text of the order.

01/19/2012: iCERT Site Outage Alert

• Office of Foreign Labor Certification has issued an alert that due to regular system maintenance, the iCERT System will be unavailable Friday, January 20, 2012 between 7:30 pm and 11:00 pm EST.
• Hmm............................. Something smelly. Are they moving PERM site to iCERT portal system??? Let's wait and see.

01/19/2012: PERM Site Outage Alert

• Office of Foreign Labor Certification has issued an alert that Permanent Online System will be unavailable on Friday, January 20, 2012 between 7:30 pm and 11:00 pm EST for scheduled system maintenance. It is encouraged that time-sensitive applications be submitted in advance of the system maintenance. Applications submitted immediately following the maintenance should be reviewed for accuracy and any anomalies immediately reported to the help desk.
• We has also posted another alert that the PERM site will not be avalable on Monday, January 23, 2012 between 8:00 am to 10:00 am (EST) for scheduled system maintanance.
• Hmm................. Anything is cooking in PERM filing system??

01/19/2012: ECFMG Notice for IMGs on Outage of its Online Services

• ECFMG announces that due to scheduled maintenance, ECFMG's on-line services will be unavailable from approximately 6:00 p.m. through approximately 8:00 p.m. (EST) on January 24, 2012. During this maintenance period, IMGs will not be able to access any of ECFMG's on-line services. For details visit www.ecfmg.org/online-services/index.html.
  

01/19/2012: DHS Corrected Notice of Salvadoran TPS Designation Extension and Automatic Extension of EAD

• The corrected information is as follows: The 18-month extension of the TPS designation of El Salvador is effective March 10, 2012 and will remain in effect through September 9, 2013. The 60-day reregistration period begins January 9, 2012 and will remain in effect through March 12, 2012. The USCIS is expected to announce such correction on its website soon. Current announcement shows March 9, 2012 as the ending date of re-registration.

01/19/2012: Office of Foreign Labor Certifications Releases PERM Statistics for the First Quarter of FY 2012 [October, November, and December 2011]

• This statistics was released as of January 3, 2012 and similar to the figures which they released to the stakeholders on January 6, 2012.

01/19/2012: USCIS I-140 Processing Statistics at the End of November 2011

01/19/2012: USCIS I-485 :Processing Statistics at the End of November 2011

01/18/2012: USCIS Releases its Press Conference Transcript of 01/06/2012 on "USCIS to Propose Changing the Process for Certain Waivers on Unlawful Presence"

• This press conference transcript answers to some questions on the recent release of USCIS intent to propose a regulation on the stateside processing of certain undocumented aliens to minimize the time of forced family separation. Readers can also read Questions and Answers on this program.

01/17/2012: USCIS Interim Policy Memo for Comment on "The Role of Private Attorneys and Other Representatives"

• This Policy Memorandum was released on 01/17/2012 for comment, but this memorandum is in effect for the adjudicators. This memorandum requires that when G-28 is filed for attorney representation, the form must be signed by the client and attorney cannot sign the form on behalf of the attorney. Read on.

01/17/2012: DHS New List of Countries Whose Nationals Are Eligible to Participate in the H-2A and H-2B Nonimmigrant Worker Programs

• This notice announces that the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is identifying 58 countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B programs for the coming year. New countries on this year’s list include Haiti, Iceland, Montenegro, Spain, and Switzerland. Under the DHS regulation, the USCIS has to publish notice each year the revised list of eligible countries. This new notice will take effect on January 18, 2012, and will go out of effect at the end of one year after January 18, 2012. Read on.
• Please also see the USCIS announcement.

01/16/2012: Union Representing ICE Agents Reportedly Slowing DHS Process of Prosecutorial Discretion Review of Undocumented Aliens

• One of the important administrative fix of the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform by the Obama Administration is the so-called prioritization of removal of certain undocumented aliens of criminal and other law violation records and exercise of prosecutorial discretion in favor of those undocumented aliens who violated immigration laws by crossing the borders or overstaying in the U.S. with or without intent of violation of the immigration law with no violation of other laws or with a high level equitable and humanitarian concerns. DREAMERs are part of this group. This action of the Obama Administration has been welcome by the Hispanic community and accused by the Republicans as an election year strategies to woo the support of the Hispanic community. Currently, the DHS is reportedly reviewing a large number of undocumented aliens, especially those in removal proceedings and immigration court proceedings to determine who should be removed in priority and who should be saved from immigration prosecution.
• CBS reports that this review currently faces a fight with the ICE agent union that raises disagreement with the DHS in the review process. No details are available about this report.

01/16/2012: NAFSA Summary of OFLC Foreign Labor Certification Stakeholder Meeting 01/06/2012

• NAFSA is the Association of International Educators with 10,000 DSO and higher learning instutions members. NAFSA attended the OFLC stakeholder meeting on January 6, 2012 and published its summary of the discussions at the meeting. With gratitude, this reporter is happy to publish the meeting summary to share information with other stakeholders and skilled employment-based immigrant community members who do not have access to this information. This information is very important for the employers hiring foreign workers and skilled foreign workers because the leaders of the Office of Foreign Labor Certifications updated the status of their processing of foreign labor certification applications as of January 3, 2012. Read on.

01/14/2012: DHS Office of Inspector General January 2012 Report on Effects of USCIS Adjudication Procedures and Policies on Fraud Detection by Immigration Services Officers

• After the current USCIS Director took the office, Mr. Mayorkas has worked hard to improve the standards and processing times of applications towards the goal of reducing processing times. Reportedly this has been taken as a pressure on adjudicators to loosen up the adjudication standards to achieve production in a reduced period of time. Thus there were reports in the media not too long ago that there had been developing a friction between the leadership and field office ISOs leading to some whistleblowers within the agency. In October 2010, Senator Chuck Grassley wrote a letter to the USCIS Director, the Inspector General of DHS, and the Secretary of DHS addressing his concern of potential compromise of integrity and national security in the current adjudication procedures as affected by the pressure from higher-ups to process applications in a reduced time and a less strict adjudication manner. This Inspector General's Report is produced in respense to the Senator's pressure after the IG's investigation of the USCIS practice of adjudication of applications. Overall conclusion of this report appears that there is no visible compromise of integrity and national security in the current practice but the IG is recommending to remove such pressure on the adjudicators from higher-ups. The immigration stakeholders and immigrant community have wondered what was causing delay in releasing of the monthly processing time report by the USCIS on its website. This IG report may give part of the answers to the ongoing delay in release of the monthly processing times report. Without doubt, this IG report will lead to delays in processing times of applications and tightening of adjudication process under increased microscope of adjudicator's decision making process.

01/13/2012: Target Republican Senators Picked by Irish Lobbysts for Support of S. 1983 Schumer Bill

• We reported earlier that supporters of S. 1983 that includes H.R. 3012 and Irish E-3 nonimmigrant visa needed at least seven (7) Republican Senators to break the potential filibuster by Sen. Chuck Grassley. Irish media is actively soliciting Irish community to contact the following Senators:
  • Kentucky: Senator Mitch McConnell: 202-224-2541
    Maine: Senator Susan Collins: 202-224-2523
    Maine: Senator Olympia Snowe: 202-224-5344
    Alaska: Senator Murkowski: 202-224-666
    Indiana: Senator Lugar: 202-224-4814
    Arizona: Senator John McCain: 202-224-2235
    South Carolina: Senator Lindsey Graham: 202-224- 5972
    Ohio: Senator Rob Portman: 202-224-3353
    Florida: Senator Marco Rubio: 202-224-3041
    Massachusetts: Senator Scott Brown: 202-224-4543
    Pennsylvania: Senator Pat Toomey: 202-224-4254
    Illinois: Senator Mark Kirk: 202-224-2854
    New Hampshire: Senator Kelly Ayotte: 202-224-3324
    Iowa: Senator Chuck Grassley: 202-224-3744
    Texas: Senator John Cornyn: 202-224-2934
• This reporter understands that the H.R. 3012 lobbysts and supporters, including Indians, have been working hard to get seven Republican Senators. We are not sure whether they are targetting at the same Republican Senators, but time is running out and both communities must work hard to get their bill sailed through the Senate floor successfully as soon as the Senate returns to the session.

01/13/2012: USCIS Interim Policy Memorandum Extending Validity of I-693 Medical Report Pending I-485 at Least Through 01/01/2013

• Considering the delays in adjudication of I-485, USCIS has been issuing memorandum at the end of December each year that pending I-485, the medical examination report (I-693) which has been filed with I-485 will remain valid even beyond one year, at least through January 1 of the following year. Existing memorandum indeed expired on 01/01/2012. Thus, had there not been a new memorandum issued, all the I-693 which are on file with the USCIS would have expired and I-485 applicants would have to take new medical examination and file a new I-693 because without such memorandum, I-693 will remain valid only for one year. Following the tradition, the USCIS thus issued another memorandum at the end of 2011 extending the policy through January 1, 2013.
• What does this mean? Those who have filed and are waiting for the decisions of their I-485 do not have to resubmit I-693 every year, no matter how long in the past they took the immigration medical examination and submitted I-693.

01/13/2012: Monday, January 16, 2011, National Holiday as Well as Federal Holiday

• This is a reminder that Monday is the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday. It is also a federal holiday and most of the federal offices will remain closed. Accordingly, this weekend marks a long holiday for the federal employees. Those who face a deadline should know that since the government offices will remain closed, mail or overnight delivery of any applications or evidence to the government offices will not be available. Just a reminder.

01/13/2012: PERM Site Outage Alert

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certifications has issued the following alert: The Permanent Online system will be unavailable on Monday, January 23, 2012 between 8:00 am and 10:00 am EST for scheduled system maintenance. It is encouraged that time-sensitive applications be submitted in advance of the system maintenance. Applications submitted immediately following the maintenance should be reviewed for accuracy and any anomalies immediately reported to the help desk.

01/13/2012: OFLC Updates PERM Processing Times as of 01/05/2012

• Last update was released on 01/04/2012. The lastest release of 01/05/2012 updates the Audit track progress of processing time from April 2011 to June 2011 as follows. Cases in other tracks remain same between 01/04/2012 and 01/05/2012.
  • Analyst Reviews (Clean-Cut) Cases: Applications received in October 2011
  • Audit Cases: Applications received in June 2011
  • Reconsideration (CO) Cases: Applications received in April 2010
  • Government Error Cases: Current
• Lately, Atlanta National Processing Center appears catching up with the Audit track cases.

01/13/2012: OFLC June 2011 PERM Fact Sheet

• It reported that there had been a 63% increase in cases filed FY 2011 over cases filed in FY 2010. As for the education requirement in the PERM applications, professional occupations took 74% of total applications, 37% requiring Master's degree and 37% requiring Bachelor's degree. When it comes to EB-2 level applications, it should be more than 37% since some of the cases that required a Bachelor's degree could also have required five years of experience and when these cases moved to the I-140 stage, the cases could have been filed as EB-2 cases. The Audit rate was reported at 29% as of 05/31/2011, but since then the audit rate has increased substantially as the employers and foreign workers out there know it by now. On top of that, increased number of cases have been turned into the "Supervised Recruitment" track, causing delays and increased cost for advertisements.

01/13/2012: CBP Information Sheet of 01/11/2012 on TN Visa Application and Admission Process for Canadians

• Canadians may read this information sheet.

01/12/2012: Update Report of Irish Lobby for Schumer S. 1983

• Irish news media reports today its lobbying activities to solicit support of S. 1983 which includes H.R. 3012 version and Irish E-3 nonimmigrant visas for legal and illegal Irish. They are and will continuously drum up their lobby campaigns during next few weeks to find seven (7) Republican Senators to support this bill. Reportedly, Schumer stated that he had 53 votes in the Democratic caucus in the Senate who had agreed to vote for the bill. This is somewhat promising news for H.R. 3012 supporters. As we reported earlier, the supporters of H.R. 3012 and S. 1983 should increase their efforts to get one of these bills passed in the Senate as soon as the Senate return late this month. Otherwise, the chances for success will turn slimmer and slimmer because of changing political landscape involving the national election strategies. Please stay tuned.

01/11/2012: State Department Cable 01/04/2012 Revising NAFTA Procedures for Mexicans

• Mexicans seeking TN admission to the U.S. should read and familiarize themselves with the revised NAFTA procedures which are in place for Mexicans.

01/11/2012: CBP Standards for Accepting and Adjudicating Canadian L-1 Petitions at the Northern Borders Under the NAFTA

• The CBP guidelines for processing of I-129 L-1 visa petitions was written on January 3, 2012 and released for the public on January 10, 2012. This guidance appliance only to the Canadian nationals applying for admission to the U.S. on L-1 petition filed with the posts in the Northern Border. L-1 employers hiring Canadians on L-1 visa status and the Canadian L-1 admission applicants at the border should read and familiarized with this CBP Guidance.

01/11/2012: Potential Implication of Appointment of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Advocate Cecilia Muñoz to the White House Top Position of Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

• Muñoz's appointment to the White House's top domestic policy position is considered a signal to Hispanic voters that Obama has not given up on immigration reform, despite the lack of progress in his first term, according to a report. Even though the immigrant community may not see immediate impact of this appointment on immigration legislation, without doubt, this will affect, in one way or another, the White House's position on pending and future immigration reform policy and direction for immigration legislation in the Congress. Recent report of the White House internal struggle on CIR between the First Lady, who is an advocate of CIR, and the former White House Chief of Staff and current Mayor of Chicago, who had been known to have a different position, may also have some level of connection to the Obama's position on immigration in coming months, regardless of its implication on the November election strategy. It may be interesting to watch whether it will impact one way or another the Democrat's position in the Senate on the pending H.R. 3012. Traditionally the comprehensive immigration reform advocates have been opposing piecemeal immigration reform, particularly employment-based immigration reform, from their position that such piece-meal immigration reform legislation will weaken the chances for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. In order to accomodate Democrat's such dynamic position, Rep. Chaffetz accomodated increase in family-based immigrant visa per country limit and three-year phase-in arrangement for elimination of the employment-based per country limitation in the bill and was able to obtain support from the two strongest Democrat CIR advocate members of the House, Rep. Luis Gutierez and Rep. Zoe Lofgren as co-sponsors of the bill. Please stay tuned to this website for the development. Remember that this is a national election year. Most of the coming legislative bills will have some implication for the Presidential election strategies of each party.

01/11/2012: Follow-Up Information of Termination of Channai Immigrant Visa Processing Jurisdiction

• As we reported earlier, the Chennai Consulate released a notice on its website that it would no longer processing of immigrant visa application effective 01/01/2012. Please see our posting of 01/05/2012. AILA reports that December 30, 2011 was the last day for Immigrant Visa interviews at U.S. Consulate General Chennai. However, an immigrant who has a pending immigrant visa application with the Chennai office and were requested to provide additional documents before the Chennai Consulate suspended the immigrant visa processing on 01/01/2011, they should contact the U.S. Consulate General Chennai using e-mail at ChennaiIVU@state.gov. It reports that pending applications will be processed in Chennai through March 30, 2012 and any pending applications which have not been completed by March 30, 2012 will be transferred to Mumbai office. Beware!

01/11/2012: USCIS Announcement of Salvadoran TPS Extension Registration Schedule

• The official notice was published in the federal register today.

01/10/2012: El Salvador TPS Designation Extension for 18 Months & Automatic Extension of EAD for Six Months

• This notice will be published in the federal register tomorrow, extending designation of TPS for the nationals of El Salvador for 18 months through March 9, 2012. The automatic EAD extension for the re-registering current Salvadoran EAD will be in effect until 09/09/2012. For details, read the advance copy of the notice.

01/10/2012: USCIS Schedules a Engagement Session at 02:00 p.m. (EST) Today to Discuss Just Released Notice of Intent on 601 Waiver of Inadmissibility of Undocumented Immediate Family Members of U.S. Citizens for Their Stateside Immigrant Visa Applications

• This initiative which is considered an administrative fix of immigration problems to achieve family unification for U.S. citizens is probably the first effort of the Obama Administration to fix ailing immigration system. There is another program, known as Prioritization of Immigration Enforcement and Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law Enforcement, which is in a way administrative fix as well, but this program was conceived quite some time back in its history. Currently anti-immigration forces are drumming up their campaign to label these administrative fixes as amnesty of undocumented aliens which are motivated by the current Administration to gain Hispanic support in the coming national election in November this year. Obviously, these administrative fixes are not amnesty but it is true that these moves of the Obama Administration are welcome and received very favorably by the Hispanic community and their lobbyists at this time. The 601 waiver rule-making is likely to take a while before it is enacted into an enforceable regulation and when the Congress returns, there will be a loud noise of "Quack, Quack, Quack" all over in the Hill.
• Public is invited to participate in the today' session either in person or by telephone, but it may be too late for those who learn this through this posting. For details, please click here.

01/10/2012: Continuing Struggle and Frustration for Irish E-3 Bill Lobby

• The report indicates that unless this bill is taken care of early on, the Congress's attetion will most likely be directed to other anticipated forthcoming immigration bills including some comprehensive-level immigration relief bills, probably including DREAM, and extension of legislations which expire at the end of September 2012 such as Conrad 30 for foreign medical doctors's J visa foreign residency requirement waiver programs at the state levels, EB-5 Regional Center Pilot program for investment immigration program, and EB-4 non-minister religious worker special immigration and R nonimmigrant visa programs. These threee programs have gone through legislative struggles every three years as the Congress has extended these laws only for three years at a time. On top of these, agriculture community that has been facing migrant farm worker shortage problems is likely to pump up their lobbying efforts to push their bills into one of highest priority immigration legislative bills. Current Irish community frustration, according to the report, stems from failure of other Senators to join the Irish E-3 visa bills as co-sponsors of the bills despite their push. Read on.

01/08/2012: DHS Inspector General Report of USCIS Progress in Transformation

• As readers are aware of, the USCIS initially announced to launch the transformation program beginning from I-539 applications at the end of December 2011. However, the USCIS announced afterwards that the schedule has been delayed. The DHS Inspector General released its audit report of the USCIS transformation program in November 2011 confirming delays in implementation of the transformation program (online account-based filing, processing, and management of applications) with recommendations to fix some inherent problems with the program to abate current problem of processing delays of paper applications and its inability to perform sufficiently the required integrity and security work in processing of applications.
• Readers must have noticed that the USCIS has been delaying updating monthly processing times of petitions and applications on its website for unknown reasons. The national trend and volume of the USCIS processing of applications reflect a growing backlog lately. Consumers must have noticed that nowadays applications and petitions have been taking longer time. Forthcoming update of the monthly processing time report may reflect such delays. It is hoped that the processing times be returned to earlier target for each type of application and petition in the near future. Part of the problem could have been derived from longer year-end holidays last year, limited resources, and last-minute flood of FY 2012 H-1B cap cases. On behalf of our readers, this reporter wants to express gratitude to the hard-working USCIS officials for taking care of tons of benefit applications during the stressful end-of-year season.

01/07/2012: Need for Administrative Fix of Employment-Based Immigration - Opportunity for Filing I-485 Applications Upon Approval of I-140 Petition During the Visa Number Regression

• Congress has been more or less dysfunctional in grid locks when it comes to immigration legislations to fix ailing immigration systems. As we reported yesterday, USCIS announced its intent to fix administratively part of family-based immigration problems, which should have been fixed by comprehensive immigration reform legislation, to help the immediate relatives of U. S. Citizens who had to endure forced separation for unnecessarily prolonged period of time because of the procedural hurdles. The stateside processing of waivers of inadmissibility would not change the current law in the substantive areas but at least would change it in the procedures such that the separated family members can be reunited in a short period of time. We salute the Obama Administration for this initiative and strongly support the action.
• We also encourage the Obama Administration to give equal attention to fix the ailing employment-based immigration system. During the Bush Administration, they considered the administrative fix plan in 26 areas in immigration and some of them have been implemented, including extension of OPT to 29 months for the STEM specialty graduates, expansion of TN nonimmigrant visas for Canadians from one-year to three years, etc. We understand that the Obama Administration had a plan to launch administrative fixes in several areas which have been blocked in political tangle. Now, they take a firm stand on fixing problems in family-based immigration areas. We submit that it is about time for them to stand up and launch administrative fix plans im employment-based sector as well to attract and retain needed foreign workers to strengthen the nation's competitiveness in the global economy. One of the fixes the country need which can be achieved without increasing the employment-based immigrant annual quota is known to be to expand the requirement for eligibility of EB-485 applications from the current rules requiring visa number availability to just approval of I-140 petition. By allowing I-485 filing to those whose need has been tested in the country's labor market through labor certification process and I-140 petition has been approved, these needed foreign workers would be able to continue a normal life contributing to the country's competitiveness as part of important work forces for the nation before and after approval of their I-485 applications. Such administrative fix will help the American businesses and research institutions tremendously.
• Reportedly, this idea was presented in the form of an article entitled "Tyranny of Priority Dates," written by attorneys Gary Endelman and Cyrus D. Mehta, which was reportedly sent to USCIS Director Mayorkas. It states that Mr. Mayorkas expressed interest in the ideas contained in Tyranny of Priority Dates at a stakeholder’s meeting between him and some of the members of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers (ABIL), which included Cyrus D. Mehta, on March 3, 2010, in Washington, D.C. It is about time for Mr. Mayorkas to relook at this concept and to assess feasibility of such administrative fix. The suggestion is summarized as follows: Even if INA § 245(a)(3) states that an adjustment of status application can only be filed if a visa number is immediately available, the USCIS has the flexibility to interpret this provision broadly since Congress did not define when a case is “filed,” leaving it to the informed exercise of agency discretion. The term “immediately available” need not be limited by a current priority date according to the visa bulletin. Instead, just like the State Department for the past 25 years has started processing an application for an immigrant visa prior to the priority date becoming current, the USCIS too could create a “provisional filing date” many years in advance of the priority date becoming current that would allow the adjustment application to be submitted but not approved. This would result in the applicant obtaining all of the benefits of such a filing, such as interim work and travel benefits along with the ability to exercise occupational mobility under INA§ 204(j).

01/07/2012: Agonizing Irish Community Over Irish Immigration Reform Caused by Two Conflicting Irish E-3 Visa Legislative Bills in the Senate

• Read on.

01/06/2012: Official February 2012 Visa Bulletin

• India and China EB-2 have moved to January 1, 2010.
• State Department Predictions for the coming months:
  • FAMILY-sponsored categories (monthly)
    • Worldwide dates:
    • F1: three to five weeks
    • F2A: one to two months
    • F2B: three to four weeks
    • F3: one to three weeks
    • F4: up to one month
  • EMPLOYMENT-based categories (monthly)
  • EB-1: Current
  • EB-2:
    • China and India: Reports from USCIS indicate that the rate of new filings for adjustment of status in recent months has been extremely low. This fact has required the continued rapid forward movement of the cut-off date, in an attempt to generate demand and maximize number use under the annual limit. Once the level of new filings or USCIS processing increases significantly, it will be necessary to slow or stop the movement of the cut-off. Readers are once again advised that an eventual need to retrogress the cut-off date is also a distinct possibility. [This reporter's note: According to our posting of 01/04/2012, in FY 2011, the USCIS received only 78,303 new EB-485 applications all together. Considering the fact that EB-485 takes about 85% of total annual EB visa numbers (other than a small number which are used by the visa posts outside of the country for immigrant visa proceedings taking about 15% of the total numbers), indeed, the rate of new filings for EB-485 was low. Besides, one cannot tell the number of EB-2 I-485 receipts out of total 78,303 until the forthcoming I-485 inventory data is released by the USCIS. Please stay tuned for USCIS release of the forthcoming USCIS EB-485 inventory data.]
  • EB-3:
    • Worldwide: up to one month
    • China: up to one month
    • India: up to two weeks
    • Mexico: up to one month
    • Philippines: up to one month
  • EB-4: Current
  • EB-5: Current
• Please be advised that the above ranges are only estimates for what could happen during each of the next few months based on current applicant demand patterns. The determination of the actual monthly cut-off dates is subject to fluctuations in applicant demand which can occur at any time. Those categories with a “Current” projection will remain so for the foreseeable future.

01/06/2012: Visa Bureau Releases Demand Data Used in the Detrmination of the February 2012 Employment-Based Cut-Off Dates

• State has just released this long awaited demand data.

01/06/2012: PERM Processing Times as of 01/04/2012

• Analyst Reviews (Clean-Cut) Cases: Applications received in October 2011
• Audit Cases: Applications received in April 2011
• Reconsideration (CO) Cases: Applications received in April 2010
• Government Error Cases: Current

01/06/2012: USCIS Infopass Online Appointment System Unavailable Tomorrow, 01/07/2011

• USCIS alerts that the InfoPass will be unavailable tomorrow, Saturday, January 7, 2011 from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST due to maintenance. Those who need to make an appointment to visit the local offices of the USCIS should make an appointment on Infopass before 6:00 a.m. tomorrow.

01/06/2012: Reminder of New Medical Examination Form I-693 Mandatory Effective 01/01/2012

• This is a reminder that civil surgeons must use the new version of the form, 10/11/2011 edition. If a medical exam completed on or after January 1, 2012 and is reported on the old form, USCIS will reject it and the applicant will have to go back to the civil surgeon to get the results documented on the new form. Beware.

01/06/2011: USCIS Proposes Provisional Waiver of Inadmissibility of Immediate Relatives of U.S. Citizens

• USCIS intends to change its current process for filing and adjudication of certain applications for waivers of inadmissibility filed in connection with an immediate relative immigrant visa application. Specifically, USCIS is considering regulatory changes that will allow certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to request provisional waivers under section 212(a)(9)(B)(v) of the INA of 1952, as amended, 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B)(v), prior to departing the United States for consular processing of their immigrant visa applications. An alien would be able to obtain such a waiver only if a Form I-130 is filed by a U.S. citizen on his or her behalf and that petition has been approved, thereby classifying the alien as an “immediate relative” for purposes of the immigration laws, and he or she demonstrates that the denial of the waiver would result in extreme hardship to the alien’s U.S. citizen spouse or parent “qualifying relative.” The qualifying relative for purposes of the waiver is not necessarily the immediate relative who filed the immigrant visa petition on the alien relative’s behalf. For the full text of this proposed regulation which will be published next Monday, please click here.
• This is the so-called stateside processing of waivers, which the AILA proposed to the DHS on April 22, 2011. Read on.
• USCIS is scheduled to hold a stakeholder teleconference on 01/10/2012 as noted in the following statement: USCIS posted a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register outlining a proposed change to its current process for the filing and adjudication of waivers of inadmissibility relating to unlawful presence. The proposed process would allow certain individuals seeking permanent residence through their U.S. citizen immediate relatives to apply for waivers of inadmissibility before leaving the U.S. for their interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas. The proposal reflects the Administration's steadfast commitment to maintaining the integrity of immigration law, promoting family unity and improving overall efficiency in the immigration system. This change would decrease the time eligible individuals are separated from their U.S. citizen relatives and would only apply in cases where U.S. citizens would suffer extreme hardship as a result of prolonged separation. USCIS will host a stakeholder engagement on January 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm (EST) to provide an overview of how these proposed process changes may affect filing and adjudication as well as address questions and concerns from stakeholders. Please see the attached invitation for more information. USCIS has also posted Q&A.
• As anticipated, opponents start arguing that this is an administrative amnesty, along with the ongoing prosecutorial discretion policy in immigration enforcement, to entice Hispanic voters to support President Obama in the November election year. Read on. In the meanwhile, Comprehensive Immigration Reform supporters applaud the action of the Obama Administration as the desirable administrative fix next to the best for immigration reform under the given circumstances. Read on.

01/05/2012: U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India No Longer Processes Immigrant Visa Applications Effective 01/01/2012

• The Chennai Consulate has announced that the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and U.S. Consulate in Mumbai will become the only acceptance centers in India for Immigrant Visas. The Immigrant Visa allows an individual to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis, as well as provides the immigrant the opportunity to work towards U.S. citizenship. Examples of Immigrant Visa based petitions are those that work toward family reunification of parents, children and siblings. These petitions also include Fiancée and the unique employer category, where one’s employer can petition for the individual and their dependents to immigrate to the United States.
• This change affects only the locations for processing of Immigrant Visas; it does not change the law or policy for visa processing. Applicants currently in the process of petitioning for an Immigrant Visa may contact ChennaiIVU@state.gov for clarification on their status.

01/05/2012: USCIS Draft RFE Template for Comment for Intracompany Transferee L-1 Blanket Petition

• RFE Template is important not only to prepare response to the RFE but also, more importantly, to draft and file L-1 petition because it shows the threshold requirements and how each threshold should be presented with the right evidence to meet the requirement.

01/05/2012: USCIS Draft RFE Template for Comment for Intracompany Transferee L-1A Petition for New Office in the United States

• RFE Template is important not only to prepare response to the RFE but also, more importantly, to draft and file L-1 Intracompany Transferee petition for Manager or Executive because it shows the threshold requirements and how each threshold should be presented with the right evidence to meet the requirement.

01/05/2012: USCIS Draft RFE Template for Comment for Intracompany Transferee L-1A Petition for Manager or Executive

• RFE Template is important not only to prepare response to the RFE but also, more importantly, to draft and file L-1A Intracompany Transferee Manager or Executive because it shows the threshold requirements and how each threshold should be presented with the right evidence.

01/05/2012: USCIS Draft RFE Template for Comment for Qualifying Relationship/Ownership and Control/Doing Business Requirement for L-1 Petition

• RFE Template is important not only to prepare response to the RFE but also, more importantly, to draft and file L-1 Intracompany Transferee petitions because it shows the threshold requirements and how each threshold should be presented with the right evidence.

01/05/2012: USCIS Schedules and Invites Stakeholders and Public to Participate at the Folloring Series of Engagement Sessions

• 10/18/2012: EB-5 Investor Program Stakeholder Engagement to discuss the follow-up EB-5 Immigrant Investor program. It will be followed series of other EB-5 engagement sessions.
• 07/26/2012: EB-5 Investor Program Stakeholder Engagement to discuss the follow-up EB-5 Immigrant Investor program.
• 05/01/2012: EB-5 Investor Program Stakeholder Engagement to discuss the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program.
• 01/23/2012: EB-5 Investor Program Stakeholder Engagement to discuss the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program.
• 01/18/2012: I-140 Stakeholder Engagement Session, from 1:30 to 3:00 pm (EST).
• 01/12/2012: EB-5 Investor Program for a Conversation with USCIS Director Mayorkas - EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

01/04/2012: Irish E-3 Visa Lobby News Update

• Read on.

01/04/2012: Record of I-140 and EB-485 Receipts and Approvals in FY 2011 (10/01/2010 - 09/30/2011)

• Do you want to know approximately how many new cases they receive and how many cases they approve per each quarter (3 months) for I-140 petitions and EB-485 applications? Following data will give some idea as to where the USCIS is when it comes to volumes they produce. EB-485 approval means that they have been consuming these numbers each quarter out of the annual total EB quota numbers.

01/03/2012: Year 2012 - Dawn for STEM Immigration

• Year 2011 was a difficult year for this nation and, for that matter, for the world as well, eonomically, politically, and otherwise. However, people feel something good about the New Year 2012 with a dawning hope for a Year of Positive!
• This nation has been facing global challenges which people and leaders started to realize. For the reasons, many legislative bills were introduced in 2011 both in the House and the Senate to attract and retain the international brains. There are many STEM bills which were introduced in 2011 and pending both in the House and the Senate. In fact, there are too many bills of this nature for this reporter to count the exact numbers. The bill sponsors came from both the Republican and the Democratic legislators. When it comes to the details, understandably there are variations in details. However, there is one common thread across the pending STEM bills - to exampt from numerical limiation and time-consuming foreign labor certification requirement, which have been the two hurdles for this country to attract and retain "Einsteins." This reporter thus would like to label 2012 as the Year for STEM Immigration. Along with the legislative and administrative fix for Enterpreneur Immigration, the country may see legislation for STEM Immigration in 2012, the Year of Positive.

01/03/2012: USCIS Announces Changes to Stand-Alone I-130 Filing Locations

• A similar announcement was released in December 2011 but the USCIS revised and released it again on January 1, 2012. Read on.

For Pre-January 2012 Postings, Please Click Here.