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GOOD-BYE 2010

12/31/2010: Why USCIS Initiates a Plan for Requirement of Registrations for Certain Nonimmigrant Filing, Initially H-1B?

• As reflected in the following USCIS statement of the plan, it apparently involves two purposes. One is to launch the proceedings as part of ongoing business transformation program in order to achieve its goals of efficiency and effectiveness of visa petition process as well as homeland security and fraud detection.
  • Improvements to the Immigration System: USCIS is currently engaged in a multi-year transformation effort to create a more efficient, effective, and customer-focused organization by improving our business processes and technology. In the coming years, USCIS will publish several rules to facilitate that effort. To improve customer service specifically, USCIS is pursuing a regulatory initiative that will provide
    for selection of visa numbers by lottery for H-1B petitions based on electronic registration.
  • Registration Requirements for Employment-Based Categories Subject to Numerical Limitations: USCIS will propose a revised registration process for H-1B petitioners who are subject to a numerical limit or “cap.” The rule would propose to create a process by which USCIS would randomly select a sufficient number of timely filed registrations to meet the applicable cap. Only petitioners whose registrations are randomly selected would be eligible to file an H-1B petition for a cap-subject prospective worker. Enhancing customer service, the rule would eliminate the need for petitioning employers to prepare and file complete H-1B petitions before knowing whether a prospective worker has “won” the H-1B lottery. The rule would also reduce the costs incurred by USCIS in entering data and subsequently returning non-selected petitions to employers once the cap is reached.
• As we reported earlier, the H-1B cap filer pre-registration proposal has already been cleared by the White House and is expected to be published in the federal register very soon. Considering the fact that unlike previous years when the H-1B cap was exhausted in a matter of days or weeks or a few months, the FY 2011 cap has failed to reach the cap limit even after ten months, there are several questions raised as to how the registration will be implemented when there would be practically no need for lottery. Under the circumstances, the new procedure of bifurcating the filing process into two-tier system may achieve more the purpose of transformation program rather than efficiency and effectiveness goal until the H-1B cap filing returns to a situation where the number will be exhausted in a matter of days or weeks or a few months. Please stay tuned.

12/29/2010: Approaching FY 2011 H-1B Cap - Are You Ready?

• The available cap numbers for regular cap cases are not 65,000 because certain numbers they have to reserve pursuant to the federal statutes. Please take a note to the following USCIS message: The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. Not all H-1B nonimmigrants are subject to this annual cap. Please note that up to 6,800 visas may be set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year. Consequently, as we repeatedly reminded the visitors over the years, the actual numbers available for regular cases other than Chileans and Singapoles are not 65,000 but 58,200, which numbers will also be taken out by the U.S. Master Degree holders since special and separate 20,000 numbers for U.S. Master Degree holders are running out or have run out by now! They are now competing with others without U.S. Master Degrees to take out the numbers from the regular cap pool!! From here on, H-1B cap employers should be conscious of the approaching cap when they file the cases even now because, if their petitions are denied or rejected after the cap numbers reach, they will face a serious crisis. Accordingly, they should build and file "clearn and straight forward" petitions such that their petitions are neither rejected nor denied..
• Please stay tuned to this website.

12/28/2010: USCIS Memorandum for Comment on EB-5 Regional Center Proposals, I-526 Petitions, and I-829 Condition Removal Petitions

• The government, including the Congress, has growingly focused on immigration policy encouraging foreign investors to immigrate into the United States through investment. This policy has also shifted its focus from the traditional investment immigrant option to so-called Regional Center option which is geared to broaden opportunity for the foreign investment and money flowing into this country. In line with such national policy change, the DHS/USCIS has also been focusing on this immigration program for the past two years. Accordingly, the number of Regional Centers and investment programs have expanded tremendously. Facing fall of Hong Kong to the Peoples Republic of China, this country one time attempted to entice Hong Kong millionnaires money into the country, which more or less failed because of the restrictive policy and procedural bottlenecks under the legacy INS rules and laws. A chunk of those money flowed into other allies of this country that opened arms wide to induce the money into their countries. Since then, the world global economy brought about change in restructure of economic powers in the world, particularly and most noticeably in Asia such as China, India, Korea, etc and South America such as Brazil, etc. Their investments in the U.S. appear to be most welcome at the level of national policy makers.
• This memorandum for comment which is currently in effect reflects the new trend of the government policy in immigration. Those who are interested in immigration through the opportunity opened by this immigration option, with accompanying flexibility of the operation and management of their invested businesses, may want to review this memorandum very carefully. Here is the memorandum.

12/28/2010: Many USCIS District & Field Offices in East Coast Closed Yesterday Affected by Snow Storm

• A list of USCIS district and field offices in the East Coast were closed yesterday because of the snow storm. The USCIS advises to contact 800 number to get updates.

12/27/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 12/24/2010

• Total: 32,062
• Approved: 28,053
• Pending: 4,009

12/27/2010: Reminder of Some Changes with Answers to Naturalization Test Questions as a Result of the November 2010 Election

• The USCIS reminds the naturalization applicants that on January 5, 2011, some civics test answers will change due to the recent federal elections. If you take the test ON or AFTER January 5, 2011, you will have to answer civics test questions 20, 23, and 47 reflecting such changes:
  
  Question 20: Who is one of your state's U.S. Senators now?
  Answers will vary. Give the name of one of your state's U.S. Senators who will serve in the 112th Congress beginning January 5, 2011.
  
  Question 23: Name your U.S. Representative.
  Answers will vary. Give the name of your U.S. Representative who will serve in the 112th Congress beginning January 5, 2011.
  
  Question 47: What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?
  (John) Boehner
• Wonderful reminder from the USCIS! There may be some other changes such as the names of Governor and Mayor of the applicant's residence if the November election elected a new Governor and new Mayor.

12/27/2010: USCIS Case Status Site Errors

• Currently, USCIS online case status site is reportedly experiencing some errors. The consumers are experiencing frustration with the incorrect information or outdated information when they check their case status. Apparently, the USCIS has been working on it to fix the problem. Pending that, the customers should keep patience.

12/23/2010: Tomorrow, 12/24/2010, is Federal Holiday

• Office of Personnel Management indicates that tomorrow is an official holiday and most of the federal offices will remain closed. For the USCIS, all the Service Centers and Lock Boxes will remain closed tomorrow, according to AILA. For local field or district offices and ASC for biometrics, people should call the offices to confirm their schedules.

12/23/2010: OFLC Updates PERM FAQ on Definition of "Business Days" for Notice Posting

• There has been some confusion about the definition of 10 "business days" notice posting requirement for PERM recruitment. In order to answer such question, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification has just updated its FAQ site with the following information.
  • Question: For purposes of posting the Notice of Filing for a permanent labor application, what does the Office of Foreign Labor Certification count as a "business day?"
  • Answer: OFLC has consistently interpreted “business day” to mean Monday through Friday, except for Federal holidays. However, where an employer is open for business on a Saturday, Sunday, and/or holiday, the employer may include the Saturday, Sunday and/or holiday in its count of the 10 consecutive business day period required for the posting of the Notice of Filing so long as the employer demonstrates that it was open for business on those days. Similarly, where an employer is not open for business any day, Monday through Friday, the employer should not include any such days in its count of the 10 consecutive business day period required for the posting of the Notice of Filing.
    December 21, 2010
  • Question: .How does an employer demonstrate that it is open for business?
  • Answer: If an employer is requested on audit or otherwise to demonstrate that it was open for business on a Saturday, Sunday, and/or holiday at the time of posting, the employer must provide documentation which establishes that on those days: 1) its employees were working on the premises and engaged in normal business activity; 2) the worksite was open and available to its clients and/or customers, if applicable, as well as to its employees; and 3) its employees had access to the area where the Notice of Filing was posted
    December 21, 2010
  • Question: What should I do if my permanent labor application was denied because I included a Saturday, Sunday, and/or holiday to complete the Notice of Filing 10 consecutive business day posting requirement?
  • Answer: Within 30 days of the date of the determination, the employer may file a request for reconsideration with the Certifying Officer and provide documentation demonstrating that at the time of posting the Notice of Filing, the employer was open for business. If the application is already on appeal before the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals, then the employer may file a request to remand for further processing.
    December 21, 2010
  • Question: Can notices of filing for college and university teachers recruited under the competitive recruitment and selection process be posted after the selection process has been completed?
  • Answer: Yes, for college and university teachers, notices of filing may be posted after the selection process has been completed. An application for a college or university teacher may be filed up to 18 months after the selection is made and a notice of filing must be provided between 30 and 180 days prior to filing the application either by providing notice to the bargaining representative, if one exists, or by posting notice at the facility or location of employment.
  • Question:.Must the ten consecutive business days posting of the notice of filing timeframe end at least 30 days prior to filing?
  • Answer: Yes, the last day of the posting must fall at least 30 days prior to filing in order to provide sufficient time for interested persons to submit, if they so choose, documentary evidence bearing on the application.
• For the details, please visit OFLC PERM FAQ site.

12/23/2010: Senate and House Close Lame Duck Congress and Will Return to 112th Congress at Noon, 01/05/2011

• The Lame Duck Congress this year was a very productive legislature passing most of nation's priority legislations but for the DREAM bill. It even passed all the legislative bills where the DREAM bill was attached one time such as National Defense Authorization Act. There were a huge number of confirmations of federal department political appointees and judicial positions at the last minute. In the immigration areas, the Congress was able to pass some private bills to give permanent residents to certain aliens under the special legislations outside of the Immigration & National Act. All the political quackmire disappears in the nation's biggest holiday celebration mood. THIS REPORTER WISHES TO EXTEND HIS HOLIDAY GREETINGS OF "MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR" TO THOSE WHO HAVE VISITED THIS SITE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR SEEKING EITHER GOOD NEWS OR SAD NEWS. LIFE WILL GO ON.

12/23/2010: USCIS Proposed Rule to Require Online Preregistration of Employers to File H-1B Cap Petitions Approved by White House 12/22/2010

• It appears that the USCIS intended to initiate this change in the H-1B cap filing procedure before the FY 2012 filing starts on April 1, 2011, but there has been some delays in completing this proposed rule stage. However, there is still a chance that this new procedure may be in place before the new FY 2012 cap filing starts. The USCIS justification for this change is stated as follows:
• Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking to File H-1B Petitions on Behalf of Aliens Subject to Numerical Limitations: DHS is proposing to amend its regulations governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to annual numerical limitations. This rule proposes an electronic registration program for petitions subject to numerical limitations contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act). Initially, the program would be for the H-1B nonimmigrant classification; however, other nonimmigrant classifications will be added as needed. This action is necessary because the demand for H-1B specialty occupation workers by U.S. companies generally exceeds the numerical limitation. This rule is intended to allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions.
• Statement of Need: USCIS proposes to establish a mandatory Internet-based electronic registration process for U.S. employers seeking to file H-1B petitions for alien workers subject to either the 65,000 or 20,000 caps. This registration process would allow U.S. employers to electronically register for consideration of available H-1B cap numbers. The mandatory proposed registration process will alleviate administrative burdens on USCIS service centers and eliminate the need for U.S. employers to needlessly prepare and file H-1B petitions without any certainty that an H-1B cap number will ultimately be allocated to the beneficiary named on the petition. To ensure a fair and orderly distribution of H-1B cap numbers, USCIS evaluated its current random selection process, and has found that when it receives a significant number of H-1B petitions within the first few days of the H-1B filing period, it is extremely difficult to handle the volume of petitions received in advance of the H-1B random selection process. Further, the current petition process of preparing and mailing H-1B petitions, with the required filing fee, can be burdensome and costly for employers, if the petition is returned because the cap was reached and the petition was not selected in the random selection process. Accordingly, this rule proposes to implement a new process to allow U.S. employers to electronically register for consideration of available H-1B cap numbers without having to first prepare and submit the petition.
• Anticipated Costs and Benefits: USCIS estimates that this rule will result in a net benefit to society. Currently, employers submit a petition, at great expense, without any certainty that an H-1B cap number will ultimately be allocated to the beneficiary named on the petition. The new mandatory, Internet-based registration system allows employers to complete a much shorter and less expensive registration process for consideration of available H-1B cap numbers. The new system will also relieve a significant administrative burden and expense from USCIS. This rule will reduce costs for some employers and increase them for others. For employers that are not allocated a cap number and therefore do not ultimately file a petition, there will be a significant cost savings. Employers that are allocated a cap number and ultimately file a petition will experience the new and additional cost of filing the registration. Additionally, USCIS will incur additional costs to implement and maintain the registration system. USCIS has weighed the benefits and costs associated with this rule and determined that the benefits to society outweigh the costs.
• Risks: There is a risk that a petitioner will submit multiple petitions for the same H-1B beneficiary so that the U.S. employer will have a better chance of his or her petition being selected. Accordingly, should USCIS receive multiple petitions for the same H-1B beneficiary by the same petitioner, the system will only accept the first petition and reject the duplicate petitions.
• Please stay tuned to this website for the official announcement of the proposed rule.

12/22/2010: USCIS Suspends Part 6 of I-129 "Certification Regarding Release of Controlled Technology or Technical Data to Foreign Persons in the United States" Until 02/20/2011

• New form I-129 Part 6 require the petitioner to check either "yes" or "no" relating to "deemed export control" issues. USCIS advises that the petitioner does not have to complete Part of of the new form I-129 until February 20, 2011. This part of the form has raised a huge headache for the petitioners since they are not familiar the laws and rules on "export control" of technology or technical data. What a relief! For this information, please read the second paragraph of this link.

12/22/2010: USCIS Reminder of I-129 Current Form Expiration

• USCIS reminds that USCIS will accept previous editions of the Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, postmarked on or before Dec. 22, 2010. Petitions postmarked on or after Dec. 23, 2010, must include the Form I-129 with a Nov. 23, 2010 revision date or they will be rejected.

12/22/2010: USCIS Suspends Premium Processing for Petitioners Filing a Form I-129 on Behalf of a CNMI Nonimmigrant Worker Requesting a Change of Status or Initial Grant of Status

• Read on.

12/22/2010: USCIS Releases Revised N-648 Form for Medical Disability Exception Seekers in Naturalization Application

• USCIS has revised and released the revised N-648 form today. USCIS will accept the previous version of the Form N-648 for 90 days, from Dec. 22, 2010, until March 21, 2011. Beginning March 22, 2011, USCIS will only accept the current version of Form N-648, dated 9/24/2010. Read on.

12/22/2010: USCIS Releases Model Plan for Administrative Naturalization Ceremonies in the Form of Interim Guidance for Comment

• This memorandum gives guidance for determination of "sufficiency." Read on.

12/22/2010: USCIS Reminds Deadline of Haitian TPS Registration on 01/18/2011

• Reminder in English
• Reminder in French
• Reminder in Creole

12/22/2010: Irony of 2010 Census Report of Growth of Hispanic Population Rewarding(?) Red States with Increased Political Power

• As we reported earlier, the death of DREAM was caused in part by the Hispanic leaders themselves and Obama that saw more interest in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform than DREAM. Question then remains whether the CIR will have a better shot in 2011 or 2012. The just released 2010 Census Report indicates that the growth of population was witnessed in red states in the West Coast and the South and the population either had been either shrunk or grown slow in the blue states in the Midwest and the East Coast. Because of the population distribution changes, the red states including Arizona and Texas and other states in those regions will have increased number of the seats in the House of Representatives, while the blue states are destined to lose some seats in the House of Representatives. Such change will also give a muscle to the Republicans to control the influence of blue forces in the forthcoming re-distrct process. The Census experts indicates that this trend was brought about by increase in Hispanic population in those regions.
• What is then the chance that the Republicans will reward the Hispanics for the Hispanics' unintended award of added power to the Republicans in terms of redistrict process and support of CIR? Unfortunately, the growth of the Hispanics will not necessarily bring with it any proportional increase in their political powers in the political process nor influence in the immigration reform. No one will anticipate that the red states will redistrict toward the direction of creating Hispanics district representation in the Congress. Nor the Republicans will favor legalization of 15-20 million undocumented aliens who will turn into U.S. citizens down the road with the political power to vote in the future elections in this country's history because these undocumented aliens are by nature "blue" rather than "red" in their political value. It would be silly for anyone to assume that "red" forces would be eager to produce "blue" forces in the state's and country's political landscape. It is thus obvious that the "red" states will say "thank you" to the Hispanics for their helping the red party to gain added political power, but they will at the same time say "no thank you" to add more "U.S. citizens" of Hispanics in their states. Accordingly, they are likely to continue opposing CIR. The Hispanics may feel betrayed for not being rewarded for their contribution, albeit uninteded, to the Republicans' gaining additional political power, but part of the blame may have to be shared by the Hispanic leaders themselves.

12/22/2010: USCIS Response to the Ombudsman's 2010 Annual Report, November 9, 2010

• This report covers wide range of issues which the USCIS addressed in response to the Ombudsman's recommendations, including the following:
  • TRANSFORMATION
    • A. Progress
    • B. Funding
    • C. Organizational and Reporting Structure
    • D. Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises
  • EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY GREEN CARD PROCESSING
    • A.Employment-Based Immigration
    • B.I-485 Inventory Report
    • C.Family-Based Immigration
  • REQUESTS FOR EVIDENCE
    • A. Preponderance of the Evidence – Recommendation
    • B. Requests for Evidence – Recommendation
    • C. Requests for Evidence Rates
    • D. L-1B Guidelines – Recommendation
    • E. Request for Evidence Pilot Program – Recommendation
  • INFORMATION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
    • A. Live Representatives – Recommendation
    • B.Interactive Voice Response Technology – Recommendation
    • C.Call Center Scripts – Recommendation
    • D.Call Center Points of Contact – Recommendation
    • E.Tier 2 Feedback – Recommendation
    • F.Pre-Interview Letters
    • G.Direct Access
  • IMMIGRATION BENEFITS FOR THE MILITARY
    • A. Services for Military Members
    • B. Office Jurisdiction – Recommendation
  • REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS
    • A. Removal Information – Recommendation
  • FORM N-648 PROCESSING
    • A. N-648 Points of Contact – Recommendation
    • B. Training Module – Recommendation
    • C. “Second-Guessing” Medical Professionals
    • D. N-648 Experts – Recommendation
    • E. Tracking – Recommendation
  • FORM I-824 PROCESSING
    • A.Processing Goals – Recommendation
    • B.Transferring Form I-824 – Recommendation
    • C.Standard Operating Procedure – Recommendation
    • D.Delivery of Notifications – Recommendation
    • E.Electronic Communication – Recommendation
  • ITEMS OF NOTE
    • A. Special Immigrant Visas
    • B. Refugee Processing
    • C. Separation of A-Files
    • D. Adoptions
• Read on. One interesting note: According to the State Department's latest Visa Bulletin for January 2011, the family-based visa cut-off dates had to move backward because it had allocated aggressively the family-based immigrant visa numbers because the FB visa number demand was slow and FB cut-off had been progressing fairly in good face. It is interesting to note in the USCIS response to the Ombudsman that indeed the USCIS had experienced a delay in I-130 processing and witnessed backlogs. Probably this has created a slow in demand for the FB visa numbers from the perspectives of the State Department in the past. Should the USCIS delay in 130 processing continue, a substantial number of FY 2010 family-based immigrant visa numbers could have been unused and wasted. But the USCIS reports that it has improved I-130 processing pace to prevent such waste of FB visa numbers for FY 2010. There is no information available as to how many FB visa numbers have still been unused. The following is the USCIS response:
  • USCIS has worked extensively to reduce the number of pending I-130s. In January 2009, approximately 1.2 million preference category I-130s were pending. As of August 2010, the number of pending cases stands at less than 350,000 – representing a 70-percent reduction in pending inventory. Because USCIS is working rapidly to eliminate the backlog of pending I-130 petitions, it is imperative, as the CISOMB notes, that petitioners notify USCIS of any address changes. As a point of clarification, USCIS will deny the petition, not terminate it,10 if USCIS does not receive a response to the Request for Evidence (RFE). Because failure to respond to an RFE will result in a denial, it is very important that the petitioner keep USCIS informed of any mailing address changes. USCIS appreciates any assistance the CISOMB can provide in relaying this message to customers. The CISOMB reported that demand for family-based visas has been low and cautioned that a significant number of family-based visas may go unused in FY2010. Since the release of the Annual Report, however, USCIS and DOS have made significant progress in addressing
• Improvement of FB petition processing may obviously increase for visa numbers from the perspectives of the State Department and their cut-off date determination had to reflect such changes of demand for visa numbers from the USCIS.

12/21/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 12/17/2010

• Cap Count:
  • Regular Cap: 53,900
  • Master Cap: 19,700
• Master cap is likely to reach this week. Once the master cap numbers are exhausted, the U.S. master degree holders will still be able to file H-1B cap petitions and their cases will be handled under the regular cap queue. Accordingly, the regular cap number may move a little bit faster after this week as affected by the master cap unavailability. Please bear in mind that after taking out the special numbers for Chile and Singapore, the regular cap number will be practically 58,200. Accordingly, there are practically about 4,300 regular cap number available before the USCIS reaches the cap unless the USCIS makes a special decision to use part of the numbers which should be reserved for Chile and Singapore under the statute for the regular cap considering very limited numbers being used by the citizens of Chile and Singapore. Remember, however, that because of the two factors (reach of master cap and Chile/Singapore special cap), the FY 2011 H-1B cap may reach earlier then one speculated. Employers should also remember that in order to file H-1B petitions, they need minimum of seven (7) or more days to file and obtain the Labor Condition Application. Under the current USCIS rule, employers cannot file any H-1B petitions without "certified" Labor Condition Application. Please stay tuned.

12/21/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 12/17/2010

• Total: 29,694
• Approved: 26,229
• Pending: 3,065

12/20/2010: USCIS Next Six-Month Rule Making Agenda Missing Previous Agenda To Terminate Concurrent Filing of I-140 and EB-485

• Today, the federal departments have released the next six-month rule making agenda for each federal department and agency. For the last couple of years, USCIS rule-making agenda included its plan for initiation of preregistration of EB-485 applications even during the period of immigrant visa retrogression and accompanying plan to terminate the procedure of current "concurrent" filing of I-140 petition and I-485 application when the immigrant visa number becomes current for the employment-based immigrants. This plan is no longer in the rule-making agenda which was just released this morning. The new agenda was released in the federal register, but the federal register release did not cover entire programs. This posting is rather related to the full agenda which covers the entire programs.
• We have no information available about whether it indicates that the USCIS has completely dropped its previous plan to pursue termination of concurrent filing. Sometimes, agencies initiate proposed rule making process outside of the semi-annual agenda which are officially released every six months. For now, however, it is a relief that at least the latest agenda of the USCIS has dropped this plan.

12/18/2010: DREAM Bill Cloture Motion Rejected in the Senate Today

• This morning, the Senate failed to get 60 votes for the cloture motion for DREAM bill, and the DREAM is practically destroyed and dead at least not only for this year but also years to come. Sad day, indeed!

12/17/2010: Senate DREAM Cloture Vote Scheduled Tomorrow, Saturday, 12/18/2010 - Last Chance to Act!!!!!

• Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid moved for debate cloture motion, joined by the following Senators to bring to a close debate on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment No. 3 to H.R. 5281, the Removal Clarification Act [DREAM Act]. Now the DREAM Act is attached to H.R. 5281.
  • Joseph I. Lieberman
  • John D. Rockefeller, IV,
  • Byron L. Dorgan,
  • Sheldon Whitehouse,
  • Jack Reed,
  • Robert Menendez,
  • Mark Begich,Bill Nelson,
  • Benjamin L. Cardin,
  • Bill Nelson
  • Michael F. Bennet,
  • Amy Klobuchar,
  • Patty Murray,
  • Barbara A. Mikulski,
  • Christopher J. Dodd,
  • Richard Durbin,
  • John F. Kerry.
• This is the last chance for immigration advocates and supporters to start calling EN MASS the Senators to support this cloture motion tomorrow!!! Please use all the means of contact, fax, email, twitter, facebook, telephone, on and on and on! If this is failed, there will be no CIR nor DREAM for the next several years!
• The following Senators are reportedly swing votes. People in those states must work much much harder.
  • ALASKA: Murkowski
  • FLORIDA: LeMieux
  • INDIANA: Lugar
  • KANSAS: Brownback
  • LOUISIANA: Landrieu
  • MAINE: Collins & Snowe
  • MASSACHUSETTS: Brown
  • MICHIGAN: Stabenow
  • MISSOURI: McCaskill
  • NORTH CAROLINA: Hagan
  • NEW HAMPSHIRE: Gregg
  • OHIO: Voinovich
  • SOUTH CAROLINA: Graham
  • TEXAS: Hutchison
  • UTAH: Bennett & Hatch
  • VIRGINIA: Warner & Webb
  • WEST VIRGINIA: Manchin

12/16/2010: USCIS Processing Times Update 12/15/2010

• See our home page.

12/16/2010: DREAM Pushed Aside on Senate Floor Today by President's Top Priority of START Treaty with Russia

• Yesterday, the Senate passed the tax cut extension legislation and the House passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal legislation on the floor. With such priorities more or less taken care of, the DREAMers hoped that the Senate would take up the DREAM Act of 2010, H.R. 6497. Unfortunately, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took up the Obama's top political agenda legislation of START Treaty with Russia on Measures for Futher Reduation and Limnitation of Strategic Offensive Arms as today's Senate floor debate. Considering the ticking clock of the Lame Duck Session, the prospects for the DREAM are wading as time goes by. But the fight should not stop here. Remember:Yogi Berra's word, "It Ain't Over Till It's Over!" Remember also that Sen. Harry Reid was a professional "boxer" before he picked up a political career! Please stay tuned to this website for further development.
• In hindsight, DREAM had to deal with its own foes within the Hispanic community itself, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform supporters since DREAM legislation will dampen the chance for CIR in the future.

12/15/2010: DREAM, H.R. 6497, Survivality in the Senate After Probable Passage of Bush Tax Cut Extension Bill Today

• Three hot button pending legislative bills remained Tax Cut Extension, Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal, and DREAM. Information indicates that the Senate is likely to pass the compromise Bush tax cut extension bill today. On the House side, after passing the DREAM bill, it is scheduled to take up "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010" on the House floor today. In this week, the House will take over burning legislative bill of tax cut extension from the Senate, while the Senate may take over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal" bill from the House, should the House indeed pass this bill this week. With reference to the DREAM in the Senate, question remains whether those Senators who had reserved their support for the DREAM conditioned upon resolution of the tax cut extension legislation will come forward and support the DREAM after today's passage of the tax cut bill in the Senate. If their promise was conditioned upon the passage of the tax cut bill from the Congress, the DREAM may not come to the front in the legislative priority since the House will undergo a serious contest against the Senate tax cut bill. Time is indeed running out and it will be a breath-taking task for the DREAM supporters to push hard the support of the DREAM bill in the Senate. Current CR (continuing resolution to fund federal government) is expected to expire after 12/17/2010, Friday, the Congress will have to take an action witin one or two days to avoid shut-down of federal government. The House is pushing for passage of CR funding the federal government until the end of FY 2011 (09/30/2011) and the Senate is pushing for passage of Omnibus Spending bill. The Republicans will agree to neither of these Democrat strategies. Under the circumstances, another question remains how far the Lame Duck session will be extended within the remaining 2010. Please stay tuned to this website for the literally breathe-taking development of events in the legislature next few days!!

12/14/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 12/10/2010

• Regular cap: 52,400 (Out of total cap of 58,200 excluding Chile/Singapore H-1B1 numbers)
• Master cap: 19,100 (Out of total cap of 20,000)

12/14/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 12/10/2010

• Total: 26,539
• Approved: 23,752
• Pending: 2,787

12/10/2010: PERM Processing Times as of 11/30/2010

• Analyst Reviews: November 2010 (Holy Cow!!)
• Audits: November 2008
• Standard Appeals: May 2008
• Government Error Appeals: Current

12/09/2010: Two Critical Developments That Could Affect and Determine the Fate of DREAM Act Survival

• There are two factors which can determine whether the DREAM can become a reality before the end of the year. One is logistics. Currently there are two different DREAM bills, one in the House and the other in the Senate. There are some difference between these two bills. If the Senate tries to pass its own bill, so-called Durbin bill, the chance for survival of the DREAM legislation will be very slim in that the difference between the two bills should go through the Senate-House conference process to produce a compromise bill, which will then have to go to the floor of each chamber for passage. Considering ticking of clock, logistically it may be close to impossible to make a legislation through such process before the end of the year. The Senate, however, has a way to bypass such process. Rather than acting on its own bill (Durbin bill), it can just act on the House bill which has already passed the lower chamber. Should that happen, it will beonly a matter of the President signing the bill before the end of the year. Information indicates that the Senate Majority Leader is considering this option. Number two: even if the Senate takes such option, currently the Democrats do not have enough numbers (60) to pass the cloture motion to block filibuster. However, it appears that there appears to be some Republican Senators who might vote for the DREAM bill once the tax cut legislation is first taken care of. The President's compromise with the Republican leaders was supposed to give a glim of hope in that regard. However, the President's comprise is currently facing a revolt in the House. The reality at this point: all in all, the dream is still alive and well. It is still do-able. DREAM activities should just work harder for the next few days to add pressures on some Senators.

12/09/2010: Struggling Uphill Battle of DREAM Act in the Senate

• The Senate was scheduled to vote on Cloture motion this morning but Sen. Reid delayed the vote to a undetermined later date facing potential filibuster. This is the second withdrawal of motion to proceed with the cloture this week. At this time, the numbers are not there to break the potential filibuster. Please stay tuned.

12/09/2010: January 2011 Visa Bulletin

12/08/2010: House Passed "DREAM Act of 2010" Today

• Today the House floor passed the DREAM bill as part of H.R. 5381. Rep. Berman introduced his revised DREAM Act of 2010, H.R. 6497 (read print friendly text) yesterday, December 7, 2010 and this DREAM bill has then been passed as amendment of H.R. 5381. Good News!

12/08/2010: Facing Republican's Disasterous Rejections of Cloture Motions for Democrat Bills, Sen. Harry Reid Moves DREAM Bill Cloture Motion to Tomorrow Schedule

• The Senate Democrats experienced a disaster of rejection of cloture motions by Republicans for various Democrats' bills on the floor today, including 'Don't Ask Don't Tell" bill. The cloture motion for DREAM bill, S.3992 has been pushed off to tomorrow's schedule as follows:
  • Thursday, Dec 09, 2010 9:30 a.m.: Convene and resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.3992, the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act of 2010.

12/08/2010: USCIS Immigration Benefits Application Processing Statistics [October 2008 thru October 2010]

12/08/2010: USCIS Naturalization Benefits N-400 Processing Statistics as of 10/31/2010

12/08/2010: USCIS Immigration Benefits Application Processing Statistics as of 10/31/2010

12/08/2010: Senate Schedules to Take Up Cloture Motion for DREAM Act Today

• The U.S. Senate is also scheduled to take up cloture motion within today for DREAM Act. Accordingly both Houses are scheduled to take up DREAM Act bills today. Both pro and con DREAM bill activists are mobilizing all their forces today to reach the legislators either to support or oppose the bills. Interesting thing is that unlike previous years when DREAM or CIR passed in the Senate and failed in the House, this year the overall environment for the DREAM is favorable in the House but tough in the Senate.

12/08/2010: AAO Updates Administrave Appeal Processing Times as of 12/01/2010

12/08/2010: DREAM Bill "American DREAM Act" Scheduled to be Taken Up on the House Floor Today

• Sources of information indicates that as we reported earlier, this bill will indeed be taken up in the House today. Please stay tuned.
• Currently there are two DREAM bills pending in the House as follows, but it will be Rep. Berman's bill "American DREAM Act" that will be taken up on the floor today:
  • H.R. 1751 introduced by Rep. Howard Berman on 03/26/2009 with 139 cosponsors
  • H.R. 8327 introduced by Rep. Charles Djou on 09/29/2010 with no cosponsors.
• In light of the DREAM bill in the Senate with a substantial change in the substance, the bill that is likely taken up today on the House floor today may be American DREAM Act with a substantial revision. Those who have time to check the House floor proceeding today may check the folloring monitor from time to time. The House will convene today at 10:00 a.m. EST.
• Monitor:

  House Proceeding Monitor

12/08/2010: USCIS Executive Summary of I-9 Stakeholder Engagement Discussions of 11/02/2010

• USCIS had a public engagement session on November 2, 2010. This Executive Summary of the discussion at the session will help those who failed to attend the session either in person or by telephone. Read on.

12/07/2010: New Visa Procedures in Mexico Effective January 10, 2011

• U.S. Embassy has announced that beginning January 10, 2011, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates will process visas differently. Under the new procedures, most applicants will go to Applicant Service Centers (ASCs) prior to their consular section interview. The ASC staff will collect the applicant’s biometric information that will be reviewed by the consular section prior to the applicant’s interview. ASCs will be located in buildings separate from the U.S. Embassy and Consulates. For other details, please read the announcement.

12/07/2010: DREAM -Cloture Motion Introduced and Withdrawn Yesterday in the Senate

• The first step of enacting any contentious legislative bill in the Senate is to take up a cloture motion to block filibuster by opponents. Yesterday, the Majority Leader introduced the DREAM bill on the floor but for unknown reasons, it was withdrawn by certain leading Democrat Senators, including Sen. Harry Reid. Today's Senate floor is scheduled to be tied up with an impeachment of a judge. Intially, the Senate Majority leader was planning to act on DREAM bill as soon as the impeachment was taken care of, but the Senate failed to reach the impeachment decision yesterday. Thus, the Senate floor will continue the impeachment matter. Hmm................

12/07/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 12/03/2010

• Regular Cap: 51,200
• Master Cap: 18,700

12/06/2010: Rising Hope for DREAM Chances This Week With Compromised Bush Tax Cut Extension Out of the Way

• Report indicates that both parties have compromised and reached an agreement on controversial tax cut extension legislation which has posed a stumble block for all the pending legislations during the Lame Duck session. Before this coimpromise was reached, there had been an indication that both the House and the Senate may take up the DREAM this week. Resolution of tax cut issue should help to remove at least one hurdle to the DREAM procedurally. The House will return Tuesday to the session. Please stay tuned.

12/03/2010: Congressman Howard Berman of California to Introduce DREAM Act of 2010 on the House Floor Next Week

• On the House side, Congressman Howard Berman has been working on this bill and today he announced that he would introduce this bill next week. This announcement has also been substantiated by Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois who stated that the House would take up this bill next week. Please stay tuned.

12/02/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Release FY 2010 (10/01/2009-09/30/2010) Individial Foreign Labor Certification Application Disclosure Data for the Period

• This disclosure data give information the results of each PERM, H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B application adjudicated during the fiscal year. Please click here to access the data in Microsoft Access.

12/02/2010: House Passed H.R. Res 101, Continuing Resolution, to Fund Federal Government Through 12/18/2010

• House passed this resolution as a temporary mesaure to keep the federal government open beyond December 3, 2010. This bill needs the Senate consent. However, the Senate has been working on Omnibus bill to pack putting together all the federal department appropriations in one packet and pass it. Since the Congress must pass the appropriations bills one way or another to prevent the federal government from being shut down after tomorrow, something must be done quickly. The Senate has another hurdle to pass appropriation bills. Republican Senators have been threatening to filibuster any appropriation bills in the Senate unless the Senate agrees to pass the Bush tax cut for all is addressed first.
• Once this appropriation legislation is taken care of in the next one day, the Senate is likely to take up the DREAM bill procedural motion to pass the Senate. Time is indeed running out. Please read the following statement of Senator Harry Reid on the floor yesterday relating to the DREAM bill:

"Mr. President, last night we began the rule XIV process on two important bills--the DREAM Act and Firefighters Collective Bargaining. It had been my intent to file cloture on both of these bills. However, supporters of the original bills requested that modifications be made. Those changes are reflected in the bills we introduced last night, and I intend to move forward on both of these. In addition, I intend to file cloture this week on the 9/11 health bill. So I will file cloture on all three at the same time. The current continuing resolution expires this Friday. We are awaiting House action on short term CR which we will receive later this week. I hope Members on both sides of the aisle will allow us to act quickly on this short term CR when we receive it. As we work to clear the short term CR, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working on legislation to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. Earlier this morning, I received a letter from my Republican colleagues indicating they will filibuster any legislative matter brought to the floor prior to the completion of the spending and tax bills. No one is more eager to put both these issues behind us than I; however, passing either will require Republican votes. I wish I could report we are close to wrapping up action on both bills, but we are not. The first meeting that was requested by the President is taking place this morning. Senator McConnell chose Senator Kyl to represent Republicans. I chose the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, to represent Democrats. So they are moving forward on that to see if there is something that can be worked out. My Republican colleagues knew this, as they drafted this letter; therefore, they also know that the true effect of this letter is to prevent the Senate from acting on many important issues that have bipartisan support. With this letter, they have simply put in writing the political strategy the Republicans have pursued this entire Congress; namely, obstruct and delay action on critical matters and then blame Democrats for not addressing the needs of the American people. It is cynical but obvious and transparent. We must move forward on matters of importance. We have numerous judges who need to be taken care of. I am trying to work something out with the Republican leader on those. I hope everyone understands there are issues we need to deal with. There are meetings going on as we speak to try to help us move forward and to allow us to complete action at the earliest possible date."

12/01/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 11/26/2010

• Total Received: 20,579
• Approved: 17,743
• Pending: 2,836

12/01/2010: Stand-Alone "DREAM Act of 2010," S.3992, Introduced in the Senate 11/30/2010

• Yesterday, Senator Dick Durbin introduced on the Senate floor his new version and stand-alone DREAM Act of 2010. For the full text of this bill, please click the title of the bill above.
• This is a new version which reflects some compromises to solicit Republican legislators' support. Report indicates that this bill is expected to be taken up on the Senate floor fairly quickly by the Sen. Harry Reid to pass the Senate, bypassing committee actions.
• For the news on the timeline, read on.

11/30/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 11/26/2010

• Regular Cap: 50,400
• Master Cap: 18,400

11/29/2010: USCIS 11/23/2010 Immigration Form Update List

• USCIS has released massive updates of immigration forms. Most of the updates are related to the fee adjudstment, but some updates such as I-129, I-129S, I-539, I/539A, I-881, and N-400 involve either change in substance or new form. People should check this out.

11/28/2010: U.S. House of Representatives Returning to the Lame Duck Session 11/29/2010 With Burning Confrontation Ahead Between Two Parties

• The most important legislation which the Congress will have to take care is the federal government appropriations. The federal government remains open till 12/04/2010 based on the Continuing Resolutions (CR) and the Congress must pass another CR to prevent the federal government from shut-down. Democrats intend to pass CR and potentially even Omnibus appropriation legislation to achieve its agenda before they hand over majority status to the Republicans coming year. Readers may remember that DREAM is part of National Defense Appropriation bill. Besides the Republicans want to reduce the appropriations for the federal government drastically. For the reasons, report indicates that the Republicans may even consider an extreme action to block passage of such bill leading to temporary shut-down of the federal government! Along with the Bush tax cut extension issue, the two parties are returning to the Hill with anticipated huge show-down. Please stay tuned.

11/28/2010: USCIS Releases Summary of the Latest USCIS-AILA Meeting Questions and Answers Covering Current Issues of Interest for Immigrant Community

• This meeting was held on October 12, 2010, but its summary was just released on 11/18/2010. This Q&A covers various issues relating to each of the following toptics:
  • RFE
  • Notice to Appear
  • Guidance Regarding the Handling of Removal Proceedings of Aliens with Pending Applications or Petitions
  • Update on Implementation of 05/17/2010 Draft Policy Memorandum on Surviving Relative Benefits
  • Application of 240-Day Rule Pending H-1B and E-3 Nonimmigrant Petitions
  • Status of Multi-Year Combined Work Authorization and Advance Parole Document
  • Civil Surgeon Issue
  • L-1B Adjudicatrion
  • AC21 H-1B Extensions for Spouses
  • Opportunity to Review Adverse Information Collected During Investigation
  • Training of USCIS Officers
  • Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Proceedings
  • Lockbox Related Issues
  • Transfer of Files Between Service Centers
  • USCIS Position on the Issue of Holding Subsequent Filings in Abeyance When Initial Filing is on Appeal
  • Regulations
• Read on.

11/26/2010: USCIS 2002 Memorandum on H-1B Visa Options for Foreign Registered Nurses

• A USCIS memorandum of 2002 on Guidance on Adjudication of H-1B Petitions Filed on Behalf of Nurses clarifies that while typical RNs generally do not meet the requirements for H-1B classification, aliens in certain specialized RN occupations are more likely than typical RNs to be eligible for H-1B status. Nowadays, increased number of higher learning institutions offer a Bachelor's degree for nursing, but the occupation of nurses is yet to be recognized as a specialty occupation for the purpose of H-1B visa program except certain registered nurses in specialty practice or higher level of responsibilies as elaborated in this memoranum. We post this sort of age-old memorandum to help foreign nurses to understand better their working visa options in the United States.

11/24/2010: State Department Removes Restrictions for Indian Visa Applications to the Jurisdictions of Applicants' Residence

• The U.S. Embassador in India has announced that the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates General in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad now accept visa applications from across India at all visa facilities, regardless of the applicant’s home address or city of residence. It has also announced that effective immediately, the U.S. consular districts in India will be reorganized as follows:
  • Embassy Delhi: Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bhutan;
  • Consulate Mumbai: Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Diu and Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli;
  • Consulate Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh, Orissa;
  • Consulate Chennai: Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands;
  • Consulate Kolkata: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal
• Consequently, the visa applicants in India will start vigorously engaging in "forum shopping" to seek a visa post in India that is most favorable for their visa applications in terms of processing times and restrictions. For the details, please contact the consulates.

11/24/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 11/19/2010

• Total received: 18,178
• Approved: 14,540
• Pending: 3,638

11/24/2010: USCIS Corrects Unavailable Date for Current I-129 Forms to 12/22/2010

• There was a conflict of information on the date when current I-129 forms would not be acceptable between the I-129 form site and new form and fee fact sheet site. Now this error has been corrected and it has been clarified that the current forrm I-129 will not acceptable only from 12/22/2010. However, the new edition form is also acceptable since November 23, 2010.

11/23/2010: Important USCIS Notice of New Fees and Revised New Forms That Take Effect Today

• Adjusted Fees Take Effect November 23, Along With New and Revised Forms!!!
• Read the Fact Sheet!

11/23/2010: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Updates Appeals Processing Times as of 11/01/2010

11/23/2010: New I-129 Form for Nonimmigrant Worker Petitions in Effect

• As we reported earlier, the USCIS implements new revised I-129 forms effective today, along with the implementation of the new filing fee rule. For the details of the forms and instructions, please visit the following sites of USCIS:
  • New I-129 Form Site

11/23/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 11/19/2010

• Regular Cap: 48,977
• Master Cap: 17,836

11/23/2010: USCIS Interim Memorandum for Fee Waiver Guidelines as Established by Final Rule of USCIS Fee Schedule Final Rule

11/23/2010: USCIS Introduces First-Ever Fee Waiver Form I-912

11/20/2010: Ohlaw@Immigration-Law.Com Email Experiencing Problem

• Our office is experiencing email problem. We advise our clients and readers to contact this reporter via Matthewoh.Attorney@Gmail.com. We apologize the inconvenience this may cause to the readers and clients.

11/20/2010: Potential Reach of FY 2011 H-1B Cap Numbers As the Cap Count Inches Closer to the Cap

• Employers hiring H-1B foreign workers know that if they do not obtain H-1B petitions for the needed new employees before the FY 2011 H-1B cap reaches, they will not be able to hire new H-1B employees until October 1, 2011. Accordingly, as the USCIS cap count moves closer to the cap, these employers are likely to file H-1B petitions in increased numbers to fill the vaccum between the time when the cap reaches and October 1, 2011. In other words, psychologically, they will be pushed and driven to file H-1B petitions in increased numbers and for the reasons, the cap numbers can reach earlier than one speculates as we move close to the end of December. Accordingly, employers are advised to file their petitions as soon as possible in order not to take any risk. Remember that the FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions can be filed with a future hiring date inasmuch is it is less than six (6) month from the date of filing. For instance, employers can file a FY 2011 H-1B petition now for a foreign professional with the start date of April 19, 2011, assuming hypothetically that the employer files the H-1B petition today. However, H-1B petition cannot be filed longer than six months in advance of employment start date.

11/20/2010: PERM Filing Program and Anticipated Changes in Filing System

• As we reported earlier, the OFLC has been pushing development of an integrated foreign labor certification filing system through iCERT Portal System allegedly for efficiency and integrity of the foreign labor certification system. This has been delayed for the technical issues, but there is an indication that it may not take too long before they launch the PERM filing system as part of iCert Portal System. Once PERM is filed through the iCERT portal, the current employer registration in iCERT portal for the temporary labor certification applications will automatically be populated and the employer will not be required to go through a separate iCERT registration process for PERM filing. PERM iCERT portal filing system will allow the OFLC to perform an enhanced integrity check between the temporary labor certification application record and the PERM application record, potentially leading to some negative decisions in some cases. Again, as we reported recently, the OFLC has been increasingly focusing on integrity check and action on debarment of some employers. Please stay tuned.

11/20/2010: USCIS Garden City Field Office in New York Temporarily Closed for Electrical Issue

• USCIS announced that the Garden City Field Office in New York is temporarily closed due to electrical issues. If you have a scheduled appointment, the field office will contact you to reschedule it. The agency will let you know as soon as the office is reopened.

11/19/2010: Unresolved Issues of Old Fee Filing Rejection Timing

• Currently there are some disagreements as to whether or not its new fee rule and announcement that applications "postmarked" 11/23/2010 will be rejected can be inferred that applications "postmarked" 11/22/2010 or earlier date would be accepted even if the packets arrive after November 22, 2010. It would be thus best policy that people send out all the applications and petitions with the current fees today by overnight such that the applications and petitions are received by the agency at least by Monday, November 22, 2010.

11/19/2010: Foreign Labor Certification Report: Charateristics of Foreign Workers, Data, Trends, Highlights Accross Programs and States

• This FY 2009 report gives all the details of foregin labor certification data and detailed analysis.

11/19/2010: Official PERM Processing Times as of 10/31/2010

• Processing times:
  • Analyst Reviews (Clean Cut Cases): September 2010
  • Audits: October 2008
  • Standard Appeals: April 2008
  • Government Error Appeals: Current
• It is indeed unbelievable how things have changed in a short period of time - taking generally from 10 months to two months or less now! It also sends a signal that if a case is filed in a way leading to audit or appeal, it will take either two years or two years and a half! Accordingly, those employers of worldwide countries filing for EB-2 and the employers who need three-year increment extension of H-1B under AC 21 Section 104(c) should file cases as clean as possible to obtain the certification quickly and approval of I-140 immigrant petitions quickly.

11/18/2010: Foreign Labor Certification Online Filing System Outage Alert

• OFLC has issued an alert that due to regular system maintenance, the iCERT, LCA, H-2A, H-2B, Permanent, and Perm Backlog systems will be unavailable from 8AM ET on Saturday, November 20, 2010 to approximately 8AM ET on Monday, November 22, 2010.

11/18/2010: USCIS Monthly Processing Times Report (11/18/2010 Update) as of 09/30/2010

• As anticipated it, the H-1B petitions took about three months (one month behind the agency target) both in CSC and VSC. However, I-140 and EB-485 processing times remained within the target processing time goal of fouth months both at NSC and TSC. For the full report, please visit our home page.

11/18/2010: USCIS Updates its Processing Volumes and Trends at National and Local Levels by Type of Applications/Petitions and by Service Center/Local Office in Diagram or Statistics at the End of September 2010

• This monthly report gives valuable information for the status of processing of applications and petitions by each office at the national, regional, and local level as well as by specific type of application or petition. This latest update which has just been released reflects that for the first time since September 2009, the overall pending volumes dropped and the volume of completion of applications and petitions dropped in September 2010, which is a good news.

11/17/2010: Way Oudated AAO Processing Times Report on USCIS Website

• Probably for an oversight, the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office has not been updating the processing times for several months. Those consumers that are not represented by any legal counsels should be aware that the AAO processing times report on its website is way outdated and should not rely on it to make a decision on appeals when their cases are denied. Such readers are advised to contact a legal counsel to obtain the updated processing times reports of the agency. This is important for some employers in that employers sometimes decide whether to appeal a decision considering the processing times of appeals and they rather want to refile a case considering the situation of appeal processing times of the AAO. It is hoped that the Office updates the information as soon as possible.

11/17/2010: Fast Approaching USCIS New Filing Fee Requirement Date of 11/23/2010 (Tuesday)

• People should remember that unless their petitions or applications are postmarked or filed (physically received on or before Monday, November 22, 2010, such petitions or applications will be rejected!

11/17/2010: USCIS Religious Worker Special Immigration Concurrent Filing Suspension Interim Memorandum for Comment

• The term "memorandum for comment" may be confusing but as noted under the heading, this memorandum is "in effect" within the USCIS. The USCIS is just soliciting feed-backs and comments from the stakeholders and consumers until the end of this month for their potential consideration of change or no change of the memo down the road. Again, readers are advised that this memoranduim is "in effect" and the USCIS is currently accepting no concurrent filing of I-360 and I-485 for the religious workers unless they were postmarked or received "before" November 8, 2010.

11/16/2010: White House Press Release After Obama Meeting with Hispanic Legislators

• Hmmmmm......................!?!?

11/16/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 11/12/2010

• Regular cap: 47,800
• Master cap: 17,400

11/16/2010: DREAM Obama-Dems Meeting Today

• Report indicates that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will meet with President Barack Obama this afternoon to talk about the chances of getting comprehensive immigration reform or the DREAM Act passed in the lame duck session, signaling the Democrats, Hispanics, and Obama turning their posture in CIR or DREAM from "defensive" to "offensive" strategy, by going forward with the all-court pressing DREAM or CIR during the Lame Duck session. For this apparent strategy, time is indeed short and running out. There was also report that the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could bring the DREAM Act to the floor as early as this week. This strategy will push and corner Republicans to the "defensive" position in connection with the 2012 Presidential and another national election. For this matter, the Democrats have nothing to lose by pushing for DREAM or CIR during this Lame Duck session while they are in a majority position. Failure to pass the DREAM Act during the Lame Duck session will be placed on the Republicans, which are likely to bring about some Republican casualties and political liabilities in 2012 election. From the perspecitives of the DREAM activists, this is indeed considered a last chance and they are taking an aggressive position to take advantage of such political strategy of the Democrats. Let's watch how this political drama will unfold during the next one month or so.

11/16/2010: CRS Review of "India and U.S. Relations"

11/16/2010: House Passed S. 1376 International Adoption Simplification Act Bill of Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota

• Yesterday, the House floor passed this bill by voice vote.

11/15/2010: DOL FY 2010 3rd Quarter (04/01/2010-06/30/2010) Performance Results Report and PERM Program Performance Result

• According to this report which was just released today by the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of PERM applications resolved in six months was 60%, resulting in increase 43% over previous Quarter results of only 17%. The report indicates that this improvement was achieved thans to its success in the backlog reduction efforts. In FY 2010, the Offi ce of Foreign Labor Certifi cation (OFLC) reduced by 50 % the backlog of applications on permanent labor certifi cation. This
  signifi cant improvement in performance refl ects aggressive backlog reduction activities aimed at cutting the total number of pending PERM applications by 50 % during FY 2010; a goal it was not scheduled to meet until September 30th, 2010. OFLC has redirected staff and other resources to ensure the successof the Backlog Reduction Plan. For the full report, please click here.
• After this period of report, the OFLC has made a dramatic stride and progress in further reducing processing times of PERM applications, as we have been reporting from time to time. The OFLC deserves a huge salutation from its consummer community!! Please stay tuned to this website, for the latest report of the processing times.

11/15/2010: USCIS Corrects New Filing Fees for Refugee Travel Document Application for $135.00

• The new USCIS filing fee schedules that will go into effect on 11/23/2010 lists I-131 Application for Refugee Travel Document Application as $165.00. The USCIS advises that it was an error and the correct fee will be $135.00. The USCIS will publish tomorrow this correction notice. Caveat: This fee correction for I-131 applies only to "Refugee Travel Document" cases and will have no affect on Advance Parole application or other application using I-131 form for other purposes. The new fees for those other than Refugee Travel Document will remain as published in the new fee schedules final rule.

11/13/2010: Lame Duck Congress and Immigration

• Report indicates that Senator Harry Reid may take up the DREAM bill on the Senate floor during the Lame Duck session that begins on November 15, 2010. There was also a report that the House Speaker Pelosi also expressed her intent to try the DREAM bill before the Republicans take over the House coming January 2011. Please stay tuned.

11/12/2010: FY 2010 (as of 09/30/2010) B (Visitor) Visa Refusal Rate by Nationality

11/12/2010: Annual Numerical Limits in FY 2011 for Family-Based and Employment-Based Immigrant Visas

11/12/2010: Immigrant Visa Waiting List at National Visa Center as of 11/01/2010 by Country and Category

11/12/2010: December 2010 Visa Bulletin

• Disappointing Movement in December.
  • Retrogression of Philippines Family Cut-Off Dates
  • Disappointing Movement for Employment Categories
• State Department Prediction for Coming Months:
  • Family-sponsored:
    • From early 2009 through September 2010, the level of demand for numbers in the Family-sponsored preference categories was very low. As a result, the cut-off dates for most Family preference categories were advanced at a very rapid pace, in an attempt to generate demand so that the annual numerical limits could be fully utilized. As readers were advised in previous Visa Bulletins providing projections of visa availability (e.g., April 2009, January 2010, May 2010, July 2010), such cut-off date advances could not continue indefinitely, and at some point they could slow, stop, or in some cases retrogress.
    • The level of demand which has been experienced during FY-2011 has resulted in most of the worldwide cut-off dates being held for the month of December. At this time it is not possible to predict when or if these dates may advance further, and there is a distinct possibility that retrogressions could occur as early as January if demand within the established cut-off dates does not appear to be subsiding.
  • Employment-based:
    • At this time it is unlikely that there will be any cut-off dates in the Employment First preference during the coming months. It also appears unlikely that it will be necessary to establish a cut-off date other than those already in effect for the Second preference category. Cut-off dates continue to apply to the China and India Second preference categories due to heavy demand.
      Based on current indications of demand, the best case scenarios for cut-off date movement each month during the coming months are as follows:
    • EB-2:
      • China: none to two weeks
      • India: no movement
    • EB-3:
      • Worldwide: three to six weeks
      • China: one to three weeks
      • India: none to two weeks
      • Mexico: although continued forward movement is expected, no specific projections are possible at this time.
      • Philippines: three to six weeks
  • Please be advised that the above ranges are estimates based upon the current demand patterns, and are subject to fluctuations during the coming months. The cut-off dates for upcoming months cannot be guaranteed, and no assumptions should be made until the formal dates are announced.
• Gosh!

11/12/2010: Family-Based Preference Immigration Visa Cut-Off Dates (FY1992 - FY 2010)

• ROW (World-Wide)
• China
• India
• Mexico
• Philippines

11/10/2010: ALERT: New I-129 Form Takes Effect 11/23/2010 and Current I-129 Form Rejected Effective 12/22/2010 Unless Postmarked or Filed 12/21/2010 or Earlier

• USCIS has been sending out the following alert to stakeholders which is currently not available to the public on its website:
  • USCIS has revised the Form I-129, which employers use to petition for temporary workers in a variety of nonimmigrant visa classifications. The revised version of the form will be published on the same day that the final fee rule becomes effective: November 23, 2010. Once the revised version of the Form I-129 is published, USCIS will accept previous editions of the form for 30 days or until December 21, 2010.
  • As you prepare your petitions, please keep the following dates in mind:
    • November 23, 2010 - revised form available on www.uscis.gov
    • Decembeer 21, 2010 - last day that USCIS can accept previous editions of the form (NOTE: This means that petitions must be postmarked or filed on or before this date for the previous edition to be accepted)
    • December 22, 2010 - USCIS will only accept the revised form with the November 23, 2010 revision date and will reject requests using previous editions of the form (NOTE: This means that petitions postmarked or filed on or after this date require the revised version)
• Important alert. The new form is intended to add Public Law 111-230 that requires additional $2,000 for H-1B or $2,250 for L-1 petitions for certain employers. The new form revises H-1B Data Collection Form I-129W and L Supplement of I-129 Form asking these questions to determine the correct filing fees. The new form will make H-1B and L-1 employers' lives easier in that all the employers will have to answer "yes" or "no" questions and do not have to bother how the H-1B or L-1 employers have to deal with this issue under the current form. However, the new form will also add in H Supplement form so-called "employer-employee relationship" attestations. The Neufeld Employer-Employee Memorandum was challenged and defeated in the federal district court, and it appears the USCIS intends to enforce the employer-employee relationship/control requirement as part of the H-1B petition. According to this reporter's review of the draft form, these two are the key changes which have driven and motivated the USCIS to implement the revised new form in urgency.

11/10/2010: Rising Debarment of Employers for PERM and Temporary Labor Certification Proceedings

• We reported earlier that lately the DOL was recommended to intensify debarment of wrong-doing foreign labor certification applications employers. The DOL releases update of debarment of employers in both PERM and Temporary Foreign Labor Certification Proceedings, which show a rise of debarment actions by the agency.
  • Update of List of PERM Debarment Employers
  • Update of List of H-1B Debarment Employers
  • Update of List of H-2A Debarment Employers
• The proposed FY 2011 Budget of DOL also reflected its policy to punish wrong-doing employers in the foreign labor certification proceedings in 2011. Foreign labor certification employers should be alerted and conscious of the ongoing DOL sanction activities. Unlike monitary fines, debarment may practically wipe out some "consulting" business. In that regard, debarment is considered the most powerful and deadly sanction in labor certification and immigration proceedings for consulting businesses.

11/10/2010: USCIS Naturalization Application Statistics as of the End of September 2010

• Naturalization applications also witnessed somewhat slow-down in receipts and pending cases. Read on.

11/10/2010: USCIS Monthly Statistics of New Receipts and Pending Applications of Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Benefits as of the End of September 2010

• The statistics show the new receipts increased 64% over September 2009. Good news appear to be that total pending applications has started showing a slight decrease in September 2010. Until the end of August 2010, the number of pending cases had been steadily rising. Read on.

11/09/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 11/05/2010

• Regular Cap: 46,800
• Master Cap: 17,200

11/08/2010: Litigation of DHS Action Involving Arrest of H-1B Alien Pending Extension Petition in "Hot" Boiling Litigation

• This litigation has a very profound impact on all the H-1B foreign workers in ths country. The lawsuit involves DHS arresting a H-1B foreign worker who had timely filed H-1B extension petition but because of the USCIS delays in the adjudication of the petition, the alien's I-94 expired and continued employment pending the H-1B extension petition. Reportedly, the DHS agemt arrested the H-1B worker on out-of-status ground and attempted to deport the alien. For other details, please read the release by the Legal Action Center of American Immigration Center.

11/08/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 11/05/2010

• Total: 12,818
• Approved: 11,288
• Pending: 1,530

11/06/2010: Fate of Promised Take-Up of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill or DREAM Bill on Senate Floor During Lame Duck Session (November 15 Thru December 2010)

• Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate for this Congress (111th) which will sunset at the end of this calendar year reportedly promised to take up the CIR or DREAM whethe the Congress returns for the Lame Duck sessions beginning from November 15, 2010. In the next Congress (112th) that begins from January 2011, the ratio of seats between the Demorats and the Republicans in the Senate will be 53:47. Accordingly, not to mentions our earlier report that the House of Representatives during the 112th Congress is likely turned into a strong anti-CIR chamber, the Senate itself will lose a ground to push through the floor the CIR or DREAM by the Democrats even if a few Republican senators join the CIR or DREAM legislation, because under the Senate rule, the floor filibuster can be broken only with the 60 votes in support of cloture motion and with the 53-majority, it will be practically close to impossible to pass the Democrat version of the CIR or DREAM bill in 2011.
• What about the chances during the Lame Duck session of Congress before the power changes hand in January 2011? Theoretically, the Senate will hold 58 majoirity seats during the Lame Duck session and joining of two Republican Senators may lead to breaking of the potential filibuster and pass the bill in the Senate this year. However, this will be a dream in that the assumption that the Democrats will be able to obtain support from all of 58 Democrat Senators may turn out to be a close to impossible itself, not to mention whether there will be any Republicans to cross the party line and join the Democrats during the Lame Duck session. Besides, because of the top agenda this mid-term national election called for - economy, the Congress will be totally exhausted with a single legislative bill of dealing with the Bush tax-cut program which expires on 12/31/2010. Additionally, even if Senator Reid keeps his promise to take up immigration reform or DREAM, it may turn out to be a lost cause in that the chance of both the old and new House of Representatives to pass such bill during the Lame Duck session will be nil. One only hopes that the nation's economy turns around soon such that the nation's political leaders turn to the ailing immigration issues sooner or later.

11/05/2010: Expiration of Two Immigration Programs Amidst November 2, 2010 Election Fires

• DV-2012 Immigration Lottery was closed at noon 11/03/2010, Wednesday.
• The last day for concurrent filing for religious worker special immigrant application opportunity practically practically ended since the agency will reject any such concurrent filing of I-485 for religious workers which is received on Monday. The agency is closed during the weekend and does not accept any filing during the weekend.

11/04/2010: Result of November Election and Expected Change in Immigration Legislation Leadership in the House of Representatives

• November 2, 2010 Midterm National Election will turn the House of Representatives into a Republican-majority and Republican-controlled chamber. Report indicates that this change will also affect the leaders in immigration legislation in the House. Currently the House Judiciary Committee is chaired by Rep. Conyers and its Immigration Subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Lofgren. But in the 112th Congress that opens in January 2011, the Judiciary Committee will be reportedly chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas and its Immigration Subcommittee is expected to be chaired by Rep. Steve King of Iowa. Report indicates that the new immigration leadership in the House will support highly skilled foreign worker program such as H-1B but will oppose low skilled foreign worker program including H-2B. This new leadership is contrasted with the Senate immigration leadership that takes a hostile position on high-tech foreign worker program such as H-1B while supporting low skilled visa program and comprehensive immigration reform legislation. These Senate leaders include Senator Chuck Schumer, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Durbin-Grassley has formed a strong team in the Senate against the high-tech foreign worker programs such as H-1B and L-1 visa programs. Generally, the Senate will remain a pro-CIR Chamber, while the House will turn into a strong anti-CIR Chamber. Accordingly, it s anticipated that CIR will face increased hurdle and challenges ahead in the Congress. Unless the political environment changes the Congress into a "negotiate and compromise" legislature, immigration bills are likely to face a steep uphill battle in 2011.

11/02/2010: Official Federal Register Notice of Somalia TPS Designation Extension

• See also Questions and Answers.

11/01/2010: Government Accounting Office (GAO) Reports H-2B Employers' Frauds and Abuse of H-2B Program

• According to the just released GAO report to the Congress dated 09/30/2010, its investigation revealed incidents of employers having engaged in and abusing the H-2B program. For the full text of the report, please click here.

11/01/2010: H-1B Cap Count of 10/29/2010

• Regular cap: 45,600
• Master cap: 16,700

11/01/2010: H-2B Cap Count of 10/29/2010

• Total: 11,371
• Approved: 10,528
• Pending: 843

11/01/2010: Senate Majority Reid Reportedly Vows Immigration Vote in Lame-duck Congress After Tomorrow's National Election

• In the interview for Univision TV, the Hispanic television station. he reportedly confirmed that he intended to take up the immigration reform bill during the Lame-duck session. The lame-duck Congress is scheduled to open on November 15, 2010. Potential take-up of the CIR during the lame-duck session has some possibility for the two reasons, among others. Firstly, Senator Reid desperately needs Hispanic support in this election. Secondly, no matter what in his election, the outgoing majority party in the Congress has strategically attempted to pass all of their bills during the Lame-duck session before they lose power in the next Congress that begins in January. Additionally, even if the chances may be slim for certain contentious bill as immigration reform bill, they want to leave a record that they indeed kept the promise but the Republicans blocked it. This strategy will be intended to gain the Hispanic support in the 2012 Presidential election. There is thus already rumor that the winning Republicans may even consider the shut-down of the federal government by opposing extension of continuing resolution to extend the Lame-duck session within this calendar year and place the blame of federal government shut-down on the Democrats. Politics, Politics, Politics!!!

11/01/2010: Somalia TPS Designation Extension Announcement

• The DHS announcement will be published tomorrow extending the designation of Somalia for temporary protected status (TPS) for 18 months, from its current expiration date of March 17, 2011 through September 17, 2012. The extension of the TPS designation of Somalia is effective March 18, 2011, and will remain in effect through September 17, 2012. The 60-day re-registration period begins on November 2, 2010 and will remain effect until 60 days from November 2, 2010. USCIS will issue new EADs with a September 17, 2012 expiration date to eligible TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs. For the details, please read the announcement.

10/30/2010: Child Born Abroad During Temporary Visit of the Permanent Resident Mother

• This is a question which is quite frequently encountered nowadays because of certain permanent residents preference giving a birth of their child in their homeland rather than in the United States in order to give a citizenship or nationality of their mother country to the new born child rather than a citizenship of the United States. This is strictly an issue of preference or emotional issue. Besides, some permanent resident mother wants to visit and stay with the parents in her country during last trimester pregrancy, during when she happens to deliver a baby. Obviously, then a question arises the immigrant status and visa issue for the child to accompany the parent(s) to the United States. Accordingly, people must have some knowledge on the laws and rules governing requirement for a visa by the U.S. Department of State and the rules governing requirement for admission of the child to the United States by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the port of entry.
• Such child born abroad during the mother's temporary visit abroad will be admitted to the United States with the birth certificate of the child without an immigrant visa if, repeat if the following conditions are met:
  • The child must be less than two years of age
  • The child must be accompanied by a permanent resdient parent upon his/her first return to the United States in a valid permanent resident status who is admissible. That parent can be either the mother or father or both. Obviously, the new-born baby may accompany his/her mother, but in unusual situation, the baby may accompany his/her father. His/her return trip to the United States must be the first return trip after the child was born. Once these conditions are met, the child should be issued I-181 which is a document to record the child as a lawful permanent resident.
• Caveat: The key word in the foregoing requirement is the parent's "first" return trip after the child was born. Accordingly, if the child is not entering the country accompanied by either parent applying for readmission upon first return after the birth of the child, immigrant visa is not waived for the child to be admitted to the United States. For instance, if the mother leaves the new born baby to the care of the grandparents and return to the U.S. and then makes another trip to bring the child to the home in the United States within two years, the child cannot be admitted to the United States without an immigrant visa. Do people remember American Express card commercial "Never Leave Home Without the Card?" The mother should never return to the United States without the baby. As for the father, if he was not present when the child was born and visit home country and return without the baby, the baby will be in trouble too. Remember the term "either parent." If any of the two parents return without the baby, the baby will be in trouble. "Don't Leave the Home Country Without the New-Born Baby!" AND make it sure that the baby enters the United States in two years of his or her birth!
• Please seek legal counsel for other details, including birth certificate or other related evidence.

10/30/2010: Some Changes in "Cuban" Family Reunification Parole Program

• Since November 21, 2007, USCIS has been exercising its discretionary parole authority to permit eligible Cuban nationals who reside in Cuba and who are the beneficiaries of an approved Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) to be paroled into the United States while they wait for a visa to become available under this program. However, the USCIS announced through its teleconference changes in the program for certain Cubans who are currently eligible for visas under the F2A visa category (spouses and minor unmarried children of a Legal Permanent Resident), and who have scheduled interviews at the US Interest Section in Cuba on January 1, 2011, or later will not be eligible to apply for parole under this program, but will be eligible only for visas under the F2A category.

10/30/2010: Termination of Current Procedure of "Overseas" Adjudication of Family-Based I-130 Petition Under Consideration by the USCIS

• Currently, petitioners living outside the United States may file a Form I-130 with and have the petition adjudicated by a USCIS field office or American Consulate overseas. USCIS is reviewing options to have all Forms I-130 adjudicated domestically. Until now, this procedure has been considered a short-cut immigration process for the spouses and children of U.S. citizens who are considered residents in foreign country in that they could complete I-130 petition and immigrant visa application process fairly in a short period of time through the American Consulates in those countries.
• In order to solicit inputs from the stakeholders and the public, the USCIS is scheduling a teleconference on November 9, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). The agency invites them to participate in the teleconference. For details of the conference, please click here.

10/29/2010: Weekend Reading Material: September 2010 Statistical Web Report (USCIS Web Portal Traffic Analysis)

• Hello, are you bored of sickening trash November election political ads without any exciting immigration news? This USCIS web portal traffic analysis report of October 11, 2010 may interest you and get you out of the boredom this weekend. This analysis is fresh enough to learn the types and volumes of hits to the USCIS website.

10/28/2010: SPECIAL NEWS AND ALERT FOR RELIGIOUS WORKERS!!! I-360 & I-485 CONCURRENT FILING AVAILABLE UNTIL 11/07/2010

• On October 27, 2010, the USCIS issued a notice that any properly filed concurrent Form I-360, Form I-485, Form I-765 and/or Form I-131 from individuals seeking classification as special immigrant religious workers submitted before November 8, 2010 will be processed in accordance with the guidelines established in the August 5, 2009 Memorandum HQDOMO AD09-, "Clarifying Guidance on the Implementation of the District Court's Order in Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, No. C07-1881RSL (W.D. Wash. June 11, 2009)." However, as of November 8, 2010, USCIS will no longer accept any I-485 applications, as well as Applications for Employment Authorization (Form I-765), and/or Applications for Travel Document (Form I-131), filed concurrently with or filed based on pending I-360 petitions from individuals seeking classification as special immigrant religious workers. Any Form I-485, Form I-765, and/or Form I-131 submitted on or after November 8, 2010, where the underlying basis is an I-360 petition seeking the classification of special immigrant religious worker, must be filed with an approved I-360 petition or it will be rejected.
• On October 13, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a mandate overturning the permanent injunction ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington allowing special immigrant religious workers to file their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, concurrently with the organizations' Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant. Ruiz-Diaz v. USA, No. 09-35734 (9th Cir. Aug. 20, 2010). Today's announcement indicates that the USCIS will still continue to accept concurrent I-360/I-485 filings for the reglious workers which are received before November 8, 2010. For the details of the announcnement, please click here.

10/28/2010: Views on Impact of Outcome of the November Election on the Fates of H-1B Program and Outsourcing

• It is obvious that depending on who wins and who loses in the national election which is only about five days away from now, current H-1B program and foreign outsourcing will be critically affected. There are many different views on the impact of the results of the November election. Here is one of the views which is reported in the ComputerWorld. Read on.

10/28/2010: List of Approved SEVP Schools as Updated by ICE 10/26/2010 for Foreign Students and Schools

10/27/2010: DOL Releases Today Full FY 2009 Foreign Labor Certification Report

• On October 27, 2010, the DOL released a full report of FY 2009 foreign labor certifications covering permanent as well as temporary applications and detailed statistics by areas, occupation, and all other statistics. Read on.
• It shows that the number of PERM certified cases showed a continuing decrease between FY 2008 and FY 2009. In FY 2008, there was a 42% decrease from FY 2007. The same numbers decreased 40% from FY 2008 and FY 2009. In FY 2009, the DOL certified 29,502 PERM applications. This was in part caused by 37% decrease in Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services Industry which accounted for the largest number of PERM certifications. Out of total, 38.6% were Indian nationals and 7.1% out of total were Chinese nationals, resulting in over 45% of out of total PERM applications were certified for these two nationals, followed by 6.3% by South Korea nationals, 5.5% by Filipinos, and 5.3% by Canadians.

10/27/2010: H-1B Regular Cap Moved Up 1,500 in Seven Days

• USCIS has just released its H-1B cap count as of October 22, 2010. The following figures show that the regular cap number moved up 1,500 between October 15 and October 22:
  • Regular Cap: 44,300
  • Master Cap: 16,200

10/27/2010: Official Federal Register Release of the State Department Final Rule J-1 Secondary School Student Program Changes

• Here it is for your library and file.

10/27/2010: Redesigned Certificate of Naturalization

• The USCIS has announced that it has redesigned the certificate of naturalization. The current certificate of naturalization will not be affected by the redesigning of the certificate. For the details, please read the following:
  • Announcement
  • Q&A
  • Fact Sheet

10/26/2010: Final Rule of State Department Exchange Visitor Program Changes for Secondary School Students

• This final rule which we reported on 10/22/2010 will be published tomorrow, October 27, 2010, in the federal register. Here is the advance copy.

10/26/2010: November 2, 2010 Election and Cautious Silence of Government Immigration Business For Fear of Potential Last-Minute Misstep on Slippery Slope

• November 2010 mid-term national election is only one week away and the two major parties face unpredictable results for their future for the next several years. Under the circumstances, the federal government tends to remain inactive when it comes to immigration policy-making activities for fear of their potential serious impact on the election. There is a prediction that the Democrats may lose the majority status in the House, leading to more contentious Congress between the two parties in the legislative process for the next two years. For the reasons, there is some indication that the Democrats want to take up and attempt to pass Sen. Menendez CIR bill during the Lame Duck session that opens on November 15, 2010. The Democrats' stategy could be to leave a record that the Democrat-majority 111th Congress failed to enact CIR because of the Republicans, looking ahead their long-term political strategy in the Presidential election in November 2012. The Congress may turn into more pro employment-based immigration legislative body but the heat of contention may continue to rise and hotter during the 112th Congress between the Democrats and the Republicans when it comes to the immigration reform. Please stay tuned.

10/26/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 10/22/2010

• Total: 11,053
• Approval: 9,934
• Pending: 1,119

10/23/2010: Employment Authorization E-Verify Problem for Those AC 21 H-1B Porting Workers Who are in Nonimmigrant Status Other Than H-1B at the Time of Filing of H-1B Petition by New Employers

• AILA has reported that E-Verify is not and will not confirm employment authorization clearance pending "approval" of the H-1B petition filed by the new employer for those nonimmigrants who were in H-1B but at the time of filing in a different nonimmigrant visa status such as H-4 or F-1. The lawyers' community and AILA disagree to such interpretation of AC-21 Act, but until the issue is resolved, the employers hiring a H-1B alien in nonimmigrant status other than H-1B under AC-21 H-1B portability provision may not employ such alien until their H-1B petitions are approved. For the purpose, the employers may rather file such new H-1B petition using Premium Processing Request. This may sound odd or awkward but until this issue is resolved, it may be prudent for the new employers take a conservative approach not to run into unauthorized employment immigration enforcement.

10/23/2010: USCIS Interim Memorandum in Effect on Increased Fees for Certain H-1B & L-1 Petitions/Applications Under New Law P.L 111-230

• This is the Interim Memorandum for Comment but is currently in effect as guidance for adjudicators of USCIS.

10/22/2010: Prospective Host Families of J-1 Secondary School Exchange Visitor Students Soon to Face Stricter Requirements and Qualifications for Sponsorship

• This J-1 exchange visitor program has been in a hot spont for the news media for irregularity and alleged abuse of the program by the exchange visitor student host families because of a lapse in management standards within the U.S. Department of State and loopholes in the current regulation. In order to plug the holes under the intense fire from the medias, the U.S. Department of State published a proposed regulation to fix the problems, but it has taken one year to complete the rule-making process and to publish and implement the revised rule in the form of a final rule in the near future by clearance of the final rule by the The White House on October 20, 2010. This revised rule will impose new program administration requirements with respect to the annual income and family configuration of the host family, and additional requirements for host family applications and background checks. Current regulations allow sponsors the flexibility to exercise their independent judgment when evaluating the financial resources, moral character, and composition of potential host families, as well as the suitability of potential home environments. The State Department believes, however, that the lack of specificity or industry standards may have contributed to the recent degradation of the appropriateness of selected families, thereby putting at risk the health, safety, and welfare of this most vulnerable group of exchange visitors. The State Department hopes that the soon-to-be-published and implemented final rule will be able to plug all the holes and fix the current problems. The text of final rule has yet to be published, but those who want to learn the proposed version of the rule may revisit the proposed rule to get an idea on the forthcoming changes in this program host family sponsorship qualification standards and requirements. As soon as the final rule is made available, we will promptly post it at this site. Please stay tuned.

10/20/2010: Designation of AAO Decision of Matter of Al Wazzan as Precedent Decision

• This decision interpretes and defines "valid" I-140 petition for AC-21 portability after 180 days of filing of EB-485 application under Section 204(j) of INA, 8 U.S.C. 1154(j), Section 106(c) of AC 21 Act. Valid requires either approval of I-140 petition or alien being entitled to to the requested classification, if I-140 petition has been approved. Important decision for employment-based immigrants and their employers.

10/20/2010: New EOIR/Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Website

• The EOIR launches a new website today. Visit the new site.

10/20/2010: USCIS FY 2011 National Public Engagement Session Schedules

• USCIS plans ahead the coming fiscal year's public engagement schedules and invites stakeholders to send in items they propose to cover at the sessions. The stakeholders and public are encouraged to send their suggestions and items for the engagement items. The session schedules are as follows:
  • December 16, 2010 - Teleconference Only (deadline for agenda items November 14, 2010)
  • March 17, 2011 - In person meeting at the California Service Center and by teleconference (deadline for agenda items February 17, 2011)
  • June 16, 2011 - Teleconference Only (deadline for agenda items May 16, 2011)
  • September 15, 2011 - In person meeting in Washington,D.C. and by teleconference (deadline for agenda items August 15, 2011)
• For the December 16, 2010, the agency has scheduled to cover EB-5 Investor Immigrant. For the date and time, please check the announcement.

10/19/2010: Latest USCIS Processing Volumes and Trends - End of August 2010

• This latest update shows national, regional, and local offices' precessing volutions and trend for the past two months ending August 2010. This update reflects that at the national level, the pending cases are all time high as affected by continuously rising volumes of new receipts.

10/19/2010: Senator Grassley of IA (R) Drops Second Bombshell Placing Immigrant Community in Shocks and Speechless

• The Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa lately dropped the first bomb by obtaining and releasing to the media the USCIS internal memo on the Administrative Alternatives to the CIR, stirrming a political quackmire. Last week, he dropped the second bomb by releasing his letter to the USCIS Director accusing him of pressuring the California Service Center adjudicators to speed up adjudication of petitions. Here it is.

10/19/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 10/15/2010

• Gradually marching on:
  • Regular cap: 42,800
  • Master cap: 15,700
• Readers are reminded that the maximum regular annual cap is 65,000 and maxiumum master annual cap is 20,000. Because of the slow pace of exhaution of the numbers, it is very difficult to predict as to about when they will be exhausted. But it suffice to remind the readers that the regular cap will be affected by the two unpredictable factors taking some cap numbers out of the annual maximum cap. One is Chile and Singapore H-1B1 Free Trade special numbers. They will have to keep separate these numbers affecting potential reach of the annual regular cap when it reaches around 58,000 numbers. Secondly, once master cap is reached, the U.S. master degree holders will have to use the regular cap numbers, again taking out some regular cap numbers. So far the master cap itself has been moving forward very slowly. But the immigration matters are sometimes very unpredictable as affected by some changes surrounding it such as related legislation, agency policy changes, and changes in processing pace, etc. etc. We alert the future H-1B candidates to follow the movement of H-1B cap numbers very carefully from hereon.

10/19/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 10/15/2010

• Total: 10,200
• Approved: 9,371
• Pending: 829

10/19/2010: Status of USCIS Policy Memorandum Review

• The USCIS has been scheduling public engagement sessions as part of review of the existing policy memorandums. Some have produced revised memorandums and some are still under review considering the feedbacks it has received. The agency has posted a very good summary of the current status of each of these reviews. Read on.

10/16/2010: Striking Growth of Immigration Through EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

• On October 14, 2010, the USCIS hosted a stakeholder session for their participation either in person or telephone, discussing the state of EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The Presentation which served as a guide for discussion at the meeting shows striking and surprisingly rapid increase in green card applications through investment in this couuntry, which is very contrasted with the immigration opportunities through employment which has been more or less stalled because of the EB-2 and EB-3 visa number retrogression and lack of political leaders' interest in reforming the entire employment-based immigration system. The agency will release the executive summary of the discussion in the future which will give additional information on the program and policy of EB-5 program. Read on.

10/15/2010: Social Networking Sites, Targets of Immigration Investigation

• According to a report, DHS used the social networking sites for investigations. Targeted sites reportedly included Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Migente and BlackPlanet as well as news sites NPR and DailyKos. According to the undisclosed internal memorandum of the USCIS, the agency conducted immigration investigations. Hmm.........................

10/15/2010: H-2B Cap Count of 10/08/2010

• Total: 9,278
• Approved: 7,875
• Pending: 1,403

10/15/2010: Alert of Foreign Labor Certification Systems Outage From Tomorrow Morning to Monday Morning

• Here is foreign labor certification office announcement: "Due to regular system maintenance, the iCERT, LCA, H-2A, H-2B, Permanent, and Perm Backlog systems will be unavailable from 8AM EDT on Saturday, October 16, 2010 to 7AM EDT on Monday, October 18, 2010."
• Hmm....... What's cooking? Please stay tuned.

10/15/2010: USCIS Updates Processing Times 10/14/2010

• The update reflects the processing times of five Service Centers and all of the local offices (districts and fields) as of 08/31/2010.
• Please notice that the agency has reported correct processing times for H-1B processing times. This is the area where readers had problem with the agency's report of correct processing times. The reality has been a substantial backlog with the H-1B cap cases, which the agency has recently started to keep up with the posted processing times of two months. The good news is that both NSC and TSC are keeping their processing times at four months. The national mid-term election will be over very soon, which will probably help the agency resources more focused on immigrant/nonimmigrant applications processing over the naturalization application processing.
• For the updates, please visit our Home Page.

10/14/2010: PERM Processing Times as of September 30, 2010

• DOL/OFLC's permanent labor certification processing times have been remarkably improving for the last several months. The current processing times which are officially released by the agency is as follows:
  • Analyst Reviews: July 2010 (priority date cases)
  • Audits: August 2008
  • Standard Appeals: March 2008
  • Government Error Appeals: Current
• The report implicitly alerts the employers one key point: "Unless you file a clean-cut case, be prepared to wait for years to obtain the decision! If you file a clean-cut and honest application, we will reward you with a swift approval of the applications. Don't try to play a trick with us!" Employers, did you hear that??

10/14/2010: USCIS Proposes to Extend TPS for Somalians

• The USCIS has just initated a process to extend the designation of TPS for Somali. Initiation means it is seeking the White House approval. Please stay tuned.

10/14/2010: USCIS Pre-Registration Requirement Rule-Making Agenda in Nonimmigrant and Immigrant Proceedings - How Soon?

• The USCIS has been pushing proposals to change procedures of filing of nonimmigrant petitions as well as I-485 applications for sometime. The agency placed these proposals on its agenda this year and surely enough, it has initiated the first part of its agenda in its rule-making vault. The agency drafted and has been seeking the OMB approval for proposed regulation to require pre-registration of the H-1B petitions, apparently as part of its business transformation transition program. It appears that the proposed pre-registration requirement in the H-1B petition process may not bring a drastic impact on the H-1B petitioning employers and the alien beneficiaries. However, its agenda for requiring I-485 applicants to pre-register their intents to file I-485 applications regardless of the visa number availability in the Visa Bulletin will have a significant impact on the immigrants because the proposed rule would discontinue the concurrent filing process for employment-based adjustment of status applicants and would require that an alien seeking to immigrate based upon a classification that is subject to numerical limitations must be the beneficiary of an approved immigrant petition prior to proceeding through a revised adjustment of status process. In plain language, it means that it would terminate the current I-140 and I-485 concurrent filing procedure. The agency justification was to streamline the overall I-485 process and to mitigate visa retrogression through improved estimation of immigrant visa availability. This proposal is still in the vault of the USCIS rule-making agenda with the initial estimation of the proposed rule initiation action in October 2010. We have no information as to whether or not the agency will keep this schedule or will rather turn it over to FY 2011. Whether it initiates sooner or later, it will not have an immediate impact on the foreign workers seeking a green card as the rule-making process will drag into months to come in year 2011. But this is something one has to keep an eye on the development of the USCIS schedules of changes in application procedures. For the reasons, this site will closely monitor the agency's movement from here on. Please stay tuned to this web site for the development of this news.

10/13/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 10/08/2010

• Regular cap: 41,900
• Master cap: 15,400

10/12/2010: OFLC Releases PERM FAQ Round 12 to Clarify Who Can be Designated as Employer Point of Contact in ETA 9089

• The FAQ clarifies that neither the sponsored foreign worker nor an outside legal counsel who is not an employee of the employer can be designated as the Employer Point of Contact. Apparently only in-house counsel can be designated as Employer Point of Contact.

10/11/2010: DOL Intends to Increase Enforcement Actions 30+% Above Baseline for H-2A Program in FY 2011

• The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is the enforcement arm of the DOL to assure employers do not violate the required wages under various laws. Its FY 2011 budget proposal reflects that it intends to reinforce its activities to detect and enforce against the H-2A employers. It states that a regulatory effort related to the Immigration and Nationality Act’s H-2A program will result in increased enforcement to ensure compliance with applicable labor standards statutes in the agricultural industry. Compliance levels with the statutes enforced by Wage and Hour in agricultural fall short of desired levels. WHD expects the use of the H-2A program to grow, particularly since farm labor contractors—who have higher violations rates than growers—are now allowed to participate in the program. As a matter of policy, WHD has not conducted targeted investigations of H-2A employers in the last eight years. WHD has developed a goal—consistent with the Department’s goal of securing safe and healthy workplaces particularly in high-risk industries—of increasing compliance among H-2A certified employers. The goal is set at 30+% higher in FY 2011 which started on October 1, 2010.
• We also want to remind the employers of the recommendation of DOL Inspector General to increase debarment of employers in foreign labor certification programs in its report dated 09/30/2010.

10/11/2010: DOL/ETA Repeats Proposal of Labor Certification Filing Fees for PERM, H-2A, and H-2B Certifications in FY 2011 Budget

• DOL has been proposing filiing fees for foreign labor certification services for the past several years without fruits. The fee charge for Permanent Labor Certification Applications requires legislative authority and rule-making process. Even though its proposal in FY 2011 budget includes the following, there is slim chance to materialize within the FY 2011 because the appropriation bills have been stalled and delayed pursuant to Continuing Resolution of the Congress. We just want to post the proposal to remind the readers of its intent to charge the fees at some point of time, even if it is likely in a distant future.
• Budget proposal states: The FY 2011 Budget proposes legislation to authorize user fees on new applications for three visa programs. Currently, employers do not pay a fee to the Department for the processing of permanent foreign labor certification applications. Employers are the primary beneficiaries – at taxpayers’ expense – of the permanent admission of specific foreign workers and of the attestation-based review of applications they receive under the current process. Therefore, it is reasonable to require that employers pay the processing expense to the Department of providing this service. Second, it is proposed that the Department keep application fees paid by employers under the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program to offset its processing costs ($100 base fee plus $10 per worker, up to a maximum of $1,000 for each application approved). However, the Department does not retain these H-2A fees to offset its processing costs. Third, it is proposed that the Department be permitted to charge employers a fee to support the processing of applications for the H-2B nonagricultural program. H-2B fee revenue also would be used for a new apprenticeship initiative that would expand apprenticeship opportunities across the country through a competitive grant program that could lessen our dependence on foreign labor for these occupations.

10/10/2010: Challenge to EB-2 Immigration for Indians as Reflected in 10/01/2010 EB-485 Inventory of USCIS

• Indian professionals must have noticed in the USCIS latest EB-485 inventory that EB-3 and EB-2 have shown somewhat opposite movement between EB-2 and EB-3, the EB-2 pending EB-485 cases steadily rising, while EB-3 EB-485 cases have been reduced. Because of the statistics, apparently DOS responsible officer forecasted a disappointing prospect for EB-2 India movement and instead, albeit slow, but some movement for EB-3 India. Reportedly, this has been creaated by EB-3 Indians converting their EB-3 to EB-2 through their subsequent EB-2 labor certification proceedings. The inventory for EB-2 I-485 applications post May 2006 priority dates for India alone is literally huge, exceeding 20,000. The EB community indeed needs badly EB immigration system reform as soon as possible. Considering the fact that the behavior of Indian professionals converting EB-3 to EB-2 or pursuing labor certification mostly for EB-2 is likely to continue, the situation may deteriorate in the future.

10/09/2010: USCIS Launches a Helpful New Citizenship Resource Center Site

• USCIS has done a wonderful job to set up a site that has put together all the citizenship and naturalization related information sites in one place in its website. It is very handy and resourceful. We will set up the link to this new site on our home page.

10/09/2010: Monday, October 11, 2010, Federal Government Holiday

• It is a Columbus Day!

10/09/2010: USCIS Policy Review Survey Results: Need for Employment-Based Policy Review Loomed Large

• In April, USCIS launched a comprehensive effort to review all of its adjudication and customer service policies. USCIS invited the workforce and external stakeholders to complete a survey identifying their priorities for the Policy Review. USCIS reports that 5,553 external stakeholders participated in the survey. The results indicate that policies and issues that need review and new policies involved employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant proceedings. Out of the employment-based immigration policies, the survey reflects that I-485 and EB-1/EB-2 related proceedings surfaced as the key points, including the ancillary proceedings of EAD and Advance Parole. These are all Service Center (National-Level) jurisdiction issues. Meanwhile, when it comes to field office or local juridiction issues, such as family-based immigration proceedings and relief from removal proceedings, understandably the issues are so diverse that no single issue has standed out as the area for primary policy review needs. However, one cannot but notice outcry of the respondents for the needs for national customer service (particularly 800 number center) function reform. Hmm............... It Ain't Interesting?
• Please enjoy the fall colors out there this weekend. The beauty of nature is beyond description!!

10/08/2010: November 2010 Visa Bulltin

10/08/2010: USCIS EB-485 Inventory Update of 10/01/2010

• This is a statistics of all the EB-485 pending cases, which can give clue to individual EB-485 applicant's waiting times based on the priority dates because unlike the family-based immigration cases, almost 90% of immigration cases are handled by the USCIS as opposed to the consular proceedings outside of the United States.
• EB-485 Intentory helps the I-485 waiters in two ways, among others. By adding up all the numbers ahead of your own priority date, you get a rough idea as to how many numbers can move ahead in each quarter visa number allocation out of total annual allocation of 140,000 plus spillovers. More importantly, once the Visa Bulletin show your priority date is current, you can first check all the cases ahead of your priority date by date. This process is helpful in that once the priority date becomes current for you, waiting time may be more or less determined by the dates of I-485 filing dates since the agency is processing cases in FIFO (first-in first-out) basis. At this point, the key will be not priority date but filing date of I-485. The Service Center processing time order can also be figured out through the I-485 case number as the receipt number is assigned in the order of receipts. The foregoing method may not be able to give you the exact waiting time, but give you some idea. Thus it is worth spending some time playing with the numbers in the inventory and follow through the Service Center's processing times and orders.

10/08/2010: DOL FY 2011 Annual List of Labor Surplus Areas in Each State

• This notice lists high unemployment rate areas by county in each state where they have a high rate of surplus of unemployed workers. Employers filing permanent and temporary labor certification applications for the low-end jobs may want to pay attention to the list, even though there is no official announcement from the OFLC that they officially check the list to adjudicate the foreign labor certification applications. Read on.

10/08/2010: Advisory for Employers: Employers, Do You Hire 50 or More Employees? Then Follow USCIS Interim Memo on Additional Fee Implementation to File H-1B or L-1, No Matter Whether More Than 50% of Employees are in H-1B or L-1 Visa Status and You are Not Subject to New Fee to Avoid Potential RFE and Delays!

10/08/2010: DOL Inspector General Report of 09/30/2010 Recommends Increased Use of Debarment of Employers in Foreign Labor Certification

• Uh, huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10/07/2010: USCIS Interim Policy Memorandum to Implement Provisions of Public Law 111-230 Instituting Increased Fees for Certain H-1B and L-1 Petitions and Applications (AFM Update AD10-48)

• The USCIS has drafted this Interim Policy Memorandum for comment. This 10-page Interim Memo gives specifics of the USCIS guidance for field offices and Service Centers as to how the new law should be applied.
• A few important points:
  • Individuals working in L-2 status will not be counted in determination of "50% of employees in H-1B or L-1A or L-1B"
  • If the fee is paid and denied, and the same employer files H-1B or L-1 petition again for the same employee, the employer still have to pay the new fee.
  • H-1B or L-1 petition filed by a successor in interest to a company that previously petitioned for and obtained the H-1B or L-1 status for the beneficiary will be treated as an extension petition and will not be subject to the new fee.
  • A successor in interest, as that term is defined in USCIS guidance memoranda, will not be required to pay the new fee under the P.L. 111-230.
  • The new fee does not apply to the filing of a blanket L-1 petition. However, the additional fee may apply to certain I-129S petitions submitted to the USCIS by visa-exempt aliens.
• For other details, please read the entire text of this interim policy memorandum.

10/07/2010: USCIS Reposts Today Update on Implementation of H-1B and L-1 Fee Increase Per P.L. 111-230 With Additional Details

• Today, the USCIS releases its guidance on the subject with some more details than ealier version. The participants in the public engagement session on this subject in August may notice that there are a couple of areas which show some changes in the context. During the public engagement session, two issues, among others, surfaced; one including the definition of employer as related to the employer-employee relationship issue such as staff hiring agencies, particularly in the medical and healthcare industries, and the other including the definition of nonimmigrant workers in counting per centage of alien workers in total number of employees. Today's release answered the first issue to include employer that "supervise" or otherwise "control" the worker leaving it somewhat flexible. For the definition of foreign employees, today's release specifically excludes L-2 workers working on EAD and all other employment-based nonimmigrant workers other than L-1A, L-1B, and H-1B. Read on.

10/07/2010: Immigration, 2010 & 2012 Elections, and Obama Actions

• When it comes to President Obama, for the upcoming national elections (11/2010 & 11/2012) and the comprehensive immigration reform, he had two seemingly contradictary and difficult tasks to push forward to keep the Hispanics and liberals under control on the one hand and at the same time to keep independents and less conservative Republican forces satisfied on the other. Success of this strategy could lead to refuting the strategies of ultra right-wing conservatives in the election and its position against the comprehensive immigration reform.
• It appears that he has thus far taken two actions to achieve these strategies. One is the recent removal of his Chief of Staff in the White House who has been accused of as the primary obstacle to and opponent of CIR, leading the total failure of the President Obama to push forward his election pledge for CIR. This decision has been more or less successful in calming down the anger in the Hispanics, liberals, and immigration advocates. The other sword he has been using to appease mild conservative Republicans, independents, and conservative Democrats is a substantial reenforcement of immigration enforcement including border security, employer sanctions, and deportation of undocumented aliens. Report indicates that ICE removed a record 392,000 illegal immigrants from the country in fiscal 2010 -- more than 195,000 of whom were convicted criminals. In 2008, the last year of the Bush administration, 369,000 illegal aliens were deported, and 114,000 of them were criminals, Obama administration officials said on Wednesday. The report also indicates that ICE audited more than 3,200 employers suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants, debarred 225 companies from receiving federal contracts and imposed $50 million in financial sanctions since January 2009 -- more than the total number of audits and debarments from 2000 through 2008.The data show the Obama administration has increased enforcement of immigration laws significantly. This record is used by this Administration to deal with the Republicans and some Democrats who have asserted that they will not tackle immigration reform until the administration tightens enforcement and secures U.S. borders, especially the Southwest border with Mexico.
• Results of such actions can be noticed in three forthcoming events: November 2010 mid-term election, post-election Lame Duck session, and 2011 activities of the Congress on the comprehensive immigration reform. Accordingly, the year 2011 will mark another year of intensive immigration enforcement and border security in order to push forward the comprehensive immigration reform one more time. Readers, please bear with this reporter to watch development of these events!

10/05/2010: TPS and DED Policy of the United States: Status and Issues

• According to the latest CRS report on the subject, the estimated number of aliens in these statuses are estimated to be as follows:

El Salvador TPS (March 2, 2001-March 9, 2012): 217,000
Haiti TPS (January 15, 2010-July 22, 2011): 100,000 -200,000
Honduras TPS (December 30, 1998-January 5, 2012): 66,000
Liberia DED (October 1, 2007-September 30, 2011): 3,600
Nicaragua TPS (December 30, 1998- January 5, 2012): 3,000
Somalia TPS (September 16, 1991-March 17, 2011): 250
Sudan TPS (November 4, 1997-November 2, 2011): 700

[These approximate numbers do not necessarily include all aliens from the countries who are in the United States and might be eligible for the status. USCIS updates these numbers when it renews TPS for nationals from a given country.]

• For the study and review of TPS and DED policy and issues, please review CRS report.

10/05/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 10/01/2010

• Regular cap: 40,600
• Master cap: 14,900

10/05/2010: USCIS Takes Final Rule-Making Process for New E-2 CNMI Nonimmigrant Visa for Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

• On May 8, 2008, Public Law 110-229, Commonwealth Natural Resources Act, established a transitional period for the application of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Although the CNMI is subject to most U.S. laws, the CNMI has administered its own immigration system under the terms of its 1976 covenant with the United States. The DHS/USCIS published earlier a proposed rule to amend its regulations by creating a new E2 CNMI Investor classification for the duration of the transition period. These temporary provisions are necessary to reduce the potential harm to the CNMI economy before these foreign workers and investors are required to convert into U.S. immigrant or nonimmigrant visa classifications. The DHS/USCIS has drafted the final rule after considering the comments which which had received in response to the proposed rule and seeks the approval of the White House for publication of the final rule. The process will take some time to complete from 30 days to 90 days. Please stay tuned to this website for the final rule release.

10/05/2010: DOL/OFLC Publishes in Federal Register Proposed Rule on Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment H-2B Program

• Advance copy of this proposed rule was posted at our site yesterday. We repost the official FR version for the reader's library.

10/04/2010: FY 2010 Second Half H-2B Cap Count as of 10/01/2010

• Total: 29,548
• Approved: 29548
• Pending: 452

10/04/2010: FY 2011 First Half H-2B Cap Count as of 10/01/2010

• Total: 7,571
• Approved: 7,117
• Pending: 454

10/04/2010: Naturlization Applications Processing Statistics as of 08/31/2010

10/04/2010: Immigration Benefits Applications/Petitions Processing Statistics as of 08/31/2010

• Receipts have been steadily rising.

10/04/2010: OFLC Issues Today the Q&A to Clarify the 50% Rule in H-2A Proceeding.

10/04/2010: OFLC Initiates Rule-Making Process to Change Wage Determination Methodology in H-2B Certification

• As we reported, the OFLC announced that the agency is taking a certain temporary step changing wage determination method for H-2B effective 09/30/2010. The action was taken to deal with the decision of a federal court invalidating wage determination methodology in H-2B proceedings in two areas. One is DBA and SCA wage, and the other is use of four-tier wage levels of OES wage data. It appears that the court decision was focused in procedural flaw in the current H-2B rule-making process and restriction to use of DBA and SCA wage data. In order to rectify these flaws, the OFLC is proposing a rule changing the wage methodology in H-2B proceedings. This proposed rule will be published in the federal register tomorrow with a 30-day comment period. According to this proposed rule, these problems are not related to H-1B and PERM proceedings and will have no affect on the current H-1B and PERM wage determination methodology and process. For the advance copy of this proposed rule, please click here.

10/02/2010: F-1 Awaiting FY 2011 H-1B Cap Gap Peition Decision in Limbo for Employment Authorization

• For unknown reasons, the USCIS has witnessed delays in processing of FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions. Such delays currently cause harship on some F-1 and OPT aliens who have been working on the OPT cap-gap special regulation which has given them a stop-gap new employment authorization or extension of existing employment authorization until October 1, 2010 or any date before October 1, 2010 when the petitions are denied. Since their employment authorization expired at the end of the day of September 30, 2010, the past Thursday, legally they are not authorized to continue their employment at this point of time pending the USCIS decision of the H-1B petitions. The latest news indicates that the USCIS is striving to adjudicate pending FY 2011 cap petitions in two months but all pending cases, including OPT cases, will be processed in FIFO (First In First Out) order. (Initially there was a news that such cases would be expedited, but the latest news showed a different message. For the obvious reasons.)
• Obviously, there may be some F-1 or OPT cap-gap filers who are still waiting for the H-1B decisions. At this point of time, when it comes to their employment authorization, there are no official relief arranged by either USCIS or USICE. It is thus imperative that the employers and such F-1 or OPT H-1B cap gap filers should comply with the current employment authorization laws and rules pending the decision of their H-1B petitions. Unauthorized employment will present not only enforcement issues for the employers but violation of nonimmigrant status for the alien beneficiaries that can affect their nonimmigrant and immigrant proceedings in the future. Just a reminder for these employers and involved cap-gap filers.

10/01/2010: Timing of S. 3932, New Senate CIR Bill - Pluses and Minuses for Immigration Reform

• Obviously, introduction of the new CIR bill at the last minute before the Congress recess for election by Senator Menendez must have considered "timing" with certain purposes in mind. Only the sponsors could tell what those were, but there are a few things that one can speculate.
• One would be to give Latino voters and immigration advocates a parting gift heading into November's midterm elections. Such speculation can be derived from the report that the bill is largely viewed as a marker to help spur consideration of an overhaul of immigration laws and policy when the new Congress convenes in January and as lawmakers and aides reportedly privately concede it is highly unlikely that Congress would take up immigration reform in the post-election lame-duck session. "Had they really targeted at the November Lame Duck session, they could have introduced the bill at the beginning of the Lame Duck session rather than at the last minute of the Congressional election recess.
• However, regardless of what the new CIR bill was targetted at in terms of the timing, the nation should admire the bill's well-balanced approach to the success of CIR. As reflected in yesterday (09/30/2010) hearing of the House Immigration Subcommittee on "Role of the Immigration in Strengthening America's Economy," the broken immigration system must be reformed in a manner of balance: One is reenforcement of border security, the second is reform of broken "legal" immigration system, and the third is legalization of undocumented aliens without giving preferential benefits over the legal immigrants waiting in long lines. Such concensus supports the position of the advocates of immigration reform in a "comprehensive" manner.
• Such concensus cuts against the position and interests of other school of immigration reform advocates thart support piece-meal immigration legislation approach from the practical considerations. The timing of introduction of the new CIR bill before the recess can be considered very bad for these schools of advocates as the new CIR bill could kill any glimmer of hopes of such piece-meal reform legislations to survice not only during the Lame Duck session this year but also the first part of the next Congress that begins in January 2011. Some of the piece-meal reform advocates hoped to see some piece-meal legislations through the FY 2011 federal department appropriation bills which would be top priority legislations in the Congressional calendar during the Lame Duck session and the first part of the 112th Congress this winter.
• See Sen. Menendez announcement and summary of the bill.

09/30/2010: Federal Court Invalidated DOL Use of OES and Skill Level in DOL Prevailing Wage Determination

• DOL reports on September 30, 2010 that on August 30, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Comitè de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA) v. Solis, et al., Civil No. 2:09-cv-240-LP, 2010 WL 3431761 (E.D. Pa.) invalidated the Department's use of skill levels in establishing prevailing wages and the Department's reliance upon Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data in lieu of Davis Bacon Act and Service Contract Act rates. The court order requires the Department to complete a new rulemaking regarding the calculation of prevailing wage rates in the H-2B program within 120 days. (For the text of the court decision, please stay tuned to this website.)
• Until now the DOL has been issuing prevailing wage determinations with a validity period ending on June 30, 2011, since the OES data is updated annually each June, but given that the Department has been ordered to promulgate a new regulation in approximately 3 months, which may result in changes to the calculation of the prevailing wage rates, the Department, beginning on September 30, 2010, will issue H-2B prevailing wage determinations with validity periods of three months, in accordance with § 655.10(d). This change does not affect the validity periods of existing prevailing wage determinations. It also does not affect any new requests for prevailing wage determinations that will be used in connection with PERM, H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 applications.For the full text of the DOL announcement, please click here.
• The foregoing announcement limits the court's impact only to the prevailing wage determination for H-2B only, but the court decision may bring a lasting impact on other foreign labor certification application proceedings down the road. Please stay tuned.

09/30/2010: State Department Official Notice of DV-2012 Registration in Federal Register

• The State Department has already released the registration instructions but until it is published in the federal register, it is considered unofficial. Tomorrow, this notice will be officially published in the federal register. As the first registration starts on next Tuesday, this official notice is considered very timely. For the details of the registration, please read the official notice.

09/30/2010: State Department Proposes to Increase Exchange Visitor Program Designation and Other Program Fees and Charges

• State Department proposes the fees and charges as follows: The current fee for an application for designation or an application for redesignation is $1748.00 and the fee for foreign national exchange participants requesting individual program services, including a change of program category, program extension, reinstatement, etc. is currently $246.00 per request. The Department proposes amendment of both fees to: $2,700 and $233.00 respectively. The new proposed fee for either program designation or redesignation will increase by $952 ( Redesignation is required every two years) while the fee assessed program participants will decreased by $13.00. This proposal will be released tomorrow. For the advance copy, please click hee.

09/30/2010: Senator Robert Menendez (NJ) Introduced His CIR Bill, S. 3932, Yesterday, Before Recess

• He surely kept his earlier promise, but chance for this bill will depend on the election results.

09/30/2010: Continuing Resolution Passed to Fund Federal Departments Through 12/03/2010 and Fate of Immigration Legislation During Lame Duck Session Post Election

• As the Congress passes the Continuing Resolution and members of the Congress return to their states, districts, and neighborhoods for election campaign at the end of this week, all eyes now turn to the results of November 2, 2010 Midterm National Election. We are glad that the Congress will be in recess until after the national election, removing excuses for so-called pro-immigration lagislators and immigration interest groups from spinning empty wheels for their own political interests rather than the interests of the immigrants and the nation. It was disgusting to watch and read all of these interest groups spinning wheels for their own interest during the past one month with their full knowledge that there was no substance and prospects for immigration legislation before the national election, no matter whether it was comprehensive or piece-meal immigration legislation. In a way, these interest groups have been as guilty as the politicians and legislators in that they played politics of their own interests with the suspicious integrity and truthfulness towards their constituents and the public. Some of them may keep spinning the "empty" wheel even during the Congressional recess, but the reality will depend not on what these interest groups will spin but the results of the national election that will determine the fate of any immigration legislation, comprehensive or piece-meal, after the national election. For the reasons, should these groups intend to help the immigrants and reform of the broken immigration system, they should stop spinning wheel at least during the recess and try to mobilize their constituents, show their muscle, and demonstrate their power and influence to be reflected in the results of midterm national election such that they can truly help the immigration reform legislation with substance when the Congress returns to the session. It was disgusting and sickening to watch and read these interest groups continuously spinning "empty" wheels with no substance!

09/29/2010: USCIS Proposes Electronic Registration for H-1B Cap Petitions

• The USCIS is proposing an electronic registration program for petitions subject to numerical limitations under the immigration law. It intends to start with the H-1B nonimmigrant petitions; however, other nonimmigrant classifications will be added as needed. This change has been considered for the last several years to manage better H-1B and certain other nonimmigration petitions which are subject to the annual cap and had to go through difficult selection proces when they received petitions in number which exceeded the annual cap. The proposed change is intended to allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions. This change is likely in place before April 2011 after going through the rule-making process. It appears that this change is also necessary for gradual transitioning into the business transformation program for the H-1B program, helping the agency managing the H-1B program more efficiently and effectively, and more importantly to better achieve "integrity" of H-1B petitions.

09/29/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 09/24/2010

• Regular cap: 39,600
• Master cap: 14,400

09/29/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 09/24/2010

• FY 2010 2nd Half Cap:
  • Totaol: 30,137
  • Approved: 29,685
  • Pending: 452
• FY 2011 1st Half Cap:
  • Total: 8,387
  • Approved: 6,523
  • Pending: 1,864

09/25/2010: Eye-View of USCIS Budget

• The USCIS Director has repeatedly addressed the importance of the fees for the USCIS budget and operation, but people may not have the actual picture on the gravity of fee revenue vs. tax revenue. The following reflect the figures for FY 2010 and FY 2011 recommendations:[In $1,000]

• Fee vs Tax	Sources	FY 2010 Enacted	FY 2011 Request	FY 2011 House Recommendation
  Appropriations (Tax)		224,000	385,800	171,593
  Est. Fee Total		2,503,232	2,426,557	2,375,479
  	Immigration Examination Fees (Filing)	2,451,884	2,375,479	2,375,479
  	H-1B+L Fraud Fees	38,348	38,078	38,078
  	H-1B Filing Fees	13,000	13,000	13,000
  Total Available Funding		2,727,232	2.812,357	2,598,150

• No wonder why the USCIS was struggling with the funding shortfall in FY 2010 relating to the shrinking volumes of immigration benefit applications.

09/25/2010: Reportedly India Seeks Tax Deal for H-1B Workers

• Computerworld reports that "India's government and IT industry, worried about a rising tide of protectionism and looking to improve their ability to compete in the worldwide market, wants the U.S to stop collecting Social Security taxes from H-1B workers and their employers. H-1B workers in the United States pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, but many that don't remain as permanent residents are unlikely to see any benefit from those payments. The U.S. already addresses the issue under 'totalization agreements' with nearly two dozen countries. Those agreements, under which foreign workers pay only the social security-like taxes due their home countries, are mostly with developed countries in Western Europe that have benefit systems roughly parallel to the those of the U.S. Anand Sharma, India's minister of commerce and industry, said in an interview Wednesday that 'it's important' for his country and the U.S. to sign a similar totalization agreement. 'We have a large number of professionals who are making a significant contribution,' to the U.S. social security system but are leaving the U.S. after five or six years, said Sharma. The 'benefits don't kick in for 10 years so they all return [to India] after making a contribution without benefiting in any manner,' he said."
• Totalization agreement will reportedly help the H-1B workers in their earnings, help the Indian businesses' competitiveness in the world. because of the reduced cost which such agreement can bring about, and help also U.S. businesses doing buisnesses in India with the identical benefits. Read on.

09/24/2010: AILA Extends Help for F-1 Cap-Gap Filers Awaiting H-1B Cap Decisions

• There are certain F-1 and OPT students who filed FY 2011 H-1B cap change of status petitions whose petitions are currently pending. Some of them were given either authomatic employment authorization or extension of EAD pending the decision and their employment authorization is about to run out at the end of September 2010 under the F-1 Cap-Gap Rule. Since they have only one week before expiration of their employment authorization, in order to help these H-1B waiters, AILA has been working with the USCIS to expedite their pending H-1B petitions so that they could continue the employment without gap in H-1B status beginning from October 1, 2010. Apparently, the response to such request appears to be positive. Hats off to the AILA. Job well done!

09/24/2010: Fate of DREAM Act Post National Election and During Lame Duck Session

• At least in the calculation of numbers of pro and con Senators and House representatives, result of the November election should not affect it as the newly elected Senators and Represenatives do not move into the Hill and take the seats until January 2011. However, there are more to such simple calculations. Information indicates that there are some vacant seat elections in the November election to fill some Senate seats and House seats that became vacant for whatever reasons. These vacant seat winners will take the seats in the Senate and the House right after the November election changing the colors of the Senate and House seats even during the Lame Duck session in November and December 2010. Accordingly, those who support the DREAM are payting attention to the prospects for these vacant seats in the November election. Thus far, the prediction appears to go against the DREAMers and CIR supporters. The situation demands energization of the three communities (DREAMers, Hispanics, and Gays), but their time appears to be running out for this national mid-term election. Another frustrating news, isn't it?

09/24/2010: Unconfirmed Information on EB Immigrant Visa Number Movement Prediction

• Unconfirmed sources of information report that some unofficial prediction of the immigrant visa numbers during the next several months was released by the official in charge. According to the rumors, the EB-2 and EB-3 for India and China are likely to move in the pace of October 2010 Visa Bulletin for India and China. The rumors also indicate that the worldwide EB visa numbers may not move as fast as one hopes to see either. The rumors on top of the groomy forecast for the immigration reform, both comprehensive and piece-meal, frustrate the foreign workers tremendously as they do not see any light at the end of the tunnel.

09/24/2010: Seven Senior Republican U.S. Senators Write Letter to DHS Secretary to Explain "Administrative Alternatives" Internal Memorandum

• As the November election date is approaching fast, the assault of the Republicans against the Democrats and the Obama Administration is gaining a steam to solidify and motivate the conservative polical base to vote in the national election. Read on.

09/24/2010: Federal Register Publication of New Filing Fee Schedules Final Rule

• Here is the official release of the USCIS new filing fee schedules in the federal register. The new fees take effect on 11/23/2010.

09/23/2010: USCIS Fact Sheet: Current and New Filing Fee Comparison Table

09/23/2010: USCIS Q&A of 09/23/2010 on New Filing Fees

09/23/2010: Congressional Leaders Start Talking Continuing Resolution

• As the legislative agenda including federal department appropriation bills are caught in the election strategies of the Democratic and Republican parties and the chances for enacting appropriation bills for all the federal departments turn slimmer, reportedly the Congressional leaders have started discussing continuing resolution and lame duck session of the Congress behind the scenes. It appears that no concensus has reached yet, but election strategies and calculations of each party have and will continue to lead the legislative bills to a snag and the reality starts to set in. All the legislators in both Houses will return to their districts after the first week of October to engage in or to support in full force their elections. This means that potential chances for any piecemeal immigration bills may also have to wait until after the election and the lame duck session. The result of the November election will literally dictate each party's legislative agenda during the lame duck session as the losing party will attempt to pass certain bills before they lose the majority in the Congress beginning from January 2011, while opposite party will do everything within their power to block such strategy. This will also affect the rule-making agenda and activities of each federal department in a similar fashion. Politics, politics, and politics!!
• Administrative fix of broken immigration system has been blocked by the election politics. Even Obama came forward just a few days back declaring that his administration would not push such administrative fixes, but the result of the November election can change the direction of the Obama administration, just as the Bush administration did at the end of his era. Watch how a drama will unfold after the national election!!!!!!!!!!

09/23/2010: New Immigration Filing Fee Schedules Take Effect 11/23/2010

• The USCIS is scheduled to publish the final rule of the new immigration fee schedule with the effective date of 60 days from September 24, 2010. According to the final rule, applications or petitions mailed, postmarket, or otherwise filed on or after 60 days from September 24, 2010 "must" include the new fee. For the advance copy of the final rule which will be published tomorrow, please click here.

09/22/2010: DV-2012 Immigration Lottery Reminder: 10/05/2010 to 11/03/2010

• The online registration for DV-2012 Lottery begins noon (EST), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 and ends noon (EST), Wednesday, November 3. 2010. Please visit the following sites for the details:
  • Announcement
  • DV-2012 Lottery Instructions
  • Electronic DV Entry Form DS-5501
• Natives of the following countries are not eligible: Brazil, Canada, PRC China (Except Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Natives of Macau SAR are eligible.

09/22/2010: FY 2011 First Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/17/2010

• Total: 7,727
• Approved: 5,914
• Pending: 1,813

09/22/2010: FY 2010 2nd Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/17/2010

• Total: 30,077
• Approved: 29,588
• Pending: 489

09/22/2010: Senate Resumes Consideration of Motion to Proceed to S. 3454, National Defense Authorization Act This Afternoon

• Senator Reid schedules consideration of the motion this afternoon. However, since the cloture motion failed yesterday, today's proceeding is likely to end up with the filibuster. Please stay tuned.

09/22/2010: Anticipated Gap for I-485 Approvals For Both Family-Based and Employment-Based Preferences Between 09/16/2010 and 09/30/2010

• According to the report of AILA, State Department had exhausted FY 2010 immigrant visa numbers as of 09/16/2010 for the following preference categories and the State Department would not allocate any immigrant visa numbers to the visa posts and the USCIS for these categories during the period. The affected preference categories include all family-based preference categories, employment-based preference categories of EB-2, EB-3, EB-EW, EB-4 and eertain Religious Worker categories. The State Department will keep taking immigrant visa number requests from the visa posts and the USCIS even during the gap period but the State Department will not be able to allocate the numbers until October 1, 2010 or thereafter when the new FY 2011 immigrant visa numbers will become available for these preference categories. There may be some cases for which the USCIS has requested and the State Department has already allocated the visa numbers before 09/16/2010 and these I-485 cases will receive approvals even during the cap-gap period. However, in general, I-485 applicants will witness either a slow-down or vacuum in receiving I-485 approval notices and news until October 1 or thereafter because of the gap. The gap will last only for about two weeks and I-485 applicants should keep patience during the period.

09/21/2010: Senate Failed to Pass Cloture Motion!

• In the votes this afternoon, the Republicans blocked debate of the National Defense Authorization Act bill which includes the DREAM Act by 56 to 43 to a tremendous disappointment to 800,000 illegal alien youngsters in the country. The bill will however be brought up again after the national election in a lame duck session.

09/21/2010: Short-Breathe Struggle for DREAM Fight

• The National Defense Authorization Act bill which will encounter a fierce struggle between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate floor today is a Senate bill to fund the nation's defense appropriations, which is different from the House bill. This bill faces the first serious procedural challenge on the Senate floor this afternoon primarily relating to the DREAM bill. When it comes to the budget for federal departments, defense always stands out as the top priority considering the state of nation in wars. The Democrats strategy to attach the DREAM bill to this budget bill rather than other bills were counting on the urgency and importance of the budget for this part of the federal government. However, today's Senate floor struggle is just the first test when it comes to the fate of DREAM Act since information indicates that even the National Defense Authorization Act has a slim chance to pass the Congress before the October election recess for the Congress and it may have to be turned over to the post-national election Congressional Lame Duck session in November through December 2010. It is almost certain at this point that the Congress will pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal goverment from October 1, 2010 until after the November election. The real challenge and test may come ahead with the House even assuming that the Senate will pass the bill as the House must agree to the DREAM part of the National Defense Authorization legislation. There will be rocky roads and mountains ahead which the bill may have to drive through after the stuggle within the upper House. For now, though, let's focus on this afternoon's cloture vote and see whether the Democrats will be able to muscle and twist the arms of some of the Republican Senators and the consertative Democrats in the Senate today.

09/21/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 09/17/2010

• Regular Cap: 38,300
• Master Cap: 14,000

09/20/2010: Legal Analysis and Historical Review of Birth Right Ctizenship in the United States

• On August 12, 2010, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report entitled "Birth Right Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment of Persons Born in the United States to Alien Parents." This report may not be perpect but at least gives the short legal analysis and historical background of the birth right in this country. Worth reading. Here it is.

09/18/2010: DOL Announcement of Name Change for National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center (NPWHC)

• On September 17, 2010, OFLC/DOL announced that the National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center (NPWHC) has changed its name to the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC). Contact information for the NPWC will remain the same except for the name change, as provided below:
  • U.S. Department of Labor-ETA
    National Prevailing Wage Center
    1341 G Street, NW
    Suite 201
    Washington, DC 20005-3105
• Please continue to direct questions related to prevailing wage determinations or the prevailing wage determination process to FLC.PWD@dol.gov.
• Important Note: The Chicago National Processing Center (temporary foreign labor certification programs) and the Atlanta National Processing Center (permanent foreign labor certification program) will continue to provide assistance with program-related inquiries. For the details, please visit foreignlaborcert site.

09/18/2010: Senate Floor Schedule

• The Senate will convene at 2:00 p.m. of 09/20/2010, Monday and after a period of morning business taken care of, it will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.3454, National Defense Authorization Act. On Tuesday, 09//21/2010, the Senate is scheduled to vote a motion for cloture to proceed which needs 60 votes to close amendments so that the Senate floor vote on the S.3454. The following is the summary of Senate floor record on this bill , for which the Senate floor political struggle started:
  • Thursday, 09/16/2010:
  • Senator Reid Foor Statement on S.3454: "I've had a number of conversations with Democratic senators and Republican senators. I've explained to them that we're permitted to move to this bill either by consent or by cloture on the motion to proceed, that there are a number of amendments that I think need to be considered on it initially. And I've state I had what those will be more than likely. I've also, in my conversations with my Republican friends -- they've indicated that they want likely more than just a motion to strike the Don't Ask, Don't Tell that's in the basic bill. I said that's fine. The main thing I would want -- I think this is fair in the waning hours of this session before the election -- that we would have the text of the -- whatever the amendment might be and also a time agreement on it so that everyone is aware, someone could get on an amendment and talk forever. So I'm willing to be as reasonable as possible. These decisions don't have to be made today. But I think we need to make them before Tuesday because Tuesday I'm going to have to make some decisions as to what we're going to do on this."
  • Moved to proceed to S. 3454, the National Defense Authorization Act.
  • Filed cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3454, the National Defense Authorization Act.
  • On Tuesday, September 21, at 2:15 PM, the Senate will vote on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3454. Following Morning business, the time until 12:30 PM will be equally divided and controlled between Senators Levin and McCain, or their designees.
  • Senator McCain: "If I understood the majority leader's words that again, in a rather unusual departure from anything I've seen here in the Senate, that we will, if he receives sufficient votes to proceed to the bill, will take up certain amendments that are on his agenda and then in a lame duck session we might consider other amendments. And coincidentally, the amendments that the majority leader would agree to would be two of them totally unrelated to national defense. One, the DREAM Act, and secret holds, as I understand. And then other amendments of importance, which are relevant, which those of us on this side of the aisle have, that are important, maybe we would take up under certain circumstances in a lame-duck session."
  • Senator Reid: "I say to my friend from the neighboring state of Arizona, I haven't decided for sure. We've talked about some of the things that I would do with our amendments. But I've been very clear with every Republican senator I've spoken to that of course the motion to strike -- we will get that done as soon as we could. And if senators have other amendments relating to the Don't Ask, Don't Tell provision, which has been a very -- which has been somewhat controversial and some people on the other side of the aisle don't like that, if there are other amendments that we'd be happy to do that, and do it before we leave for the elections. And then we'd have to see what else we could work out on this prior to going home for the elections. But recognizing, I think, it's very clear that we're not going to be able to complete this bill before we go home."
  • Senator McCain: "So, again, I would say to the majority leader, we're going to be asking members on this side to proceed to the bill without us knowing what amendments you are going to allow and those amendments that may be considered in a lame-duck session. Now, it's well-known that the, quote, 'DREAM Act' is also one of the amendments that the senator from -- the majority leader has said will be part of the pre-lame-duck session, which happens to be pre-election, which happens not to have a thing to do with our nation's defense. And other amendments that may be directly related to national defense will not be allowed by the majority leader, which is his right to fill up the tree, as he did last year, after we spent a week on the hate crimes bill which had nothing to do with our nation's defense. So, I would ask the majority leader, would one draw a conclusion or surmise that perhaps this has everything to do with elections and nothing to do with national defense?"
  • Senator Reid: "Now without my friend continually saying that the DREAM Act has nothing to do with the defense of this country, Mr. President, we have hundreds of thousands of people of Hispanic origin serving in our United States military as we speak. The DREAM Act is very simple. It says if you've been in this country for five years, you came before you were age 16, you should be able to go to a state school. You get no Pell Grant benefits whatsoever. And if you're in school for a couple of years, you can get a green card, no citizenship. Or if a young man or woman of Hispanic origin decides that they want to join the United States military, they would have the right to do that. And after having served two years in a uniform of our country, they would be able to get a green card. That's all the DREAM Act does. I think it has a lot to do with the defense of this nation."
  • Senator McCain: "The fact of all this is that the majority leader is turning legislation on our national defense into a political football. Debate is limited and unrelated. Politically controversial amendments are crowding out limited time to debate actual military and defense-related legislation. This is a corruption of the principles and procedures of the Senate if there ever was one, and it disrespects the long-standing traditions of the United States Senate. It is only making it more likely the National Defense Authorization Act will one day go the way of so many other authorization bills, which is to say, nowhere. This kind of transparent politicization of our national defense should anger every member of this body, Democrats and Republicans. The men and women of our armed forces deserve better, and we should demand better. Mr. President, I regret to see that the long-respected, revered Senate Armed Services Committee has evolved into now being a forum for the social agenda of the liberal left of the United States Senate. I will do everything in my power, if we gain the majority, to see that the United States Senate Armed Services Committee returns to the tradition of addressing only those issues that are totally related to the defense of this nation."
  • Senator Levin: "The Senate is a body which has a right to offer amendments which are not germane or relevant to the bill in front of us. This is not the first time that someone wants to offer those amendments. It will not be the last time. For him to produce the charge that the committee is no longer a bipartisan committee it seems to me is unfair, it's inappropriate. And I reject it. The Senate has considered amendments on the defense authorization bill itself. In the last 20 years, not just on hate crimes, over and over and over again -- long before I became chairman, by the way -- we debated amendments on the defense authorization bill on welfare reform and death penalty for drug-related killings. That's just a few. I didn't hear anybody make the kind of charge at that time that somehow or other because the Senate rules were being utilized to bring to the floor of the Senate an amendment which wasn't directly related to the bill in front of us, that somehow or other the committee itself had engaged in some kind of a partisan effort."
  • Senator Durbin: Spoke on the DREAM Act. "I say to Senator McCain, I understand his point about amendments to the defense authorization bill. Now, I won't get into that particular point. I mean, he can argue that out with Senator Levin and Senator Reid and they can come to the best conclusion. They tend to work together pretty well under normal circumstances. But to argue the DREAM Act has nothing to do with the defense of this country is to overlook the obvious. A point that has been made repeatedly by the leaders in the Pentagon and Department of Defense that to give these young people a chance to volunteer to serve our nation and to risk their lives for our safety and security is good for the military and gives them a chance for a life. A chance for a life. How can we do this to these kids who came to this country with their parents and who know no other nation? One of these young students told me along the way, 'senator, I dream in English.' And that's something we ought to remember. For these children, America is the only home they've ever, ever known. The only home they ever want to know. All they're asking for is a chance. Now, there's a larger issue here about comprehensive immigration reform. We need it. I support it. I've worked with Senator McCain on it in years gone by and we need to return to it. But for this particular group of young people in America, I beg my colleagues, give them a chance, give these young people a chance."
  • Senator Sessions: Spoke on the DREAM Act. "We've discussed these issues before. This is a bogus policy. And after a few years, you're placed on a path to become a full citizen of the United States, ahead of millions of people who waited in line dutifully to get their citizenship. It's a reward for illegality. You can spin it any way you want to. We discussed this for years in this body. It will not stand scrutiny. It is not good policy. And I understand some of my colleagues are saying that this is somehow relevant to the defense bill because if you serve in the military, that helps you, something like get into college, going to college and put you on a path to this, and you earn your thing. There are programs already for people who join the military to enhance their ability to get citizenship. But this bill is plainly legislation that's been kicked around here for year after year, maybe a decade at least, and it's never been brought up as a defense bill. It's always been brought up as an immigration bill, which it plainly is. And so now to come in and try to say it's somehow connected because of this minute possibility that 5% probably at most would demonstrate their educational advantage through the military is a stretch really."
  • Senator Goodwin: (Floor at Temporate President): Performed wrap up. "Monday, September 20 -- The Senate will convene at 2:00 PM and proceed to a period of Morning Business until 3:00 PM, with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. Following Morning Business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 3454, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. There will be no votes during Monday's session. The next vote will occur at 2:15 PM on Tuesday, September 21, on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 3454."
• Please stay tuned to this website for the Tuesday's drama on Motion to Cloture!!!

09/17/2010: DOL/OFLC Releases Round 2 H-2A FAQ

09/17/2010: FY 2010 Citizenship and Integration Grant Recipients

• USCIS announced today the list of recipients of this grant.

09/17/2010: Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Unveils Four Immigration Priorities for Push This Fall

• In the middle of jigjag on the DREAM Act move and CIR, the CHC released the following priorities:
  • (1) An immediate up or down Senate vote on the DREAM Act with no amendments. Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated Tuesday this would occur in coming weeks;
  • (2) Lawmakers called on the Senate to support the comprehensive immigration reform legislation that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will introduce. House Members previously introduced such legislation (H.R. 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act) and have already collected support of more than 100 co-sponsors;
  • (3) The White House must address the massive toll that deporting 1,100 men, women, and children per day takes on immigrant families. Lawmakers called on the President to cease the deportation of non-criminals and those who pose no threat to the U.S.; and
  • (4) Rolling back a Bush-era interpretation of immigration law that gives state and local police “inherent authority” to enforce civil immigration law. Many state and local police are using this flawed legal analysis to ensnare and deport non-criminals and those who pose no threat to America.
• The parallel push for DREAM and CHC is apparently in line with the foregoing agenda. Sen. Reid's announcement of DREAM move next week has already fired up a fierce battle from the other side of the court, anti-immigration forces, and there is a report that the southern border states are coming forward with the argument that DREAM should be handled as part of the CIR, which will undermind the Reid's agenda to push DREAM next week. A CNN commentator yesterday spilled a undisclosed information that Reid has already changed his mind of putting the DREAM to the vote next week. It does not mean that he will block introduction of the DREAM Act bill in the Senate next week, but the information just indicates that the vote on the DREAM Act could be pushed off to a later time. McCain has also stepped forward opposing the DREAM Act as amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act bill hinting that such bill would be blocked on the Senate floor. Any filibuster from the Republican Senators may lead the Reid's agenda and schedule doomed unless 60 votes are assured in support of the move. There are indication that some conservative Democratic Senators would oppose to such bill and 60 votes may be hard to come by at this point.
• The foregoing information indicates that probably the CHC's release of its agenda to push the controversial bills DREAM and CIR side by side might be considered ill-timed in that record reflects that anti-legalization legislators (Senators and Hourse Representatives) have used a tactic using an argument that any piecemeal immigration bills should be handled as part of the CIR. Please stay tuned.
  

09/16/2010: USCIS Pending Cases Keep Rising

• The USCIS latest update of processing trend and volume at the end of July 2010 shows its pending cases have kept rising lately. This could have been affected by various factors including rising number of immigration benefit applications, processing delays that is caused by processing structure changes and ongoing transformation program initiations, budget shortfall, etc. etc. It sure is not a pretty picture. The filing fee increase which will be forthcoming very shortly may not be able to change the picture drastically. See the diagrams and numbers.

09/16/2010: Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ) Announcement of His Schedule to Introduce His CIR Bill in the Senate Before Election Reveals Discord Within Democrats

• Just after the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his plan to introduce the DREAM Act next week as amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act bill, reportedly Democrat Senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez announced his plan to introduce his Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill in the Senate before the November election. Practically, this reflects discord within the Senate Democratic leadership and the Hispanic community, not to mention its negative impact on the fate of DREAM Act move. No one disagrees that the best resolution for the nation's broken immigration system is to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, but one cannot ignore the political reality and general concensus that CIR has absolutely no chance at all in this Congress or even in 2011, not to mention before the November election. His bill under the given circumstances may just add confusion in the Hispanic community, immigration supporters, and the nation with the potential unintended damage to any glimmer of hope for the passage of the DREAM Act bill. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of this news.

09/15/2010: DREAM Act, CIR, and Republican Wild Cards

• Obviously, the Democrats' push for DREAM Act is motivated by November election politics to appease angry Hispanics. However, from the perspectives of the legalization community including some Hispanic community, this may be the option next best to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation in that the likely loss of Democrat Majority in the House after the November election will most likely turn the legalization and CIR legislation completely doomed not only for the year 2010 but also 2011 and further future. The reality thus dictates that current DREAM Act move is not bad at all from the perspectives of pro-legalization immigrant community. The other beneficiaries of this move may include pro-piece-meal immigration reform community, including the employment-based immigrant community. Some of these communities and their piece-meal immigration reform legislations have been left at bay by the pro-immigration forces' hope for CIR. As the political landscape and reality are about to push away the CIR hope to the farther future opportunity, these piece-meal legislations may find increased hope for the opportunity to their limited reform legislation in small scales. The DREAM Act is apparently attached to National Defense Authorization bill and reportedly the defense community is strongly supporting such amendment to the bill because they need new recruit of military forces and this legislation may turn them into a big beneficiary.
• What are then chances for this legislation? Reportedly, President Obama supports the move as the next best option to the CIR before potential change in the political landscape after the November election. It appears that the bill desperately needs the support from some Republican Senators. Potential candidates for such support may come from former co-sponsors of the DREAM Act during the past several years, including Sen. Lugar, Sen. Hatch, Sen. Cornyn, on and on. We understand that the DREAM Act supporters and lobbyists are heavily focusing their efforts on these Senators. Report indicates that even Sen. McCain can be swayed into this move. Obviously, the employment-based immigrant community and business community may also come forward to push for this legislation for their own interest in upcoming piece-meal immigration reform bill to fix the broken employment-based immigration system. Next one week may be critical for the success of this legislation and for the future of the piece-meal immigration reform legislations. We will watch closely how these changes will unfold. Please stay tuned.

09/15/2010: USCIS Updates Today Service Centers and Local Offices Processing Times as of 07/31/2010

• Visit our home page.

09/15/2010: ICE Official Notice in Federal Register on Temporary EAD Relief for Certain Haitian F-1 Students

• Here we go. It is official and effective today.
• For the details, please visit the following ICE information sites:
  • News Release
  • Fact Sheet

09/14/2010: DREAM Act Voted on 09/21/2010 in the Senate as Attachment to Defense Authorization (Appropriation) Bill?

• There is an unconfirmed report that the DREAM Act will get a vote on the Senate floor next week, a last shot before the November elections to appease Latino voters who are furious that President Obama has not followed through on his pledge to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority. There we go! A news that would certainly excite illegal youngsters. Hmm................. Let's see whether that really happens. If it happens, a political gimmick may play again before the national election regardless of feasibility of the success. Read on.

09/14/2010: Employment Authorization for Haitian F-1 Students Experiencing Economic Hardship as a Direct Result of 01/12/10 Earthquake

• USICE will suspend until 07/22/2011 certain regulatory requirements for F-1 nonimmigrant students whose country of citizenship is Haiti and who are experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking action to provide relief to these F-1 students so they may obtain employment authorization, work an increased number of hours while school is in session, and reduce their course load, while continuing to maintain their F-1 student status. F-1 students who are granted employment authorization by means of this notice will be deemed to be engaged in a “full course of study” for the duration of their employment authorization, provided that they satisfy the minimum course load requirement described in this notice. This rule will apply to undergraduate, graduate, elementary school, middle school, and high school students, but with some different conditions and requirements. Qualified Haitian students must file I-765 for the employment authorization. Certain qualified Haitians can also simultaneously file TPS application. This notice will be published in the federal register tomorrow. This notice will take effect tomorrow, 09/15/2010. For the advance copy, please click here.

09/14/2010: White House/OMB Clears USCIS Fee Adjustment Final Rule for Publication in Federal Register

• Yesterday, 09/13/2010, OMB approved and cleared this fee adjustment final rule for publication. As we reported earlier, since this is a rule-making of economic significance, regular waiting period for OMB clearance has been bypassed and approved in 20 days. Accordingly, the USCIS is ready to publish this rule in the federal register. The exact date of publication has yet to be released by the USCIS. Those who will be affected by the fee changes should keep eye on the release of the final rule in the federal register. Please stay tuned to this website for the upcoming release of this rule.

09/13/2010: USCIS to Announce at 09/17/2010 National Engagement Session a $8 Million Grants Available to Community-Based Organizations to Promote Citizenship and Immigration Integration

• The meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. from 9:00 am through 12.00 noon. The meeting will also be available via Webcast who will not be available for participation in person. For details, please click here.

09/13/2010: FY 2011 First Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/10/2010

• Total: 6,964
• Approved: 4,835
• Pending: 2,129

09/13/2010: FY 2010 2nd Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/10/2010

• Total: 30,274
• Approved: 29512
• Pending: 762

09/13/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 09/10/2010

• Regular Cap: 37,400
• Master Cap: 13,700

09/13/2010: Official PERM Processing Times as of 08/31/2010

• The following are official processing times released today by the Office of Foreign Labor Certification of U.S. Department of Labor:
  • Analyst Review (Regular Cases): May 2010 (WOW!)
  • Audits: August 2008
  • Standard Appeals: March 2008
  • Government Error Appeals: Current
• This report reminds the employers that the EB-2 employers should file clean-cut labor certification application since once their cases are audited or denied and needed appeal, the cases will be trapped in a tremendous delay. This is particularly true with the employers who file EB-2 labor certification for the H-1B employees who are about to exhaust the H-1B six-year limit and would need three-year increment H-1B extensions indefinitely pending the green card proceedings. This is also true with the foreign high-tech workers of EB-2 who experience with a shaky business for the employers and may be forced to change employers down the road, but need at least retention of EB-2 priority date from the current employer's labor certification applications as the retention of priority date absolutely requires "approval" of I-140 petitions.

09/11/2010: What Will Happen When the Congress Returns to the Session Next Week?

• The 111th Congress that started in January 2009 will sunset at the end of 2010. There are 6,098 bills whch have been introduced in the House, most of which are pending and will die with the close of the 111th Congress. There are 3,754 bills which have been introduced in the Senate, most of which are pending and will also die with the close of the 111th Congress. Some of the dead bills may be reintroduced in the 112th Congress, but the record of the bills somehow reflects how politics play out in the legislative process in this country. By now, it is a "given" fact that the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform legislation within this Congress are completely doomed. When the Congress returns after the long summer recess, other than the President's another economic stimulus legislative agenda, the Congress is likely tied up with the pending federal departments' FY 2011 appropriation (budget) bills. Most of these bills are currently pending. It is likely that the Congress may not be able to pass most of these bills before October 1, 2010, the first day of FY 2011 for the federal government, because of upcoming mid-term national election in the first week of November 2010, and may have to pass a continuing resolution to avoid shut-down of federal departments and to keep funding the federal departments temporarily until certain time and until the Congress passes the appropriation bills.
• Under the circumstances, any introduction of new stand-alone bills may have slim chances to make it before this Congress sunsets at the end of this years. Accordingly, there will be a flurry of activities in many different sectors to achieve their legislative goals in the form of attachments to the pending appropriation bills. Sounds familiar? You'd betcha! When it comes to any reform legislations, they will take a shape of so-called "piece-meal" reform bills. No one will be surprised that some pieceemal immigration bills will be attached to some of these federal departments budget appropriation bills. In support of such piece-meal bills, there may be huge lobbying activities, probably in low keys, to get their bills successfully passed as part of any of such appropriation bills. People should keep a close eye on the Congressional activies on these appropriation bills. We will certainly try to monitor it very closely. Please stay tuned to this website.

09/09/2010: October 2010 Visa Bulletin

• Despite ongoing and pervasive rumors, the EB-2 and EB-3 for India and China will not move backward. In fact, even if it is just a few days, EB-3 for India and EB-2 and EB-3 for China will move forward in October. What a relief!

09/07/2010: FY 2011 First Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/03/2010

• Total: 4,895
• Approved: 3,976
• Pending: 919

09/07/2010: FY 2010 2nd Half H-2B Cap Count as of 09/03/2010

• Total: 31,617
• Approved: 29606
• Pending: 2,011

09/07/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 09/03/2010

• Regular Cap: 36,500
• Master Cap: 13,400

09/04/2010: Reminder - $14.00 Fee Payment Required for ESTA Registration with CBP Effective Next Wednesday, 09/08/2010

• Do not fail to pay the fee by credit card or debit card to request ESTA registration. Effective September 8, 2010, all Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) registration applications or renewals on or after that date will require a $14.00 fee payment by credit or debit card. Existing ESTA registrations remain valid through their expiration date. For more information, please visit the ESTA News Release and ESTA Webpage on the CBP website. For other details, please click here.

09/02/2010: USCIS Enforces New 08/09/2010 I-864P Poverty Income Guidelines

• USCIS releases on August 20, 2010 the new poverty income poverty guideline form of August 9, 2010 edition and no previous edition is acceptable. Not certain what difference of new version is. But beware! Old version is no longer acceptable. Visa posts of the U.S. Department of State are also implementing the new guidelines.

09/02/2010: USCIS 09/01/2010 Executive Summary Public Law 111-230 (H-1B & L-1 Fee Increase Provisions)

• The USCIS has just released its executive summary of implementing this new law. The involved agencies are still coordinating the specific policies to interprete and implement specific langauge of the new law, but pending the release of a final interpretation of every detailed issues, the involved employers should review and follow the executive summary as preliminary guidance.

09/02/2010: New USCIS Policy Memorandum on Denial Language to Appeals to BIA

• This new memorandum is issued to give guidance on adjudicators of mostly family-related petitions to use certain language in denial or revocation of the petitions on their rights to appeals to BIA.

08/31/2010: USCIS Naturalization Processing and Backlog Statistics as of 07/31/2010

08/31/2010: USCIS Immigration Benefits Applications Processing and Backlog Statistics as of 07/31/2010

• Substantial rise in number of applications.

08/31/2010: Latest H-1B Cap Count of USCIS (08/27/2010)

• Regular cap: 34,900 (Out of 65,000. However, taking out H-1B1 for Chile and Singapore, practical total cap available is not 65,000 but about 58,000)
• Master cap: 13,000 (Out of 20,000 special cap)

08/28/2010: Deadline of FY 2011 H-1B Cap Filing

• As we approach the end of September 2010, people wonder whether they should be able to file FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions after October 1, 2010. In fact, the FY 2011 H-1B cap number is not available until October 1, 2010. The agency has been taking in H-1B cap petitions beginning from April 1 each year because under the H-1B regulation, no H-1B petition can be filed six months before the starting date of H-1B employment. Accordingly, should the cap numbers are not exhausted by the end of September, the USCIS must keep accepting the FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions with the starting date of post October 1, 2010 and post the filing date of the petition. Accordingly, until the total annual cap numbers are exhausted, the agency will continue to accept the FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions on and after October 1, 2010.
• However, there is a question of whether the OPT cap gap relief of automatic extension of OPT status and employment authorization will be available when the petition is filed on or after October 1, 2010. The agency (ICE & USCIS) has to clarify on this but the cap gap provision may not be applicable in the situation. Consequently, inasmuch as H-1B cap petition is filed timely after October 1, 2010 while the student is in a valid OPT or grace period, the student may remain in the country lawfully pending adjudication of the H-1B petition, but pending H-1B petition, there may not be available automatic extension of OPT or employment authorization. Beware.

08/27/2010: By-Product of Failure of CIR - Growing Tension of Obama Policy Within ICE

• One of the big changes that the country has witnessed since the Obama Administration took over the government was to switch the immigration enforcement focus from the undocumented aliens to the employers hiring undocumented aliens. Obviously, underlying this policy was the efforts of the Obama government to appease its strongest constituency, the Hispanic community, pending the enactment of CIR. Under the policy, the law enforcement against the undocumented aliens has been substantially reduced, while the law enforcement against the U.S. employers has gradualy intensified. This created some tension in the immigration enforcement community. On top of the tension, the leaked internal USCIS memorandum has thrown a gas over the burning fire. Under the leaked policy, detention and treatment of detained undocumented aliens would receive some leniency. Report indicates that such swift of policy at the top level of the Obama administration has ignited discontent and resistance within the ICE, which culminated in no confidence vote by the ICE officers union against the head of the agency. In a way, ICE is squizzed between the Obama administration that needed sustained support from the Hispanic community and the Republicans that needed to take advantage of loosen immigration enforcement policy. Such predicament of the Obama administration could have been abated, had the present leadership pushed for and passed the CIR. In the midst of such politics, immigrants have suffered and turned into helpless scapegoats and victims. Worse yet, we see no light at the end of tunnel, judging from the newly shaping political landscape of the country. America has changed and is changing along with the slipping and downturn of the morality and ethics smearing into every sector of the society.

08/26/2010: USCIS Latest H-2B Cap Count of 08/23/2010

• 2nd Half FY 2010 Cap:
  • Total: 29,960
  • Approved: 29,523
  • Pending: 437
• 1st Half FY 2011 Cap:
  • Total: 4,841
  • Approved: 3,654
  • Pending: 1,187

08/26/2010: ICE Plan for Employment Authorization for Certain Haitian F-1 Students Experiencing Hardship by January Earthquake in Haiti

• The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is scheduled to publish a notice as soon as it is approved by the White House OMB concerning employment authorization for Haitian F-1 nonimmigrant students experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the January 12, 2010 Earthquake. For the upcoming release of the notice, please stay tuned to this web site.

08/25/2010: Religious Worker Special Immigrant Concurrent I-485 Filing in Crisis

• Certain class of religious worker special immigrants are currently allowed to file I-360 and I-485 concurrently just like other employment-based immigrants filing I-140 and I-485 concurrently based on a federal district court injunction of the USCIS rule that require bifurcation of filing. This is the famous case of Ruiz Diaz v. United States case. On August 20, 2010, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the federal court decision and vacated the injunctions which was issued by the federal district court judge. It also remanded the case back to the federal district judge to reach the merit of a claim of violation of Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which the federal district failed to reach in its initial decision. Accordingly, the litigation will continue, but vacation of the injunction is in effect. For the decision of the 9th Circuit, please read Findlaw.
• For the impact of this decision, please stay tuned to this website.

08/24/2010: H-1B Cap Count of 08/20/2010

• Regular Cap=33,900
• Master Cap=12,600

08/24/2010: USCIS Fee Increase Final Rule Presented to OMB Yesterday for Approval

• The proposed filing fee adjustment rule was published earlier and after completion of comment period, the agency worked out the final rule. This final rule is now in the hands of White House OMB for approval and implementation. As was true with the proposed rule, the final rule is not likely to take a long time to be published and implemented as this rule is considered "economically signicant impact" rule making which is processed in the OMB outside of the normal review requirement of either minimum of 30 days or 60-90 days rule under the relevant Executive Order. This fee increase rule does not significally increase filing fees for the petitions and applications which are most commonly used by the consumers, but in some areas, the fee increase will be quite significant, particularly investment immigration and some other less frequently used immigration benefits areas. Please stay tuned to this website for the upcoming release of this final rule.

08/20/2010: National Visa Center (NVC) Frequently Asked Questions Relating to Consular Immigrant Visa Processing

• Those who go through general immigrant visas processing or K-1 Fiance processing or K-3 U.S. citizen spouse visa processing or I-864 affidavit of support requirement relating to the foregoing consular proceedings may have quite a few questions for which they need answers. The NVC FAQ site should be very helpful for this purpose.

08/20/2010: USCIS Draft Memorandum for Evaluation of "Evidentiary Criteria in Certain I-140 Petitions"

• This draft memorandum was released today for comment until September 3, 2010 when it may be adopted as an official memorandum revising Adjudicators Field Manual. It touches the issues of evidentiary criteria for adjudication of I-140 immigrant petitions in EB-1A(Extraordinary Worker), EB-1B(Outstanding Professor or Researcher), and EB-2(Exceptional Ability), requiring two-prong test in the adjudication. This draft memorandum is intended to override all the previous memorandums touching on the subject petitioin adjudication guidance criteria. In this regard, the draft memorandum is very important and stakeholders and employers may carefully review the draft and send in comments before September 4, 2010.

08/20/2010: Effective 09/08/2010, Visa Waiver Program Travelers Pay $14.00 ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) Fee

• The State Department issued this cable to the visa posts to engage in public relations activities. This cable explains in detail the legal and policy backgrounds of this fee as well as Q&A to provide guidance for the visa posts as well as the VWP travelers. Read on.

08/20/2010: EAD Delay Alerts for EB-485 Waiters

• According to the AILA, currently Nebraska Service Center is experiencing delays in EAD adjudications and they are trying hard to issue the EAD in 75 days. It means that in most cases, it takes minimum 75 days or longer. For the reasons, the NSC is advising that EAD renewal be filed as soon as the applicant reaches 120 days before expiration of current EAD. However, people should never file it earlier than this timeline as such filing will be rejected. EB-485 waiters are currently experiencing problems because they are not attentive to the changing situations and they are just accustomed to the earlier situations where most of EAD renewals were issued from one month to two months. Some of the legal counsels, including this reporter, have thus been experiencing difficulties in collecting required documents from clients who just assume that it is no big deal since renewal can be issued in couple of months. They are now suffering and panicking because of the current processing delays of EAD. Agencies' processing times constantly change depending on each agency office and curcumstances at the different times. This reporter thus writes this alert to remind these applicants to take a conservative attitude and file EAD application as soon as they reach the 120-day point before their current EAD will expire. Don't cry on spilt milk!

08/19/2010: USCIS Announcement: USCIS Implements H-1B and L-1 B Fee Increase According to Public Law 111-230 (aka H.R. 6080 Bill)

• That is fast. After completing the teleconference, the agency posted again the anouncement today, August 19, 2010. The detailed guidance and the revised forms have yet to be released, but this announcement makes it official the involved employers with pending H-1B petition since August 14, 2010 or those who will file new petitions must pay additional fees to avoid consequences. Read on.

08/19/2010: USCIS to Release H.R. 6080 H-1B + L-1 Fee Increase Implementation Guidance Soon

• The today's teleconference reflects that the USCIS is still working on guidance for implementation of this law and revision of the petition forms. Until that time, it appears that answers to most of key questions will remain fluid. The following are key issues that came up in the teleconference.
  • The new law was signed and took effect on 08/13/2010, but since it was signed middle of the day, the agency will implement the fees on August 14, 2010 and any petitions that were post-marked by U.S. postal services on 08/14/2010 or thereafter will have to pay the new fees. When the petitions are filed, commercial delivery services' record of receipt of the package may be taken instead of post mark.
  • The new fee of $2,000 for H-1B and $2,250 for L-1 is in addition to current fees of $320 for I-129, $500 for Fraud Presention Fee, $750 or $1,500 ACWIA fee for H-1B plus $1,000 premium processing fee, if applicable.
  • The new fee is charged for new H-1B or L-1A or L-1B petition and change of employer H-1B or L-1A or L-1B petition. The new fee will not be charged for extension of the current status by the same employer.
  • The new fee is analogous to ACWIA fee which the employer is liable and not employee. Employers must pay the new fee.
  • With reference to 'definition of employer,' petitioners should follow the H-1B regulation. There are host of issues which have yet to be resolved including Blanket L petition, but the agency defers to the regulation at this point, pending their release of guidance soon.
  • With reference to definition of the employee, three different points to keep in mind:
    • Both full-time and part-time employees considered employees for the purposes of both of following purposes.
    • For the purpose of determination of number of nonimmigrant H-1B or L-1 employees in the staff, L-2 working on EAD will also be counted as employee. (This has yet to be further clarified)
    • Employees in the United States are counted.
  • For purpose of count of total employees and applicable H-1B and L-1 employees, it is counted on the date of filing of the petition.
  • For pending cases, the agency is likely to issue RFE with 30-day response time. For new petitions, they recommend employers to submit attestations as to why they are not subject to the new law.
• The foregoing is not necessarily the rule nor the current practice of the USCIS. Their current thoughts only, pending release of their guidance and new forms. Readers are thus advised not to rely on this report and seek legal counsel for advice.
• One sad news is that this new process may substantially delay processing times of H-1B and L-1 petitions for those employers who hire 50 or more employees and 50% of the employees are H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrants.

08/19/2010: U.S. Department of Labor Draft Strategic Plan for FY 2011-2016

• The U.S. Department of Labor has drafted the next five-year strategic plan and scheduled to seek inputs from the stakeholders and the public very soon. The goals in the areas of foreign labor certification programs will be to protect job opportunities for Americans, to improve efficiency of management of programs, particularly prevailing wage determination processing times, and implementation of revised PERM program anchored on filing fees. The following represents just a part f the draft, and readers are encouraged to review the full text and prepare themselve to preparre their ideas and inputs and participate in the inter-act review process of the Department within the next two weeks or so.

Protecting Job Opportunities for Americans
Performance Goal ETA 1.5 — Maintain oversight to ensure that employers are compliant with wage and overtime laws with respect to certified foreign laborers.

ETA’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) helps protect workers’ wages by reviewing employer requests for certification of a foreign worker to work in the United States. ETA’s OFLC assures that the hiring of a foreign worker will not adversely impact the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers and that no qualified U.S. workers are willing or available to fill a given vacancy. Employers seeking to hire foreign workers are required to conduct good-faith efforts to locate talent in their communities. In addition, employers are required to pay any foreign worker the wage rate that prevails in the area of employment for the occupation and to comply with all laws governing such employment. Strategies for improving timeliness and quality of certification processes include fee-based funding of application processing, revising applications to promote clarity and ease of use by employers, and for the permanent program, enhancing audit and oversight.

• In order to achieve the goals, they intend to reinforce reinforcement and enforcement, and in the meanwhile, reduce the processing times from the current target of 80% within six month in FY 2010 to 81% in 2011 and first half of 2012, and depending the developments, the annual targets be established for a period between send half of FY 2012 and FY 2015, and achieve the target of 95% in the final year of 2016. For audit cases, resolution compliance review in FY 2010 is set at 60%, and 61% for 2011, annual establishment of goals between 2012 and 2015, and 70% in 2016.
• The foregoing may explain in part the late efforts of the OFLC expediting adjucations to reach probably the target of FY 2010. Anyway, the draft strategic plan in a way cuts both ways in the future.

08/19/2010: Growing Rise of Volumes & Trends of USCIS Pending Cases for Immigration Benefits and Naturalization Cases

• For immigration consumers, there are three primary sources of information available to learn the status of immigration and naturalition. Review of the following three sources indicate that the volumes and trends had been reduced in a fairly rapid pace contributing to reduction of the agency's processing times and achieving the policy target of the reduced processing times of various petitions and applications. However, lately, particularly since March 2010, the information reflects that the volumes and trends of pending cases have been steadily growing, raising a concern to the consumers for its potential negative impact on its processing times ahead. The causes of these reverse trend have never been disclosed. The consumers have been advised since the late part of 2009 of the growing reduction of incoming cases and its impact on the agency's budget short fall leading to the proposed increase in filing fees lately. This certainly does not explain the reverse trend. Some of the causes one can speculate include the agency's set-back of efficient and effective processing of cases as affected in part by its recent practice of intensified scrutiny of cases leading to growing number of RFEs to achieve its goal of "integrity," and/or aches and pains of its business transformation program that should ultimately achieve efficiency and effectiveness but during its current transition stage and bifurcation processing between the front-end filing process function into lock boxes and the back-end adjudication function into the one of the five Service Centers, and/or forthcoming annual file audits and file digitizatation process, plus late rise of new filings. These are all speculations. However, consumers have a legitimate interest in and concern with the fall-outs of these trends and are anxious to hear from the agency or other sources such as the Government Accounting Office for the causes of the trend.
• The following are the three sources of information available to the general public:
  • Immigration and Naturalization Benefits Applications Monthly Reports (including June 2010 statistics)
  • National Trend and Volume of Processing Statistics (including June 2010 statistics)
  • Districts and Service Centers Monthly Processing Times Report (June 2010) Some of the information in this report does not necessarily reflect the reality of waiting times in all cases. For instance, despite its report of one-month for L-1 and two-month for H-1B, the reality appears to take much longer than it because of a substantial rise of RFEs and adjudication delays.
• Beware.

08/18/2010: USCIS Processing Delays for Re-Registration of El Salvadorans for TPS and Form I-130

• USCIS alerts that it is currently experiencing a three-to five-day delay with the intake and receipting of applications associated with re-registration of El Salvadorans for TPS and Forms I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, filed at the Chicago Lockbox facility. As of August 18, 2010, USCIS is currently receipting applications and petitions received at the Chicago Lockbox on August 5, 2010. Please click here for the alerts.

08/18/2010: USCIS Updates Monthly Processing Times 08/18/2010

• This update shows the processing times as of June 30, 2010. See our home page.

08/18/2010: USCIS Schedules Teleconference Tomorrow to Discuss How to Implement H-1B/L-1 Fee Increase Under H.R. 6080

• In order to participate in this teleconference, please visit the invitation site.

08/17/2010: USCIS Announces Implementation of H-1B and L-1 Filing Fee Increase for Certain Employers Under the New Emergency Border Security Appropriations Act [USCIS has taken down this announcement from its website without explanation. Accordingly, we will also retract this posting]

• The announcement is dated 08/13/2010 but posted today. It states that this Act requires the submission of an additional fee of $2,000 for certain H-1B petitions and $2,250 for certain L-1 petitions. These additional fees are required for any initial H-1B or L-1 petition filed starting [insert date] through September 30, 2014, where the petitioner employs 50 or more individuals in the U.S. and more than 50% of its employees are in H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant status.
• USCIS is in the process of updating the Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker. While these changes are pending and to avoid a Request for Evidence (RFE) and potential delays in processing, petitioners are encouraged to include a cover letter with the filing which states whether they are required to pay the additional fee or explaining why it is not required. For the full text, please click here.

08/17/2010: USCIS Latest H-1B Cap Count of 08/13/2010

• Regular Cap=29,700
• Master Cap=12,300

08/17/2010: USCIS Latest H-2B Cap Count of 08/13/2010

• 2nd Half FY 2010 Cap:
  • Total: 29,781
  • Approved: 29,178
  • Pending: 603
• 1st Half FY 2011 Cap:
  • Total: 3,201
  • Approved: 2,932
  • Pending: 1,654

08/17/2010: Official PERM Latest Processing Time Update as of 07/31/2010

• Analyst Review: 12/2009
• Audits: 07/2008
• Standard Appeals: 02/2008
• Government Error Appeals: Current

08/12/2010: Wow, That Is Fast. H.R. 6080 Presented to President Today, and President to Sign 08/13/2010, Friday

• As soon as the Senate passed the bill, the Congress quickly cleared for White House and has already been presented to the President. Since it passed during the special session, everything had to be cleared out of the Congress quickly, I guess. USCIS must be busy to get ready for processing and collecting increased fees from these employers soon. The new filing fees will be a huge amount, especially when they decide to file a premium processing request. Can you imagine how much these employers will lose for a single case if the case is filed on premium and denied!! Ouch!
• The new fees will take effect tomorrow since the President is scheduled to sign it into law at 11:00 a.m. EST, tomorrow.

08/12/2010: Senate Passed H.R. 6080!

• The President may not waste too many days to sign this bill into law. For those employers who will be subject to the H-1B and L-1 fee increase under this new law, their eyes are on the White House as to when the President will sign it, because under the new law, the new fee takes effect beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act. This Act is enacted at the moment when the President signs the bill. For the text of the relevant provisions in the bill, please refer back to our report on 08/10/2010.

08/12/2010: Text of Senator Sessions Bill on Certain Long Time Conditional Residents' Adjustment of Status

• We reported on 08/05/2010 that Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama introduced in the U.S. Senate on 08/04/2010 the bill S. 3702 to provide for the adjustment of status for certain long-term conditional residents. We were curious about the bill because the Senator is known to be a hardline conservative Republican who rarely takes on a pro-immigration legislation. Here is the text of the bill amending Section 245 of the immigration and nationality act:
  • `(2) ALIENS ELIGIBLE FOR ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS- An alien is described in this paragraph if the alien--
    • `(A) became a conditional resident under this section as an alien entrepreneur, alien spouse, or alien child (as such terms are defined in section 216A(f)) on or before December 31, 1998;
    • `(B) filed an application to remove his or her conditional resident status on an I-829 form on or before December 31, 2000, in accordance with section 216A; and
    • `(C) had such form or a motion to reopen or reconsider the denial of such form pending before the Department of Homeland Security as of the date of the enactment of this subsection.
  • `(3) WAIVER OF CERTAIN GROUNDS FOR INADMISSIBILITY-
    • `(A) INAPPLICABLE PROVISIONS- Paragraphs (5) and (7)(A) of section 212(a) shall not apply to an adjustment of status under this subsection.
    • `(B) PERMISSIBLE WAIVERS- The Secretary of Homeland Security may waive any other provision of section 212(a) (except for paragraphs (2)(C) and (3)) with respect to an adjustment of status under this subsection--
    • `(i) for humanitarian purposes;
    • `(ii) to assure family unity; or
    • `(iii) if such waiver is otherwise in the public interest.'.
• It appears he stands for investment immigrants and their family members in most cases whose cases have been dragged on for certain reasons. The State of Alabama has sponsored so called Regional Center Pilot Programs and supports investment of foreign enterpreneurs.

08/11/2010: U.S. Senate Returns to Special Session at 10:00 a.m., 08/12/2010 (Thursday) to Take Care of Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriation Act Which the House Passed

• The Senate is returning to a special session tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to consider this bill, H.R. 6080. This is a bad news for the H-1B and L-1 filing fee increase thunderball!

08/11/2010: Official September Visa Bulletin

• EB-2 for India and Chima moved to May 8, 2006
• EB-3 for India remains at 01/01/2002
• EB-3 for China: 10/22/2003
• EB-2 for Countries Other Than India and China: Current
• EB-3 for Worldwide: 12/15/2004

08/10/2010: House Passed Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriation Act of 2010 in Different Bill Number H.R. 6080

• The House quickly passed this bill this morning. However, the bill will have to wait until the Senate returns from the summer break on September 10, 2010 because the bill was changed in the format and others. Accordingly, unless the Senate decides to return to a special session this week, which is not likely, this bill will not become a law until the middle of September 2010. In a way, it is a good news, but still remain a bad news as the filing fees for H-1B and L-1 for certain group of employers will go up substantially, potentially affecting their business.

08/10/2010: H-2B Cap Count of 08/06/2010

• 2nd Half FY 2010 Cap Count
  • Total=30,383
  • Approved=29,240
  • Pending=1,143
• 1st Half FY 2011 Cap Count
  • Total=3,201
  • Approved=2,385
  • Pending=816

08/10/2010: House Special Session Floor Schedule Today

• House is scheduled to complete ,before 3:00 p.m., voting for the bills which are on the floor agenda that includes Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriation Act of 2010 as amended by the Senate, which includes the following section:
  • Sec. 402. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other provision of law, during the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending on September 30, 2014, the filing fee and fraud prevention and detection fee required to be submitted with an application for admission as a nonimmigrant under section 101(a)(15)(L) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(L)) shall be increased by $2,250 for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50 percent of the applicant's employees are nonimmigrants admitted pursuant to section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of such Act or section 101(a)(15)(L) of such Act.
  • (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other provision of law, during the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending on September 30, 2014, the filing fee and fraud prevention and detection fee required to be submitted with an application for admission as a nonimmigrant under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)) shall be increased by $2,000 for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50 percent of the applicant's employees are such nonimmigrants or nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L) of such Act.
• If the House floor agrees to the Senate amendment without its own amendment, the bill will go to the President for his signature who strongly supports the Border Security bill. Will the House agree to Senate amendment? Please stay tuned to this website for the voting results.

08/09/2010: Administrative Appeals Processing Times of USCIS AAO as of 08/01/2010

08/09/2010: Well Put, New York Times Editorial on the 14th Amendment Controversy

• Our readers should read this article. It indeed is a beautiful prose. Thank you, New York Times! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06fri1.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=editorial%2014th%20amendment&st=cse

08/09/2010:Latest H-1B Cap Counted on 08/06/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 28,500 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:11,900 (out of special cap of 20,000)

08/09/2010: Proposed Reengineering and Tightening of H-2B Certifications by Office of Foreign Labor Certification

• Currently the USCIS regulations require, prior to the admission of H-2B workers, to seek advice from the Office of Foreign Labor Certification regarding the importation of such workers. Specifically, Office of Foreign Labor Certification certifies that there is not sufficient U.S. worker(s) who are capable of performing the temporary services or labor at the time of an application for a visa, and that the employment of the alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification currently administers such certification through an attestation-based program. As a result of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification's program experience, this regulation proposes to re-engineer the H-2B program in order to strengthen the program's integrity and protections of U.S. workers. The proposed rule was submitted to the OMB last Friday for approval. For details, please stay tuned to this website.

08/09/2010: House Scheduled to Return to Session Tomorrow & Take Up Just Passed Senate Emergency Border Spending Bill as Amended

• Report indicates that the House will return to the session tomorrow to take care of other bill, but it will surely take up and act on this bill on the floor tomorrow. H-1B and L-1 fee increase is more imminent than initially anticipated. Please stay tuned.

08/07/2010: Emergency Border Spending Bill - Misguided?

• This bill which the Senate just passed with amendments is very controversial. As we noted in our report of this bill yesterday, the Democrats had been pushing the bill to send a wink and to lure conservative forces in Congress to come to the table for negotiaion for Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. However, as it is reported by the Center for Community Change, the Democrats were misguided in that by tossing away their bargaining chips with the conservative forces that had been advocating border security and immigration enforcement only immigration reform, the conservatives would no longer have any incentives to come to the table with the Democrats to negotiate the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. The truth is that such piecemeal immigration reform bill as this bill should have been an essential part of the overall comprehensive immigration reform legislation to force the conservatives to sit and negotiate for the legislation. We agree with the CCC that this bill is politically and strategically misguided for the Democrats and the Obama team. Hmm...................................

08/06/2010: Senate Passed H-1B and L-1 Filing Fee Substantial Increase Yesterday as Part of $600 Million Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010

• The House passed the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010, which the Senate passed it yesterday with amendments. One of the amendments includes the following fee increase for H-1B and L-1. This amendment was sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. The amendment provides:
  • L-1 Filing Fee and Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee Wiil be Increased by $2,250 for Petitioners Employing 50 or More Employees in the United States and More Than 50% of the employees are H-1B or L-1 Employees
  • H-1B Filing Fee and Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee Will be Increased by $2,000 for Petitioners Employing 50 or More Employees in the United States and More Than 50% of the employees are H-1B or L-1 Employees.
  • The total filing fees after this legislation will be much higher than these figures in that these employers will also have to pay $1,500 American Worker Training Fees for H-1B petition plus current fraud preventiuon fee of $500 and I-129 filing fee of $320.
  • The Increased Fee will take effect on the date this bill is enacted into a law by the President's signature and remain in effect until September 30, 2014.
• The bill needs Senate-House Conference and unless the House and Senate leader agree to return to the session during the summer break which ends on 09/14/2010, this bill is not likely enacted into law untill after the Congress returns to the session after the summer break. The amendment will be found in Title IV, Section 402 (a) and (b) of H.R. 5875, as amended by S. 3721.
• Understandably, this bill will hit hard Indian giant consulting businesses since the employers that will be subject to the increased fees fit primarily Indian businesses such as Wipro, Infosys, Tata, etc. Report indicates that these firms started and will continue to lobby the Congress against this bill from here on.
• The fact that this amendment was introduced by the Chairman of Immigration Subcommittee of the Senate Judidiary Committee indicates that probably he intends to smooth out hardline opponents of CIR by showing strong support for border protection and protection of U.S. hi-tech labor markets in the environment of nation's struggling economy and unemployment rate. Please stay tuned.

08/06/2010: USCIS Expands Employment Authorization for Dependents of Foreign Officials Effective 08/09/2010

• Effective Monday, August 9, 2010, USCIS will expand the list of dependents who are eligible for employment authorization from spouses, children, and qualifying sons and daughters of A or G foreign officials to include any other immediate family member who falls within a category of aliens designated by the Department of State as qualifying. This rule will be published in the federal register Monday. For advance copy, please click here.

08/06/2010: Congress Over One-Month Summer-Break Until September 14, 2010

• Other than election politics, the Congress will stay dormant for over one month and until September 14, 2010. The House has already been adjourned and yesterday, the Senate passed en masse [but no immigration bills other than the Help Haiti Act!] legislative bills before it adjourns beginning from next week. There have been a lot of talks in the media on volatile ultra right wing immigration issues including the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with proposed restriction to right to U.S. citizenship for certain babies born of illegal aliens in the United States. Other than such talks here and there, all motivated by the election year politics, the Congress and for that matter, the White House have remained low key in immigration legislation. The media will continue to carry reports on talks on immigration during next one month, but it will be all fruitless and election strategy motivated talks. We'd rather turn our ears and eyes away from such reports until the November election is over.

08/05/2010: Senate Passed The Help Haiti Act of 2010 Yesterday With Amendment, H.R. 5283

• Senate passed this House bill yesterday with amendments. This bill provides adjustment of status to permanent residents for certain Haiti orphans. Since the bill was passed with amendments, it has to go to the conference to compromise.

08/05/2010: Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama Introduces S. 3702 to Grant Adjustment of Status to Certain Long Time Conditional Residents

• Senator Sessions rarely introduces pro-immigration bills because of his ultra-conservative staance. Yesterday, he introduced this in the Senate. The text is yet to be made available and we are curious of text of this bill. Please stay tuned. Hmm.................

08/04/2010: What a Wonderful Feeling of Receiving Email Notices of August 2010 Visa Bulletin 485 Approvals!

• I have never loved the USCIS online email notices of decisions until I keep receiving EB-485 appoval notices for Indians whose priority date became current beginning from August 1, 2010. Simply hilarious!!

08/04/2010: USCIS Changes Filing Location to Lock Boxes for the Following Forms

• I-140
• I-526
• I-539
• I-129F
• I-817
• I-130
• The filing location changes to lock boxes can mean that the front-end processing of data entry and receipt notice production can experience some delays. Let's wait and see.

08/03/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 07/30/2010

08/03/2010: H-2B Cap Count for FY 2010 2nd Half and FY 2011 1st Half as Counted on 07/30/2010

• The USCIS has started using H-2B cap for FY 2011 First Half. Read on.

08/02/2010: HHS Notice of Continued Delays of Update of Poverty Guidelines Until January 2011

• The HHS will publish a notice that there will be a delayed update of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) poverty guidelines for the remainder of 2010, and until the 2011 poverty guidelines are published, which is expected to occur in late January 2011. Accordingly, the current poverty guidelines will remain in effect until January 2011. Read the notice.

08/01/2010: Reported USCIS Response to the Leaked Memo

• The National Review Online reports that the USCIS has released a statement on the memo as follows:

Internal draft memos do not and should not be equated with official action or policy of the Department. We will not comment on notional, pre-decisional memos. As a matter of good government, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will discuss just about every issue that comes within the purview of the immigration system. We continue to maintain that comprehensive bipartisan legislation, coupled with smart, effective enforcement, is the only solution to our nation’s immigration challenges.

Internal memoranda help us do the thinking that leads to important changes; some of them are adopted and others are rejected. Our goal is to implement policies wisely and well to strengthen all aspects of our mission. The choices we have made so far have strengthened both the enforcement and services sides of USCIS — nobody should mistake deliberation and exchange of ideas for final decisions. To be clear, DHS will not grant deferred action or humanitarian parole to the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population.

• We totally agree with the USCIS that in the decision-making process of any entity, various thoughts, ideas, and suggestions can come up from within and without sources and this memo should not represent the decision of the entity.

08/01/2010: Alleged Sources of Leakage of USCIS Memo on Administrative Solutions to CIR

• The Fox News blog today reports that "it was first obtained by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's office from the U.S. Customs & Immigration Services." Republican Senator Vitter reportedly stated that "The first letters were in June. We had heard rumors about this sort of activity; no answer. We followed up in July; no answer" and "Then this 11-page memo has gotten out,..." Reportedly several Republican senators wrote a letter to President Obama regarding the memo, and they are waiting for a response. Hmm.......................................

08/01/2010: The Congressional Schedules Ahead

• If we look at the House and the Senate schedules, we can see why the government's top priority legislative agenda are practically gone. The Congress will return to the Hill for less than one working week and is scheduled to go into its "one month" summer break between August 9 and September 10, 2010. Then there will be less than one month for the Congress in session before it probably adjourns on October 8, 2010. During this period, the members of the House and the Senate will stay business in their districts for November election campaigns. After the national election is over, the Congressional leaders may consider lame duck sessions before or even through the nation's biggest holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, which remain an open question at this point. For the reasons, we see that the 111th Congress is very much over when it comes to the remaining national top priority legislative agenda. It is extremely travesty that the ailing immigration system has been left unresolved for so many years owing to the nation tangled in politics. There are pet talks for the hope for immigration reform in 2011, but this hope will entirely depend on the results of the November election and completely remain an open question. There are enough blames to go around for the failures, but whoever they may be, they should feel ashamed of themselves.

07/31/2010: Leaked Undated USCIS Memo for Internal Discussion and Nagative Impact on Prospects for Administrative Fixes

• The memorandum indeed contained very thoughtful discussion on various administrative fixes which could be available within the confinement of existing law. Howevever, the unauthorized leakage of the internal document will have a chilling effect on administrative fixes which the agency could potentially consider and make preparation against the Congress failure to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. The immigration opponents and conversative political forces are attempting to take advantage of the election year politics to accuse that the Obama forces were attempting to achieve "amnesty" of millions of illegal aliens bypassing the Congress.

07/30/2010: USCIS Considers Administrative Fixes As Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform

• Unofficial internal document of the USCIS, as released by ProRepublica, indicates that the USCIS is considering a wide range of alternatives to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform, should the Congress fail to pass the CIR legislation this year. We are currently, editing this confidential document, but readers may be able to get access to this document which has yet to be edited. Read on.

07/29/2010: Immigration Benefits and Naturalization Benefits Applications Statistics as of 06/30/2010

• The just released statistics reflect that both immigration and naturalization applications have steadily increased since March 2010. For the details, please review the following:
  • Immigration(nonimmigrant & immigrant proceedings) application statistics
  • Naturalization application statistics
  • Trend and monthly statistics of immigration and naturalization application statistics

07/29/2010: "Admission" Requirement for I-485 Eligibility and Important Board of Immigration Appeals Decision Handed Down Yesterday

• Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice, Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) handed down a rule that for the purposes of establishing eligibility for I-485, the law does not require the alien to be questioned by immigration authorities or be admitted in a particular status. In this case, a citizen of Mexico who entered the United States without a valid document as a passenger in a car being driven by her United States citizen friend. According to her testimony, the immigration inspector asked her friend (driver) whether he was an American citizen but did not ask her anything. The officer then waved the car through the port of entry. She five years later married a United States citizen and filed I-485 before immigration judge who denied the relief based on the decision that she was not "admitted" to the U.S. The BIA disagreed and overturned the decision and remand the case to the immigration judge. This decision is important in that similar situations have been taking place quite often in both the Northern border and Southern border. See Matter of Quilantan, 25 I&N Dec. 285 (BIA 2010), Interim Decision #3688 (BIA July 28, 2010).

07/28/2010: Federal Judge Susan Bolton Issued Preliminary Injunction Blocking Profiling Provision of Arizona Immigration

• The Arizona immigration law was scheduled to take effect tomorrow. The law itself will take effect as scheduled, but the controversial and politically volatile immigrant ethnic profiling provision will not take effect tomorrow because of the judge's preliminary injunction against this provision of the state statute. For the implication of the turn of this event, please stay tuned to this web site.

07/28/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 07/23/2010

• Beneficiaries Approved: 28,760
• Beneficiaries Pending: 1,880
• Total Count: 30,640

07/27/2010: USCIS Policy Review Results Report Released 07/26/2010

• USCIS has been actively engaging in review of policies in certain areas through collection of surveys online, public engagement sessions, and other medium. The report covers interesting statistics which are related to each of the areas they have been reviewing. Please read the following:
  • External Stakeholder Survey Data (in PDF)
  • External Stakeholder Survey Summary Graphs & Tables (in MS Excel)

07/27/2010: Incoming Questions & Answers Session Email Questions

• We have been receiving a volume of emails addressing some issues, seeking answers. Thank you for the questions. When people address a question relating to the AC 21, they should lay out at least the following three dates: Labor Certification Filing Date(Priority Date); I-140 Filing Date and EB Classification; and I-485 Filing Dates. Most of the questions, at least at this time, have been focusing on pending I-485 applications. We will also welcome nonimmigrant proceeding questions. We will reinstate the sessions as soon as the new site is technically prepared. Thank you.

07/27/2010: Recent Unreliability of USCIS 'My Case Status Check' and Email Notification Systems

• Lately, people must have experienced an annoying situation where my case status site and email notification system of the USCIS either reported none or "review" stage report and hard copy approval notices had been delivered in the mail. Even after receiving the hard copy notices, My Case Status site and Email Notification system showed no changes. This unreliability of the USCIS case status check system has frustrated and confused the consumers tremendously. Now, it has not been confirmed, but the USCIS is scheduling an Webinar public engagement session on 07/30/2010 to present to and hear from the stakeholders the USCIS site modification plans adding a new online inquiry tool, tailored case status information for My Case Status, and new features for Spanish-speaking customers. We hope that its status check site was unreliable as affected by the technical process to add the new features. It would have been nice, though, had the agency informed the public of such ongoing technical process and alerted its impact on the status site pending the system adjudstment. For the engagement session, please click here.

07/27/2010: USCIS Expands Fee Payment Methods

• USCIS has announced that effective 10/01/2010, they will no longer accept payment by cash in domestic field offices. Payment in cash may still be available in its international offices outside of the U.S. In domestic filings, payment by checks or money order, or credit cards such as Visa®, Mastercard®, American Express®, and Discover® Network will be acceptable. For the full text of this announcement, please click here.

07/26/2010: Please Stay Tuned for Our Return to the Questions and Answers Sessions

• Hope our readers stay in good health in this hot and steamy summer season. The year 2010 continuously places the immigration news at bay because of the persistent economic downturn and political landscape against the immigration and immigrants. It is not only Congress and White House that have remained totally in dormant state, but also the stakeholder agencies that have been shy in launching any actions to fix the broken immigration system at the administrative level. Under the political environment where the term "immigration" is taken as a "taboo," especially in the election year, the center of political power has shown timidity and nervousness.
• No one will expect to see any changes in such political environment within this year. Again, it is not just Comprehensive Immigration Reform, but also any move in the government which may continue to remain dorman throughout the year. Under the circumstances, the survival issues and strategies have been gaining importance, and the questions and issues within the existing legal system relating to the nuts and bolts need some answers, albeit not authoritative, to relieve the pains from our audience. For the reasons, this reporter has decided to reinstate our Questions and Answers sessions for our readers. Unlike the previous Q&A sessions, the new Questions and Answers session will include some updates with the immigration policies, practices, and laws and rules.
• Those who wish to send a question may use our office email of ohlaw@immigration-law.com. As was true in the past, people should not include any information in the questions that can relate to or identify any specific individual, particularly from their friends, colleagues, and other people around them. We may not be able to answer all the questions, but will try to accomodate any many issues as possible. In the email, people should clarify that the emails are related to the Q&A Sessions. Otherwise, their questions may be ignored.

07/26/2010: Latest H-1B Cap Counted on 07/23/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 26,000 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:11,300 (out of special cap of 20,000)

07/22/2010: Latest H-1B Cap Counted on 07/16/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 25,300 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:11,000 (out of special cap of 20,000)

07/22/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 07/16/2010

• Beneficiaries Approved: 28,539
• Beneficiaries Pending: 1,615
• Total Count: 30,154

07/20/2010: DOL Performance and Results of PERM and H-1B LCA Processing During January Thru March 2010

• This performance report indicates that there was one time a significant decrease in number of PERM cases which had been resolved in six months, but the OFLC has been working hard to increase the percentage of the cases resolved within six months and such reduction of processing times is likely to improve significantly from here on. There are a number of PERM applications that have lately been certified in a short period of time. For the full report, please click here.

07/15/2010: Latest Update of USCIS Processing Times 07/15/2010 for Service Centers, Local Offices, and National Benefits Center

• Today, the USCIS updated its processing times at all levels, including local district/field offices, four Service Centers, and National Benefits Centers as of May 31, 2010. As for the FY 2011 H-1B cap processing, it appears the agency is currently experiencing backlogs since April 2010 unlike this report shows (2 months). There are plenty of H-1B cap cases which were filed in April 2010 and are yet to be adjudicated. It is uncertain as to what causes such delays. Usually towards the end of fiscal year each year, the agency has been experiencing delays because they tend to schedule "file audits" freezing movement of the files in some cases. However, we have no information available about for the current delays. Please stay tuned.

07/15/2010: Change of Address and Potential Impact on Last Minute Adjudication of EB-485 Applications Whose Visa Numbers Become Available

• As people are aware, the USCIS has "preadjudicated" a large number of pending I-485 cases whose priority dates are close to the pace of the immigrant visa number availability in the Visa Bulletin and has been awaiting the visa number availability for the final decision. Generally, change of address to outside of the metropolitan area or different state is considered a red flag in the final adjudication process as the employment-based nonimmigrant status or intended place of employment is the "key" to the labor certification based immigration proceeding and labor certification remains valid only if the offered job in the place of employment continue to exist. From the perspective of the agency, one may move out of the intended place of employment either because of change of employment or loss of employment or other factors that contradicts to the inended place of employment for which a labor certification has been granted and the applicant is supposedly to work at the location once a green card is approved. Since the agency will not know why the address of residence has changed out of the intended place of employment metropolitan area or state, the last minute check can lead to issuance of RFE or in the worst cases, tranferring the file to a local district or field office for interview. Even if such move is justified in most of cases under AC 21, such RFE or transfer to local offices can cause delays in adjudication of the I-485 application. In some situation, while they deal with the RFE or local office interview scheduling, they can face the visa number retrogression. For this reason, those whose visa numbers are scheduled to become current in July and August 2010 may not want to move their place of residence out of the current metropolitan areas or the current states. Once they moved, they are required to report change of address in 10 days, knowingly failure of which can be considered a ground for deportation and denial of I-485 application. Accordingly, those who have already moved should file AR-11 within 10 days of move regardless of its impact on the final I-485 adjudication process. This reporter wants to remind the readers that place and "location" of employment is a key to the employment-based nonimmigrants and immigrants from the perspectives of U.S. immigration laws because the law is intended to protect U.S. labor market from unqualified or illegal immigrants and "wage" in each location constitutes a primary factor to determine the labor market and permit of a foreign worker to work in the market area at the prevailing wage or higher wage in the specific market area. Just a reminder.

0713/2010: Latest H-1B Cap Counted on 07/09/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 24,800 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:10,600 (out of special cap of 20,000)

07/13/2010: List of Witnesses to Testiby Before House Immigration Subcommittee Hearing Scheduled Tomorrow Morning on Immigration Reform Ethics Issues

• The list of witnesses:
  • Richard D. Land, Ph.D.
    President
    Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention
    Washington, DC
  • Gerald F. Kicanas, D.D.
    Bishop
    Archdiocese of Tucson, Arizona; and
    Vice-President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
    Tucson, AZ
  • Mathew D. Staver, J.D.
    Founder and Chairman
    Liberty Counsel; and
    Dean and Professor of Law
    Liberty University School of Law
    Lynchburg, PA
  • James R. Edwards, Jr., Ph.D.
    Fellow
    Center for Immigration Studies
    Washington, DC
• Their testimonies may be made available through the links. Unfortunately, the list of witnesses does not give any clue for the intent and purpose of this hearing. Please wait and see.

07/13/2010: PERM Processing Times as of 06/30/2010

• The following information comes from the official report of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification:
  • Analyst Review: 10/2009
  • Aduts: 06/2008
  • Standard Appeals: 01/2008
  • Government Error Appeals: Current
• The foregoing represents the average processing times. But lately, Atlanta National Processing Center has made a huge stride in improving processing time of PERM applications and there are some cases that have been certified in much shorter time frame than this official report. The OFLC intends to improve further processing times ahead. It is indeed a good news. On behalf of the readers, this reporter wants to send "big hats-off" to Dr. William Carlson, Chief of OFLC, other leaders, hard-working analysts and supporting staff of the OFLC!

07/12/2010: August 2010 Visa Bulletin

• India EB-2 moved to March 1, 2006!

07/12/2010: House Immigration Subcommitte Schedules a Hearing 07/14/2010 on "the Ethical Imperative for Reform of our Immigration System"

• The hearing is scheduled at 9:30 EST. The details have yet to be released, including witnesses to testify and the specific reform proposal behind the scheduled hearing. The Chairwoman, Zoe Lofgren, has been impatient lately with all the delays in the reform initiatives on the other side of the Hill. Please stay tuned to this website for the details of this hearing.

07/12/2010: Extension of Initial TPS Registration Period for Haitians Through 01/18/2011

• The current deadline which was set in the 01/21/2010 release is expected to expire on 07/20/2010. As it approaches the deadline, the USCIS has decided to extend the deadline to provide applicants more time to register for TPS until July 20, 2010. The USCIS publish this notice tomorrow in the federal register. Here is the advance copy.

07/10/2010: Employment-Based Piecemeal Employment-Based Immigration Reform Bill Introduced in the House on 07/01/2010

• Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona introduced 'SKILL Act of 2010' H.R.5658 in the House on July 1, 2010. This is a piecemeal immigration reform legislative bill from the Republican legislator in Arizona focusing solely on the employment-based immigration reform. The following list of the titles and sections of the proposed legislation speaks for itself. Under the circumstances of practical total failure of the Congress in enacting comprehensive immigration reform bill, this bill appears to propose reform of employment-based immigration system first. This bill has a slight chance to make it as a stand alone legislation under the current political landscape in mid-term national election year, but since the Congress is not likely to pass FY-2011 federal government appropriation legislation before the end of FY 2010, this type of bill is likely to attempt to be attached to a chain of federal departmental appropriation bills after the national election. As one can easily tell it, this bill is strongly supported by the businesses and the foreign worker immigrant community.
• The titles and sections of the bill are as follows:
  • SECTION 1. Short Title: Table of Contents
    Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
    TITLE I--Access to High Skilled Foreign Workers
  • SEC. 101. H-1B Visa Holders
    SEC. 102. Marked-Based Visa Limits
    TITLE II--Retaining Foreign Workers Educated in the United States
  • SEC. 201. U.S. Educated Immigrants
    SEC. 202. Immigrant Visa Backlog Reduction
    SEC. 203. Student Visa Reform
    SEC. 204. L-1 Visa Holders Subject to Visa Backlog
    SEC. 205. Retaining Workers Subject to Green Card Backlog
    TITLE III--Business Facilitation Through Immigration Reform
  • SEC. 301. Streamlining the Adjudication Process for Established Employers
    SEC. 302. Providing Premium Processing of Employment-Based Visa Petitions
    SEC. 303. Elimination Procedural Delays in Labor Certification Process
    TITLE IV--Miscellaneous
  • SEC. 401. Completion of Background and Security Checks
    SEC. 402. Visa RevalidationI
    SEC. 403. Severability
    SEC. 404. Constitutiional Authority
• One may call this bill as a foreign-worker Dream Act! Please read the full text.

07/10/2010: USCIS Questions & Answers and Information for Salavadoran TPS Registration and EAD Processing

• Q&A
• EAD Processing Procedures

07/09/2010: Federal Register Notice of Salvadoran TPS and EAD Extension

07/09/2010: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Processing Times of July 1, 2010

07/09/2010: USCIS Proposed Fee Adjustment Rule Comment Period Ends 07/16/2010

• The comment period for this proposed rule is scheduled to end on 07/16/2010. This fee adjustment rule-making is considered "economically significant" which usually bypasses the regular 30-90 days comment period requirement. Accordingly, the new fee binding rule is likely to be enacted not too long past from July 16, 2010. Beware.

07/08/2010: Extension of TPS Designation and Automatic Extension of EAD for Salvadorans

• This extension was cleared by the OMB at the same time that other two countries' (Hondurans and Nicaraguans) TPS extension notices way back, but somehow there has been delay for Salvadorans. This extension will be published in the federal register tomorrow.The notice will extend the TPS extension for 18 months from 09/10/2010 through 03/09/2012. New EADs with a 03/09/2012 expiration date will be issued to eligible TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and and apply for EADs.This Notice will also automatically extend the validity of existing EADs for six months through 03/09/2011. The 60-day re-registration period will begin from 07/09/2010 and will remain in effect until 60 days from tomorrow. For advance copy of this notice, please click here.

07/07/2010: Latest H-1B Cap Counted on 07/02/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 24,200 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:10,400 (out of special cap of 20,000)

07/07/2010: Increasing Number of States Adopting and Requiring E-Verify Program for Employers

• Over the period of time, the increased number of states have adopted the federal E-Verify program as the state requirment in varying forms. Employers should keep track of these ongoing changes at the state level. One of the good resources for tracking this information will be find in the link herein.

07/07/2010: Biometric Visa Program Changes at Visa Posts Effective 07/08/2010

• The State Department has decided to amend the current biometric visa program to require "ten" fingerprints and a photo image as biometric identifiers. Upto now, it has been collecting only two finger prints. The Biometric Visa Program is a partner program to the DHS US-VISIT Program that is in effect at U.S. ports of entry and that uses the same biometric identifiers. By coordinating these two programs, the two departments have ensured the integrity of the U.S. visa. This is accomplished by sending the fingerscans and photos of visa applicants to DHS databases. When a person to whom a visa has been issued arrives at a port of entry, his or her photo is retrieved from a database and projected on the computer screen of the Customs and Border Protection officer. The person's fingerscans are compared to the fingerscans in the database to ensure that the person presenting the visa is the same as the person to whom the visa was issued. Please stay tuned to this website for other details.

07/06/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 07/02/2010

• Beneficiaries Approved: 27,291
• Beneficiaries Pending: 1,583
• Total Count: 29,374

07/05/2010: Senate and House 2010 Published Schedules for the Rest of Year 2010

• This published schedules can change a lot depending on the decisions of the leaders of the House and the Senate, particularly between August and Sepatember. Depending on who wins, the schedules will change substantially between November and December 2010 since the 112th Congress with newly elected Senators and representatives of the House do not take office until January 2011. Beginning first part of August, all these members of the Senate and the House will be sent to their constituent districts and states for the reelection campaign and to support other candidates of their parties. One eye-view of this schedule vividly tells how much working times the Congress will have from today until the election in November or the end of December 2010!

07/05/2010: Visa Number Demand Data Which State Deppartment Used in the Determination of the July 2010 Employment Preference Cut-Off Dates

• This statistics of June 2, 2010 shows what were the total EB visa number available and EB visa demand for "Calendar Year" 2010 which led the Visa Office to determine the July 2010 Visa Bulletin (EB categories). August 2010 Visa Bulletin is anticipated to be released sometime after the government returns to work on 07/06/2010.
• The foregoing demand and available data reflect "calendar" year statistics that ends on 12/31/2010. However, the readers are reminded of the State Deparmtment prediction of probable cut-off dates by the end of "Fiscal" Year 2010 which ends on 09/30/2010. Before October 1, 2010, we have only two Visa Bulletins that will be released, including August and September Visa Bulletins. They predicted that by September 30, 2010, the EB visa cut-off dates "might" move to the following:
  • EB-2 India and China: 03/2006 or 04/2006
  • EB-3:
    • ROW: 06 through 09/2004
    • China: 10 through 12/2003
    • India: 02/2002
    • Mexico: Unavailale
    • Philipppines: 06 through 09/2004
• We will watch very closely the next two months Visa Bulletins as to how July visa demand would have affected this prediction during the period. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of immigrant visa numbers.

07/03/2010: Full Text of S. 3544, Visa Waiver Program Standard Change Bill of Senator Mikulski

• This bill which is titled as Visa Waiver Program Updated Framework and Enhanced Security Act of 2010 is proposed to tighten the stanadards for eligibility or removal of VWP membershiip designation to achieve increased control of illegal immigrants and security. Read on.

07/03/2010: Immigration Benefits and Naturalization Receipts and Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2010

• Immigration and Nonimmigrant Petitions and Applications
• Naturalization Applications
• Immigration Benefits and Naturalization Applications Statistics by Month

07/02/2010: Obama CIR Speech and Prospect for CIR Legislation

• The President and Hispanic leaders have apparently been under tremendous pressure from the Hispanic community and Mexico on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. The Obama speech appeared to be a by-product of such political pressure and a political statement. As for the legislative agenda for the 111th Congress, there is practically no room for the Congress to accomodate and complete this legislation before the end of December 31, 2010. The practical question on success of this legislation within this calendar year lies not with introduction of such CIR bill within the year but successful passage of the bill within the year. Implicitly, this has been admitted both by the Democrats and the Hispanic leaders. However, it does not translate into the conclusion that the Obama speech was meaningless and purely a political gimmick. There were numerous reports in the Washington political circles that the Democratic leaders were accepting early CIR legislative agenda for 112th Congress that will open in January 2011. In order to achieve such agenda, the CIR legislation momentum will have to be continuously built this year. In this regard, other than calculation of November election, the Democrats appear to be moving into a right direction. Question then remains: Whether this strategy can survive the November election. It thus translate into a more substantive question of whether the Democrats will be able to keep majority seats in both the Senate and the House after the election. Something to watch closely.

07/02/2010: The H-2A New Web-Based Tool, 'Public Job Registry' Integrated into iCERT Portal System, Accessible Effective 07/08/2010

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification announces that the new web-based for H-2A certification process has been fully integrated into the iCERT Portal Systemn which will be accessible to the public on 07/08/2010. Read the notice.
• The next question is whether and when the PERM program will be integrated into the iCERT Portal System. It may be a matter of time.

07/01/2010: President Obama CIR Speech Live at 10:45 a.m. White House

• Please watch. It is Eastern Standard Time.

07/01/2010: OFLC Online Wage Data for 07/2010-06/2011 Takes Effect Today

• The Foreign Labor Certification Data Center has released this new wage data for all PERM and temporary labor certification programs. This new data is effective 07/01/2010 and will remain in effect until 06/30/2011. Beware!!

07/01/2010: Senator Mikulski Introduces Visa Waiver Bill, S. 3544, to Improve Traveler Security

• This bill proposes accountability of the VWP countries for security by amending the current VWP requirement as follows:
  • Holds VWP countries accountable for behavior of citizens traveling in the U.S. by using non-immigrant VISA overstay rates as a metric for program admissions and participation. This replaces the current practice of using refusal rates which are influenced by factors that have no impact on U.S. security, law enforcement, or contribution to rates of illegal immigration.
  • Improves sharing of information on lost and stolen passports by requiring that all VWP countries have agreements in place to share information on lost and stolen passports within 180 days of passage and requiring the Department of Homeland Security to integrate databases on lost and stolen passport information into the Electronic System on Travel Authorization.
  • Enhances interagency cooperation on VISA waiver program security benefits by requiring DHS to make information on travelers who have overstayed their VISAs be available electronically to state and local law enforcement agencies and requiring DHS to maximize the usage of all available databases to compile overstay rates for VWP countries to maximize the integrity of the overall rate.
  • Takes steps to enhance oversight and accountability over VWP country compliance, such as simplifying existing annual reporting requirements for the VWP by combining all required reports into a single annual evaluation of the VWP. It also requires that DHS publish as part to its annual evaluation a report card on VWP country program compliance to include updated assessments for each participating VWP country.
• Stay tuned for the full text of the bill.

07/01/2010: New Form I-90 and Lock Box Filing, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card

• USCIS has announced that USCIS will accept previous versions of Form I-90 for 45 days, until July 28, 2010. After July 28, 2010, USCIS will reject all previous versions of Form I-90 and will return incorrect applications with a note instructing applicants to refile using the correct version of the form. The application by mail should be filed at a USCIS Lockbox facility in Phoenix, AZ. Please read announcement.

06/30/2010: Tomorrow is July 1st, and Best Wishes to Certain EB-2 Indian Immigrants With Their Visa Numbers Becoming Current Under July 2010 Visa Bulletin

• This reporter just wants to extend his best wishes for these professional immigrants who are about to reap the harvest for their long and difficult immigration journeys. Bright Sun will rise over the horizon with the dawn of their freedom.

06/30/2010: State Department Cable on Human Rights Related Ineligibilities for Visas

• This cable is issued to the visa posts to instruct that the United States understands that respect for human rights helps secure peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent humanitarian crises. Because the promotion of human rights is an important national interest, the United States seeks to promote greater respect for human rights, including freedom from torture, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, women's rights, children's rights, and the protection of minorities. The United States also seeks to ensure that individuals who have violated or abused human rights do not get safe haven in the United States. To this end, this cable outlines the various visa ineligibilities that are related to human rights violations and abuses. This cable also includes instructions for entering the names of suspected human rights violators and abusers into the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS). Read on.

06/30/2010: State Department Revised Technical Instructions for Physical, Mental or Substance Related Disorders and FAM Updates

• The CDC has updated the Technical Instructions for Physical or Mental Disorders with Associated Harmful Behavior and Substance Related Disorders (2010 MH TIs). These changes are effective June 1, 2010 and supersede all previous guidance on physical or mental disorders and substance related disorders. The major revisions in the 2010 MH TIs include changes to the methods of diagnosis of mental disorders and substance-related disorders, the definition and determination of remission, and the alcohol abuse evaluation. This cable includes updates to 9 FAM resulting from this change to the Technical Instructions. For the full text of the cable to visa posts, click here.

06/30/2010: State Department Cables to Posts for Changes to Processing of Applications for Returning Resident Status (SB-1 Visa)

• The cable advises that even visa posts not handling IV should not reject SB-1 visa applications and conduct interview for the visa processing. For other details, please read the cable.

06/30/2010: State Department Updates 9 FAM for L Visa Annotation

• The update instructs that posts may annotate blanket L visas with the name of the actual employer on the I-129S even if that subsidiary or affiliate employer name is not in PIMS. This clarification is being made because recently some blanket L visas were annotated with the name of the parent company and not the actual employer.
• 9 FAM 41.54 N14.6 Issuing L Visa Under Blanket Petition Procedure: You may grant L classification only in clearly approvable applications. Annotate the visa with "Blanket L]1" for the principal alien and "Blanket L-2" for any derivative spouse or child. The annotation should also state the name of the company or subsidiary that the applicant will be primarily working for, even though the subsidiary as named on Form I-129S (Nonimmigrant Petition Based on Blanket L Petition), may or may not be the company named in PIMS. You should also endorse all copies of the alien's Form I-129S, retain one copy, and return the original and other copy to the applicant. At the POE, DHS will stamp the original and copy of Form I-129S to show a validity period not to exceed three years and send the copy to the appropriate DHS Regional Service Center for control purposes.

06/30/2010: State Department Cable to Visa Posts on Biometric Signature and Affirmation of DS-160 NIV Application

• According to this cable, effective immediately, DS-160 posts must A), take the applicant's fingerprints (either 10 prints or single print verification) immediately preceeding the interview and not at the conclusion of the interview and, B), clearly post the statement below at either i) the point where an applicant's fingerprints are verified (LES/ODC collection, officer verification posts), or ii) the point at which the ten-digit fingerprint scan is collected (EFM collection posts). Text follows:
  "By submitting my fingerprint, I am certifying under penalty of perjury that I have read and understood the questions in my visa application and that all statements that appear in my visa application have been made by me and are true and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Furthermore, I certify under penalty of perjury that I will tell the truth during my interview and that all statements made by me during my interview will be complete to the best of my ability."

06/30/2010: Ombudsman 2010 Annual Report to the Congress, 06/30/2010

• This is a very voluminous document in excess of 144 pages. In the Report, the Ombudsman presented 20 Recommendations for the USCIS. Good long holiday weekend reading material.

06/30/2010: USCIS Notice on Issuance of Multiple Appointment Notices in Error

• USCIS Notice: If you received more than one appointment notice for the same application/petition, please disregard any duplicates. Our system sent extra notices in error.

06/30/2010: Obama Scheduling CIR Speech Tomorrow

• Report indicates that President Obama is scheduled to make a speech on Comprehensive Immigration Reform tomorrow. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not scheduled to take up on the Senate floor the Wall Street reform bill which the Houss has just passed today until after the 4th of July holidays. It is uncertain how this speech will make a difference for the fate of CIR when the legistrators are so obsessed with the November election and practically there is no time for CIR initiatives in the Congress. Please stay tuned.

06/30/2010: Foreign Labor Certification Data Center Announcement

• For site update, the Foreign Labor Certification Online Data Cneter will be unavailable today from 11:00 to 11:30 Montain Standard Time. The new wage data valid from 07/01/2010 to 06/30/2011 is assumedly scheduled to take effect from July 1, 2010. The ICERT Center was irregularly on and off today.

06/29/2010: Latest H-1B Cap as Counted on 06/25/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 23,500 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap:10,000 (out of special cap of 20,000)

06/29/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 06/25/2010

• Beneficiaries Approved: 27,290
• Beneficiaries Pending: 1,451
• Total Count: 28,741

06/28/2010: Scheduled Release of Updated OES Wage (Online Wage Data) for Foreign Labor Certification on July 1, 2010

• The DOL determination of prevailing wage forms the basis for foreign labor certification applications for temporary worker petition proceedings or permanent (PERM) proceedings. Any filing that uses invalid govenment prevailing wage data will face a painful denial of such application after wasting a huge amount of time. According to the Office of Foreign Labor Certification, the validity of a prevailing wage data is not determined by the date of filing of the prevailing wage determination by the employers but by the date of determination of the prevailing wage by the Office of Foreign Labor Certification. Currently, prevailing wage determination using ETA 9141 takes as long as 60 days for the permanent labor certification proceedings and temporary labor certification proceedings. This means that the current online wage data may be considered invalid for these applicants and any action undertaken relying on the current OES wage data may potentially face a serious problem down the road. In H-1B proceeding, the employers may face a problem if they file LCA and initial application is denied on federal employer identification number issue. Since it is likely that the decision may not come until after July 1, 2010, should the employer refiles the LCA based on the same notice previously posted based on or using previous online wage data, the new filing is likely to face denial again for using invalid wage database. Beware!

06/28/2010: Reminder - The Fourth of July and Federal Office Closure

• Under the federal personnel rules, when a national holiday falls on Saturday, the Friday immediately preceding the national holiday Saturday becomes a federal holiday, and when a national holiday falls on Sunday, the Monday immediately following the national holiday Sunday becomes a federal holiday. This year, the nation's biggest holiday which is most celebrated, the Fourth of July, falls on Sunday and most federal offices will be closed on Monday, the July 5th. Accordingly those who need any documents filed or served by July 5th should ship it out via commercial overnight on July 1, 2010 Thursday at the latest. Otherwise, they may miss the deadline.

06/25/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Announces State Minimum Wage Changes for 2010

• Alaska: $7.25/hr to $7.75/hr effective 01/01/2010
• Colorado: $7.28/hr top $7.24/hr(typo?) effective 01/01/2010
• Illinois: $8.00/hr to $8.24/hr effective 07/01/2010

06/25/2010: Latest H-1B Cap as Counted on 06/18/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular cap: 22,900 (out of total annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master degree cap: 9,700 (out of special cap of 20,000)

06/25/2010: New Consular and Visa Services Fees to Take Effect 07/13/2010

• After going through the "proposed" rule making process, the State Department has finalized the new few schedules which will be published in the federal register next Monday, 06/28/2010. This is a final interim rule which is "binding" effective 15 days from June 28, 2010. For the new fee schedule in the binding final interim rule, reader may go to pdf page 40 of the advance copy of this rule.

06/25/2010: Standards and Defnition of Metropolitan Statiscal Area Affecting Employment-Based Immigration Practice

• In employment-based nonimmigrant visas and immigration processes, the standards for prevailing wage determination are critically important in that the identical prevailing wage which is required for certain foreign workers applies to all the cities, villages, and couties or other local entities for a given metropolitan area and for the reasons change of work site for the same employer as affected by the employer's relocation within the metropolitan statistical area is not a 'material' change under the immigration regulation and does not affect the nonimmigrant's current employment-based nonimmigrant status and approved labor certification or immigrant petitions, even though the rules require either report of the change of address for the employer when extension of their nonimmigrant status is filed with the same employer or amendment of the approved I-140 petition. Additionally, some outlying areas can be included or excluded in the metropolitan statistical area depending on the standard and definition of the metropolitan area or metropolitan statistical area. In 2009, a committee published in the federal register its recommendation for the new standards of metropolitan area and metropolitan statistical area of 2010 to change the decade-old standards of 2000. After a careful study and consideration of the comments which had been received, the White House OMB has finally decided to accept the recommendation as the new standards for determination of metropolitan statistical areas. This determination will be published on Monday, 06/28/2010. Considering its impact on the employment-based immigration practices, practitioners, employers, and foreign workers may review this new standards which are incorporated in the 2009 federal register notice. Readers may revisit our report in 2009 to review the 2009 recommendation. For the OMB decision, please click here.

06/21/2010: House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Oversight Hearing on EOIR

• Last Thursday, 06/17/2010, the Subcommittee had a hearing on Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) of U.S. Department of Justice. EOIR is the agency that manages the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Immigration Courts. Lately, the growing backlog of the immigration court calendars hit the news. For the testimonies of witnesses and hearing video, please click here.
• One of the testimonies reflects that case backlogs have grown by 23% in the last eighteen months and a staggering 82% over the last ten years. The docket strain on judges is overwhelming: in FY 2009, it is estimated that about 229 Immigration Judges were responsible for completing over 350,000 matters during the fiscal year, which averages more than 1500 completions per judge per year. As political environment has constantly and increasingly focused on enforcement, the court dockets have turned fat and crowded. In parallel, immigration defense loads have been steadily mounting in the immigration law communities. Unless a political environment changes, which is not likely, this trend may continue.

06/21/2010: H-2B Cap Count as of 06/18/2010

• Beneficiaries Approved: 26,819
• Beneficiaries Pending: 1,669
• Total Count: 28,488

06/18/2010: Advice for Immigration Customers

• This reporter has posted this message numerous times advising applicants not to staple documents. Stapled documents are creating a problem for the agencies and their own legal representatives since the agencies will have to make a massive scaning or copying of the documents and the lawyers offices must also use auto-feeding copy machines to make copies. Stapling requires not only the pains of removing staples to make copies but even after removal of staples, the papers can be jammed in auto-feeding machines. The agencies and lawyers realize that they try to be nice to organize the papers better and present better to the lawyers' offices or agencies, but probably to their total shocks and surprises, such kindness can create a problem for the lawyers and the agencies. PLEASE DO NOT STAPLE!!!

06/18/2010: Aches and Pains Accompanying Government Filing Procedure Changes

• The USCIS is currently undertaking preliminary steps of transforming application and petition filing and adjudication process by converting current one-step paper filing procedure to bifurcation of paper filing and adjudication procedure using Lockboxes in Texas and Arizona. As is true with any organizational changes, such changes are expected to produce aches and pains, albeit temporarily, to the customers. Apparently Lockboxes are manned by private contractors and operating under the supervision of experienced USCIS officers after a short period of training, but even the front-end process involving handling of applications and petitions of receipting, data entry, and other front-end process requires certain level of understanding and knowledge of the immigration managment. There are some reports that at this stage, these private contractor workers have training problems causing delays in the front-end process and errors and mistakes in producing receipts. There are numerous reports by the attorneys that in represented EAD and Advance Parole application cases, the receipt notices are mailed to the clients. Since legal representatives must ensure that a case is properly "filed" and it is evidenced by the receipt notice, such errors have been producing a lot of pains and aches to the lawyers. As for the frontlog, everyone knows by now that when a case is filed through the Lockboxes, there are substantial delays in receiving the receipt notices by the applicants or their legal representatives. Considering the fact that currently there are only a limited number of applications and petitions that are required to be filed through Lockboxes but gradually and eventually most of the petitions or applications are expected to be filed through the Lockboxes sooner or later, we hope that the agency manages and supervises the private contractors at enhanced level with added training such that such transition does not produce unnecessary pains and aches to the customers to the accompanying embarassment to the USCIS leaders.

06/18/2010: USCIS Executive Summary of its Field Office Operation Stakeholder Meeting Discussions

• On May 25, 2010, the USCIS had a public engagement meeting on the subject matter which was opened to the public and stakeholders. On June 14, 2010, the agency posted its executive summary of the discussions at the meeting which will help those who missed the meeting either in person or by telephone. This Executive Summary notes, among others, that generally N-400 naturalization takes five (5) months and I-485 takes 4.2 months. Readers are reminded that the Field Office is in charge of local district and field offices of the USCIS in 50 or so different states and these time frame represents overall average which cannot be translated into determination of the time frame in any specific local office. I-485 processing times in this discussion generally represent local offices' processing times aside from the employment-based I-485 applications which are processed at the level of Service Centers. Coincidentally, it appears that I-485 processing times at the local level and Service Center level are close each other. Please read the full text of the Executive Summary.

06/17/2010: White House Reportedly Says Energy Bill the Top Legislative Priority This Summer

• Report indicates that the President's main focus will shift to working toward a comprehsnsive energy bill once the Congress finishes up work on Wall Street reform, a process that is expected to conclude this month. We predicted earlier that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would affect the Obama priority see-saw game between energy bill and CIR for the rest of this year. This report confirms that the energy legislation turns out to be a winner and the CIR turning a lamb.

06/17/2010: State Department Announces New Policy on Gender Change in Passports

• Beginning June 10, 2010, the Department has been issuing a passport reflecting new gender if the passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition. It is also possible to obtain a limited-validity passport if the physician's statement shows the applicant is in the process of gender transition. No additional medical records are required and sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance. Read on.

06/16/2010: Nebraska Service Center and Texas Service Center I-485 Processing Volume as of 04/30/2010 Which Was Just Updated by USCIS

• 	NSC	TSC
  All Other Pending	20,253	23,409
  Preadjudicated/Awaiting Visa Numbers	94,957	85,051
  Awaiting Customer Action	4,778	2,262
  Completions	10,511	6,009
  Receipts	10,733	6,950

  * I-485 for NSC appears to be larger in volume because of refugree I-485 volumes. It is interesting to note that they complete almost same volume of cases with the new receipts per month. Awaiting customer actions may include mostly RFE, NOID, etc. All Other Pending cases may represent backlogs. One can easily notice a large volume of I-485s have already been preadjudicated and these two Service Centers have been waiting for the visa numbers, which include the new visa numbers which will become available for EB-2 India in July 2010 Visa Bulletin. One could also note that RFEs, NOIDs that need resolution are not that large in volume. These two statistics may reflect that most of the July 2010 visa bullen EB-2 Indian cases have already been preadjudicated awaiting the visa number.s
• For the full text of USCIS national and local processing volumes and trends, please click here.

06/16/2010: USCIS Updates Today Processing Times

• Today, USCIS updated its field offices (Service Centers and local district offices) processing times as of the end of April 2010. NSC I-140 and EB-485 processing times were 4 (four) months only across the board, and for the TSC, I-140 processing times were 4 (four) months as well and EB-485 processing times were 12/19/2009. For the nonimmigrant proceeding sides, both CSC and VSC were processing H-1B in two months and other nonimmigrant proceedings took even less time. Way to go, USCIS!! For the full reports, please visit our home page.

06/13/2010: India EB-2 July 2010 Bulletin and Pending EB-485 Applications

• One of our clients has added up all the pending EB-485 applications with priority dates through October 2005 for India. The number appears to be 8,121 as of May 18, 2010, the latest date of inventory count by the USCIS. Considering the fact that supposedly, 8,121 applications were filed on all different dates through 2010, most of the cases which were filed at least before the current processing times of Nebraska Service Center and Texas Service Center may have a good chance to get adjudication in July 2010 or soon after July 2010. Both the Nebraska Service Center and Texas Service Center statistics reflect that most of EB-485 had been adjudicated by the end of March 2010 and had been waiting for visa number becoming current. Besides, when we check the NSC EB-485 processing times, at the end of March 2010, they were processing July 10, 2009 or earlier receipt date cases (not priority dates), and the TSC was processing the same for October 2009 or earlier receipt date cases (not priority dates). The foregoing figures give some hope for the EB-2 Indian I-485 waiters to see resolution of their cases after June 2010, especially those cases which were filed during the July 2007 Visa Bulletin fiasco period. One should consider both their priority dates and the processing times of their Service Centers to figure out the level of chances of getting earlier approval. This reporter wants to cross his fingers for these patient waiters.
• However, there can be some contingencies including addtiional update processing for some of these cases as a result of additional name checks and other follow-up proceedings. For the reasons, people should not take it granted for the potential approval of their cases during the period. It means that they should not neglect udating their EAD, AP, and H-1 or L-1 nonimmigrant status beyond the period against potential contingencies, if any. They should not attempt to save some processing expenses for these ancillary applications or nonimmigrant status at the cost of a potential delay in adjudication of their EB-485 applications and risk of denial for failure to maintain eligibility of I-485 applications.

06/13/2010: Characteristics of H-1B Foreign Workers in FY 2009 (10/01/2008-09/30/2009) and Changes Over the Years Since FY 2005

• We have heard a lot about decrease of H-1B workers for the last two years from the USCIS relating to its funding shortfall problem. Slow down of the H-1B foreign worker flows has also been evidenced by the pace of FY 2009 and FY 2010 H-1B cap filings. Obviously it was affected by the country's economic down-turn. However, some other factors could have also affected the process, including the country's growing restrictions and denials of H-1B petitions, competition for professional foreign workers from other countries, particularly Europe and Canada, and reduced incentive to emigrate to other countries from primary sources of professional foreign workers owing to the growth of their own countries' economy, outsourcing, resulting increased job opportunities, and increased level of compensation for these worker in their countries. Obviously, this is most evident for the foregin professional workers in India. Readers may find these statistics very interesting and telling.

06/12/2010: State Department Policy and Advice on Certain Expatriating Acts Leading to Possible Loss of U.S. Citizenship and Dual Nationality

• Most of future and current nonimmigrants and immigrants will eventually consider naturalization (citizenship) to the United States. Besides there are millions of naturalized U.S. citizens who reside in the United States. There are certain acts of such naturalized U.S. citizens that constitute potentially expatriating acts that can potentially lead to loss of their U.S. citizenship or their dual nationality status. It is thus critically important that all current and future naturalized U.S. citizens have some level of understanding on the law and policy on the subject in order not to face situation of potential loss of their U.S. citizenship or dual nationality privilege. The issue is gaining importance because of the world changing into a global society and mobility of population and citizens between their mother land and newly adopted home country has been growing very rapidly. The State Department advice should give some basic guidance for these current and future naturalized U.S. citizens.
• What Constitutes Potentially Expatriating Acts? The law provides that U.S. citizens are subject to loss of citizenship if they perform certain specified acts voluntarily and with the intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship. Briefly stated, these acts include:
  • (1) Obtaining naturalization in a foreign state;
  • (2) Taking an oath, affirmation or other formal declaration to a foreign state or its political subdivisions;
  • (3) Entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or serving as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the armed forces of a foreign state;
  • (4) Accepting employment with a foreign government if (a) one has the nationality of that foreign state or (b) an oath or declaration of allegiance is required in accepting the position;
  • (5) Formally renouncing U.S. citizenship before a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer outside the United States;
  • (6) Formally renouncing U.S. citizenship within the U.S. (but only under strict, narrow statutory conditions);
  • (7) Conviction for an act of treason.
• The Tests and Presumptions: The actions listed above can cause loss of U.S. citizenship only if performed voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship. The State Department has a uniform administrative standard of evidence based on the presumption that U.S. citizens intend to retain United States citizenship when they obtain naturalization in a foreign state, subscribe to a declaration of allegiance to a foreign state, serve in the armed forces of a foreign state not engaged in hostilities with the United States, or accept non-policy level employment with a foreign government.
• The Acts That Enjoy the Presumption of Intent of Retention of U.S. Cizenship and Acts That Can Override the Presumption: In light of the foregoing presumptions a person who:
  • is naturalized in a foreign country;
  • takes a routine oath of allegiance to a foreign state;
  • serves in the armed forces of a foreign state not engaged in hostilities with the United States, or
  • accepts non-policy level employment with a foreign government, and
  • in so doing wishes to retain U.S. citizenship need not submit prior to the commission of a potentially expatriating act a statement or evidence of his or her intent to retain U.S. citizenship since such an intent will be presumed.
  • Accordingly, as the result of an individual's inquiry or an individual's application for registration or a passport it comes to the attention of a U.S. consular officer that a U.S. citizen has performed an act made potentially expatriating by an act that falls under foregoing (1), (2), (3) or (4) as described above, the consular officer will simply ask the applicant if there was intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship when performing the act. If the answer is no, the consular officer will certify that it was not the person's intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship and, consequently, find that the person has retained U.S. citizenship. If the answer to the question regarding intent to relinquish citizenship is yes , the person concerned will be asked to complete a questionnaire to ascertain his or her intent toward U.S. citizenship. When the questionnaire is completed and the voluntary relinquishment statement is signed by the expatriate, the consular officer will proceed to prepare a certificate of loss of nationality. The certificate will be forwarded to the Department of State for consideration and, if appropriate, approval. Additionally, an individual who has performed any of the acts made potentially expatriating by statute who wishes to lose U.S. citizenship may do so by affirming in writing to a U.S. consular officer that the act was performed with an intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship. Of course, a person always has the option of seeking to formally renounce U.S. citizenship abroad in accordance with Section 349 (a) (5) INA.
• The Acts That Do Not Enjoy the Presumption of Intent of Retention of U.S. Citizenship or Dual Nationality: The presumption does not apply to the following acts:
  • Formally renounces U.S. citizenship before a consular officer;
  • Serves in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities with the United States;
  • Takes a policy level position in a foreign state;
  • Is convicted of treason; or
  • Performs an act made potentially expatriating by statute accompanied by conduct which is so inconsistent with retention of U.S. citizenship that it compels a conclusion that the individual intended to relinquish U.S. citizenship. (Such cases are very rare).
  • The fact that these acts do not enjoy the presumption means that the burden of proof of retention of the citizenship swifts to the U.S. citrizens, in which case the consular officers will still assess evidence carefully to ascertain the individual's intent toward U.S. citizenship.
• For the full details of the guidance, please click here.
• Caveat: The foregoing is the State Department policy and practice. For the USCIS policy and guiadance for the same, people should seek legal counsel before their acts and should not rely on this posting.

06/11/2010: USCIS Proposed Fee Schedule as Published in Federal Register 06/11/2010

• The comment period ends in 45 days from the publication which is July 16, 2010. Readers may also review the following releases of the USCIS:
  • Fact Sheet: Gives eye-view of comparison of current and proposed fee schedules
  • Q&A
  • Transcript of News Conference

06/10/2010: OFLC Updates PERM Processing Times as of 05/31/2010

• Processing times as of 05/31/2010:
  • Analyst Reviews: 08/2009
  • Audits: 05/2008
  • Standard Appeals: 12/2007
  • Gov't Error Appeals: Current
• OFLC Notes: "OFLC has initiated an intensive effort to reduce the Permanent Labor Certification Program's pending caseload. Our goal for FY 2010 is to reduce the backlog by 50%. We are on schedule, and we will continue this effort as part of our larger Departmental commitment to customer service. The dates posted on iCERT above reflect the month and year in which cases were filed that are now being adjudicated at the Atlanta National Processing Center. For various reasons, we may be completing the processing of applications filed prior to the month posted on iCERT. If your application was filed more than 3 months prior to the month posted, you may contact our Helpdesk for a status on the application at plc.atlanta@dol.gov."

06/10/2010: July 2010 Visa Bulletin

• EB-2 India moves to October 1, 2005.
• Predictions:
  • Based on current indications of demand, the best case scenarios for cut-off dates which will be reached by the end of FY-2010 (09/30/2010) are as follows:
  • EB-1: Current
  • EB-2 for China: March or April 2006
  • EB-2 for India: March or April 2006
  • EB-3:
    • Worldwide: June through September 2004
    • China: October through December 2003
    • India: February 2002
    • Mexico: Unavailable
    • Philippines: June through September 2004
  • EB-4: Worldwide: It may be necessary to establish a cut-off date for September.
  • EB-5: Current
  • Please be advised that the above date ranges are only estimates which are subject to fluctuations in demand. Continued heavy demand during recent months has reduced the estimated forward movements projected earlier in the year. It is possible that some annual limits could be reached or that some preferences could retrogress prior to the end of the fiscal year. Those categories with a “Current” projection will remain so for the foreseeable future.

06/10/2010: DV-2011 Immigration Lottery Results

AFRICA
ALGERIA 1,753
ANGOLA 55
BENIN 508
BOTSWANA 13
BURKINA FASO 183
BURUNDI 72
CAMEROON 3,674
CAPE VERDE 26
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 18
CHAD 59
COMOROS 7
CONGO 144
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF THE 2,575
COTE D’IVOIRE 759
DJIBOUTI 45
EGYPT 4,251
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 13
ERITREA 851
ETHIOPIA 5,200
GABON 41
GAMBIA, THE 72
GHANA 6,002
GUINEA 701
GUINEA-BISSAU 5
KENYA 4,689
LESOTHO 11
LIBERIA 1,826
LIBYA 114
MADAGASCAR 55
MALAWI 33
MALI 88
MAURITANIA 25
MAURITIUS 61
MOROCCO 2,003
MOZAMBIQUE 2
NAMIBIA 13
NIGER 89
NIGERIA 6,000
RWANDA 204
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0
SENEGAL 427
SEYCHELLES 4
SIERRA LEONE 3,911
SOMALIA 201
SOUTH AFRICA 963
SUDAN 1,156
SWAZILAND 4
TANZANIA 174
TOGO 1,011
TUNISIA 132
UGANDA 490
WESTERN SAHARA 0
ZAMBIA 128
ZIMBABWE 163

ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 97
BAHRAIN 15
BANGLADESH 5,999
BHUTAN 5
BRUNEI 5
BURMA 367
CAMBODIA 434
HONG KONG SPECIAL
ADMIN. REGION 43
INDONESIA 205
IRAN 2,819 IRAQ 147
ISRAEL 129
JAPAN 298
JORDAN 136
NORTH KOREA 2
KUWAIT 88
LAOS 3
LEBANON 214
MALAYSIA 133
MALDIVES 4
MONGOLIA 279
NEPAL 2,189
OMAN 3
QATAR 9
SAUDI ARABIA 91
SINGAPORE 35
SRI LANKA 515
SYRIA 132
TAIWAN 365
THAILAND 77
TIMOR-LESTE 0
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 66
YEMEN 95

EUROPE
ALBANIA 1,469
ANDORRA 0
ARMENIA 1,268
AUSTRIA 147
AZERBAIJAN 355
BELARUS 1,104
BELGIUM 94
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 67
BULGARIA 950
CROATIA 97
CYPRUS 11
CZECH REPUBLIC 111
DENMARK 66
Greenland 1
ESTONIA 72
FINLAND 87
FRANCE 767
French Guiana 0
French Polynesia 13
French Southern &
Antarctic Lands 1
Guadeloupe 0
Martinique 0
New Caledonia 9
Reunion 0
St. Pierre & Miquelon 0
GEORGIA 699
GERMANY 1,895
GREECE 62
HUNGARY 272
ICELAND 48
IRELAND 201
ITALY 450
KAZAKHSTAN 370
KOSOVO 134
KYRGYZSTAN 196
LATVIA 122
LIECHTENSTEIN 1
LITHUANIA 262
LUXEMBOURG 3
MACEDONIA 263
MALTA 1
MOLDOVA 894
MONACO 0
MONTENEGRO 5
NETHERLANDS 139
Aruba 6
Netherlands
Antilles 16
NORTHERN IRELAND 38
NORWAY 66
PORTUGAL 61
Macau Special Admin.
Region 5
ROMANIA 821
RUSSIA 2,464
SAN MARINO 0
SERBIA 327
SLOVAKIA 125
SLOVENIA 14
SPAIN 219
SWEDEN 187
SWITZERLAND 195
TAJIKISTAN 257
TURKEY 2,266
TURKMENISTAN 135
UKRAINE 6,000
UZBEKISTAN 5,091
VATICAN CITY 0


NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE 18


OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 683
Christmas Island 0
Cocos Islands 0
FIJI 476
KIRIBATI 9
MARSHALL ISLANDS 6
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 0
NAURU 7
NEW ZEALAND 333
Cook Islands 0
Niue 8
PALAU 2
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 4 SAMOA 0
SOLOMON ISLANDS 3
TONGA 51
TUVALU 4
VANUATU 1
WESTERN SAMOA 13


SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 1
ARGENTINA 134
BARBADOS 12
BELIZE 12
BOLIVIA 90
CHILE 63
COSTA RICA 50
CUBA 406
DOMINICA 29
GRENADA 5
GUYANA 36
HONDURAS 61
NICARAGUA 74
PANAMA 31
PARAGUAY 14
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 6 SAINT LUCIA 27
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 21
SURINAME 9
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 145
URUGUAY 23
VENEZUELA 752

06/10/2010: USCIS "Draft" Policy Memorandum for Comment on Uniform Denial/Revocation Language Pertaining to Appeals to the BIA

• As part of overall policy review and revision process, the USCIS has relieased the subject draft policy memorandum seeking comments and feed-backs. The uniform language will advise to the petitioner whose immigrant petitions are denied that the form EOIR-29 Notice of Appeal and all required documents including fee must be filed "within 30 days" from the "date of decision." Such Notice must be "received" by the field office that denied the petition within 30 days from the date of denial. This is a draft without any legal force or effect until the final version of the memorandum is redrafted and published in the future.
• In the denial of nonimmigrant petitions, the draft memorandum proposes identical uniform language changing appellate body from BIA to AAO. In the revocation of nonimmigrant petitions, a petitioner has only "15" days to appeal the decision under the proposed Uniform lanauge.

06/09/2010: USCIS Proposed Fee Adjustment Rule

• Proposed New Fees by Immigration Benefit Applications
  • I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card: $365
  • I-102 Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival-Departure Document: $330
  • I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker $325
  • I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) $340
    I-130 Petition for Alien Relative $420
    I-131 Application for Travel Document: $360
    I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker: $580
    I-290B Notice of Appeal or Motion: $630
    I-360 Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant: $405
    I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status: $985
    I-526 Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur: $1,500
    I-539 Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status: $290
    I-600/600A, I-800/800A Orphan Petitions: $720
    I-687 Application for Status as a Temporary Resident: $1,130
    I-690 Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility: $200
    I-694 Notice of Appeal of Decision: $755
    I-698 Application to Adjust Status From Temporary to Permanent Resident: $1,020
    I-751 Petition to Remove the Conditions of Residence: $505
    I-765 Application for Employment Authorization: $380
    I-817 Application for Family Unity Benefits: $435
    I-824 Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition: $405
    I-829 Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions: $3,750
    Civil Surgeon Designation Registration: $615
    I-924 Application for Regional Center under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program: $6,230
    N-300 Application to File Declaration of Intention: $250
    N-336 Request for Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization Proceedings: $650
    N-400 Application for Naturalization: $595
    N-470 Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes: $330
    N-565 Application for Replacement Naturalization/Citizenship Document: $345
    N-600/N-600K Applications for Certificate of Citizenship: $600
    Waiver Forms (I-191, I-192, I-193, I-212, I-601, I-612): $585
    Immigrant Visas: $165
    Biometric Services: $85
• The proposed fee adjustment is surprisingly modest in most heavily used benefit applications. This proposed rule will be published Friday, 06/11/2010 in the federal register.

06/09/2010: H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum in Lawsuit

• AILA has reported that a national law firm filed a suit against the USCIS yesterday in the federal district court in Washington, D.C. seeking preliminary injunction, among others, challenging the controversial memorandum, in Broadgate, Inc., et al v. USCIS, Case number 1;10cv00941. This Memorandum has been under review by the USCIS Director Mayorkas, but result of the review has been slow to come. It is likely that eventually this lawsuit may be settled down the road. Please stay tuned for development of this litigation.

06/05/2010: Employment-Based I-485 Inventory as of 05/27/2010

• USCIS releases latest statistics of pending EB-485 application inventory as of Mary 27, 2010. It also gives previous statistics that will allow the immigrants to analyze how the pending employment-based 485 application inventory has changed over the period of time.

06/04/2010: USCIS Fee Increase Proposed Rule Clears White House OMB Approval

• This proposed rule was considered economically significant rule and the OMB cleared it within less than 30 days pursuant to the OMB clearance executive order. Once the OMB cleared it, the USCIS will be ready to publish it in the federal register with the comment period of 30 days or 60 days. Considering the comments which they will receive in response to the published proposed rule, the agency will draft and again seek the OMB approval for its interim or final rule for publication in the federal register to implement the fee increase rule. Accordingly, the changes to current immigration filing fees are not going to take place at least for a few months, but it is likely that the fee increase will be in effect within this year, probably as early as this fall. The fee increase rule is expected to encompass certain procedural changes with the current immigrant and nonimmigral benefits application filing and processing. One of the procedural changes that has received a wide attention involves potential issuance of single card for EAD and Advance Parole for I-485 applicants which is likely announced before the end of the year. Please stay tuned.

06/03/2010: House Passed on 05/28/2010 a Bill H.R. 5116 Which Includes U.S. STEM Advance Degree Immigration Recommendation

• Last Friday, the House passed a bill "The America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010." This bill included an immigration provision which was sponsored by Re. Jeff Flake of Arizona by H.Amdt. 650 79. This provision recommended retaining of graduate-level talent trained at American universities in STEM fields for enhancing the competitiveness of American businesses. This legislation received a strong bi-partisan support. Please stay tuned to this website for further information and development of this legislative bill in the Senate. The Senate is currently on recess and will return on June 7, 2010, Monday. There is no information available about the Senate schedule to take up this bill, but considering a strong bi-partisan concensues on this legilation, it may not take too long before the Senate acts on this bill.

06/02/2010: H-1B Cap Count as of 05/28/2010

• Regular cap: 20,800
• Master cap: 8,700

06/02/2010: USICE Policy Guidance on OPT, 17-Month STEM Extension, and H-1B Cap-Gap Rules, as Revised 04/23/2010

• The USICE has been implementing its revised policy guidance since 04/23/2010 for OPT students without much publicity and controversy. Following are the changes which they made to the Policy Guidance which was released earlier years:
  • Provides current dates related to H-1B petitioning for 2010 (and removes information related to previous years.
  • Amends the text to past tense, as applicable.
  • Replaces the term OPT STEM extension with 17-month extension.
  • Deletes reference to the public comment period for the IFR, which has closed (section 1.2). Adds text related to school filing of courses of study for CIPs, for STEM designation of CIPS and for DHS approval of STEM CIPS for the 17-month extension of OPT (section 1.3). Adds text on other resources available related to the IFR (section 1.4)
  • Refines procedures for filing for OPT after the program end date (section 5.2)
  • Deletes 10 day exceptions to the time that counts for unemployment during OPT at the EAD start date and between jobs. SEVP will need approval for such exceptions through another proposed rulemaking. (sections 7.1.6 and 7.1.7)
  • Removed restriction that employment during the 17-month extension must be paid employment. SEVP will need approval for such a restriction through another proposed rulemaking. (sections 7.2.2 and 7.2.3)
  • Deletes dates for wait-listing for this year. SEVP has been notified by USCIS that there will not be a waitlist utilized as a part of the FY 2011 H1B Cap filing process (section 9.1.1).
• Current OPTs and future OPTs may want to review this revised Policy Guidance as the agency has backed off from previous policies in certain areas to comply with the rule-making requirements. Please read the full text.

06/01/2010: H-2B Cap Count As of 05/28/2010

• Number of approved beneficiaries: 25,570
• Number of pending beneficiaries: 1,167
• Total: 26,737

05/29/2010: Naturalization Applications Processing Statistics as at End of April 2010

• The report indicates that naturalization receipts in April 2010 increased 22 percent when compared to April 2009, while approvals/oaths decreased by 16 percent and denials decreased 46 percent.
• The number of pending N-400 cases reached 280,539 in April 2010, a decrease of 4 percent compared to the same month in fiscal year 2009. For the full report, please click here.
  

05/29/2010: USCIS Immigration Petitions/Applications Processing Statistics as at End of April 2010

• The reports indicates that immigration application receipts increased 6 percent compared to the number received in April 2009. April 2010 approvals decreased by 9 percent, denials decreased by 33 percent, and pending decreased less than 39% compared to April 2009.
• Pending cases:
  • 602,499 I-130 immediate/all other petitions;
  • 397,371 I-485 applications to adjust status;
  • 156,068 I-90 green card renewals/replacements;
  • 155,542 I-765 employment authorizations;
  • 59,487 I-751 remove conditions spouse jointly/waive;
  • 56,001 I-129 forms filed.
• For the full report, please click here.

05/29/2010: Immigration Benefits and Naturalization Benefits Statistics by Month From April 2008 Through April 2010

• Please click here.

05/29/2010: USCIS Director Announces Not to Implement Immigration Form Signature Authority Memorandum of Acting Deputy Director Pending Review and Enactment of Rule on the Subject

• On January 19, 2010, the new Acting Deputy Director of USCIS released a policy memorandum essencially taking away authority of the attorney and representatives to sign the immigration forms on behalf of the clients by her decision that such immigration petitions or applications would be rejected. This memorandum raised an issue and controversy of propriety of enactiing such policy decision without the proper rule-making procedure. Soon thereafter, the Memoradum disappeared from the USCIS website. The USCIS then conducted a public engagement session on 02/19/2010 where the Acting Deputy Director confirmed that the Memorandum would not be implemented pending further review and probably not until April 2010 when the FY 2011 H-1B cap filing was scheduled to begin. For the executive summary of this public engagement session, please click here. Since then, the policy and issue on the subject had remained up in the air with the potential danger and confusion on the part of field adjudicators until last Wednesday, 05/26/2010, when Mr. Mayorkas, USCIS Director, released an announcement that this memorandum would not be implemented pending review and should the agency decide to make a policy to make decision on the subject, it would be enacted through the rule-making process. For the details of the 05/26/2010 announcement, please click here.
• What does this mean? It means that the traditional policy allowing legal counsels to sign the forms on behalf of the clients in certain circumstances, particularly when the power of attorney for such authority is granted by the clients and within the parameters of the existing USCIS rules on the signature authority of the representatives. The withdrawn memorandum was intended to prevent frauds in the immigration proceedings, but there was a procedural error in formulating the policy and ignorance of the reality of the attorney-client representation authority. The Director intends to correct the problems. We welcome Mr. Mayorkas' good decision.

05/27/2010: USCIS Schedules 06/16/2010 EB-5 Program Stakeholder Session to Share Updates and Info on the Investor Immigration Program

• As the wind of employment-based immigration blows towards the reverse direction, the investment immigration option has received increased attention from the foreign entrepreneurs, businesses, and foreign workers as an alternative option to the employment-based immigration. The investor immigration petitions and green card applications based on such investment program have been rapidly expanding as the Congressional leaders open their arms to such foreign investment in the U.S. and accompanying increase in employment opportunities for the U.S. workers. The program that has received popularity has been so-called "Regional Center" pilot program because of the flexibility involved with such option as to the level of involvement in investment and business operations.
• The session can be attended either in person or by telephone. Those who are interested in the session may visit the invitation site and make a registration.

05/27/2010: Fulle Text of New House Bill of "H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2010"

• This reporter reported yesterday that Rep. Bills Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey introduced H.R. 5397 in the House day before yesterday. This bill turns out to be the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2010. The following titles and articles of this bill speak for itself the nature of this legislative bill:
  • TITLE I--H-1B VISA FRAUD AND ABUSE PROTECTIONS
    Subtitle A--H-1B Employer Application Requirements
    • SEC. 101. MODIFICATION OF APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS.
      SEC. 102. NEW APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS.
      SEC. 103. APPLICATION REVIEW REQUIREMENTS.
      
  • Subtitle B--Investigation and Disposition of Complaints Against H-1B Employers
    • SEC. 111. GENERAL MODIFICATION OF PROCEDURES FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISPOSITION.
      SEC. 112. INVESTIGATION, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND PENALTIES.
      SEC. 113. WAIVER REQUIREMENTS.
      SEC. 114. INITIATION OF INVESTIGATIONS.
      SEC. 115. INFORMATION SHARING.
      SEC. 116. CONFORMING AMENDMENT.
      
  • Subtitle C--Other Protections
    • SEC. 121. POSTING AVAILABLE POSITIONS THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.
      SEC. 122. H-1B GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY AND REQUIREMENTS.
      SEC. 123. REQUIREMENTS FOR INFORMATION FOR H-1B AND L-1 NONIMMIGRANTS.
      SEC. 124. ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EMPLOYEES.
      SEC. 125. TECHNICAL CORRECTION.
      SEC. 126. APPLICATION.
      
  • TITLE II--L-1 VISA FRAUD AND ABUSE PROTECTIONS

SEC. 201. PROHIBITION ON OUTPLACEMENT OF L-1 NONIMMIGRANTS.
SEC. 202. L-1 EMPLOYER PETITION REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYMENT AT NEW OFFICES.
SEC. 203. COOPERATION WITH SECRETARY OF STATE.
SEC. 204. INVESTIGATION AND DISPOSITION OF COMPLAINTS AGAINST L-1 EMPLOYERS.
SEC. 205. WAGE RATE AND WORKING CONDITIONS FOR L-1 NONIMMIGRANT.
SEC. 206. PENALTIES.
SEC. 207. PROHIBITION ON RETALIATION AGAINST L-1 NONIMMIGRANTS.
SEC. 208. REPORTS ON L-1 NONIMMIGRANTS.
SEC. 209. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.
SEC. 210. APPLICATION.
SEC. 211. REPORT ON L-1 BLANKET PETITION PROCESS.

• On Senate side, Senators Grassley of Iowa and Durbin of Illiois have been advocating a similar reform.Please read the full text of H.R. 5397.
  

05/27/2010: Congressional Research Service(CRS)'s May 2010 Report of "State Efforts to Deter Unauthorized Aliens: Legal Analysis of Arizona’s S.B. 1070"

• Report indicated that the Attorney General Holder intended to review carefully the potential constitutional issues involved with the Arizona immigration law. The issue of Constitutionality of the law may be looked in many different angles, one of which could involve federal-state powers and jurisdiction over immigration under the U.S. Constitution. This CRS report gives a "peek" into analysis of such issue strictly from legal stand point, taking out of the political and emotional heat involved with the state legislation. A good material to read during the long Memorial Holiday weekend. Read on.

05/26/2010: Restrictive EB Nonimmigrant Visa Reform Bill Introduced in the House 05/25/2010

• Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey yesterday introduced H.R. 5397 to reform and reduce fraud and abuse in certain visa programs for foreign temporary workers. The details have yet to be released. Please stay tuned to this website for the text of this bill.

05/26/2010: USCIS Issues "Redesigned/Revised" EAD Card Effective 05/11/2010

• USCIS today announced that it has revised the EAD, or Form I-766, to incorporate the addition of a machine-readable zone on the back of the card. This update to the EAD is part of USCIS's ongoing efforts to deter immigration fraud. Starting May 11, USCIS began issuing the revised EAD cards. The machine-readable zone is compliant with International Civil Aviation Organization standards. USCIS also removed the two-dimensional bar code on the backside of the card and moved the informational box of text to just beneath the magnetic stripe on the card. The revised card retains all of its existing security features.
• For other details and "look" of the revised EAD card, please click here.

05/25/2010: Latest (05/21/2010) H-2B Cap Count

• Approved: 25,178
• Pending: 1,244
• Total: 26,422

05/25/2010: Latest (05/21/2010) H-1B Cap Count

• Regular Cap: 19,600
• Master Cap: 8,200

05/25/2010: The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Offers Free Naturalization Information Session on 06/16/2010

• Naturalization application requires some level of knowledge and preparation including requirements, procedures, issues, and resources for training available for English and civic tests, etc. The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is a nonprofit organization that provides legal services, training, and other services for the immigrants who need access to such information and assistance. On June 16, 2010, Wednesday, at 5:00 p.m., the Center is offering a free Naturalization Information Session for the immigrants and public covering naturalization process, new naturalization test, rights and responsibilities of U.S. Citizenship, and Citizenship, English training resources, etc. The Center is located at a Neighborhood House in St. Paul which is easily accessible without any parking problem. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about the naturalization. For the details, please click here.

05/25/2010: Continuously Growing Backlog in Immigration Court Cases

• A report indictes that for the past 10 years, the immigration courts have been witnessting a steady and continous backlogs in their court dockets and resolutions. For the details, please read the report.

05/24/2010: USCIS Transitions I-140 and Other Intake Functions from Service Centers to Lockboxes

• USCIS has announced that they are transitioning intake function of I-140 petition from the Service Centers to Lockboxes in Dallas and Phoenix. According to the announcement, the filing address changes to the Lockboxes will not take effect until they announce it in June 2010, but I-140 petitions which are filed in mid-May or thereafter are currently being transferred by the Service Centers to the Lockboxes for the intake (receipt) process. The other applications or petitions which are affected by the same transition include stand-alone I-539, I-526, I-129F (Fiancee), and I-817. Accordingly, until the filing address changes are formally announced in June 2010, the affected petitions or applications should be continuously filed with the current Service Centers, but the "internal" transition of their intake functions which is in place at this time may cause some delays in issuing Receipt Notices. Beware!

05/22/2010: Foreign Labor Certification Performance Goal and Results

• DOL PY 2009 (01/01/2009-12/31/2009) reflects that the goal for permanent labor certification proceesing was set at processing applications in nine months, while only four (4) % of applications were processed within nine months. It appears that in 2009, somehow the Performance Office failed to assess correctly the impact of the overall DOL policy goal and demand heavily focusing on "integrity" within the year and the OFLC's adjustment of the adjudication process to meet such policy goal and demand. However, it appears that the performance of OFLC has shown some improvement beginning from 2010. It appears that there is no change in performance goal for the calendar year 2010, but when it comes to the results, unconfirmed information indicates that the performance result level has improved substantially lately. The OFLC has been releasing the monthly processing time which reflects nine (9) months processing time. However, the reality appears to be that the posted date represents the performance goal date rather than the performance result date. Accordingly, in 2010 there may be no change in performance goal of nine (9) months for PERM processing but the result of the achievement is likely to show a substancial change and improvement. The result figure for December 2010 will not be available until 2011 for the obvious reasons, but the performance at the level of analysts' review of clean cases is likely to show a substantial improvement down the road. The overall performance result in calendar year 2010 may not show a drastic achievement of the nine (9) months goal at 80% as increase in "supervised recruitment" cases can offset the improvement in the clean cases, but from the perspectives of the clean cases, it is a positive news. Please stay tuned.

05/21/2010: DOL ICERT Portal System Outage for Two Hours Tuesday 05/25/2010

• DOL alerts that te iCERT system will be unavailable on Tuesday, May 25 from approximately 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM EDT. Scheduled system maintenance will be performed during this time. During the period, people are asked to contact the OFLC help desk at oflc.portal@dol.gov for further information on the outage. For specific questions on your application, application status, or other questions that do not pertain to the outage, people should contact the OFLC National Processing Center at lca.chicago@dol.gov for H-1B issues or the OFLC National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center at flc.pwd@dol.gov for Prevailing Wage questions

05/21/2010: Wild Turkey and Chick on Wooded Road

• I was driving to post office at 7:30 this morning through the wooded road in an area and saw wild turkeys on the side of the road. There was a baby chick who was injured apparently by traffic and mother turkey stood by the chick to protect the dieing chick and father turkey was with three other chicks on the other side of the road protecting them. It was a horrible scene. When I returned to the scene after dropping the mails in the mail box, the turkeys had disappeared apparently chased away by the traffic and the crushed baby chick's body was all over the road. I still cannot brush away from my emotion the scene of mother turkey standing by the dieing chick.

05/20/2010: Official New Consular Fee Schedule Published in Federal Register Today

05/20/2010: NY Times Editorial "Courage in Arizona" Lists Major Political Players in CIR Failures

• Reality sets in and the New York Times Opinion column exposes the reality. Reality is that in time-wise, there is absolutely no chance for any CIR in 2010. Any CIR bill that may be introduced in the Congress within the next few months, if there will be at all, should be closely examined for potential political motive behind such move. Sad reality.

05/19/2010: Reminder of Important USCIS Public Session Today on Future Immigration Benefits Filing System Named EDIS

• To participate in this session in person or by telephone, people should have completed registration by last Monday. In today's session, the agency will explain:
  • Update for Timeline of EDIS
  • Artifacts of the EDIS IEPD
  • Electronic Signatures
  • Payment Processing
  • Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding
• USCIS will publish Executive Summaries some time after completion of the public session. Those who missed this session should look for the Executive Summaries on USCIS website in the future. In this fast pacing age, people should not neglect updating themselves with the developing news. The Business Transformation Program of USCIS using the EDIS technical system will literally open a new chapter for immigration petitions and applications filing, processing, and adjudication taking advantage of cyber-age technology.

05/19/2010: New Consular Service Fees for Nonimmigrant Visa Services to Take Effect 06/04/2010

• The adjusted new fee schedules will be published tomorrow but will take effect 15 days from tomorrow. The new fees are:
  • Non-petition-based nonimmigrant visa except E category: $140
  • H, L, O, P, Q, and R category nonimmigrant visa: $150
  • E category nonimmigrant visa: $390
  • K category nonimmigrant visa: $350
  • Border crossing card for age 15 and over (valid 10 years): $140
  • Border crossing card for under age 15; for Mexian citizens if parent or guardian has or is applying a border crossing card (valid 10 years or until the applicant reaches age 15, whiever is sooner): $14
• For the full text, please click here.

05/19/2010: Obama-Calderon White House Summit Today and CIR in Top Agenda on the Tray

• The U.S. President and the Mexican leader is scheduled to have a dinner in White House to discuss the top issues including tensions in the border, climate, and immigration reform. Report indicates that the Comprehensive Immigration Reform will be on the top agenda of the summit and the two leaders may announce some items of agreements on the agenda after the meeting. Please stay tuned to this website for the outcome of the Summit.

05/19/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Launches LCA Mailbox for LCA Policy Guidance and Questions

• The OFLC has announced that it has established a mailbox for questions regarding LCA policies for those who seek policy guidance on the LCA. The employers filing H-1B LCA should make a note of the following three different email addresses to address different types of questions:
  • LCA.Regulation@dol.gov. Questions on LCA policies and guidance. The answers will be published in the form of FAQs.
  • LCA.Chicago@dol.gov. All general inquiries regarding the H-1B program to the Chicago National Processing Center.
  • OFLC.Portal@dol.gov. For questions on iCERT technical issues

05/18/2010: Latest USCIS FY 2011 H-1B Cap Count Update as of 05/14/2010

• Still plenty!
  • Regular case cap count: 19,000 (out of 65,000)
  • Master case cap count: 8,100 (ouf of 20,000)

05/18/2010: USCIS FY 2010 Second Half H-2B Cap Count Update as of 05/12/2010

• Out of the target beneficiaries of 47,000, total of 25,174 beneficiaries=24,390 approved + 784 pending.

05/18/2010: USCIS Draft Policy Memorandum (PM) for Comments: Approval of Petitions and Applications for Surviving Family after the Death of the Qualifying Relative

• As readers are aware of, the new USCIS has been engaging review of entire policy memorandums in order to achieve "uniformity" and "consistency" of adjudication of petitions and applications by the adjudicators in the field offices. Based on the review, the agency has been releasing its draft of revised or new policy memorandums and seeks comments from the stakeholders and the public. The subject draft policy memorandum covers broadly three areas:
  • Definition of Eligible "Beneficiaries": Approval of a visa petition or refugee/asylee relative petition or any adjustment application and related application, if the alien seeking the benefit:
    • Resided in the United States when the qualifying relative died;
    • Continues to reside in the United States on the date of the decision on the pending petition or application, and
    • Is at least one of the following:
      *The beneficiary of a pending or approved immediate relative visa petition;
      *The beneficiary of a pending or approved family-based visa petition, including both the principal beneficiary and any derivative beneficiaries;
      *Any derivative beneficiary of a pending or approved employment-based visa petition;
      * The beneficiary of a pending or approved Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition;
      *An alien admitted as a “T” or “U” nonimmigrant; or
      *A derivative asylee under section 208(b)(3) of the Act.
  • Definition of “Qualifying Relative” means an individual who, immediately before death was:
    • The petitioner in a family-based immigrant visa petition under section 201(b)(2)(A)(i) or 203(a) of the Act;
    • The principal beneficiary in a family-based visa petition case under section 201(b)(2)(A)(i) or 203(a) of the Act;
    • The principal beneficiary in an employment-based visa petition case under section 203(b) of the Act;
    • The petitioner in a refugee/asylee relative petition under section 208 of the Act;
    • The principal alien admitted as a T or U nonimmigrant; or
    • The principal asylee, who was granted asylum under 208 of the Act.
• The deadline for comment is June 1, 2010. For the details and full text of the draft PM, please click here.

05/17/2010: Consular Fee Increase "Final" Rule Clears OMB 05/14/2010 and Fees Poised Go Up Soon

• Consular services fees for nonimmigrant visa application and border crossing card are poised to go up soon. The increse is minor and not too worrysome, though. Most nonimmigrant visa application fees will only go up from current $131 to $140. For the release of this final rule, please stay tuned to this website.

05/17/2010: Total I-485 Applications Pending and Preadjudiated at Service Centers as of 03/31/2010

• As readers know it, the Nebraska Service Center and Texas Service Centers have "preadjudicaed" I-485 applications and been waiting for visa number availability. Some of these cases may have to go through additional biometric and name checke before final approval when the visa number becomes available, but most of these cases are likely approved without further proceedings once visa number becomes available.
  • Nebraska Service Center: 95,288 applications preadjudicated and were awaiting visa numbers (Only 19,434 pending)
  • Texas Service Center: 85,516 applications preadicated and awaiting were visa numbers (Only 21,620 pending)
• We post the foregoing statistics to give some clue to those whose EB visa numbers will become available in June 2010 Visa Bulletin.

05/16/2010: USCIS Updates on 05/14/2010 Processing Times as of 03/31/2010

• EB-485 processing times as of the end of March 2010 were:
  • NSC: 07/10/2010 Receipt Date
  • TSC: 6 Months from Receipt Date (Go backward for 6 months from 03/31/2010)
  • CSC: 6 Months from Receipt Date (Ditto)
  • VSC: 6 Months from Receipt Date (Ditto)
• For the details of processing times report, please visit our home page USCIS Processing Times link.

05/14/2010: June Visa Bulletin and Chinese EB-2 I-485 Inventory

• For the Chinese EB-2 professionals and their family members, June 2010 will make a progress in visa number from September 2005 to November 2005. Presumedly, most of these I-485 applications have been preadjudicated and waiting for the visa number availability. We do not know the exact numbers, but the USCIS EB-485 inventory for EB-2 China indicates that there are 1,725 Chinese EB-2 I-485 applications pending with the priority dates between September 2005 and November 2005. As far as the visa number is concerned, they are the ones who will be eligible for I-485 decision in June 2010. There are some Chinese EB-2 I-485 applications with the priority date earlier than the June 2010 visa cut-off date which are still pending, but the numbers are very small.
• Does it mean that all of these cases will be approved in June 2010? Not necessarily. Assumedly, most of these cases have been preadjudicated and we hope they just approve the cases within the month. But one thing we do not know is each Service Center's processing backlog. The monthly processing time report of the USCIS shows the processing cut-off dates for EB-485 applications. This report does not help much to figure out the specific backlog for specific priority date cases since the monthly processing time report is released per filing dates rather than priority dates. Accordingly, those Chinese whose EB-2 visa number will become available in June will also have to check the upcoming USCIS Service Center Processing Report and their EB-485 filing dates. The USCIS may release the latest processing time report either during this weekend or early next week at the latest, reporting their processing times as of March 31, 2010. This will help in figuring out the location of their cases in the EB-485 processing queue in each Service Center. For the EB-485 inventory data, please click here. Good luck!

05/14/2010: Three Important Public Engagement Sessions Scheduled During Next Two Weeks by USCIS

• The USCIS is scheduling the following three engagement sessions which cover the stakeholders and customers of all spectrum. Readers may not miss the opportunity to learn a sort of "state of agency."
  • Employment-Based Petitions [Service Centers]: On 05/27/2010, the Service Center Directorate will explain so-called 'Validation Instrument for Business Enterprise' (VIBR), a web-based tool which is used for achieving Uniformity and Consistency in processing of employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant petitions by the Service Centers. From time to time, the stakeholders and customers have raised a serious issue of lack of uniformity and consistency in the processing and adjudication of such petitions among different Service Centers as well as within the same Service Center. Eventually, this problem may be drastically reduced once the USCIS launches the Business Transformance Program in the future, but people may want to know how it will work.
  • Family-Based/Naturalization Proceedings [Local Field Offices Operation]: On 05/25/2010, the Field Office Directorate schedules its first quarterly stakeholder meetings inviting directors of regional and local field office directors. This session may not cover each specific local field office's practice issues, but may give overall pictures, issues, policy guidances relating to the legal proceedings which fall under the jurisdiction of the field offices, mostly family-based and naturalization proceedings.
  • Business Transformation Program Update [USCIS HQ Transformation Office]: Sooner or later, immigration will face a new chapter in the immigration benefits application filing and adjudication procedures and the USCIS has been scheduling information sessions for the past five months through the public engagement sessions, called Collaborate Session for EDIS. On 05/19/2010, it will schedule the fourth (#4) session and expected to update the progress of this program. Obviously important for all immigration customers touching entire spectrum of the immigration proceedings.
• In order to participate in these session by telephone, people should make registrations by email or telephone. Please visit the USCIS Public Engagement Site.

05/14/2010: USCIS I-9 Compliance Guidance for TPS Employers and Employees During Period of Automatic Extesion of Expiring EAD

• When the USCIS extends TPS designation, it usually announces automatic extension of EAD for the current eligible TPS aliens for a limited period of time. This creates a problem for the employers who hired or who are about to hire such TPS aliens in completing I-9 employment verification document since the only employment document such alien can present will be expiring EAD. To assist such employers and employees, USCIS has just released Fact Sheet for the steps and procedures they should follow. Such employers and employees are strongly recommended to read the Fact Sheet and keep a copy in their I-9 compliance files.
• However, this does not completely remove additional problems the TPS aliens must deal with during the period. It is the problem they will have to deal with thousands of local driver license centers througout the country. Depending on the locations, local driver license centers fail to keep up with this type of stop-gap policy releases of the DHS and refuse to accept or renew a driver license. A copy of this USCIS fact sheet may help for the local driver license centers to initiate internal inquiry process through the government legal counsel of State Transportation Department. We strongly recommend such TPS employees to print out and keep a copy of this Fact Sheet.

05/14/2010: BP Gulf Oil Spill Tips Senate Priority on Comprehensive Energy Bill Over Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

• Thinning legislative calendars for this 111th Congress and November Mid-Term National Election have led to the conclusion that the Congress would have no time to take care of these very contentious and politically volitile legislative bills in 2010. For the reasons, these two bill sponsors have been competing in a see-saw manner to seize their bill higher priority over the other bill in the Senate calendar. Taking advantage of the BP gulf coast disaster, the Senators Kerry and Lieberman finally introduced the energy bill after a prolonged political sea-saw game within the political circle, leading the chance for CIR within 2010 an inch closer to the death row. We predicted at the later part of 2009 that unless a CIR is taken care of by May 2010, the CIR would have no chance in 2010. Senator Schumer has sent a letter to the Madam Governor of Arizona to suspend the AZ immigration law to give an opportunity for the Congress to work on the CIR "in one year." If our calculator works O.K., one year means 2011. Senate Democratic leaders started spinning wheel that they did not see a chance for CIR in 2010. Even Rep. Gutierrez of Illinois has backed down lately from his recent aggressive threat against his colleagues in the Congress and for that matter, the President, that he would suggest the Hispanics to stay home during the November national election. Now everything is played in political games. We, the people, want to see politicians in both sides of the isle to be honest with the people. No wonder why people are sick of Washington politics.

05/13/2010: State Department Issues Cable to Visa Posts on Exchange Visitor Program Update 05/10

• This cable provides an update to guidance provided for student and exchange visitor visa applications. The Department reminds posts that student and exchange visitors should be provided visa appointments on a priority basis. Admission to a lesser known academic institution is not in itself a reason for refusal, although all applicants should be able to explain their school choice and educational plan. The Department urges posts to report suspect schools. Summer Work and Travel program participants should return from their programs in time for the beginning of fall classes, even though DHS allows them a 30 day grace period before they have to depart the United States. This cable also provides clarification on flight training, study incidental to visits for pleasure, and SEVIS. Read on.

05/12/2010: Are You Frustrated With USCIS Status Check Site Messages?

• Save your steam of emotional stress. The site is going through a technical difficulty. Apparently, the site has been visited hard by those who have been checking the impact of new June 2010 Visa Bulletin on their cases. Save your energy. June Visa Bulletin visa numbers will not become available until June 1 and thereafter and the agencies adjudicating immigrant visas or I-485 applications cannot approve their cases now even if the visa number is current for their priority dates at least until after June 1, 2010.

05/12/2010: Combined EAD and AP Document on the Horizon This Year?

• USCIS Blog says that USCIS is in the process of developing a combination work authorization and advance parole card and an announcement regarding this combination card will be made later this year. That Ain't Bad News!

05/12/2010: USCIS New Site Posting Drafts of Memorandums for Comments Before Finalization

• This is a new site posting the USCIS posting "drafts" of new Memorandums for "comments." Once comment period is over, reflecting the comments the agency receives, it will finalize and release as the new memorandums. Please visit:
  • New site
  • "O" visa program relaed first new draft of memorandum for comment posted.

05/11/2010: Effective Today, USCIS Start Issuing Redesigned Green Cards

• Those who obtain new approval of I-485 from day and those applied for renewal or replacement green card will get the redesigned green card. For the details including the look and other features of the redesigned green card, please visit following sites:
  • USCIS Announcement
  • Fact Sheet
  • Questions & Answers

05/11/2010: Text of USCIS Director Testimony at Today's USCIS Oversight Hearing of Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee

• Excerps of some interesting points:
  • In order to enhance fraud detection and deterrence capabilities, USCIS implemented an Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) in July 2009. Earlier USCIS fraud studies demonstrated the value of site inspections in detecting and deterring fraud. The ASVVP seeks to augment UCIS nationwide anti-fraud efforts and strengthen the integrity of the U.S. legal immigration system. This is accomplished through the use of site inspections aimed at verifying key eligibility requirements such as the existence of the petitioning organization, compatibility of the worker's education and skills with the job offered and the ability of willingness of the petitioning organization to pay the appropriate wage. We are currently conducting site inspections on nonimmigrant and immigrant religious worker and H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions. To date, more than 15,000 site inspections have been performed.
  • This week, USCIS issued a re-designed Permanent Resident Card (Green Card), which modernizes the Green Card with the most sophisticated security technology available to us today. This new card includes additional security features, including embedded data and holographs, which make it more difficult to produce fraudulent cards and easier for DHS to identify fraud.
  • The (proposed fee increase) rule reflects the elimination of the asylum and refugee surcharge from application and petition fees.
  • We have begun the process of validating the conversion of numerous contract positions to federal staff.
  • In the two weeks it was available, USCIS received a total of 5,675 responses to the public USCIS Policy Review Survey. Internally, 2,365 participated in the USCIS Internal Policy Review Survey. This was a USCIS record for employee participation in any survey.
  • EB-5 Visa Issuance Inreases:
    • FY 2009: 4,218
    • FY 2008: 1,360
    • FY 2007: 806
    • FY 2006: 744
  • The Transformation program planning resulted in a significant shift in the Transformation program's deployment strategy among immigration benefit types. We are re-sequencing the schedule to focus efforts first on nonimmigrant benefit types, resulting in a process that follows the national immigration lifecycle and will enable the earlier use of electronic adjudications. This will strengthen the impact of the first deployment and immediately show a clear tie to mission results. We are still working to finalize a revised program plan for FY 2011.
• Read also Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy's statement at the hearing.

05/11/2010: Official June 2010 Visa Bulletin

• Well, no predictions!

05/11/2010: FY 2011 H-1B Cap Count Update as of 05/06/2010

• Still plenty.
  • Regular cap count: 18,000 (Annual cap of 65,000)
  • Master's cap count: 7,600 (Annual cap of 20,000)
• The foregoing cap count does not include those petitions which have been denied. Considering recent surge of H-1B denials, one wonders what was the actuall total petitions which the agency had received(?)

05/11/2010: FY 2010 H-2B Second Half Cap Count Update as of 05/06/2010

• The USCIS updates the cap count for H-2B as follows:
  • Beneficiaries approved: 24,199
  • Beneficiaries pending: 828
  • Total cap count: 25,027
• Since the target is about 47,000 beneficiaries, it appears we have a plenty of numbers before the cap is exhausted. Read on.

05/11/2010: Unofficial June 2010 Visa Bulletin Released by American Consulate in India

• Readers may wait until the official report is released by the Stae Deparment since the Mumbai site sometime showed an error.
• The unofficial report shows that F-2, spouses and children of permanent residents, family-based immigrant category has made a good stride, but the employment-based categories remain very much in a stay-put mode. We want to see what the Visa Bureau will have to say in the official June Visa Bulletin concerning the predictions for the rest of the fiscal year (September 2010).

05/08/2010: CRS Updates the Congress on Statistics of Unauthorized Aliens in the U.S.

• Read on.

05/08/2010: CRS Update Report to Congress on U.S. Immigration Policy on Permanent Admissions

• The CRS has been periodically study and review the state of "immigration" of foreigners and development of policies relating to the immigration. Read on.

05/08/2010: Congressional Research Service Reviews Issues re: Immigration of Foreign Workers and U.S. Labor Market Tests and Legislations to Protect U.S. Workers

• This report to the Congress reviews issues surrounding current immigration system for foreign workers and the environment for pro and con of immigration legislation relating to these foreign workers. Read on.

05/08/2010: Congressional Research Service Reviews Issues re: Foreign Science and Engineering Presence in U.S. Institutions and the Labor Force

• According to National Science Foundation, in 2006, the foreign student population earned approximately 36.2% of the doctorate degrees in the sciences and approximately 63.6% of the doctorate degrees in engineering. In 2006, foreign students on temporary resident visas earned 32.0% of the doctorates in the sciences, and 58.6% of the doctorates in engineering. The participation rates in 2005 were 30.8% and 58.4%, respectively. In 2006, permanent resident status students earned 4.2% of the doctorates in both the sciences and in engineering, a slight change from the 2005 levels of 3.8% in the sciences and 4.4% in engineering. Many in the scientific community maintain that in order to compete with countries that are rapidly expanding their scientific and technological capabilities, the country needs to bring to the United States those whose skills will benefit society and will enable us to compete in the newtechnology based global economy. The academic community is concerned that the more stringent visa requirements for foreign students may have a continued impact on enrollments in colleges and universities. There are those who believe that the underlying problem of foreign students in graduate science and engineering programs is not necessarily that there are too many foreign-born students, but that there are not enough native-born students pursuing scientific and technical disciplines. For the full report, please click here.

05/08/2010: GAO Reports Some Challences Faced in Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands Visa and Immigration Programs

• GAO reports yesterday that The DHS, CBP, and USCIS have each taken steps to secure the border in the CNMI in accordance with CNRA. Accordingly to the report, CBP processed 103,565 arriving travelers at CNMI airports from November 28, 2009, to March 1, 2010 and ICE processed 72 aliens for removal proceedings. In calendar year 2009, USCIS processed 515 CNMI applications for permanent U.S. residency and 50 CNMI applications for U.S. naturalization or citizenship. However, the agencies face operational challenges and have been unable to negotiate solutions with the CNMI government. For instance, USCIS has begun to implement work permit and visa programs for foreign workers, visitors, and investors, but key regulations are not final and certain transition programs therefore remain unavailable. A lawsuit filed by the CNMI government challenging some provisions of the CNRA resulted in a court injunction delaying implementation of the CNMI-only transitional worker program until DHS considers public comments and issues a new rule. As a result this program is unavailable to employers as of May 1, 2010. DHS has established the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program. However, DHS did not include China and Russia, two countries that provide significant economic benefit to the CNMI. Currently, DHS allows nationals from these two countries into the CNMI temporarily without a visa under the DHS Secretary's parole authority. DHS is reconsidering whether to include these countries in the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program. Although DHS has proposed rules that apply temporary U.S. nonimmigrant treaty investor status to investors with CNMI foreign investor entry permits, the program is not yet available. For the full report, please click here.

05/07/2010: Texas Service Center Email Pilot Initiative of EB-485 Related Notification Protocol for the Applicants

• AILA has reported that the TSC has just launched this pilot program of notification of the following by the EB-485 applicants via email. Readers are cautioned that such email notification is available only for the following notifications and NO OTHERS!!
  • AC-21 Change of Employment Notification
  • Multiple Approved I-140 Petitions With Different Priority Dates and Available Visa Number Notification
  • Cross Country Chargeability Notification
  • Request for Transfer of Pending Applications to Other USCIS Offices
• There are certain formats and protocols which the applicants should follow for the email notifications. People should seek counsel for the details.
• As for notification of invoking AC-21 portability of I-140 petitions underlying pending EB-485 applications which have been pending for 180 days or longers, readers are reminded that such notification involves complicated legal issues with potential deadly consequences of crossing bridge of no return. Those who wish to invoke such portability should always seek legal counsel before crossing the bridge of no return or jumping into the water.

05/07/2010: Reminder of DOL iCERT Portal System Outage for Two Hours This Evening

• For the system maintenance, the system will be down from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. this evening, Eastern Standard Time. For those, who need urgent LCA filings today should file it before 5:00 p.m. Lately iCERT Portal has been very unstable with frequent outages. Employers should also prepare for the forthcoming change in PERM application filing procedure. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of such changes.

05/06/2010: OFLC Updates on 05/06/2010 Processing Times of PERM as of 04/30/2010

• Analyst Reviews: July 2009 priority date cases
• Audits: April 2008 priority date cases
• Standard Appeals: November 2007 priority date cases
• Government Error Appeals: Current

05/06/2010: H.F. 3830, Copy Cat of Arizona Immigration Law Introduced in the House in Minnesota Today

• It is deplorable that a legislator introduced this bill , but such bill should have no place whatsoever in the State of Minnesota. Those who wish to follow the news and are willing to support legal advocacy against this bill are reccomended to contact the following two resources. Readers' generous support for their fights against this type of legislation is highly recommended. They work very closely with the legislators at federal, state, and local levels:
  • Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
  • The Advocates for Human Rights

05/06/2010: No Surprise! USCIS Initiates Rule-Making Process to Increase the Filing Fees

• Yesterday, USCIS requested the White House, OMB, to approve its "proposed" rule to adjust the immigration and naturalization application filing fees. The extent of the adjustment of fees is yet to be released, but the agency seeks two months of comment period for the proposed rule. Well, it is coming and coming!

05/05/2010: Ongoing Lock Box Front-End Receipting Processing Delays of EAD and Advance Parole Demands Earlier Filing of the Applications to Avoid DL Renwal and Employment Authorization Problems

• Ever since the filing window for EAD and Advance Parole applications changed from the Service Centers to the USCIS lock boxes, the applicants have been experiencing frustration from the delays in issuance of Receipt Notices and approval of the applications. Accordingly, those who approach expiration of the EAD within four months should promptly file the renewal applications not to encounter the driver license renewal and potential lapse of employment authorization problems, albeit for a short period of time. Nowadays, it is absolutely NO and NO to wait until the EAD will expire in two months or even three month in the worst situation!

05/05/2010: CIR Proponents in the House Prods Senate to Act Swiftly on CIR. House Immigration Subcommittee's Mark-Up of Rep. Gutierrez Pending CIR Bill Looming Up

• The CIR proponents in the House, including Hispanic Caucus and Madam Zoe Lofgren, Chairwoman of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommitte, are reportedly losing patience with the Senate leaders' inaction and are seriously considering its initiatives in the House. Report indicates that Chairwoman Lofgren is considering mark-up of the Rep. Gutierrez CIR bill which was introduced quite some time back and has been stalled awaiting the Senate initiatives. There are a large number of Congressional districts that are vulnerable in the coming November national election because of the mounting anger and frustration in the Hispanic constituency. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of this news.

05/05/2010: Senate Judiciary Committee Immigration Subcommittee Schedules USCIS Oversight Hearing 05/11/2010

• The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas, USCIS, will testify before the Subcommittee. As soon as the printed testimony is made available, we will post it. please stay tuned.

05/05/2010: TPS/EAD Extension Notice for Honduras & Nicaragua Officially Published in FR Today. The Same for El Salvadore Will Follow Suit Shortly

• We posted advance copies of Honduras and Nicaragua TPS designation and EAD extension federal register notice yesterday. This was published, as scheduled, today in the federal register as follows:
  • Honduras
  • Nicaragua
• The same extension for El Salvador has been cleared the While House and will be published in a matter of a day or two. Please stay tuned.

05/04/2010: USCIS Notice of Nicaragua TPS Designation Extension and Automatic Extension of EAD

• The extension of the TPS designation of Honduras is effective July 6, 2010, and will remain in effect through January 5, 2012, for 18 months. The 60-day re-registration period begins from 05/05/2010, and will remain in effect until 60 days from 05/05/2010. New EADs with a January 5, 2012, expiration date will be issued to eligible TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs. Given the timeframes involved with processing TPS re-registration applications, the Department of Homeland Security recognizes the possibility that all re-registrants may not receive new EADs until after their current EADs expire on July 5, 2010. Accordingly, this Notice automatically extends the validity of EADs issued under the TPS designation of Nicaragua for 6 months, through January 5, 2011, and explains how TPS beneficiaries and their employers may determine which EADs are automatically extended. For the full text of the notice which will be published tomorrow, please read the advance copy of this notice.

05/04/2010: USCIS Notice of Honduras TPS Designation Extension and Automatic Extension of EAD

• The extension of the TPS designation of Honduras is effective July 6, 2010, and will remain in effect through January 5, 2012, for 18 months. The 60-day re-registration period begins from 05/05/2010, and will remain in effect until 60 days from 05/05/2010. New EADs with a January 5, 2012, expiration date will be issued to eligible TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs. Given the timeframes involved with processing TPS re-registration applications, the Department of Homeland Security recognizes the possibility that all re-registrants may not receive new EADs until after their current EADs expire on July 5, 2010. Accordingly, this Notice automatically extends the validity of EADs issued under the TPS designation of Honduras for 6 months, through January 5, 2011, and explains how TPS beneficiaries and their employers may determine which EADs are automatically extended. For the full text of the notice which will be published tomorrow, please read the advance copy of this notice.

05/03/2010: H-1B Cap Count 04/27/2010: Regular=16,500, Master=6,900

05/02/2010: DOL Releases H-1B and PERM Performance Result Report for the Four Quarters Ending December 31, 2009

• This report indicates that in the four quarters ending December 31, 2008, H-1B LCA was processed within seven days 100%, while for the same period ending December 2009 dropped to 99%, good enough for foreign labor certification services consumers.
• For the PERM, in the four quarters ending December 31, 2008, PERM was processed within six months 37% but it dropped down to 4% in 2009 ending Decembedr 31, 2009. Obviously this 4% may represent some special handling cases and other priority cases but not regular cases since these cases had been taking about 10 months. The report indicates that this decrease was due to focus on backlog reduction and processing of older cases first. It also indicates that new timeframe set for the PERM is 9 months and that the new target performance measure will significantly improve as the backlog is reduced. Also implemented in the first quarter was a new PERM integrity measure: “Percent of resolved permanent applications selected for integrity review and found in compliance.” In FY 2010, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) is making an effort to reduce by 50 % in the backlog of applications on permanent labor certification. OFLC is redirecting staff and other resources to ensure the success of this initiative. It is a positive news, indeed. For the report, please click here.

05/02/2010: USCIS Schedules a First Field Operations Stakeholder Meeting on 05/25/2010

• The Public Engagement Directorate and the Field Operatation Directorate of the USCIS are scheduling the first quarterly stakeholder meeting on May 25, 2010. This meeting will be attended by the Associate Director of Fild Operation Directorate and Regional and Field Offices Directors to listen, report, and share information on the state of field offices operation. Readers are encouraged to participate in the meeting either in person or by telephone. For details, please click here.

05/01/2010: "Arizona Republic" Editorial Run-Down of Primary Polictical Actors in Arizona Who Reportedly Failed in Immigration

• The Arizona Republic is the primary daily newspaper in Arizona. You gonna love this editoral that runs down key political players in Arizona who reportedly failed for their political interests and against the cause of immigration reform. Along with the arrest of Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois in the DC rally, this got to be two of the top news on immigration reform and Arizona immigration law of the day. Read on.

05/01/2010: Amended Arizona Immigration Law Fails to Resolve Serious Infringement of Constitutional and Practical Rights of Certain Group of U.S. Citizens

• For the purpose of this discussion, let's forget about the rights of immigrants and for a moment focus on certain group of U.S. citizens who look different or have accent or possess both profiles. Let's assume that the U.S. citizen was stopped for speeding or minor traffic violations. In such situation, foreigners may not face such practical problems which this reporter addressed in his previous posting dated April 24, 2010 because in all likelihool, if they are legal, they are likely to possess in their wallets either I-94 or green card or other documents, even though there still remains a serious question of proffiling at the point of stopping the vehicle and asking question of immigrant status. However, U.S. citizens with idential profiles are more likely asked immigration status question when stopped, which other U.S. citizens without such profiles are not. Aside from such profiling questions, believe it or not, U.S. citizens of such profiles will face more serious problem than foreigners because no U.S. citizens will carry with them any legal documents or evidence to prove so called "legal status" or "citizenship" and are likely arrested or detained until the citizenship of the stopped driver is established after illegal restraint or detention!!!!!!!!!!! This is totally not acceptable and insane. Again, just as we stated in the previous posting on April 24, 2010, the qurestion involves more than issues of violation of constitutional rights of the U.S. citizens. It is a "practical" question which even legal aliens do not have to face in most cases. It will be the problen the stopped driver will have to face simply because the stopped driver happens to be a U.S. citizen with certain profiles. We do not think that the leaders of the State of Arizona can blame such U.S. citizens for boycotting the State. They may boycott your state not necessarily to defend their constitutional rights but to avoid harassment and humiliaation which even aliens may not have to suffer. Think about it, Madam Governor. Forget about the immigrants' rights for a moment. With due respect, may we ask Madam Governor and members of the House and Senate in Arizona whether you carry a certified birth certificate or passport or naturalization certificate in your possession all the time? We suspect whether most of you even have a copy of these documents, or if you do, whether you yourselves or your spouse or your family members or your staff or house maids even know where these documents are located in the residence or anywhere if a Sheriff or cop calls to bring it to the scene. Be real, Ladies and Gentlemen! In the first place, a law should not be enactd nor exist with in mind or for the Privileged only. It should be enacted and exist for everyday people on the streets and at the four corners of neighborhoods. Please look back to see whether your judgment was right. Please do not ask the citizens why they should bother if they are legal and they can prove it. That could have been the law in Nazi Germany and in old communist countries where the system allowed the government to presume every citizen, particularly the underprivileged, guilty and not innocent until they prove they are innocent. We live in the United States of America where every citizen is presumed not guilty and innocent until the government proves they are guilty and not innocent. A group of certain citizens cannot be subjected to a different rule or law in America that can allow the state law enforcement officials to presume certain citizens can be not legal and they have an authority to ask and demand them to prove citizenship.

05/01/2010: USCIS Director's Policy Review Endeavor - How Far Moved?

• His statement at the engagement session tells how far they have come, what they are doing, and when it will be finalized. We have answers to the first two questions. As to the question of how far they have come, it states that they already have gathered their adjudication and customer service policies together in one place. No wonder why the policy memorandum site has undergone confusing changes. The answer to second question is that they have to determine the order in which their policy review should proceed, and they are collecting inputs through the Policy Review Survey. Readers, if you want any issues reviewed first, you may not want to miss this opportunity to use the ongoing Review Survey! As for the third question, they have yet to release the target date of actual review and decision on the various memorandums of different issues. On the top should be Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum, followed by RFE Memorandum, wouldn't you agree?

05/01/2010: Interesting Computerworld Discussion on Impact/Implication of Senate Democratic Proposal to Automatically Give Green Cards to U.S. Earned STEM Degree Holders w/STEM Job Offers

• Yesterday's article in Computerworld reviews and discusses implication of this proposal in two or three areas. One is its impact on H-1B special cap quota of 20,000 for U.S. advance degree holders. Specifically, they are discussing whether this proposal can lead such special H-1B cap meaningless. Second is its impact on higher learning institution business. Specifically, whether this proposal will tremendously expand the horizon of graduate degree in STEM programs since the proposal may lead to flood of foreign students coming to the U.S. to study STEM to earn a green card. They are discussing potential abuse of the opportunity by unscrupulous higher learning institutions that are not closely policed and inappropriately regulated within the academic community itself. Interesting but overreaching, particularly the title of 'Staple Green Cards to Tech Degrees.' We will let you be the judge of it. Read on.

04/30/2010: Statement by the President on Senate Proposal to Fix Nation's Broken Immigration System

• Read on.

04/30/2010: Texas Governor Against AZ Immigration Legislation in Texas

• The top candidate for Domino effect of AZ immigration legislation has been considered the State of Texas. Well, not so fast. Texas Governor said, "not us!" Governor Rick Perry of Texas reportedly released a statement that he had concern with the AZ immigration legislation based on his presumption that that should belong to the federal jurisdiction and opposes similar legislation in the State of Texas. Wow, a big stopper of the Domino effect of the AZ immigration legislation in the South! Read on.

04/30/2010: Advance Copy of "Revised" Proposed Rule of State Department's Exchange Visitor Program for Secondary School Students

• This program has been extremely popular for foreign youngsters of ages 15-18 1/2 for short-visit to the U.S. for academic experience for one semester or for one year. As the flood of these youngsters have participated and come to the U.S. under the program, the Department has learnt some serious areas of flaws in administration of this program. Accordingly to impose new program administration requirements within the secondary school student exchange program. These regulations govern Department designated exchange visitor programs under which foreign secondary school students (ages 15 – 18-1/2) are afforded the opportunity to study in the United States at accredited public or private secondary schools for an academic semester or an academic year while living with American host families or residing at accredited U.S. boarding schools. Specifically, the Department is proposing to amend existing regulations regarding the screening, selection, school enrollment, orientation, and quality assurance monitoring on behalf of student participants; and the screening, selection, orientation, and quality assurance monitoring of host families and field staff. The purpose of this rule is to solicit public comment regarding these proposed changes that are offered to address the need for greater clarity in current existing regulatory language. The Department’s objective is to better protect the health, safety, and welfare of these participants though enhanced clarity of existing regulations. Due to the academic calendar and the screening and selection cycle for the conduct of the Secondary School Student program, the comment period of this proposed rule has been set to 30 days from the date of publication. Concerns regarding the safety and welfare of secondary school student population necessitate a shorter comment period. To provide sponsors with sufficient time to prepare for implementation of changes in program administration to be effective in the academic year 2011/2012, the Department would like to accelerate this rulemaking. This proposed rule will be published in the federal register next Monday, May 3, 2010.

04/30/2010: Assessment of Senate Democrat CIR Proposal

• We have reported part of the proposals which are related to reform of the current "legal" immigration system (nonimmigrant, immigrant, employment-based, family-based) and "illegal" immigration resolutions, which are counter-balanced by another major proposal on tighter control of unauthorized employment to remove incentives of and control flood of illegal immigration in the future along with extensive reinforcement of border security of both physical and enforcement mechanisms. The proposal has carefully crafted out the reform of current immigration by omitting upward adjustment of annual immigrant quota in employment-based as well as family-based immigration systems. Rather it intended to fix the current broken immigration system by way of recapturing wasted immigrant visa number over the decade and removal of unrealisted per country limit systems from the current immigration system reflecting adjustment of immigration policy to accept the recent trend of new immigration work forces that are important for the health of future of this nation. In the reform of employment-based immigration system of both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa systems, it reflected the country's desire and determination over the decades to control influx of lower-level foreign workers and to limit the foreign workers to mostly advance degree holders, particularly U.S. advanced degree holders in STEM, by way of restricting and keeping at bay availability of opportunity for the employment-based nonimmigrant visas such as H-1B and L-1 for limited-level of foreign workers. The immigration lawyers community has been more or less anticipating and preparing itself for the forthcoming changes toward this direction for quite a while.
• For legalization of illegal aliens, it has been perceived as a "given" solution, without which the country's immigration cannot be reformed in the comprehensive and overall/long-term perspectives. To the conversatives, this part of the proposals may be taken too "liberal" or "lenient," while progressive liberals may consider the proposal too restrictive in that the prospective immigrants should wait for eight (8) years before they can adjust their status to a lawful permanent resident. We welcome the inputs of Senators Feinstine of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois in this proposal, who have been pioneers and fighters for the unfortunate alien youngsters and poor farm workers for a decade in the form of AgJOBS bill and DREAM Act bill. It is anticipated that legalization part of the proposal will go through a substantial negotiation and compromise along the way before a final compromise bill, if it will be at all, is produced by the Congress. Please sit tight and ride with this reporter a roller-coaster for the next couple of months.

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Legalization of 10.8 Million Illegal Aliens

• Initial Threshold requirements:
  • Currently in the U.S.
  • No criminal record of federal or state felony or three or more misdemeanors
  • No history of participation in persecution of others
  • Not inadmissible under 212(a) of Immigration & Nationality Act in certain categories including national security or criminal grounds
  • Currently "not" in an authorized immigrant or nonimmigrant status (only illegal aliens are eligible)
  • Entered the U.S. without inspection (EWI) "after" the date of "introduction of this bill." In other words, EWIs are eligible inasmuch as they entered before the bill is introduced.
• Step I mandatory legalization application process:
  • Come out of closet, register, and go through biometrics, name checks, security checks.
• Step II Reside and Travel on interim Lawful Prosepctive Immigrant (LPI) status for 8 years (Back of the Line Provision)
• Step III Apply for Green Card (I-485) and meet the following requirements for eligibility:
  • Pass Basic Citizenship Skill test
  • Pass English Language Skill test
  • Proof of "continuous" residence since registration
  • Pass terrorism, criminal history, and other security and name checks
  • Proof of payment of all federal income taxes, fees, civil penalties
  • Proof of compliance with Registration for Selective Services for certain age applicants.
• Step IV Following-to-Join Immigrant Spouse and Children Abroad
  • Once LPR is granted through the foregoing steps, his or her spouse and children overseas will be eligible for application for immigrant visas.

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Legalization of Illegal Aliens

• Three programs:
  • Legalization of 10.8 million aliens currently in the U.S. with no legal status
  • DREAM Act for youngsters
  • AgJOBS Act for farm workers and adjustment of status
• We will see the first program in details.

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Family-Based Immigration Program Reform

• Recapture of unused visa numbers
• Backlog elimination within 8 years
• Spouses and children of LPR considered "immediate relatives" and not subject to immigrant visa quota just like spouses and children of USC under the present system
• Change per country family immigration limit from current 7% to 10% of total admissions
• Immigrant benefits for widows and orphants of USC
• Permanent partners (gays) of USC or LPR eligible for green card just like those spouses of USC or LPR
• Exempt of children of Filipino WW II veterans from immigrant numerical limitation
• Certain special protections for children and people with humanitarian considerations
• Reform to stepchildren and adoptive children programs

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Other Employment-Based Visa Program Reforms

• New visas to promote property ownership by foreign nationals for enhancement of housing marked
• Eliminate sunset date and make permanent R-1 religious worker program
• Eliminate sunset date and make permanent Conrad 30 J-1 for international medical graduates
• H-1B and J-1 program reform for international medical graduates to make easily obtainerable and to allow easier path to green card down the road
• E-3 visa which is currently available for Australian will be extended to Ntionals of Ireland
• Fashion models visa shifted from current H-1B visa to O or P visa
• Nurse and physical therapist shortage alleviation program
• Technical change to EB-5 investor program

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Creation of New Provisional H-2C Non-Seasonal/Non-Agricultural Worker Visa Program (This is not H-1C for Nurses!)

• Initial 3-year and renewable for 3 more years upto maxium 6 year limit.
• Dual intent permitted
• Portability of employer after one-year
• Annual cap adjusted each year per unemployment rate and relevant economic indicators
• Require the labor market test through recruitment including America's Job Bank and SWA
• Practical requirement of no displacement of US workers
• Employer can hire H-2C workers after reaching the cap upon the following conditions:
  • pay additional fees
  • hightened wage paid to the H-2C employee
  • engage in additional recrruiment for the labr market test

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: H-2B Temporary Non-Agriculcural Worker Program Reform

• Requirement of payment of higher wages than the current wages paid, either the wage set forth in a collecive bargaining agreement, or if there is no collective bargaining agree, then higher than:
  • Wage determination under Davis-Bacon Act;
  • Wage under Service Contract Act;
  • Median rate of the highest 50% of the wage data in the most recent OES Survey; or
  • 133% of minimum wage.
• Employer's return transportation cost liability upon termination
• No Returning Worker when unemployment rate exceeds % unless the unemployment rate in the metropolitan area of intended place of employment falls below 6.0%.

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: H-2A Temporary Farm Worker Program Reform

• Adopts AgJOBS bill (Readers may refer to Senator Dianne Feinstine bill)

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: L-1 Reform Part

• Limit L-1 numbers for employers hiring 50 or more workers
• Limit of L-1B of client-site services to one-year visa only, with waiver in the discretion of DHS
• Changes in:
  • New Office L-1 requirements
  • Wage rates and work condition requirements
  • Employer penalty
  • Reenforced DHS authority to investigate noncompliance employers

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: H-1B Reform Part

• Changes in H-1B application requirements:
  • Revise wage determination requirements
  • Require Internet posting
  • Lengthen US worker "displacement" protection period
  • Require current H-1B dependent employer restrictions to all H-1B employers
  • Prohibition of advertisement requiring H-1B nonimmigrants
  • Limit H-1B numbers for employers hiring 50 or more workers
• DOL enforcement authrity:
  • Investigation for frauds
  • H-1B compliance audits

04/29/2010: Senate Democrat CIR Proposal: Employment-Based "Immigration"

• Elimination of per country limit (cap) for employment-based immigration categories
• Recapture of unused visa numbers
• Immediate Green Card available for U.S. STEM Advance Degree holders with job offered in the STEM fields
• Dual Intent of foreign students entering the country to study STEM

04/29/2010: Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota Declares Boycott of Arizona for Any Conferences Involving the City

• Yesterday, the Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul, the capital city of Minnesota, announced that the mayor had decided not to schedule any conferences in Arizona to show that the mayor disagrees with and reputes the immigration legislation of the State of Arizona. The City of Saint Paul thus became a list of local governments in the country that joins the move of boycott Arizona.

04/29/2010: Senate Democrats Drafted Its Own Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposal Assumedly Under Pressure of AZ Aftermath and November Election Strategy

• Report indicates that yesterday a group of House Democrats led by the members of House Hispanic Caucus called on their Senate counterparts that a CIR bill should be brought to the floor as soon as possible in time for passage during the Summer. However, key Senate Democrats began circulating a 26-page outline of a border security and immigration reform bill that calls for securing the border before giving illegal immigrants in the country legal status by increasing the number of border and immigration agents and creating a technology system to verify when foreigners leave the country. Reportedly, this draft is being circulated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., along with Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. This proposal would increase fines by 300 percent on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, require workers to carry a biometric identification card, and create a federal commission to recommend visa levels. Under the circumstances where the Democrats have failed a bi-partisan CIR and continouing opposition by Republican Senate leaders including Lindsey Graham, Democrats appear to be ready to take some kind of move for all political purposes and intents. Currently, serious bottleneck for Democrats to act on the CIR in the Senate before the Summer recess is the climate bill, and both advocates and opponents of CIR are closely watching the move of the Senate during the next two weeks to learn which bill will take priority.
• See the draft.

04/28/2010: Arizona's New State Immigration Law and Developing Events and Issues

• Arizona's new immigration law is stirring many visible or invisible repurcussions politically, legally, socially, and economically. The following are a few of developments that have to be watched carefully:
  • Legal challenges
  • Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation
  • Internal friction in Republican party leaders on the issue and ripple impact on November election
  • Spreading 'Boycott Arizona' movement, including City of San Francisco.
  • Domino Effect in the South. Texas may be the next.
• On top of that, the big "May Day" is only an inch away of the door step of the Mexican Cinco Mayo national festivity which can turn into an event of huge political outburst. Stay tuned.

04/28/2010: Arizona's New State Immigration Law and Potential Impact on H-1B Workers Working in Arizona or Visiting Arizona

• The impact does not end with the Hispanics. Remember that laws and regulations are always vulnerable to potential abuse by individual enforcement agents and post-remedy or relief from such abuse may not help the involved foreign workers emotionally and in their daily lives, not to mention unwarranted harassment. For that matter, H-1B foreign workers are not alone who can be vulnerable. The employers who hire and recruit H-1B workers may also suffer as well in their daily running of business and difficulty in recruiting needed top-notch foreign workers to work in the state. Read on.

04/27/2010: Time for Immigrant Community to Unite and Demonstrate Solidarity

• The Arizona legislation has brought the CIR back from back-burner to front-burner as a national issue. It is now a burning issue. The media is looking at the CIR in two different angles. One is the chance and time for the CIR bill to be introduced in the Senate. The other is the chance for such bill to pass the Congress this year considering other top national agenda including financial reform, climate legislation. There is a concensus on the first issue but the media raises some question on the second issue.
• Anti-immigration forces are adding their strategy of "divide and conquer" when the rod starts getting hot. Traditionally, they have been inducing friction between employment-based immigrant community and family-based immigrant community or high-end industry community and low-end industry community to weaken the political landscape in favor of the CIR. The chip they have been using was a proposal to focus on piecemeal-immigration legislation or administrative fix solutions for the broken employment-based immigration system. This website one time arrived at a conclusion that CIR 2010 was dead for FY 2010 for all purposes and under such assessment, we also suggested, as alternatives and the next best options available to heal the ailing immigration system, picemeal immigration legislation and administrative fixes. Now, the environment has turned around totally taking away the foundation of such judgment that had brought to such assessment. As the momentum is right, we no longer support or look to such alternative solutions. The reason why the immigrant community should unite is that the circumstances are such that both the employment-based immigrant community and the family-based immigrant community are destined to either rise or fall together in both piecemeal option and comprehensive option. It will be naive for anyone to believe that piecemental immigration solutions or any solutions that help only one segment of immigrant community can be feasible under the "given" and "current" circumstances because the divided immigrant community will fight against each other to achieve their misguided and false assumption of success of their decisions. Immigrant community should watch against any sugar-coated incentives or proposals by anti-immigration forces. Don't be a fool and victim of "divide and conquer" strategy of the anti-immigration forces!!

04/27/2010: Forthcoming DV-2011 Diversity Visa Lottery Winner Notifications

• DV-2011 applicants selected will be notified by mail between May and July of 2010. Remember that lottery entrants selected are provided further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the U.S. Those selected in the random drawing are NOT notified by email. Those individuals NOT selected will NOT receive any notification. The Diversity Visa Lottery Instructions "Selection of Applicants" section provides information about the DV timeframe and process. It is coming soon. Watch your mail box carefully from next week!
• For the details, please check Diversity Visa Program site.

04/27/2010: USCIS H-1B Cap Count as of 04/22/2010

• The following are cap counts as of 04/22/2010 which did not count denied cases:
  • Regular cap=16,025 (out of cap of 65,000)
  • Master cap=6,739 (out of cap of 20,000)

04/27/2010: USCIS FY 2010 H-2B 2nd Half Cap Count as of 04/21/2010

• Out of beneficiaries target cap of 47,000, the agency has approved 22,565 beneficiaries and another 1,545 beneficiaries cases are currently pending, adding altogether 24,110 out of estimate maximum target of 47,000.

04/26/2010: USCIS RFE Initiatives to Review and Revise Guidance for Adjudicators

• USCIS has been seeking and gathering feed-backs from the stakeholders and the public on the issues and suggestions to improve the agency's transparency and consistency in adjudicating immigration benefits applications. For the purposes, Mr. Mayorkas, Director of USCIS engaged in listening session a few days ago. Additionally, the agency is seeking additional feed-backs to help the agency to achieve two things
  • Drafting memoranda which will serve as proposed or revised guidance to USCIS Field Offices and Service Centers. These memoranda are not intended as guidance for the general public nor are these memoranda intended to create binding legal requirements on the public, but will help for clarification of issues and revised guidance for adjudicators.
  • Reviewing and revising the RFE templates to be used at the Service Centers in order to bring uniformity and consistency to the process.
  • We encourage stakeholders and public to send their feed-backs by email to scopsrfe@dhs.gov.

04/26/2010: What's in the USCIS Wallet for the Next Six-Month for New Rules and Change of Rules?

• The following are some of the proposed rules in their wallet which they are planning to make during the next six months, which they can push off or abandon along the way depending on the change in circumstances. However, the immigrants should at least know what they have in mind for the next six months at this point of time. Here we go.
• Incremental Implementation of Business Transformation Program of Immigration and Naturalization Benefits Applications Processing and Management: USCIS has lately disclosed in fairly details its agenda to implement the business transfromaton programs step by step beginning this year. The business transformation initiative is to restructure its business processes and related information technology systems, enabling USCIS to migrate from a paper forms-based, non-integrated systems environment to an electronic customer-focused, centralized case management environment for benefit processing. The USCIS will amend its regulations to streamline benefit processing, eliminate the capture and processing of redundant data, and automate and reduce the number of its forms by enacting a final rule on the subject about in July 2010. Finally, mandatory electronic filing producedure is coming slowly but incrementally in the near future.
• Registration Requirement for H-1B Petitions: This has been in their wallet which was conceived when the H-1B cap number had run out in a matter or a day or days. The circumstances have changed along with the down fall of the nation's economy and shrinking of H-1B cap filings. But the situation may change and USCIS is keeping this plan and start from a "proposed" rule making process beginning from August 2010 with a target to implement probably in FY-2012 H-1B cap filings. This rule will proopose an electronic registration program for petitions subject to numerical limitations contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act). Initially, the program would be for the H-1B nonimmigrant classification; however, other nonimmigrant classifications will be added as needed. This rule is intended to allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions. Just heads up!
• Prefiling of Preference-Category I-485 Applications and Termination of I-140/I-485 Concurrent Filing: Again this plan has been in the agency's vault for a few years. Believe it or not, they have not abandoned it. They are still considering to initiate a "proposed" stage of rule-making process beginning from October 2010. Should this schedule be kept, it will not be until some time 2011 when this idea will be implemented. Accordingly, for now, immigrants do not have to worry about the termination of concurrent filing this year. When this plan is implemented, USCIS would accept and process I-485 applications even during the visa number retrogressions. At the same time, this proposed rule would discontinue the concurrent filing process for employment-based adjustment of status applicants. In addition, it would require that an alien seeking to immigrate based upon a classification that is subject to numerical limitations, must be the beneficiary of an approved immigrant petition prior to proceeding through a revised adjustment of status process. This proposed rule is intended to streamline the overall adjustment of status process, as well as mitigate visa retrogression through improved estimation of immigrant visa availability. Remember prefiling does not mean that the applications are approved during the visa number retrogression. This is the catch!
• Ah Ha! Here Comes a Plan Which Sounds Familiar to the Immigrants by Now - Fee Increase Plan: They "may" start the "proposed" rule making process to adjust the filing fees beginning from June 2010. Since it is a proposed rule making process, the final rule to actually increase the fee may not materialize until later part of this year. Please stay tuned.
• Let's wait and see how these plans are pushed ahead. However, it appears that oversall, nothing immediate changes are expected and until other plans are out from their vaults, it is going to be a fairly business-as-usual for a while. But remember that until now, we have reviewed their rule-making agenda only. However, the new leadership is undertaking agency-wide policy review process, which will certainly produce some policy changes at the level of memorandums without enacting or changing the rules. These policy changes can be as important as the new rules or amendment of rules. The notorious H-1B Employer-Employee Relation Memorandum is still there and alive!

04/24/2010: Legal and Practical Questions on Just Signed Arizona Legislation for U.S. Citizens

• This state legislation raises serious constitutional questions of due process, right to privacy, and a host of other rights of the U.S. citizens under the U.S. Constitution, which will no doubt be addressed to by the government and private legal resources very quickly. However, other than the constitutional and legal right issues, this type of legislation raises a serious practical issue for U.S. citizens proving "legal" for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. This problem will be particularly acute for those U.S. citiizens who have a foreign accent or so-called "foreign" look. The foreign accent or foreign look will also vary at many different levels depending on the ethnic background of the U.S. citizen in question. Additionally, it has some class implication as well when it comes to so-called "profiling" of undocumented aliens in that if you are well dressed and drive in a fancy car or driven by a chauffer just like the madame Governor of Arizona, you will be less vulnerable for suspicion and profiling, while if you are in casual wear or laborer-looking outfit and look, you are more likelyto be the target of the suspicion as the cops are human beings and they share so-called "human instincs" when it comes to a momentary judgment. Let's put aside this practical issue for a moment as the issues should be dealt with in the context of xenophoebic nature underpinning this legislation.
• The real practical question which this reporter wants to ask to those U.S. citizens who fit foregoing profile and who either live in Arizona and travel in Arizona for business or personal pleasure is: How are you going to prove that you are a "legal" in this country or a U.S. citizen? Obviously, you will not carry with you a birth certificate or passport for the native-born U.S. citizens or a naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship in your possession for non native U.S. citizens, no matter where you are. It is practically impossible.

04/24/2010: Arizona Action Gives Momentum and Hope for CIR 2010 Which Had Been a Lost Cause Until April 22, 2010!

• What a turn of event! Until day before yesterday, the CIR 2010 had been perceived as a lost cause and hope for 2010. Not any more after the Arizona action of its Governor signing a xonophoebic state legislation. The Arizona action is indeed dramatic in that it will change the political landscape for CIR 2010 by giving an incentive for Democrats, moderates, and independents to support for CIR, while giving a nightmare for the Republicans' dream to recoup their seats in the Congress after the November Mid-term election. No one has to be a historian to understand that in the American politics, without the support of the independents and moderates, neither party has an opportunity to win a national election.

04/23/2010: WOW! All the Disappeared Memorandums Are Back Up on USCIS Website!

• For a while, a large number of memorandums have disappeared from the USCIS website. They put them back on 04/20/2010, including Employer-Employee Relationship memorandum! Hmm.................................... Check it out.

04/22/2010: USCIS Special Notice for Relief for Foreign Nationals Stranded due to the Icelandic Volcano Eruption

• This special advisory is for foreign nationals stranded in the U.S. because of the airport closures in Europe due to the Icelandic volcano eruption. If you have exceeded or are about to exceed your authorized stay in the U.S. you may be permitted up to 30 days to depart.
  • Visitors traveling under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP):
    • If you are at an airport, contact the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the airport.
    • If you are not at an airport, visit the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office.
  • Visitors traveling under a nonimmigrant visa:
    • Visit the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office.
    • Bring your passport, itinerary for the cancelled flight, and your I-94 departure record.
• For the complete announcement, please click here.

04/22/2010: State of Processing of Immigration Benefit Applications and Naturalization Applications by the USCIS as of 02/28/2010

• Immmigrant and Nonimmigrant Applications
• Naturalization Applications
• Historical Numberical Change in Numbers of Applications Over the Years

04/21/2010: USCIS Executive Summary of RFE Engagement Session Discussions

• This was a listening session for the USCIS to learn current issues involving the field offices practice of issuing RFEs. Please read what they found.

04/20/2010: USCIS Updates National and Field Offices Processing Volumes and Trends by Type of Petition or Application as of March 2010

• Readers may check this out if they want to know processing volumes and trends of their specific type of cases at their local USCIS offices or Service Centers. All you need to feed in to get the information are type of case, field office, and either volume or trend.

04/20/2010: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Opens AAO Website

• Until recently, access to the AAO information was very limited. Now, it opens the website for those who need information on appeal procedures, processing times, and other appeal related questions. Thanks, Mr. Rhew, Chief of AAO!

04/20/2010: USCIS Executive Summary of Vermont Service Center Engagement Session Discussions of 04/06/2010

• This engagement session was focused on VSC jurisdiction issues of VAWA, T and U visa petitions and USCIS AAO issues relating to the processing times and operation. Read on.

04/20/2010: Disappearance of "H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum" from USCIS Policy Memorandum Site

• As people are aware, the USCIS leadership is currently undertaking agency-wide policy reviews and actively seeking inputs from the stakeholders and public by responding to the review survey. In parallel with this move, the USCIS policy memorandum site of the USCIS website have shown disappearance of a substantial number of memorandums without any announcement or notice or explanation. People will also notice that the notorious H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum has also disappeared from the memorandum site and people can no longer get access to the memorandum. However, under the circumstances of lack of explanation for the disappearance of this memorandum, people should not jump into any conclusion that this memorandum has been withdrawn and act in reliance on such speculation in filing H-1B petitions for the following two reasons.
  • Reason 1: In announcing the agency-wide policy review, the agency clearly warned that pending the review, all the existing memorandums would remain intact and in effect. This policy appears to remain in effect no matter whether the memorandums are posted in its website or not.
  • Reason 2: The H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum amended the Adjudicator's Field Manual (AFM). People should keep in mind that the adjudicators are required to use and follow the AFM in adjudicating cases and the H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship part of the AFM remains well and alive at this time!
• This reporter understands that disappearance of the involved H-1B memorandum currently creates a lot of speculation, but it may be prudent for the H-1B filers to keep following the revised manual and present their petitions as best as they can to satisfy the evidentiary requirement under the Memorandum, at least until the AFM is revised to remove this memorandum from the AFM or the agency annoucnes withdrawal or change or any other decisions relating to this memorandum. Remember that this is just one of host of the memorandums that have disappeared from the USCIS website. At this point, all one can guess is that disappearnce of certain memorandums from the USCIS might mean that the agency may seriously review such memorandums.

04/19/2010: FY 2011 H-1B Cap Count Update

• Extremely slow. Regular H-1B=13,600 and Master cap=5,800 as of 04/15/2010. This does not include denied cases, meaning that actual number of receipt could be somewhat higher than these figures.

04/19/2010: USCIS FY 2010 H-2B 2nd Half Cap Count as of 04/09/2010

• Out of beneficiaries target cap of 47,000, the agency has approved 21,508 beneficiaries and another 2,212 cases are currently pending, adding altogether 23,729 our of estimate maxium target of 47,000.

04/19/2010: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Latest Processing Times

• This processing time report was updated on 03/31/2010 by the AAO.

04/18/2010: Prospects of Foreign Labor Certification Program as Reflected in FY 2011 Budget Proposal

• The budget proposal and performance goal for FY 2010 reflected permanent labor certification processing target at ten (10) months because of the DOL policy to focus the performance goal of the program on maintaining oversight to ensure that employers are compliant with wage and onetime laws with respect to certified foreign workers, so-called "integrity" goal. The actual record reflected that the performance of the PERM processing exactly followed this performance goal and most of permanent labor certification applications have been taking ten (10) months for certification when they were not audited, even though certain types of cases which are less prone to fraud such as special handling cases of higher learning institutions foreign faculty members took much less time than the processing times of other cases. Lately, the processing times have been reduced to nine (9) months according to the OFLC.
• What is ahead for FY 2011 that starts on October 1, 2010? No one should expect any rosy picture. The employers should anticipate several developments ahead that will negatively affect the processing times. Firstly, the processing target did not count the delays in prevailing wage determination by the agency, which did not exist before the first half of FY 2010. Ever since the PWD has been centralized, the employers have been facing tremendous delays in initialing the recruitment activities because of the delays in obtaining PWD. The OFLC continuously emphasizes that the employers should count the processing time of PWD at 60 days (two months) and they will not be able to improve it for a while because of the funding shortfall. Secondly, according to the OFLC, the rate of cases selected for "supervised recruitment" has been very low until FY 2010, but the rate will increase substantially ahead. Only god knows how long it will take when a case is selected for the supervised recruitment processing! Thirdly, the OFLC is scheduled to launch a new Form ETA 9089 filing procedure that will reinforce its focus on integrity of the PERM application. It can start as early as July 2010 but may not be mandatory until the start of the new fiscal year. Considering all of the foregoing anticipated developments ahead, the overall time for getting permanent labor certification may not improve at all. The FY 2011 ETA budget proposal stipulates that the target of the percentage of resolved permanent applications selected for integrity review and found in compliance was 60% in FY 2010 and the same for FY 2011 will even increase to 61%. Remember that this target does not count the delays which will be caused by the prevailing wage determination delays.
• The FY 2011 budget proposal proposes again charge for filing fees for PERM applications, but no one will be surprised with such proposal as the agency has been proposing such fee for the past three years. It appears that the efficiency of PERM program has been somewhat enhanced lately after the agency gradually switched the work force of processing centers from private contractors to its own employees. However, such enhanced efficiency may be negatively offset by its continuing focus and emphasis on "integrity" in the labor certification applications. Beware!

04/16/2010: CIS Ombudsman's 04/14/2010 Recommendations to the USCIS on Various Issues

• Remember that CIS Ombudsman is not part of USCIS. The "CIS" in the title confuses the people, but it does not mean "USCIS." The CIS Ombudsman is a separate division in the DHS organizational structure from the USCIS. The latest recommendations by the Ombudsman cover a number of issues. Read on.

04/16/2010: Do You Have a Problem or Question on Reporting Required Address Change When You Move?

• Some of these questions or problems which were addressed through the Ombudsman's teleconference are answered by the USCIS. Please see whether your problem or question has been answered in these responses. Read on.

04/16/2010: USCIS Responds to Questions Raised on Redesigned USCIS Website at the Ombudsman's Teleconference

• There were quite a few questions addressed at the teleconference on the USCIS website redesign. Some of these questions are answered by the USCIS. Read on.

04/16/2010: USCIS Executive Summary of Public Engagement Session of 03/26/2010 on "Impact of H-1B Memo on the Healthcare Industry"

• This session was attended by a lot of stakeholders and lawyers representing healthcare industry immigrant workers and their employers making a vigorous pitch of arguments against the USCIS H-1B Memorandum on Employer-Employee Relationship. The USCIS has just released its executive summary of these arguments but without responding to the arguments on the ground that it was a "listening" engagement session. Read on.

04/16/2010: Testimony of USCIS Director Mayorkas on USCIS FY 2011 Budget Request Before House Subcommittee on Homeland Security

• We posted earlier a similar testimony before a diffrerent subcommittee of the Congress, but this testimony gives more detailed picture of the USCIS challenges ahead. Read on.

04/15/2010: USCIS Processing Times Update of 04/15/2010

• USCIS has released today the processing times of local offices and service centers. These updates reflect the count at the end of February 2010. We have not seen such short processing times for a while. Employment-based nonimmigrant proceeding takes maximum two months but such visa types as L-1 or H-2 even take only one month. I-140 employee immigraant petition takes four months across the board, and even EB-485 takes only about six months in Texas Service Center and about ten months in Nebraska Service Center. Please see the updated processing times reports at our home page.

04/15/2010: USCIS Announces Launch of Agency-Wide Review of Policies and Practices

• The new leadership of USCIS has been launching aggressive move to make the agency's policy-making process more responsive to the stakeholders and the public. The stakeholders and the public should truly admire this venture in that the foundation of the democratic government lies with responsive government process. The agency is currently undertaking complete review of the agency-wide practice and policies and in that endeavor solicits inputs from the public and stakeholders to this process. For that purpose, the agency has posted Q&A and Survey form. This reporter urges people to respond to this call of the agency en masse. The review process does not appear to be limited to existing policies and practices and people may take advantage of the opportunity to address other issues such as the administrative fixes that are needed under the current environment of practical death of the CIR.
  • Announcement
  • Questions and Answers
  • Survey Form
  • Review Survey Explanation
• The announcement states that pending the review, all the existing policies remain intact and in force. However, readers may notice that the agency has already blocked access to the USCIS memorandums dated early 2007 or earlier from its website. This reporter must also add his note here that the review includes the notorious H-1B Employer-Employee Memorandum! The another action which Mr. Mayorkas has taken in his broad reshaping of the USCIS policy-making process involves his announcement that the traditional memorandums of the agency confusingly used the tool for both legally serious issues as well as simple practice issues, confusing the the mind of some legally conscious segment in the stakeholder community. He has decided to clearly distinguish between legal memorandums and practice information release. Pending that, currently memorandum site of the USCIS website is more or less frozen. We also welcome this action of the new leadership. This reporter wants to remind the leadership that current USCIS website updating news release in three different sites (News, Updates, & Q&A) with no consistency confuses the visitors tremendously. There should be only one page for the news release (combining News site and Update site) and Q&A site should never be used for releasing update news revising previously released news!

04/14/2010: PERM Application Processing Times as of 03/31/2010

• Analyst Review: June 2009
• Audits: March 2008
• Standard Appeals: November 2007
• Government Error Appeals: Current

04/12/2010: It is Ripe for the New USCIS Leadership to Schedule an Engagement Session to Hear and Consider "Administrative Fixes" of Broken Immigration System

• Comprehensive immigration reform proposals have repeatedly been knocked down in the Congress during the past few years. As we reported earlier, the Bush Administration, under the circumstances, worked out twenty-some administrative fix agenda and implemented a few. The country faced a different environment with the start of the new nation's political leadership, President Obama, who pledged to achieve CIR in his first-year of leadership. As things has turned out, not necessarily caused by the President himself, events have developed changing political landscape since the last election which have pushed off the CIR because of the emerging hot eocnomical and political environment. Under the circumstances, it is this reporter's humble opinion that the Obama Administration has waited long enough not to seek administrative fixes of broken immigration system with their initial hope of legislative fix (CIR) by the Congress. The reality is that the hope is faint. Under the circumstances, it is now time for the Obama Administration and the new USCIS leadership face challenges at the administrative level to fix the broken immigration system, albeit limited in scope. The country is seeking their leadership, wisdom, and courage to see and face the reality, and lead this issue which can no longer be pushed off.
• As a starting point, we urge the USCIS to hear opinions and voices from the public by scheduling listening session of "engagement" as soon as possible. The inputs from the stakeholders including AILA will be particularly helpful in developing administrative fix proposals in collaboration with the stakeholders. Madam Napolitano and Mr. Mayorkas, the time is ripe. Otherwise, the heat may explode politically as well as otherwise. Surely enought, the CIR should be an ultimate answer, but when the circumstances turn the answer away from the reality, your leadership must show the wisdom of dealing reality and ailing issues through alternative actions which are within your authority and discretion.

04/12/2010: Senator Kyle of Arizona, Former CIR Supporter in Previous Years, Hands-Off of CIR 2010

• The Senator from Arizona was one of the CIR supporters, albeit in conservative approach, in previous years. Senator Schumer and Senator Graham have been reportedly seeking a second sponsor of their CIR bill and it appears that Senator Kyle appeared to be one of the targets for their allurement. He, however, indicates in a report that he does not see any chances for CIR in 2010 and signaled "not me." Hmm... Interesting!
• The Senate will live in "hot" Spring through Summer this year because of the hottest political agenda of dealing with nomination and confirmation of a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The CIR has undergone a miserable ill-fate lately being pushed off to a back-seat by development of some events of times, anticipated or unanticipated. Let's see how the drama will unfold.

04/12/2010: State Department's Proposed Reform of Secondary School Foreign Students Exchange Visitor Sponsorship Program Receives OMB Nod 04/09/2010

• Last year, this program was under fire and hot spot for the unpleasant media reports of abuse of the home-stay sponsorship allegedly caused by the Department's lack of appropriate management and operation of the program. Pushed by such political pressure, the Department drafted and published a proposed rule to reform the program, but after unknown snags, the initial proposed rule was withdrawn and the Department started all over again introducing a new proposed rule for review by the White House OMB on January 5, 2010. Even this new proposal encountered mysterious delays failing to clear the OMB within the legal deadline of 90 days and extended the review period. After all these mumble and jumble, the proposed rule finally obrained the "nod" from the OMB last Friday for publication in the federal register. Hmm.... Let's see what has been causing such hilly-billy ride.

04/10/2010: Schumer+Graham Poised to Introduce Their Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in the Senate Next Week?

• Report indicates that Senators Chuck Schumer and Linsey Graham are poised to introduce their Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill when the Senate returns to the session next week. This is indirectly substantiated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. No matter what its future will be, for now it is a good news. Please stay tuned.

04/09/2010: State Department Employment Demand Used For Cut-Off Dates

• Find out how and what data the State Department uses to determine monthly cut-off dates for each month. Read on.
• Read also State Department's Operation of the Immigrant Numerical Control System
  

04/09/2010: May 2010 Visa Bulletin

• Very disappointing VB for EB Indians.
• Predictions for the Coming Months:
  • Employment-based: Applicant demand for Employment Fourth preference numbers remains very heavy. It is likely that a cut-off date will need to be established in an effort to keep number use within the annual limits. Depending upon number use, this action could occur as early as June.
  • Family-sponsored: During the past fifteen months, the level of demand for numbers in the Family-sponsored preference categories has been very low. As a result, the cut-off dates for most Family preference categories have been advancing at a very rapid pace, in an attempt to generate demand so that the annual numerical limits may be fully utilized. If demand for numbers should begin to materialize cut-off date movements may begin to slow or stop.
  • Dominican Republic: Continued heavy applicant demand for Dominican Republic numbers is likely to result in the oversubscription of this chargeability in June. This would cause the cut-off dates for the Family second preference categories to be earlier than those which apply to most other countries.
  • Mexico: Due to continued heavy applicant demand, primarily by USCIS Offices for adjustment of status cases, the annual limits for the Mexico Employment Third and Third preference Other Worker categories have been reached. As a result, both categories have become “unavailable.” Visa numbers will become available once again in October with the start of the new fiscal year.
    

04/09/2010: Important USCIS Director Mayorkas' Listening Seesion on RFES on Monday 04/12/2010

• USCIS Director Mayorkas is setting aside his valuable time out of his business schedule to listen from the immigration stakeholders and immigrant community issues relating to RFEs on Monday as follows:
  • USCIS is launching an initiative to review and revise the RFE templates used at the Service Centers in order to bring uniformity and consistency to the process. The USCIS Office of Public Engagement invites you to participate in a listening session to kick off Phase One of the RFE review and revision process. The session will be held Monday, April 12, 2010 @ 4:00pm (Eastern) / 1:00pm (Pacific) @ the California Service Center, 24000 Avila Rd, Laguna Niguel, CA.
  • The first phase of this project will focus on the O, P, and Q nonimmigrant classifications and the E11 immigrant classification. Specifically, we would like to seek your input on the following questions:
    • 1. What are the top 5 issues stakeholders have with the RFEs in these classifications?
    • 2. What improvements can be made to the current RFE process in these classifications?
    • 3. Why are certain types of evidence unavailable when requested?
    • 4. What evidence could be submitted as an alternative?
  • USCIS would also like to hear suggestions for other classifications in which stakeholders would like to see RFEs reviewed during future phases of this project.
• It is anticipated that a large number of people may want to participate in the session by telephone. People should thus register sufficiently ahead of time. For the full details, please click here.

04/09/2010: DHS to Extend Designation of TPS for Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvadore

• USCIS has decided to extend the TPS designation extension for the nationals of these trio-Central American countries. The agency will release notice soon. Please stay tuned.

04/09/2010: USCIS FY-2011 H-1B Cap Count: Regular Cap=13,500 and US Master Degree Cap=5,600

• USCIS has just released its official cap count. FY-2011 cap filing volume has been very light!! They will keep accepting new cap cases until they reach enough numbers. Read announcement.

04/09/2010: State Department Updates Foreign Affairs Manual for U Nonimmigrant Visa Application Standards and Procedures

• Read on.

04/07/2010: NAFSA Summary of FLC 03/25/2010 Stakeholder Meeting Q&A

• This is the NAFSA version of summary of the stakeholder meeting discussions. AILA has also released its own summary of the Q&A at this meeting.

04/07/2010: USCIS New Q&A on Extension of Post-Completion OPT and F-1 Status for Eligible Students Under the H-1B Cap-Gap Regulations

• The release of this new Q&A gives answers to some questions which have remained unanswered.. Those who are or were OPT and file FY-2011 H-1B cap filing should read this Q&A.

04/04/2010: FY 2011 H-1B Cap and Last Date of Accepting for the Cap Filing

• Under the USCIS rule, the first available date for filing is April 1, 2010. Based on the historical record, when certain numbers are received, the USCIS releases the reach of the cap number on certain date. The cap reaching date is called "final receipt date." Usually the final receipt date falls before the date of the agency announcement. People should thus know that the announcement date is not the final receipt date. When the agency receives enough numbers to reach the cap before April 8, 2010, the agency is required to keep accepting petitions until the end of the day of April 7, 2010, no matter whether the cap number reached right after April 1, 2010. Then putting together all the petitions which have been received by the end of April 7, 2010, the agency will perform computer random selection process, called lottery. Traditionally, the agency performed the U.S. Master degree case lottery first, had they received enough U.S. Master degree cases before April 8, 2010, and after completing such lottery, the agency performed the regular H-1B cap case lottery adding those U.S. Master degree cases that failed to be selected.
• When the agency fails to receive enough cap number before April 8, 2010, the H-1B cap petitions which have been received before the end of the date of April 7, 2010 are considered filed and in that regard, not subject to the computer random selection process. And then should the final receipt date is announced certain date after April 7, 2010, the agency will run the computer random selection process using the remaining numbers on the date of final receipt date. If the petitions are not selected through the lottery or received after the final receipt date, the filing will be rejected and returned to the petitioners. April 7 is Wednesday this year. At this time, there is no information available about the agency's cap count at the end of the day of April 2, Friday. It may be prudent for the employers to send in their petitions before the end of the business day of April 7, 2010. Remember that to be counted, the petitions must physically reach the Service Center facilities within business hours. Reaching overnight delivery services offices or U.S. postal stations in the area within April 7 will not guarantee physical delivery of the petitions before the end of the date. Good luck.

03/31/2010: First Day of Shipping-Out of FY-2011 H-1B Cap Filing by Overnight Delivery Services

• Today marks the first day when FY-2011 H-1B cap applicants start shipping out their H-1B cap petitions to get delivered to the USCIS on the first date available for the FY 2011 H-1B cap petitions. Speculations are running around as to when the cap numbers will reach. At this time, it is anybody's guess. Please sit tight and ride the rollercoaster!

03/31/2010: Practical Immigration Consequences for Foreign Workers in a Slowing Economy - USCIS Responses to Ombudsman Teleconference Q&A

• Answers to very challenging questions which are dear and near to the foreign workers. Read on.

03/31/2010: USCIS Director Mayorkas Testimony Before House Appropriations Committee on USCIS Budget Requirement for FY-2011 (October 2010 - September 2011)

• Mr. Mayorkas testied on March 16, 2010. Read on.

03/31/2010: USCIS Naturalization Benefits Applications Statistics as of 01/31/2010

• For January 2009 and 2010, total pending cases dropped 27% from 338,948 to 246,405. However, unlike the immigration statistics, new naturalization application receipts in January 2009 and 2010 increased from 28,598 to 50,731. Additionally, the rate of denial dropped 53% for the same month in 2009 and 2010. The processing environment was clearly in favor of citizenship applicants, probably less affected by the issue of integrity of the applications. For monthly changes from 01/2008 to 01/2010, please click here.

03/31/2010: USCIS Immigration Benefits Applications Statistics as of 01/31/2010

• The USCIS statistics reflect that for January 2009 and 2010, total pending cases dropped 49% from 3,159,923 applications to1,616,966 applications. The total of new receipts dropped 46% for the same month from 478,122 to 259,044. Meanwhile, the rate of denial increased 23% between the period of 10/01/2008-01/31/2009 and the period of 10/01/2009-01/31/2010. The statistics clearly tells the sources of current financial shortfalls of USCIS budget and the trend of restrictive adjudication of applications for assurance of integrity of the applications. For monthly changes from 01/2008 to 01/2010, please click here.

03/30/2010: DOL Reinstates Old Code 20 CFR Part 655.0 on Temporary Employment of Foreign Workers in the U.S.

• The U.S. Department of Labor will announce tomorrow that in Title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 500 to End, revised as of April 1, 2009, on page 466, remove 655.0 and correctly reinstate it to read as follows:
  655.0 Scope and purpose of part.
  (a) Subparts A, B, and C
  • (1) General. Subparts A, B, and C of this part set out the procedures adopted by the Secretary to secure information sufficient to make factual determinations of: (i) Whether U.S. workers are available to perform temporary employment in the United States, for which an employer desires to employ nonimmigrant foreign workers, and (ii) whether the employment of aliens for such temporary work will adversely affect the wages or working conditions of
    similarly employed U.S. workers. These factual determinations (or a determination that there are not sufficient facts to make one or both of these determinations) are required to carry out the policies of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), that a nonimmigrant alien worker not be admitted to fill a particular temporary job opportunity unless no qualifed U.S. worker is available to fill the job opportunity, and unless the employment of the foreign worker in the job opportunity will not adversely affect the wages or working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
  • (2) The Secretary's determinations. Before any factual determination can be made concerning the availability of U.S. workers to perform particular job opportunities, two steps must be taken. First, the minimum level of wages, terms, benefits, and conditions for the particular job opportunities, below which similarly employed U.S. workers would be adversely affected, must be established. (The regulations in this part establish such minimum levels for wages, terms, benefits, and conditions of employment.) Second, the wages, terms, benefits, and conditions offered and afforded to the aliens must be compared to the established minimum levels. If it is concluded that adverse effect would result, the ultimate determination of availability within the meaning of the INA cannot be made since U.S. workers cannot be expected to accept employment under conditions below the established minimum levels. Florida Sugar Cane League, Inc.
    v. Usery, 531 F. 2d 299 (5th Cir. 1976). Once a determination of no adverse effect has been made, the availability of U.S. workers can be tested only if U.S. workers are actively recruited through the offer of wages, terms, benefits, and conditions at least at the minimum level or the level offered to the aliens, whichever is higher. The regulations in this part set forth requirements for recruiting U.S. workers in accordance with this principle.
  • (3) Construction. This part and its subparts shall be construed to effectuate the purpose of the INA that U.S. workers rather than aliens be employed wherever possible. Elton Orchards, Inc. v. Brennan, 508 F. 2d 493, 500 (1st Cir. 1974),
    Flecha v. Quiros, 567 F. 2d 1154 (1st Cir. 1977). Where temporary alien workers are admitted, the terms and conditions of their employment must not result in a lowering of the terms and conditions of domestic workers similarly employed,
    Williams v. Usery, 531 F. 2d 305 (5th Cir. 1976); Florida Sugar Cane League, Inc. v. Usery, 531 F. 2d 299 (5th Cir. 1976), and the job benefits extended to any U.S. workers shall be at least those extended to the alien workers

(b) Subparts D and E. Subparts D and E of this part set forth the process by which health care facilities can file attestations with the Department of Labor for the purpose of employing or otherwise using nonimmigrant registered nurses under H1A visas.
(c) Subparts F and G. Subparts F and G of this part set forth the process by which employers can file attestations with the Department of Labor for the purpose of employing alien crewmembers in longshore work under D-visas and enforcement provisions relating thereto.
(d) Subparts H and I of this part. Subpart H of this part sets forth the process by which employers can file labor condition applications (LCAs) with, and the requirements for obtaining approval from, the Department of Labor to temporarily employ the following three categories of nonimmigrants in the United States: (1) H1B visas for temporary employment in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability; (2) H1B1 visas for temporary employment in specialty occupations of nonimmigrant professionals from countries with which the United States has entered into certain agreements identified in section 214(g)(8)(A) of the INA; and (3) E3 visas for nationals of the Commonwealth of Australia for temporary employment in specialty occupations. Subpart I of this part establishes the enforcement provisions that apply to the H1B, H1B1, and E3 visa programs.
(e) Subparts J and K of this part. Subparts J and K of this part set forth the process by which employers can file attestations with the Department of Labor for the purpose of employing nonimmigrant alien students on F-visas in offcampus employment and enforcement provisions relating thereto.

03/29/2010: House Homeland Security Committee Hearing on "Visa Overstays - Can They be Eliminated?"

• Witness Testimonies:
  • Committee Chairman
  • Visa Overstay Tracking: Progress, Prospects and Pitfalls, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Under Secretary, National Protection and Programs Directorate, DHS
  • Inspector General, DHS
  • ICE Assistant Secretary, DHS
• Something to learn about.

03/29/2010: OFLC Releases Round One of FAQ on H-2A 2010 Final Rule

03/29/2010: DED Extension Procedure Details for Liberians

• The Homeland Security Secretary has announced this extension under the Presidential memorandum and the details have yet to be released through the federal register. This register will be released tomorrow and we are happy to report the advance copy of this federal register notice. The notice will take effect on 04/01/2010.

03/29/2010: Congressional Research Service Study on Policy and Trends of Immigration Visa Issuances and Grounds for Exclusion

• This report reviews the current environment of tightening visa issuances and exclusion of aliens from historical perspectives. Read on.

03/27/2010: H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum of USCIS and Public Engagements Under Rising Political Pressure

• This memorandum is currently under fire and USCIS has been undertaking open forums on this issue obviously for the purpose of hearing opinions from the stakeholders. In the yesterday's session on its impact on healthcare industry and professionals, thermo-scale of heat was very high as foreign healthcare professionals are hired not by healthcare institutions but by the third party sponsors. Reportedly, these third-party employers have been facing serious challenges in their visa sponsorship as affected by this memorandum. Reportedly absolute majority of these healthcare professionals are hired through H-1B visa program. The stake is getting higher for these sponsors as doors and opportunities for hiring increased number of foreign healthcare professionals are expected to be wider and rise because of the just passed Healthcare Reform legislation that opens door for medical coverage to 32 million people who are currently not covered, which willl shoot up demand for increased number of healthcare professionals. There is already report of visible increase in medical services demands and the new legislation is likely to increase the demand for healthcare professionals tremendously, making the shortage of these professionals intolerable. Reportedly, some of the legislators are taking action to increase the quota for the state sponsorship from current 30 per state to gradual increase in the coming years to cope with the new challenge.
• Without doubt, the USCIS leadership is carefully reviewing this memorandum. We hope to see changes in the near future, the sooner, the better!

03/26/2010: Bi-Partisan Refugee Opportunity Act, S. 2960, and Return of Talent Act, S. 2974, Bills Sailing Smoothly and Fairly Quickly in the Senate

• These three senior bi-partisan senators' bills (Sen. Leahy, Sen. Lugar, and Sen. Feingold) are indeed sailing smoothly. Today, these bills which the Judiciary passed yesterday were reported to the Senate and put on the Senate General Calendar for actions.
• The Congress, after the exhausting process of passing the Healthcare Reform legislation, is scheduled to go into recess for two weeks, and practically no Congressional activities will be resumed until middle of April 2010. President Obama has started his action on Financial Reform legislation as his next priority agenda which is less contentious and controversial in both parties. Eventually, the Senator Schumer may introduce a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill in the Senate when the Senate returns, but the legislators are already swirled into the November Mid-Term National Election strategies and a legislation of CIR which is one of the most contentious and controversial bills has literally lost momentum to see the light within 2010.

03/25/2010: Senator Lindsey Graham Today: Immigration Reform 'Dead' in Health Debate Aftermath

• Hmm.....................................................

03/25/2010: Senator Patrick Leahy Statement in Today's Hearing on Refugee Opportunity Act and Return of Talent Act Bill in Senate Judiciary Committee

• Desite the exhuasting Senate floor action on the Healthcare Reform reconciliation bill today, the Judiciary Committee kept its schedule on these two immigration bills today. The Senate is now relieved from the nightmare by passing the reconciliation bill today. We are glad that the Judiciary Committee adhered to its hearing schedule today rather than postponing.
• The full Judiciary Committee ordered to report to the Senate with a substitute. It means that these bills are likely to pass the Senate soon.

03/25/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Issues on 03/24/2010 the Updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the New Prevailing Determination (PWD) Procedures

• The first FAQ was issued in December 2009. OFLC is additing additional questions and answers on March 24, 2010. Please check it out. Still recommends filing of 60-day ahead of the needs.

03/25/2010: DOL Updates Foreign Labor Certification Program Performance Reports as of End of September 2009

• H-1B and PERM
• H-2A and H-2B

03/25/2010: H-1B Medical Professionals and Healthcare Industry and Impact of USCIS Employer-Employee Relationship Memorandum

• The USCIS is scheduled to have a public engagement session tomorrow to hear from the stakeholders and H-1B healthcare professionals and employers as to the impact of this controversial memorandum on them. This is so-called a listening session and USCIS representatives are less likely to give answers to most of questions addressed by the participants, but it is likely that the agency may release it in the form of Q&A on the subject afterwards. For the reasons, it may be important that the stakeholders, employers, and healthcare professionals in the healthcare industry participate in the session and address their concerns as much as possible to impact the agency's policy on the subject. We understand that the healthcare industry is one of the industries that are most affected by the Memorandum along with the IT industry. It is scheduled at 3:00 p.m. EST tomorrow, 03/26/2010. People can participate in person or by telephone. This reporter has been participating in most of the sessions to monitor the discussions and follow-up of the agency's actions and assessment of impact of such discussions on the policy-making or change in agency's practice and management of immigration benefits program. Remember that crying babies get fed with milk. For the details, please click here.

03/24/2010: Fund for the U.S.-Russia Program to Improve Research and Educational Activities for Higher Learning Institutions

• U.S. Department of Education will open invitation from tomorrow for this grant and the deadline will be May 18, 2010. For the details of the program, please click here.

03/24/2010: Text of Testimony of Assistant DHS Inspector General on USCIS Transformation Program Before House Immigration Subcommittee Yesterday.

• The testimony summarizes the program, progress, and challenges ahead at the USCIS Congressional oversight hearing. Read on.

03/24/2010: Text of Testimony of Mr. Mayorkas, USCIS Director, Before House Immigration Subcommittee Yesterday

• Good summary of his initiatives after he took USCIS leadership and run-down of issues faced by the USCIS, particularly funding stresst the USCIS Congressional oversight hearing. See what he said about the financial stress of the USCIS. Read on.
• Please also read the text of testimony by Government Accounting Office on "Fee Design Characteristics and Trade-Offs Illustrated by USCIS's Immigration and Naturalization Fees."

03/23/2010: Filing Location of Travel Document (I-131) Changed

• USCIS has announced that they changed the filing location of I-131 application. People should read carefully the instruction of I-131 form to find the correct locations. The locations are so diverse per different purposes of I-131 filing that unless people read it very carefully, one may take a risk of filing it at wrong address.

03/23/2010: High-Tech Worker Immigration Issues Slowly Come Back to the Attention of Anti-Immigration Group

• As the health care reform legislation is about to wrap up, understandably increasing attention is directed to the immigration reform issues. The foes of high-tech worker immigration appear to be crawling out of their shell to fight against the high-tech worker immigration. Do you remember the court-fight by Programmers Guild against STEM OPT Student 29-month extension rule in federal courts? Everybody thought the fight was over after they lost in the lower courts. Don't pull out your gun too fast. Report indicates that they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and fight it out! They really are persistent. They should be admired for their guts.

03/23/2010: USCIS Director Mayorkas to Testify Before House Immigration Subcommittee Today

• The Subcommittee will hear from the Mr. Mayorkas as well as Inspector General of DHS and General Accounting Office "Budget" Director at 2:00 p.m. est. today. As soon as the text of testimonies becomes available, we will make it available on this site. Please stay tuned.

03/23/2010: USCIS Updates National and Field Offices Processing Volumes and Trends by Type of Petition/Application and by Each Service Center or Local Office

• This is the latest data which the USCIS has updated that includes the data as of January 2010 and any earlier months or years. This is likely very helpful particularly for those applicants where the cases are pending in local district and field offices.

03/23/2010: USCIS Questions and Answers on Employment-Based Nonimmigrant or Immigrant Proceedings

• USCIS has been releasing selective questions and answers based on its stakeholder meeting discussions which are very resourceful to find answers to some questions that employers or foreign workers might have. We encourage these employers and foreign workers this Questions and Answers material to learn the USCIS policies or practices on certain issues. It contains many issues and readers should be patient in locating the questions and answers which they have in mind.

03/22/2010: Employment-Based I-485 Inventory Statistics of USCIS 03/08/2010

• How to read the inventory tables? Employment-based I-485 inventory includes both principal and dependent applications. The first part of the report contains summary data on the number of pending I-485s by country of chargeability and preference, as listed in the Department of State Visa Bulletin. The second part of the report consists of a series of tables, each for a different preference, for each country of chargeability. Each table is broken down by month and year, and each cell contains the number of pending I-485s with a priority date within that particular month and year. By adding a series of cells, the applicant will know how many applicants there are with priority dates earlier than their own.

03/22/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Schedules Webinar Briefing Session of H-2A Temporary Labor Certification Program for Agricultural Workers

• The OFLC is scheduling a webinar briefing to educate stakeholders, program users, and other interested members of the public on applying for H-2A temporary labor certifications under the Final Rule, using the ETA Form 9142. Participants must be a registered user of Workforce3One to register for the webinar. If not a user, they should go to http://www.workforce3one.org/view/5001007444778993193/info to register and to register for the webinar.
• Time and Date: March 25, 2010, Thursday, at 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST. For other details, please click here.

03/22/2010: Last Night's Passage of House Health Care Reform Bill: Clearing the Way For or Throwing a Dark Cloud Over Schumer-Graham Bi-Partisan CIR Agenda?

• Readers will remember that when Senators Schumer and Graham released their CIR outline in the Washington Post last week, Senator Graham threatened to halt bipartisan talks if House Democrats passed the health bill. "The first casualty of the Democratic health care bill will be immigration reform," Graham said. His reaction in the next week will provide a glimpse into whether the already toxic relationship between the parties in Washington is bound to get even worse, so goes the report. Will the Democrats be able to pass alone a CIR bill the way they handled the Health Care Reform legislation? That is the question.

03/21/2010: Success of USCIS Public Engagement and Keys for Continuing Success for the Program

• USCIS used monthly newsletters for a while to inform the public its programs and to send out messages to the consumers of its programs, public, and stakeholders. The newsletter did not last too long and has been discontinued. We do not have any evidence as to whether the newletter was a failure from the perspectives of both the USCIS and the consumers, but discontinuation could be taken as a sign of failure. In our opinion, it failed because it was used for the purpose of the agency to sell, publicize, and impact the readers unilaterally and selectively. In other words, the newsletter was perceived as a sole means to promote public relations for the agency rather than to achieve the responsive government.
• The public engagement program of the current USCIS is distinguished from the newletter approach in this regard and turns out to be very successful to outreach the public, consumers, and stakeholders. However, for the program to be continuied to be successful, "outreach" should not be sole goal in that it may turn out to be far apart from the real goal of responsive government, the key democratic government principle. Simple outreach may be soon perceived as other terms of public relations or publicity in purpose, which was the key sources of failure for the newsletter program. One unique component of the public engagement which is distinguished from simple outreach must be to hear opinions and feed-backs to its policies, programs, and practices from the public, consumers, and stakeholders. Besides, hearing the opinions and feed-backs may mean nothing, unproductive, and meaningless unless they are reflected in the agency's future policy making, changes or improvement in programs and practices. It is our opinion that the last component may turn out to be a determining factor for the agency's current public engagement program. Should the public, consumers, and stakeholders see no evidence of changes or improvement in policies, programs, and practices, they will perceive the public engagement program just as another form of a public relations program and may sooner or later slip away from the agency's public engagement program.
• For the USCIS to show that the public engagement program is truly intended to promote the responsive government, the agency will have to show public, consumers, and stakeholders the opinions and feed-backs which the agency has received and more importantly how they are reflected in the agency's future policy formulation, or changes in program, management, and practice. For the reasons, we strongly recommend the agency to release the questions and answers for each engagement session after completion of the sessions following its traditional practice of releasing Community Relations/Stakeholder Meeting Minutes for each session. Additionally, the public, consumers, and stakeholders may need some type of medium to learn how these opinions and feedbacks have been reflected in the agency's policies, programs, management, and practice. In our opinion, the foregoing efforts of the agency may be very important and critical for the agency to sustain success of the public engagement program. Without such efforts, the agency may witness gradual reduction of participants or interest of the public, consumers, and stakeholders in the agency's public engagement program.

03/20/2010: Two Big Events in the Nation's Capital Tomorrow

• Immigrants are scheduled to launch a huge CIR march in National Mall tomorrow demanding political leaders to act on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. Unfortuantely, the Congress will convene same day to act on the Health Care Reform legislation tomorrow. The nation's media will be more or less obsessed with the final show-down of the Health Care voting news than the immigrants' march. Two events are more or less ill-timed each other to receive a full attention of the people in the country and, for that matter, world. The march will help tremendously, though, to push for the CIR on the top of list of priorities in the next agenda of the political leaders. We wish all the best for those who traveled to the nation's capital from all four corners of the land to achieve their goal. They are truly "dedicated" advocates and supporters of an important cause. We ask them to keep their "chin-up" when they march to show their pride and dignity fighting for an important cause. John Keller, thank you for your dedication!

03/20/2010: Senate Full Judiciary Committee to Debate S. 2960, Refugee Opportunity Act

• This is a bill which was introduced by the same powerful bi-partisan trio Senators on January 28, 2010 for nation's foreign security and interest purposes. The bill proposes to exempt aliens who are admitted as refugees or granted asylum and are employed overseas by the Federal Government from the 1-year physical presence requirement for adjustment of status to that of aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence. It provides: Exception to 1-Year Residency Requirement for Adjustment of Status- An alien who does not meet the physical presence requirement under subsection (a)(1)(B) or (b)(2), but who otherwise meets the requirements under subsection (a) or (b) for adjustment of status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, shall be eligible for such adjustment of status if the alien did not meet the 1-year physical presence requirement because the alien was employed outside of the United States by the Federal Government or by a contractor of the Federal Government.'.
• Again, this hearing will also be webcasted on March 25, 2010. Read also the full text.

03/20/2010: Senate Full Judiciary Committee to Debate S. 2974, Return of Talent Act

• Nowadays, immigration bills rarely show any movement both in the Senate and the House. However, on March 25, 2010, Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up for hearing on two bi-partisan bills which are sponsored by three powerful Senators, Senator Leahy, Senator Lugar, and Senator Feingold. One is S. 2974 Return of Telent Act and the other is Refugee Opportunity Act. The title of Return of Talent Act is somewhat misleading in that it does not have anything to do with the traditional meaning of "talent" which includes highly educated foreign workers, particularly in STEMs or hi-tech workers, etc. This legislation is to expand the categories of "immigrants" (permanent residents) who are eligible for naturalization application counting the period during which they were absent from the U.S. to perform certain missions, such as missionary. This bill proposes to add the following special immigrants in the definition of special immigrants for the purpose of naturalization who will be eligible for naturalization even if they were absent for not longer than two years by waiving the continuous residence and physical presence requirement in naturalization eligibility. The immigrants who are eligible be this people include:
  • an immigrant who--
  • `(i) has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence;
  • `(ii) demonstrates an ability and willingness to make a material contribution to the post-conflict or natural disaster reconstruction in the alien's country of citizenship; and
  • `(iii) has been determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to be a citizen of--
    • `(I) a country in which the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged, or have been engaged during the 10-year period preceding such determination, in combat or peacekeeping operations;
    • `(II) a country in which authorization for United Nations peacekeeping operations was initiated by the United Nations Security Council during the 10-year period preceding such determination; or
    • `(III) a country which received, during the preceding 2 years, financial assistance from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development in response to a disaster in such country that is beyond the ability of such country's response capacity and warrants a response by the United States Government.'.
• Those who will be eligible for this benefit, should this bill pass, may watch the Committee's webcast on March 25, 2010. They may also read the full text of this bill. This bill was introduced on February 2, 2010 on the Senate floor and is now moving ahead.

03/20/2010: 18-Month Extension of Liberian DED Beyond 03/31/2010

• Yesterday, the President issued a memorandum to the Secretary of Homeland Security to extend the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for 18 months for Liberians. The current Liberian DED is scheduled to expire on 03/31/2010, and unless this action is taken, those Liberians who reside in the U.S. on DED was destined to be removed from the U.S. after March 31, 2010. Based on the Presidential memorandum, the USCIS also released its announcement that the current EAD for Liberians in DED was automatically extended for six months and it would publish a notice in the federal register relating to the specific procedures involving application for extension of EAD beyond the period. If current Liberian on DED has an EAD that shows expiration date of 03/31/2010 and class for EAD application is designated as "A-11" on the face of the cards, the card is automatically extended for six months. Pending the release of the notice in the federal register, Liberians are advised to read the following documents:
  • Presidential Memorandum of 03/19/2010
  • USCIS Announcement and Q&A of 03/19/2010
• We are happy for the Liberians in the U.S. who have been living here with their unknown destiny.

03/19/2010: Release of Schumer-Graham CIR Outline Produces Confusing and Mixed Signals

• President has been under the pressure to announce his strong support for the plan. There was a report that Rep. Gutierrez who pioneered CIR backed by the Hispanic community had been extremely frustrated by President Obama's back-seat coaching on the immigration reform matter and used his power of supporting the healthcare reform bill as a chip to add political pressure on the President Obama to come forward strongly pushing the CIR. However, report indicates that the White House was sending out a different message from that of the President when it comes to the priorities of the White House at this time, CIR still being in a back row. As time is running out fast, there is a growing pessimism throughout the immigrant community and political advocates for the certainty of achieving CIR legislation in 2010.

03/18/2010: Sen.Schumer-Graham CIR Will Propose Green Card for U.S. Earned Ph.D. and Master's Degrees in STEM

• These Senators have written an ariticle in the Washington Post which will be published as of March 19, 2010 outlining their Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposal. This bill proposes to grant a lawful permanent resident status to U.S. earned Ph.D. and Master's degree holders in STEM. For the full text, please click here.

03/18/2010: Interesting Arrival and Departure Document Usage Estimate Statistics of USCBP

• USCBP is currently seeking I-94, I-94W, and ESTA form extension through the OMB rule-making process. This proposal includes the following statistics which give some ideas of the estimate traffics of admissions of nonimmigrants every year and how much it costs. Just curious.
  • I-94 (Arrival and Departure Record):
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 14,000,000
    Estimated Number of Total Annual Responses: 14,000,000
    Estimated Time per Response: 8 minutes
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 1,862,000
    Estimated Total Annualized Cost on the Public: $84,000,000
  • I-94W (Nonimmigrant Visa Waiver Arrival/Departure):
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 17,000,000
    Estimated Number of Total Annual Responses: 17,000,000
    Estimated Time per Response: 8 minutes
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,261,000
    Estimated Total Annualized Cost on the Public: $102,000,000
  • Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA):
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 17,000,000
    Estimated Number of Total Annual Responses: 17,000,000
    Estimated Time per Response: 15 minutes
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,250,000

03/18/2010: USCIS Engagement Sessions and CIS Ombudsman Office Teleconferences

• The immigration stakeholders and immigrant community are benefiting to a great extent from the new USCIS leadership's aggressive open engagement sessions to address, share, and feed back the agency's policies and practices on various important issues of the time. This reporter has been religiously participating in these sessions to monitor the discussions which are considered very important for the agency's policy making process and new direction for management of immigration benefits applications and petitions. However, participants are frustrated by some of people who bring their individual cases on the floor taking away valuable time to discuss the engagement topics. This is happening because some of them do not recognize the distinction between the USCIS Engagement Function and the CIS Ombudsman Function. The Engagement Office of the USCIS is neither authorized nor intended to hear complaints and issues involving individual cases. It is the authority and function of the CIS Ombudsman's Office that should hear and seek redress for such individual issues. The participants of these two conferences should recognize the distinction and should not harm the intent and purpose of the Engagement Sessions and participants who want to hear, share, and feed back policy and practice issues during the valuable and precious floor time. Please do not bring up your individual cases on the floor of the sessions. Remember that there are hundreds of invisible people who participate in the sessions by telephone who have been experiencing waste of time and frustration because of such participants.

03/18/2010: First Navy MAVNI Program Recruits Get the U.S. Citizenship at Overseas Military Camp

• Not familiar yet with the U.S. citizenship opportunity under the MAVNI Program? Read on.
• See also those happy faces reported on USCIS site.

03/18/2010: Senate Judiciary Schedules Today a Hearing on S. 2960 on Elimination of Current One-Year Physical Presence Requirement for Refugees/Asylees' Adjustment to Permanent Residence

• The Judiciary full committee will hear this bill today. The Committee will start the session from 10:00 a.m., EST. This bill was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to exempt aliens who are admitted as refugees or granted asylum and are employed overseas by the Federal Government from the 1-year physical presence requirement for adjustment of status to that of aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Good news for the refugee and asylee community that the bill is finally moving on. Those who are interested in the hearing may watch webcast of the hearing.

03/16/2010: "Our Work Touches the Lives of Many"

• Mr. Mayorkas' writing in the USCIS Blog "BEACON." We are very grateful to Mr. Mayorkas for his efforts to reach the public, stakeholders, and immigrants. This reporter encourages our visitors to visit the BEACON site and send him gratitude and comment. We understand that the agency is not operating in a vacuum. As the nation and people go through tough time as affected by the ailing economy, the agency must also have to suffer in terms of its fund shortfalls as evidenced by the drastic drop of immigration benefit applications. Since the agency is funded by the user fees paid by its customers, understandably the agency must be going through a difficult time because of the increasing fund short falls. Eventually, this may lead the agency to raising of the filing fees. It is nobody's fault. We just wish that the agency controls the hike of fees to a limited level by agressively pursuing, in parallel, improvement in immigration benefits management system to achieve level of efficiency and effectiveness as soon as possible.

03/15/2010: USCIS Updates on 03/12/2010 Field Offices Processing Times as of 01/31/2010

• Please visit our home page.

03/14/2010: DOL Release PERM Labor Certification Application Processing Times as of 02/28/2010

• Processing times are reported by cases per priority dates as follows:
  • Analyst Review Stage: 06/2009 Initial Receipt Cases
  • Audit Cases: 01/2008 Initial Receipt Cases
  • Standard Appeal Cases: 10/2007 Initial Receipt Cases
  • Government Error Appeal Cases: Current
• The last report was released on 02/18/2010 where Analyst Review cases were 04/2009 cases. It Ain't Bad!

03/13/2010: Notice for Widows of U.S. Citizens in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands

• Congress amended the immigration law in October 2009 to provide that the spouse of a citizen can remain eligible to immigrate, despite the citizen’s death, even if the alien and the citizen were married for less than 2 years. The new law is Public Law 111-83, which took effect on October 28, 2009. Based on this change in the law, the Hootkins plaintiffs and the Government have agreed to settle the Hootkins v. Napolitano, CV-07-5696, (9th Circuit). The settlement provides that:
  • Any Class Member¡¦s Form I-130 that is still pending with USCIS is converted to, and will be adjudicated as, a widow(er)¦s Form I-360.
  • If USCIS denied the Form I-130, the Form I-130 is reopened, as of December 2, 2009, and converted to a Form I-360.
  • Any pending or reopened Form I-130 that is converted to a Form I-360 will be adjudicated under 8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(2)(A)(i) as amended by 568(c) of Public Law 111-83. The Class Member must establish that he or she was married to the deceased citizen when the deceased citizen died, that their marriage was bona fide, that they were not divorced or legally separated when the deceased citizen died, and that the Class Member has not remarried. All other requirements for approval of a visa petition apply to the adjudication of the case, including 8 U.S.C. 1154(c), 1154(g) and 1255(e)(3), if applicable.
  • If, as in the case of Liju LU and Class Members represented by her, a Form I-130 was approved, but the approval was revoked under 8 C.F.R. 205.1(a)(3)(i)(C), the approval is deemed reinstated as of October 28, 2009.
  • USCIS will also adjudicate any Class Member's Form I-485 in light of 8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(2)(A)(i) as amended by 568(c) of Public Law 111-83, if the Class Member is still in the United States and USCIS still has jurisdiction of the Form I-485. If USCIS had denied the Form I-485, the Form I- 485 is reopened, as of December 2, 2009.
  • For surviving spouses admitted to the United States as K nonimmigrants, there will be no Form I-130 if the couple married within 90 days of the K-1's admission. In this situation, for purposes of adjudicating of a Form I-485 that was pending on October 28, 2009, the K-1 nonimmigrant, and any K-2 children, will be deemed to be the beneficiaries of an approved Form I-360.
  • If a Class Member had abandoned his or her adjustment application by departing the United States without a grant of advance parole, or by leaving with a grant of advance parole but not returning before the expiration of the advance parole period, the approval of the Class Member's Form I-360 will permit the Class Member to apply for an immigrant visa.
  • For purposes of 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B), a Class Member shall be deemed not to have accrued any unlawful presence within the United States on or before October 28, 2009.
  • Any Class Member who was removed from the United States will be required to file an individual Form I-212, Application for Permission to Reapply for Admission, to waive inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(A). The Form I-212 will be accepted without regard to the length of time the Class Member has remained outside of the United States.
  • All converted Form I-360 Self-Petitions will carry the filing date of the Form I-130 Petition originally filed. As a result, under 8 U.S.C. 1151(f)(1), any unmarried sons or daughters of Class Members who were under 21 years of age at the time the Form I-130 Petition was filed will still be considered to be under 21 years of age, for purposes of determining whether they qualify as derivative beneficiaries of the Form I-360 Self-Petition.
  • If USCIS denies a Class Member's converted Form I-360, the Class Member may seek administrative appeal or judicial review to the extent permitted bylaw.
  • If USCIS denies a Class Member's Form I-485, then, unless the alien is in a lawful nonimmigrant status, or is not entitled to a removal proceeding, USCIS will initiate a removal proceeding. The Class Member may apply for adjustment of status before the immigration judge, unless the immigration judge lacks jurisdiction under 8 C.F.R. 1245.2(a)(1).
• For full details, please click here.

03/13/2010: Greece Designated as Visa Waiver Program Country

• DHS Secretary announced on 03/09/2010 the designation of Greece as Visa Waiver Program country. With this announcement, the citizens of Greece will be permitted to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days without visa in approximately 30 days. However, they are required to apply for an Electronic System Travel Authorization (ESTA). For other details, please click here.

03/12/2010: Official April 2010 Visa Bulletin

• Other than visa cut-off dates, readers should pay attention to the following information in this month's Visa Bulletin:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON FREQUENTLY MISUNDERSTOOD POINTS

Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing cut-off date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, a significant amount of demand is received each month for applicants who have priority dates which are significantly earlier than the applicable cut-off dates. In addition, fluctuations in demand can cause cut-off date movement to slow, stop, or even retrogress. Retrogression is particularly possible near the end of the fiscal year as visa issuance approaches the annual limitations.

Per-country limit: The annual per-country limitation of 7% is a cap which visa issuances to any single country may not exceed. Applicants compete for visas primarily on a worldwide basis. The country limitation serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the annual limitation by applicants from only a few countries. This limitation is not a quota to which any particular country is entitled, however.

Applicability of Section 202(a)(5): INA Section 202(a)(5), added by the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, removed the per-country limit on Employment-based immigrants in any calendar quarter in which applicant demand for numbers in one or more Employment-based preferences is less than the total of such numbers available. In recent years, the application of Section 202(a)(5) has allowed countries such as China – mainland born and India to utilize large amounts of Employment First and Second preference numbers which would have otherwise gone unused. Such numbers are provided strictly in priority date order without regard to the foreign state chargeability, and the same cut-off date applies to any country benefiting from this provision.

Applicability of Section 202(e): When visa demand by documentarily qualified applicants from a particular country exceeds the amount of numbers available under the annual numerical limitation, that country is considered to be oversubscribed. Oversubscription may require the establishment of an earlier cut-off date than that which applies to a particular visa category on a worldwide basis. The prorating of numbers for an oversubscribed country follows the same percentages specified for the division of the worldwide annual limitation among the preferences. (Note that visa availability cut-off dates for oversubscribed areas may not be later than worldwide cut-off dates, if any, for the respective preferences.)

Furthermore, Section 202(a)(2) reads, “2) Per country levels for family-sponsored and employment-based immigrants. Subject to paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), the total number of immigrant visas made available to natives of any single foreign state or dependent area under subsections (a) and (b) of section 203 in any fiscal year may not exceed seven percent (in the case of a single foreign state) or two percent (in the case of a dependent area) of the total number of such visas made available under such subsections in that fiscal year.” The seven percent per-country limit specified in INA 202(a)(2) is considered to be for both Family-sponsored and Employment-based numbers combined.

Allocation of visa numbers under Section 202(e) is accomplished as follows:

If based on historical patterns or current demand it appears that during a fiscal year number use by aliens chargeable to a particular country will exceed the per-country numerical limit for both the Family and Employment preferences combined, that country would be considered oversubscribed. Both the Family and Employment preferences would be subject to the prorating provisions of INA 202(e)(1).
Sometimes during a fiscal year it may become apparent that because of a lack of demand in the Family preferences, number use by aliens chargeable to an oversubscribed country will be well within the per-country numerical limit. In such case the excess Family numbers would be made available to the Employment preferences subject to the prorating provisions of INA 202(e)(1). Each of the first three Employment categories would receive 28.6% of the excess numbers, and each of the Fourth and Fifth preference categories 7.1%. (Fall-across would likewise apply if an oversubscribed country lacked sufficient demand in the Employment preferences but had excess demand in the Family preferences.)
If a foreign state other than an oversubscribed country has little Family preference demand but considerable Employment preference demand, the otherwise unused Family numbers fall across to Employment (and vice versa) for purposes of that foreign state’s annual numerical limit. For example, in FY-2009 South Korea used a grand total of 15,899 Family and Employment preference numbers, of which 1,688 were Family numbers and 14,211 were Employment numbers. This grand total was well within the FY-2009 per-country numerical limit of 25,620 Family and Employment numbers combined, so South Korea was not oversubscribed. The unused Family numbers were distributed within the Employment categories, allowing South Korea to be considerably over the 9,800 Employment limit which would have been in effect had it been an oversubscribed country.

03/12/2010: Unofficial April 2010 Visa Bulletin

• American Consulate in Mumbai, India released April Visa Bulletin. According to this report, India EB-2 will remain 02/01/2005, not moving from March cut-off date. For EB-3, it will move to 02/01/2003 for Worldwide and 09/09/2001 for India.
• Please wait for the official release by the State Department for the official version.

03/12/2010: Obama-Schumer-Graham CIR Meeting Results

• Simply put, no light at the end of the tunnel! The Schumer-Lindsey Graham plan which was presented to the President at yesterday's meeting reportedly included tougher border security, a program to admit temporary immigrant workers and a biometric Social Security card that would prevent people here illegally from getting jobs. Other details have yet to be released, but the report indicates that no other single Republican senator agreed to sign the proposal. Mr. President, what's in your own wallet? Read on.

03/11/2010: OFLC/DOL Notice of Technical Change to Filing Locations of ETA 9141 (PWD), Redetermination, Review Request, and BALCA Review

• OFLC will publish this notice tomorrow for minor technical changes to addresses of the filing locations of the prevailing wage determination request for H-1B, H-1B1, H-1C, H-2B, E-3, and PERM. Effective tomorrow the correct addresses will be as follows:
  • Addresses:
    a. PWD Requests
    Old Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA, National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center, Attn: PWD Request; 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3142.
    New Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA, National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center, Attn: PWD Request; 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3105.
    b. Redeterminations
    Old Address: PW Redetermination, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3142.
    New Address: PW Redetermination, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3105.
    c. OFLC Review
    Old Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA; National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center; Attn.: PWD Review, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3142.
    New Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA; National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center; Attn.: PWD Review, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3105.
    d. BALCA Review of PWDs
    Old Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA, National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center, Attn.: PWD Appeal, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005- 3142.
    New Address: U.S. Department of Labor-ETA; National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center; Attn.: PWD Appeal, 1341 G Street, NW., Suite 201, Washington, DC 20005-3105.
• For the full text, please click here. See also official release in federal register, 03/12/2010.

03/11/2010: House Bill Introduced to Remove One-Year Waiting Period for Asylum Applicants

• Representative Fortney Pete Start of California introduced H.R.4800 yesterday to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the 1-year deadline for application for asylum in the United States. For the details, please stay tuned for the full text of the bill.

03/10/2010: USCIS All-Out Outreach Efforts at Local Level, Particularly Naturalization Information Sessions

• As the outreach program reaps fruits, the USCIS appears to expand the outreach programs both at national level and at local level. For the scheduels of local community level sessions for the next two months, please click here. Those who seek some answers to questions on naturalization application may take advantage of these sessions which will be offered at their communities.

03/10/2010: Recent Catastrophic Earthquake in Chile and USCIS Special Immigration Relief for Chilean Nationals

• USCIS reminds Chilean nationals that the following benefits are available:
  • The grant of an application for change or extension of nonimmigrant status on behalf of a Chilean national who is currently in the United States, even in cases where the request is submitted after the individual’s authorized period of admission has expired;
  • Re-parole of individuals granted parole by USCIS;
  • Extension of certain grants of advance parole, expedited processing of advance parole requests;
  • Expedited adjudication and approval, where possible, of requests for off-campus employment authorization due to severe economic hardship for F-1 students;
  • Expedited processing of immigrant petitions for immediate relative(s) of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs);
  • Expedited issuance of employment authorization where appropriate; and
  • Assistance to LPRs stranded overseas without documents in coordination with the Department of State.
• Read on.

03/10/2010: USCIS Alerts Rejection of H-1B Filing Without Certified LCA Beginning from Today!

• As the temporary policy accepting H-1B petition without "certified" LCA expired yesterday, the USCIS has released an announcement today that any H-1B petitions filed without certified LCA are and will be rejected beginning from today. The agency has been under pressure to extend the period considering continuing delays in DOL LCA processing, but the USCIS has decided not to extend the temporary relief.

03/10/2010: Obama-Schumer-Linsey CIR Meeting Rescheduled 3:00 P.M. Est Tomorrow, 03/11/2010

• Report indicates that this meeting which was scheduled evapolated because of Senator Linsey's flight delays. However, the President and the two senators have rescheduled to meet at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. Surrounding the meeting and rising CIR campaign, there are a lot of soccer ball kicking all around to take advantage of the issue politically.

03/09/2010: Yesterday's USCIS Announcement of FY 2011 H-1B Cap Filing Guidance and Three Key Points That Deserve Special Attention

• Readers may misunderstand that this announcement is nothing but another carbon copy of FY 2009 announcement and guidance on the subject. Indeed, most of the guidance follows the last year's guidance, but there are a few which this year's FY-2011 H-1B cap filers should pay a close attention to, including but not limited to the following:
  • Filing address and format: Read caefully any changes in the filing addresses. No forwarding will be available if mailed to a wrong address!
  • Definition of receipt: Package must be delivered and the agency office must have it in their "possession." Postmark does not count when it is filed at the last minute. Additionally, delivery to the agency's Post Office P.O. boxes and reaching the postal station may not be considered accepted until it is picket up by the agency's pick-up crew at the postal stations. Unlike commercial delivery services, U.S. Express Mail has been experiencing this problem because the USPS keeps such express mail delivery in the postal stations until they are picked up by the agency's pick-up crew, which happens only one or two times a day.
  • Must enclose "certified" LCA. The USCIS temporary policy to accept H-1B petitions with the proof of LCA pending and before the LCA certification expires today. For the reasons, the H-1B announcement of yesterday emphasized importance of filing "certified" LCA and any filings without such certified LCA will be rejected or denied.

03/09/2010: Senator Schumer and Senator Linsey, Now After Last Evening's Presidential Meeting, Will the Senate Take an Action on Immigration Reform Soon?

• These powerful senators were scheduled to meet with the President last evening to discuss the current state of comprehensive immigration reform legislation environment in the Senate. Will these Senators introduce a bi-partisan bill in the Senate soon? After March 17, 2010 Senate Health Care bill deadline, Gentlemen! You'd better not propose that vicious and anti-family "point system" again, Gentlemen! Please stay tuned.

03/09/2010: Lestislative Bills to Restrict Aliens' Rights to Influence American Political Process and Study of its Constitutionality

• Currently there are at least two such legislative bills pending in the Congress. They are H.R. 3797 and S. 1688, Fairness in Prepresentation Act bills which would amend the federal census statutes to exclude aliens from the population count in apportionment purposes. Such bills will substantially kill potential power of aliens to advocate their voice in the American political process and substantially slice off the continuant base for the immigration advocates in the American political process. A Congressional research study questions constitutionality of such legislation and immigration advocates and immigrants should pay attention to this type of legislative bills.

03/09/2010: Statistics of Use of Twitter Social Network Communications by the Congressmen and Congresswomen and the Senators

• Report indicates that "205 Representatives and Senators are registered with Twitter (as of September 30, 2009) and issued a total of 7,078 “tweets” during the data collection period of August and September 2009. With approximately 38% of House Members and 39% of Senators registered with Twitter, Members sent an average of 116 tweets per day collectively. Members’ use of Twitter can be divided into eight categories: position taking, policy, district or state activities, official congressional action, personal, media, campaign activities, and other. The data suggest that the most frequent type of tweets were district or state tweets (24%), followed by policy tweets (23%), media tweets (14%), and position-taking tweets (14%)." Power of twitter!
• Immigration advocates, you got that?

03/09/2010: Total EB Visa Numbers Available for FY 2010 and April 2010 EB Visa Cut-Off Date Determination Data

• The State Department projects total number of visa numbers available for employment-based categories for FY 2010. It also discloses the data which they used to determine the soon-to-be released April 2010 Visa Bulletion for the employment-based visa categories. Read on.

03/08/2010: USCIS Announcement of Accepting FY-2011 H-1B Cap Filing Beginning From 04/01/2010 and Releases Guidance

• Announcement
• Guidance and Instructions
• Work-Sheet
• See also TARP Fund Returned Employer Information

03/06/2010: Obama Reportedly Searches for Opportunity to Instigate Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation

• Report indicates that President Obama is scheduled to meet with Senator Chuck Schumer (D) and Senator Linsey Graham (R) to explore the opportunity for the Congress to initiate the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Reportedly, Senator Chuck Schumer has been delaying his promised introduction of the Senate CIR proposal in order to search for the support of at least one leading Republican senator to make such proposal a bi-partisan bill. The Republican senator whom they have been talking behind the scene has been known to be Senator Linsey Graham. Even though it may be too late for such move to produce a final fruit, we commend Mr. President's courage to come out of the shell and search a soul openly to find an answer for this national policy issue. However, one thing which is critically important but missing here is his own proposal. The zigzag in the health care reform has taught a lesson to the nation, the Congress, and most importantly, the President that President's role just as an instigator and mediator was ineffective and not enough to achieve any reform policies, particularly to fight against the fast-ticking clock and under the current stalled political landscape, not to mention its potential fall-out of tarnishing image of strong political leadership of the President. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of this news.

03/06/2010: H-2A Final Rule Implementation Update: OFLC Reopens Mailboxes for Inquiries

• The H-2A Final Rule took effect yesterday and the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has reopened the following two separate H-2A Regulations mailboxes for public inquiries:
  • H-2A.Regulations@dol.gov: Mailbox for general inquiries on H-2A final regulation
  • TLC.Chicago@dol.gov: Mailbox for case specific inquiries addressed to the Chicago National Processing Center
• Please make a note of it.

03/05/2010: Bills to Refuse or Revoke Visas if in the Security or Foreign Policy Interests, to Review Visa Applications Before Adjudication, and to Provide for Immediate Dissemination of Visa Revocation Information.

• Yesterday, Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas introduced these bills (S.3077, H.R. 4758) in the House and the Senate as companion bills which can further tighten visa application consular proceedings at the visa posts and the nonimmigrant and immigrant application proceeding of the USCIS and DHS in the country. Abuse or misuse of the new authority of the DHS and DOS to deny or revoke visas and immigrant and nonimmigrant applications can lead to a serious issue unless there is a mechanism to prevent the agencies from applying the proposed law in broad brush. We will post the full text of these bills as soon as they are made available. Please stay tuned.

03/04/2010: Do You Want to Know How Visa Cut-Off Dates Are Determined Every Month for the Monthly Visa Bulletin by the State Department?

• Here are some answers. The State Department has released an informational sheet that explains the operation of the immigrant number allotment and control system. As the immigrant community is waiting for the Department's release of April 2010 Visa Bulletin, this informational sheet should help our readers to understand how Mr. Oppenheim of Visa Bureau of the U.S. Department of State works on the Visa Bulletin. Here we go!

03/03/2010: USCIS Temporary Relief Accepting H-1B Petitions "Without Certified LCA and Pending LCA" Will Expire on 03/09/2010 and "Not" 03/04/2010

• There has been some confusion in immigrant community and among some employers as to the expiration date of this policy. AILA has just reported that the USCIS has agreed to accept such H-1B petitions until March 9, 2010 instead of March 4, 2010 as published in the USCIS Q&A on this subject. AILA reports that this decision as enunciated in the Q&A will supercede the conflicting date which is found in the Memorandum on the subject. Readers are however cautioned that other than the expiration date of the temporary relief, all other guidances, including the conditions and terms as well as the threshold requirement for this relief, will still be governed by the Memorandum.

03/02/2010: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Offers H-2A Briefing Materials Which Was Used in the Briefing Sessions in Several Cities Last Month

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification and the Wage and Hour Division have conducted 3 public briefings to advise stakeholders of the contents of the new H-2A Final Rule, which will be effective March 15, 2010. For the following briefing materials used in the briefings, click here.
  • ETA-OFLC H-2A Rule Briefing Presentation 2010
  • ETA-OFLC State Map - AEWR-2010
  • ETA Form 790 AG - Job Order
  • ETA Form 790 AG - Job Order General Instructions
  • ETA Form 9142 Appendix A-2
  • ETA Form 9142
  • ETA Form 9142 General Instructions
  • H-2A Final Rule Factsheet
  • OFLC Amend & Extend Factsheet
  • H-2A Final Rule Public Rollout WHD 2010

03/02/2010: Obama Administration and OMB Action to Reverse Past Trend of Outsourcing of Government Services to Private Contractors

• During Bush administration, a large part of government functions and services were taken away from government civilian employees to private contractors, including the services of the USCIS and Department of Labor relating to immigration and visa application and management system. One of the campaign pledges of Obama was to change this course. In fact, as we reported quite earlier, FY 2010 USCIS budget reflected this new policy.
• Now, report indicates that the OMB is scheduled to announce the details of areas of government services which will ban outsourcing of the services to private contractors. Should this be implemented, operations of the field offices and some of the headquarter offices of the USCIS may see additional changes in the management of immigration benefits programs. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification of the DOL has already started implementation of program to reduce or eliminate private contractors in the foreign labor certification application processing and management and the number of private contractors are likely to be reduced gradually along the way. We want to watch closely how this change will affect the agencies' efficiency and effectiveness of their services for the consumers. The Chief of Foreign Labor Certification stated sometimes back that the change would bring with it some efficiency and effectiveness in processing of foreign labor certification applications. We will closely watch and monitor the agencies efforts. Please bear with us.

03/02/2010: Monitoring USCIS Ongoing Form Filing Location Changes and Form Changes

• As part of transition, the USCIS has been actively centralizing filing locations for various immigration and naturalization forms. In parallell with such centralization process, the agency has also been revising the forms as a transition to its long term process of reengineering of management system. We have repeatedly advised our visitor the status of ongoing USCIS immigration program reengineering process and warned that the forms and filing locations will be changed en masse beginning at the end of 2009. This process is anticipated to be accelerated during the month of March 2010.
• As our visitors have been well advised by our site, the USCIS has been pushing ahead business transformation program over the years. The program centralizes the filing process in two phases: First to lockboxes, and eventually electronic filing, removing paper filing and processing. In this regard, the current activities of centralization of filing and front-end processing of forms at lockboxes may be a transition itself. Once the transformation program is fully launched, the immigration applications and petitions may literally witness a dramatic change in terms of processing times and petitioners and applicants' burden on submitting amount of documents to support such petitions and applications. In preparation for such reform of the immigration programs, the USCIS has already revised its regulation to remove filing "location" and jurisdiction provisions for immigration forms, applications, and petitions.
• In order to monitor the ongoing changes in forms and filing locations, we have just set up monitors at our home page. Our readers may constantly check the links in this monitor not to experience any disaster.

03/01/2010: Denise Vanison, New Chief, Office of Policy and Strategy, USCIS

• The USCIS Director, Mr. Mayorkas has been reshuffling the USCIS leadership team very silently for the last two months. One of the key posts in the leadership team is the Chief of Office of Policy and Strategy. This position had been taken by a long-time career USCIS official, Ms. Pearl Chang before she was replaced by Mr. David R. Howell last month as the Acting Chief. Last week, he was replaced by Ms. Denise Vanison, a leading immigration lawyer who had been practicing immigration laws in Washington, D.C. area as permanent Chief of the Office. She is very knowledgeable on all aspects of immigration law, policies, history, etc. We welcome her aboard the leadership team. For her background, please click here.