immigration

In an attempt to implement IT systems, and eliminate paper-based application/petition filing, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and USCIS has struck a deal with IBM hoping to speed up services over the next five years. The Contract, worth $14.5 million, seeks to upgrade USCIS’ outdated procedures to a more centralized, electronic system, however additional options over the next five years could total up to $491.1 million.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the November 2008 Visa Bulletin on October 14, 2008. Visa dates are announced by the DOS every month. Only applicants who have a priority date earlier than the cut-off date may be allotted a number.  Should it become necessary during the monthly allocation process to immediately retrogress a cut-off date, supplemental requests for numbers will be honored only if the priority date falls within the new cut-off date.

Slight movements in both the EB-2 and EB-3 Categories however most advancements vary by as little as 3 or 4 months. Unfortunately if you are categorized as an other worker visa numbers have only moved forward by a mere two weeks.

Make sure to stop by our website for the latest updates and information on the DOS Visa Bulletins. Pursuant to INA § 245(a)(3), aliens with priority dates prior to the cut-off dates shown on the Visa Bulletin will be eligible to file adjustment of status (green card) applications during the month of November 2008.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased the maximum period of time a Trade-NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico may remain in the United States before seeking readmission or obtaining an extension of stay. This final rule changes the initial period of admission for TN workers from one to three years, making it equal to the initial period of admission given to H-1B professional workers. Eligible TN non-immigrants may now be allowed to receive extensions of stay in increments of up to three years instead of the prior maximum period of stay of one year.

The TN nonimmigrant classification is visa category available to eligible Mexicans and Canadians with at least a bachelor’s degree or appropriate professional credentials who work in certain qualified fields pursuant to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Qualified professions identified within NAFTA include, but are not limited to, accountants, engineers, attorneys, pharmacists, scientists, and teachers.

This final rule will ease administrative burdens and costs on TN workers. It will also benefit U.S. employers by increasing the amount of time TN non-immigrants will be able to work for them before having to seek an extension of status. Spouses and unmarried minor children of TN non-immigrants in their corresponding nonimmigrant classifications will also benefit from the new regulation.

This bill introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal [D-CA] calls for a mandatory training of all personnel who come into contact with unaccompanied alien children and seeks that all unaccompanied children who will undergo any immigration proceedings before the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review are duly transported and placed in the care and legal and physical custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement within a maximum of 24 hours of their apprehension absent narrowly defined exceptional circumstances. In addition, the bill wants to ensure that female officers are responsible and at all times present during the transfer and transport of female detainees who are in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.

We have learned through our AILA liaison that the USCIS has provided information regarding pending H1B petitions. USCIS historically accepts more petitions than it has numbers to account for denials, withdrawals, etc. Under the regular cap, USCIS accepted 71,000 petitions and under the master’s cap, USCIS accepted 22,000 petitions.

To date, 59,100 petitions under the regular cap have been approved and 9500 remain pending. 19,500 petitions under the master’s cap have been approved and 2100 remain pending. This accounts for 92% of the regular cap allotment being reached already and 97% of the master’s cap.

95% of the regular cap petitions have been touched and 94% of the master’s cap petitions have been touched. That leaves 3500 petitions untouched for the regular cap and 1400 untouched for the master’s cap. USCIS expects to get to all of them shortly, but it may not be by October 1.

Unfortunately this means that about 3,600 petitions may have passed through the first stage of getting receipted, but actually obtaining an approval may be impossible. Please contact our office if you require assistance with obtaining your h1b work visa.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently completed a multi-year redesign of the naturalization test. The major goal of the redesign process is to ensure that naturalization applicants have uniform, consistent testing experiences nationwide, and to provide a fair and meaningful naturalization process. The USCIS believes that the newly designed test will help encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic values we all share as Americans.

To accomplish their goals, USCIS piloted a new test with an overhauled English reading and writing section, as well as new history and government questions in several sites across the country. The feedback from the pilot program was used to finalize testing procedures, reading and writing prompts and new history and government questions. While it sounds as if the changes are drastic they are pretty slight with only the format of the questions asking now about US History as opposed to daily living.

Naturalization applicants will begin taking the redesigned test on October 1, 2008.

Many persons have been reporting difficulties in obtaining information regarding their pending I-765 applications (EAD). Unfortunately, due to last years mayhem with the announcement of the July 2007 Visa Bulletin, many applicants are seeing long delays before they get their employment authorization cards.

Pursuant to 8 CFR § 274a.13, USCIS must adjudicate EAD applications within 90 days from the date of USCIS receipt of the application. This however has not been the case as the Nebraska Service Center is only reporting processing times current as of March 2008. That’s almost 6 months (180 days) delay outside of standard processing for these typed of petitions.

The CIS Ombudsman has been receiving numerous inquiries from customers about EAD applications pending more than 90 days. In order to address these concerns the Ombudsman has released the below information to help those in need of the EAD

Step 1- Call USCIS National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-(800) 375-5283 and record the time/date of the call and the name/number of the customer service representative, Explain to the customer service representative that your EAD has been pending more than 90 days and ask for a “service request.” You should receive a response to your service request within a week. Ask the customer service representative to request an interim card for you. You should receive an EAD or response within a week.

Step 2- if you choose to visit a local USCIS office, schedule an INFOPASS appointment to visit that office

Step 3- If you have tried both Step 1 and Step 2 and have still not received your EAD or an interim card, please include the date and time of your call to the NCSC and the name of the customer service representative.

Why do we have such a major employment based immigrant visa backlog? According to the Immigration policy center each year, the Department of Homeland Security fails to issue all of the “green cards” allocated for that year. Under current law, the visa numbers do not “roll over” to the next year and the unused visas are lost. Unused or lost visa numbers result in longer delays for US citizens or legal residents to reunite with a close family member or in a delay for a US business to get a needed worker.

H.R. 5882 is a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by House Immigration Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). This modest piece of legislation would simply permit the “recapture” or use of visas that have gone unused in past years due to bureaucratic delays. The visas would be issued to qualified family-based or employment-based legal immigrants.

We recently reported that DHS Secretary Chertoff announced that USCIS will begin issuing Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) with a two-year validity period for a limited number of individuals who have applications for legal permanent residence status pending with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). On June 12, 2008, USCIS issued a addressing frequently asked questions regarding the eligibility requirements for the two year EAD. In summary the fact sheet states:

1. The two-year  EAD cards will be available to individuals with pending adjustment of status applications who have filed for an EAD and are currently unable to adjust their status to that of a permanent resident because an immigrant visa number is currently not available. Individuals with visa numbers that are available will continue to be granted EADs that are valid a one-year period.
2. USCIS expects to implement these new rules for issuing EADs on June 30, 2008.
3. Applicants who file for an initial EAD application with their adjustment of status application (Form I-485) will only receive a one-year EAD because such individuals can only file for adjustment of status if visa numbers are current. EAD Applicants are only eligible for a two-year EAD if their immigrant visa availability date retrogresses after their adjustment of status application is filed.
4. The USCIS will decide whether to issue a two-year EAD based upon the most recent Department of State Visa Bulletin.

Recently, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a section-by-section analysis of the Visa Efficiency and E-Verify Extension Act of 2008. In summary this bill recaptures unused family based and employment based visas from fiscal years 1992 through 2007 and allows unused family and employment based visas in future years to automatically “roll over” to the next fiscal year. Although the maximum number of visas issued is mandated by law, the actual number of visas issued in a given year can be significantly lower based on processing or other bureaucratic delays. In order to ensure that all authorized visas are actually used, the Act permits calculation of the final number of visas available that takes into account unused visas from past years.  Additionally, the bill reauthorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) electronic employment eligibility verification program known as “E-Verify.” The Act provides a 5 year extension of the voluntary program and it also includes provisions that ensure that DHS provide timely reimbursements to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the resources utilized to maintain the E-Verify program.