immigration

On July 24, 2008, the USCIS posted changes to the vaccination requirements to adjust status to that of a Legal Permanent Resident for Form I-693. The new vaccination requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status: Rotavirus, Hepatitis A, Meningococcal, Human papillomavirus, and the Zoster vaccine. These new vaccine requirements went into effect on July 1, 2008. The new vaccinations must be administered for USCIS to approve the applicant for adjustment of status.

As of August 12, 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed USCIS that the Zoster vaccine is currently unavailable due to shipping delays with the manufacturer. The new Zoster vaccine is required to be administered to applicants age 60 and older. Until further notice from the CDC, Form I-693 may be accepted by USCIS if it is only missing the Zoster vaccine.

DHS Secretary Chertoff Announces that USCIS will begin issuing Employment Authorization Documents with a 2 year validity period for individuals with green card applications pending.

On June 9, 2008, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced at his State of Immigration Address that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be extending the validity period of the employment authorization documents (EAD) that are issued to individuals who applications for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident status (“green card”) pending.

Currently, such individuals are granted EADs with a maximum validity of one year. According to Secretary Chertoff, beginning later in June 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will start issuing EADs with a validity period of two years for individuals who have adjustment of status applications filed that are expected to be pending for more than one year.

According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the U.S. Citizenship & Immigrations Service (USCIS) has provided the following update regarding H-1B cap subject cases that were received for fiscal year 2009:

1. The Service Center Operations reports that as of May 24, 2008, all receipts have been issued for those cases selected in the random lottery. The only cases that have not been issued a receipt are cases that are being reviewed for duplicate filings.

2. The USCIS has received approximately 500 petitions that are believed to be duplicates. Each of these cases will be reviewed and determination of duplicate filing will be made on a case-by-case basis.

3. The USCIS received a sufficient number of petitions during the random selection process to meet the cap limit. Consequently, the USCIS will not have to utilize the cases that were saved on the reserve list. The USCIS begun to mail back rejected cases this week.

The American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA)  reports that beginning July 16, 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will resume premium processing for I-140 petitions in limited circumstances. Premium processing should be available for those beneficiaries whose six year H-1B status will expire within 60 days of filing the premium processing request so that they can utilize the approved I-140 petition to become eligible for additional time on H-1B status. The I-140 petition process is the second phase of most employment-based immigration proceedings . An official notice has not yet been issued by USCIS.

This is definitely positive news for individuals who will be running out of time on H-1B status.

U.S. employers, education institutions, and trade associations have signed on to show their support for three bills introduced into the House of Representative which they believe will address the many shortcomings in the employment based green card system. The three bills include: H.R. 6039, which aims to exempt highly educated, foreign-born students earning an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics from a U.S. university from the annual EB green card limit. This change would help U.S. employers retain talented individuals in the U.S. workforce. In the U.S. foreign nationals comprise of nearly half of the master’s and 70 percent of the Ph.D.s in electrical engineering from U.S. universities. H.R. 5921 will help put an end to multi-year wait times by eliminating unduly restrictive per country limits on EB green cards; and finally H.R. 5882 will try to help reduce visa backlogs by “recapturing” EB green cards from prior years that went unused due to government processing delays and making them available immediately to those who meet the requirements.

The U.S. State Department released the August 2008 Visa Bulletin on July 11, 2008. Visa Dates are announced by the U.S. Department of State every month. The EB-2 Categories for China and India have advanced over two years to June 1, 2006. EB-3 category continues to remain UNAVAILABLE and will remain that way until FY 2009 (October 1, 2008). For more information on this and other news be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at GLC Newsletter . 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 applications during the month of August 2008. We at GLC post these dates for your convenience on our website under Visa Bulletin as soon as they become available from U.S. Department of State.