Visa Lawyer Blog

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City has suspended processing of the approximately 5100 non-immigrant visa appointments scheduled Monday, April 27 through Wednesday, April 29. In the US, All USCIS offices remain open for business. Applicants should plan to attend all previously scheduled appointments, interviews and ceremonies unless they are feeling ill. It seems that re scheduling due to illness is a perfectly acceptable reason.

There are no reports of problems to enter the US from Mexico, no refusals due to Swine Flu issues as of now. But this may well change as the issue develops.

Follow the WHO updates here

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Recently, the Department of State released revisions to Section 40.11 N14.3 of the Foreign Affairs Manual regarding procedures for Nonimmigrant Visa (NIV) HIV Waiver Authorization. DOS released a checklist for individuals applying for a Non Immigrant HIV Waiver. The checklist is used in DOS' new streamlined NIV waiver process, which allows individuals to certify to the list of conditions for obtaining the waiver as opposed to having to bring independent evidence to the consulate. Click here for checklist Download file

We welcome the changes and hope that this will improve America's Image in the world, encouraging more visitors to come.

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The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition (TBSC) has installed video cameras mostly on private properties on the Texas border and made the streaming video on its BlueServo.net website. People can register on the site for free as "Virtual Texas Deputies" to monitor the live video and anonymously report suspicious activities via e-mail to border sheriffs.

Thousands of people are now virtual Border Patrol agents — and they're on the lookout for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

On Blueservo's Web site, each camera focuses on an area that's known for illegal crossing. Next to a real-time view of a grassy meadow is the message: "Look for individuals on foot carrying backpacks." A shot of a border highway says, "If you see movement from the right to the left, please report this activity."

When a citizen spots suspicious activity, they click a button on the Web site and write a report. That message goes to the corresponding sheriff's office. The sheriff may handle the problem or call the U.S. Border Patrol.

Do you feel that the program is a harmless way for volunteers to pass the time, or is the program simply a waste of time, money and resources? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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In the past 4 weeks we have seen a strange and concerning trend from the California Service Center. Denials of Tourist visa extensions as well as student visa requests. Normally, the Service must issue a request for evidence or at least a notice of intent to deny, in order to allow the applicant an opportunity to explain. This trend looks like a a pattern to deny all such cases. Why are they doing this, we are still waiting to find out. The American Immigration Association Lawyers are reporting many denials of I-539s (COS from H-1B to B-1/B-2 or B-1/B-2 extensions) without RFEs (request for evidence) or NOIDs from the California Service Center since early January.

We ask readers to report such denials so we can forward this information to our association liason unit. AILA is collecting this for informational purposes to present to the Service Center, so we can stop this practice once and for all. Please email us your comments.

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As the H1B season coming to an end, many lawyers, like us, are busy with preparing the H1B petitions. It feels like getting ready for a race, a big race. So who is going to win the lottery this year? Last year Indian tech firms such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro apart from scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services received maximum number of H1B work permits, as these companies sent more professionals to the US.

India's second biggest software exporter led the list of H1B visas issued last year with around 4,559 work permits, Wipro received 2,678 approvals, Satyam managed some 1,919 and TCS received around 1,539 H1B permits. According to the data released by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, stood fourth in the list of top H1B users with around 1,037 work permits for foreign workers.

Because of the grim economy, the prediction is that this year's numbers will be lower, at the same time, companies are still in line to secure precious H1B spots.

Click here to see the complete list of companies that got H1B visas in 2008 Download file

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President Obama began his first full day in office by reading the note left by former President Bush. We hope that new President will take a different path in his presidency. We know the economy is important, the war must be addressed, but Immigration reform must be a priority. Can Obama push for Immigration reform?

Even though the U.S. president is considered to be one of the most powerful leaders of the world, no U.S. president can legislate or pass a law (except in emergency circumstances as an interim measure). Enacting law is the task of the legislature, or the U.S. Congress. The president can make his viewpoint known and members of his party in the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives may support his position, introducing bills that are often hotly debated. Once the the bill is passed by both the Senate and the House, the president then can sign the bill into law. What Obama can do, is make sure that Immigration reform will remain a key priority until such reform actually is passed. Good Luck President!!!

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Have you listed to the recent ads at the end of every show on NPR, brought to you by DHS. Sure sounds like a partnership between public radio and the goverment. NPR spokeswoman Anna Christopher says they are not endorsing E-verify, the new verification program for employers to verify the legal status of workers.

This isn't obvious to some listeners, who have criticized NPR for accepting funding to advertise the controversial program since the ads began running last month. NPR's Ombudsman Alicia Shepard said she received more than 60 letters in response to the spots - a considerable sum on a single topic - primarily in protest. Shepard wrote a column on the topic and hosted a live online forum to answer listener questions. Critics questioned the relationship between DHS and NPR and took particular issue with E-Verify.

Read more....

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We previously reported about the much needed changes to the H2A Visa Program announced last week. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced several reforms in the H-2A visa system, which allows farmers to hire foreigners for field work that Americans are unwilling to do.

Click here to download the Press release with the Changes Download file

According to the AZ Starnet, "For every farmworker, there are three to 3.5 jobs created in related industries such as chemicals, trucking, refrigeration, fertilizer, packaging . . . a lot of different operations," Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, said last year. He said his agricultural trade organization represents 3,000 members who grow roughly half the produce in the United States.

"If you lose a good portion of those farm jobs, you could be talking about the loss of a million jobs or more in the United States."

H-2A visas are unlimited, meaning employers can bring in as many seasonal or temporary workers as they need. The government's H-2A changes should also help make the immigrant work force more mobile by making it easier for more immigrants to come and go as they please. Let us see what employers and Farming groups will do with these changes and whether it will streamline this very complex process.

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It seems that in the near future Airline staff will function as semi immigration officers, examining travelers' visas even before arrival to the US. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that 15,000 airline personnel have now been trained through its Carrier Liaison Program, with 5,665 carrier personnel trained in fiscal year 2008 alone.

CBP has developed a training program specifically for the air carriers which includes a detailed workbook and sample travel document which allows participants to examine dozens of common security features. Benefits include reduced numbers of improperly documented individuals boarding aircraft destined for the U.S., as well as assisting carriers to reduce costs and penalties associated with boarding impostors or improperly documented passengers.

I am curious to see what they will do when a visa fraud case is detected, will they be forced to report CBP and thus create a negative record for the individual. We will keep monitoring this process and report further.

Read the press release here

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The following new regulations may be affecting some of the richest immigrants among us. Private Jet owners. Private jet owners have an average annual income of $9.2 mln and a net worth of $89.3 mln. The average age is 57 years old. 70% of them are men. So far they enjoyed the good life, coming and going into the US as they please. No more.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a final rule requiring that private jets to provide advance notice of their intended arrival or departure, and submit manifests of the persons on board. The new process is similar to the one currently in use by commercial aircraft and will standardize advance notice procedures for all CBP airports of entry.

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According to NPR, it's not likely, and if nothing else that's because of the economy. Labor economist Vernon Briggs of Cornell University says it's harder to argue for legalizing millions of low-skilled immigrants when many more low-skilled Americans are likely to find themselves out of work.

"The unemployment rates for unskilled workers without high school diplomas, or only a high school diploma, are the highest in the United States," says Briggs. "There's no indication that our labor force is in desperate need of unskilled, poorly educated, non-English speaking workers."

Supporters of legalization see it differently, arguing that the best way to make sure immigrants do not pose an unfair threat to American workers is to make the immigrants legal. But even ardent immigrant advocates admit the economic collapse does change something else.

Still, even if there's no support for bringing in new workers, there is an argument for legalizing agricultural workers already in the United States. Seventy percent of them are believed to be undocumented, and he says these jobs do not disappear in a bad economy.

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It may become even harder to travel to the US if you are from a visa waiver country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that beginning Jan. 12, 2009, eligible citizens or nationals from all Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries must obtain approval through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) prior to traveling to the United States under the VWP. DHS formally announced the addition of seven allies to the list of countries authorized to participate in the VWP. The seven countries are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.

DHS state that required authorization through ESTA will substantially strengthen the security of the VWP by providing the department with the capability to conduct advance screening of VWP travelers. I feel that this will cause substantial delays and complications for travelers from such countries.

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An excellent article by Patrick Thibodeau from ComputerWorld, touches the issue of possible H1B visa Green Card increase by President Obama. While his position on immigration is not entirely clear, Obama is smart enough to link the US prosperity with a major Immigration reform.

President-Elect Barack Obama has supported the H-1B visa program and wants to make changes to green cards that would help tech firms. There wasn't much said about this issue during the presidential campaign, especially after Wall Street collapsed. It also never came up in the debates between Obama and Republican John McCain. Now we're in a recession and unemployment is rising. Can Obama push ahead on tech-related immigration issues at this time? He might, and in this FAQ, here's an explanation of how that might happen.

Some tech lobbyists believe that increases in H-1B visas and green cards won't happen as long as U.S. companies are cutting jobs. But that will mean the debate will shift as well. "What do we need to do to ensure that we can grow our way out of this [downturn], innovate our way out this? You can't have that discussion without talking about immigration," said Robert Hoffman, vice president of congressional and legislative affairs at Oracle Corp., and co-chairman of Compete America, a lobbying group that supports raising the H-1B visa cap.

Read the article here

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This is a very important update for all our I- 601 waiver clients and readers of this Blog that follow this area of law. As noted in other postings regarding the move of the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez to its new facility this month, the USCIS overseas office in Juarez will also be moving.

The USCIS office will be located in the consular compound, rather than in an off-site location. Thus, November 5, 2008, is the last fully operational day for the office before the move. The office will be closed November 6 through November 11. There will be no communication via telephone, e-mail, or fax during the relocation from November 6 through November 12, and the office will be providing only emergency services.

The USCIS office will start accepting a limited number of 601 waiver applications again on November 12, 2008, as the consulate reopens. The schedule is to start with approximately 20 waiver cases on November 12, and then ramp up to the normal 100 per day on November 17.

We will keep you posted.

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The former CEO of Agriprocessors Inc., was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Thursday and charged with criminal violations of immigration law. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth, Northern District of Iowa.

The complaint alleges that the week before a May 12, 2008, ICE enforcement operation at
Agriprocessors in Postville, Rubashkin - then the CEO of Agriprocessors - loaned $4,500 in $100
bills to employees who were known to have bad identification documents. Agriprocessors
supervisors later allegedly distributed money to illegal alien employees so that they could
purchase new, fake lawful permanent resident cards ("green cards") under different names.

Read More Download file

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A U.S. citizen held at a border immigration center for 15 days has been released after an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer showed a birth certificate to federal authorities. Guillermo Olivares Romero, who has robbery and forgery convictions and has been deported twice, was taken into custody at San Diego's Otay Mesa detention center on Sept. 25.

The 25-year-old Los Angeles man was released Oct. 9 when an ACLU attorney presented birth, school and vaccination records. Olivares told the Los Angeles Times immigration authorities don't believe him when he shows his birth certificate.

Read the story here....

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Department of Labor released very interesting statistics about PERM cases filed during 2008. Here are some highlights:

Approximately 49,205 cases were certified during the first quarter of FY 2008; 63% of foreign workers on H-lB visas. The top 5 states of intended employment for these permanent labor certifications were California (11,835), New York (5,049), New Jersey (4,503), Texas (3,816), and Florida (2,709);

Alien beneficiaries representing 179 different countries were certified for permanent employment in the u.s. The top 10 countries of citizenship of alien beneficiaries included India (16,569), Mexico (3,444), China (3,328), South Korea (3,119), Philippines (2,995), Canada (2,539), United Kingdom (913), Pakistan (887), Taiwan (821), and Ecuador (811); and

Top job titles certified for permanent employment included Computer Software Engineers (8,861), Computer Systems Analysts (3,173), Computer and Information System Managers (648), Restaurant Cooks (1,120), Electronics Engineers (1,047), Market Research Analysts (970), Computer Programmers (902), Financial Analysts (707), Mechanical Engineers (702), Chefs and Head Cooks (700), and Electrical Engineers (651).

Read More here Download file

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According to Law.com Bianca Jagger and other foreign nationals who are in the United States on tourist visas (B2 Visas) cannot meet New York City's "primary residence" requirement entitling them to rent-stabilized apartments, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

Jagger, a human rights activist and the first wife of Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger, has been fighting ejection from her $4,600-a-month Manhattan apartment for more than three years.

Read the story here

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The Department of Homeland Security just released an advance copy of the supplemental final rule on safe-harbor procedures for employers who receive an Social Security Administration No-Match letter.

The No Match Rule decribes the "constructive knowledge" that indicates an employee has provided a false SSN to his/her employer. It also outlines the process the DHS wants employers to use to respond to the SSA no-match letters.

While the new No Match Rule does not give the DHS access to the list of employers that received the no-match letters, the DHS will send general notices to employers telling them what their obligations are to follow immigration laws, and how they must be able to prove they are in compliance.

If an employer does not comply with the No Match Rule, the DHS can use that non-compliance as evidence that the employer had "constructive knowledge" of immigration problems, and the failure of employers to respond to no-match letters can be used as evidence in civil and criminal actions brought by DHS.

The October 2008 rule finalized a proposed rule released on March 21, 2008. The rule was challenged in court prior to it taking effect in September 2007.

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Home loans held by illegal immigrants in California and across the nation generally have had fewer delinquencies than similar loans held by U.S. citizens, in part because of stricter lending requirements, according to banks, insurers and Realtors.

More than 12,000 home loans were issued in recent years through a special program that relies on government-issued taxpayer identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, according to the association. The identification numbers, known as ITINs, were designed for foreign-born residents living legally in the U.S. but are widely acknowledged to be used primarily by illegal immigrants.

Many of the mortgages nationwide came out of a partnership between Citibank and Acorn Housing, a nonprofit group that helps the poor. Citibank said the taxpayer identification loans have some of the lowest delinquency rates among all affordable-lending programs.

Read more here...

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The death last year of Boubacar Bah, a Guinean tailor held in a New Jersey jail for overstaying his visa, showed immigration detention to be one of the most secretive corners of American life. But now Mr. Bah’s story is being retold in an unusually public way: in an online video game.

The game — created by Breakthrough, an international human rights organization in New York that is trying to get the public behind efforts to strengthen oversight, due process and medical help in immigration detention

Read More here

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It seems that the current H1B visa shortage is not enough for the anti immigration groups. Critics of the H-1B program have long argued that it has created unfair competition for jobs in America. A recent lawsuit claims that the administration's extension of the time that foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges with science or technology degrees can work on their student visas from one year to 29 months is unfair and illegal. They challenged this in court.But U.S. District Judge Faith Hochberg, who is hearing the case in New Jersey, is pushing back.

The student-visa extension is intended to take some of the pressure off of the annual H-1B cap. Demand for H-1B visas greatly exceeds the total of 65,000 visas that are available each year. The plaintiffs argued that increasing the number of job seekers in the same fields as plaintiffs will limit the opportunities open to U.S. tech workers. We will let the court decide.

Read the ComputerWorld article here

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As we are coming close to the elections, with talk of a possible immigration reform, scams targeting immigrants will be on the rise. The latest is from my own city, San Diego. A Chula Vista man who posed as an immigration official, telling people he could quickly process their citizenship papers for a fee, was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison. He got lucky, people like that must be sentenced to longer jail time and be forced to pay back the fees.

If you were a victim of this scam, please let me know.

Read more about this story here

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How many times in the past few months HAVE i been getting calls from clients tired of waiting for their employment authorization cards (EAD)? If I could get a penny for each call, I could retire tomorrow. Seriously, USCIS caused major delays in the processing of such work permits, and by doing so caused hardship to all the pending immigrants wishing to start working.

Pursuant to 8 CFR § 274a.13, USCIS must adjudicate EAD applications within 90 days from the date of USCIS receipt of the application.

The CIS Ombudsman has been receiving numerous inquiries from customers about EAD applications pending more than 90 days. Click on this link and see what the USCIS can offer to make things right. I can only hope it will help.

Continue reading "San Diego Immigration Lawyer - How to solve EAD card delays?" »

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Jim Harper reports on the latest new Bills from Congress. A new stupid new bill introduced this week. H.R. 6975 would require aliens to attest that they will not advocate installing a Sharia law system in the United States as a condition of their admission to our country. What can we expect next, attesting to not having met any Muslims in the past 10 years of your life?

Read the article here

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Enforcement, Enforcement and more Enforcement is the message from the Government. Special agents executed federal criminal search warrants here yesterday at two area Chinese restaurants and two homes linked to the businesses' owners as part of an ongoing ICE investigation into possible hiring and alien harboring violations.

The restaurants targeted during the operation were the King's Buffet in Vacaville, Calif., and the
Empire Buffet in Vallejo, Calif. A second outlet of the Empire Buffet in San Pablo, Calif., is also under scrutiny in the probe, but it was not searched yesterday. In addition to executing four search warrants, agents conducted a consensual search at a fifth location, a home in Hercules, Calif.Besides gathering evidence related to the criminal case, ICE agents arrested 21 illegal alien workers on administrative immigration violations who were encountered at the search locations.

We represent numerous hospitality employers, we keep warning employers to comply with Immigration rules, if in doubt seek professional advice. We anticipate further enforcement, especially in this industry.

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In the few weeks before the October bulletin was issued, readers and clients were speculating that the EB3 category will become current in October. We now know this is not true, yet there are some positive changes in this bulletin. Section D addresses Mexican F-2A visa availability and Section E addresses October Employment cut-off dates, which are earlier than those which applied during FY-2008. Little forward movement is expected in EB priority dates until the backlog of old priority dates can be determined. We will keep you posted.

Click here for the most recent bulletin

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The recent raids on employers all across the country, and mostly the fate of illegal workers and their families caught in between, got us all talking about illegal immigration. A recent posting on NPR caught my attention as well.

Gloria Hillard reported on "The New Sanctuary Movement", a faith based coalition offering aid and at times sanctuary to illegal immigrants. Activists on both sides of the immigration debate including an anti-immigration organization called, "Save Our State", have been drawn to a small of church north of Los Angeles where an illegal immigrant facing deportation has been sheltered for more than a year.

Read the full NPR report here, I have a feeling this debate will get more emotional in the next few months.

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Why do we have such a major 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.

Read more here

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This week it is all about the Democratic Convention taking place in Denver. As we follow what unfolds in Denver, the race seems to be getting tighter and tighter. In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Sunday night -- after Obama announced Biden as his running mate, 47 percent of those questioned are backing Obama, with an equal amount supporting McCain.

The Obama/Biden team must be very clear on the issues that matter most to voters, and Immigration is going to play a major role in November. Obama created an offical page on his Immigration policy, you can access the page here...

He says:

The time to fix our broken immigration system is now… We need stronger enforcement on the border and at the workplace… But for reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America… Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should

We are watching you Barack!!!

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Businessweek reports on a new research by economist Gianmarco Ottaviano of the University of Bologna and Giovanni Peri of the University of California at Davis. They say immigrants compete for jobs with broader swath of native workers, diluting their impact on the least skilled segment of the local workforce. They also say that employers can't substitute an immigrant for an American that easily. They find that immigration's effect on local worker's wages is almost too small to measure.

This latest research contradicts the popular paper by Harvard University Economist Mr. Borjas, who found that immigration suppresses the wages of the least skilled workers. I tend to to agree with Mr. Ottaviano and Peri, immigrants do not hurt native workers wages, they only boost our economy.

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Due to the large number of visa refusals (mostly non immigrant) in many Consulates around the world, we can not stress to clients to be honest about past visa refusals.

For more than 25 years, consular officers have been noting visa refusals by stamping the back of an applicant's passport with "application received." Modern technology makes this step no longer necessary. The refusals are being tracked by the DOS, DHS and other federal agencies, just in a more modern manner than the ink stamp in a passport.

When filing for a nonimmigrant visa application, Form DS-156 of the DOS asks in question 31 whether the visa applicant has ever been refused a visa. If the answer is yes, it is important to provide information as to when, where, and the type of visa that was denied or refused. Not providing accurate or truthful information could result in further refusal based on fraud or material misrepresentation. Potentially, such findings could permanently prevent an individual from obtaining a visa and entering the United States. Even though certain waivers are allowed, obtaining an approval of a waiver for a nonimmigrant or immigrant visa is discretionary and not routine. So be honest and you will be in a better position.

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This week I am attending the National American Immigration Lawyers Association Conference in Vancouver,BC. The setting is perfect as 11,000 immigration lawyers gather to discuss the most pressing issues in immigration law today.

I attended the open forum where by Government Officials from Immigration and Department of Labor share views and answer questions from the lawyers. Gov Officials said that the U.S. Department of State Visa Bulletin for July 2008 stated that all employment-based, third preference (EB3) visa numbers will be used by the end of June 2008. There are several causes of this development according to the panel experts today, including joint efforts by DOS and the USCIS to utilize all available visa numbers by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2008.

One important change that appears to be contributing to the usage of visa numbers is the February 2008 Michael Aytes (he was there today acting very cheerful and willing to answer many questions) memorandum allowing for approval of Application for Adjustment of Status (I-485) cases awaiting clearance through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s National Name Check Program (NNCP).

The USCIS has approved enough EB3 cases to reach its annual limit for all countries. As a result, no EB3 Adjustment of Status applications may be approved until fiscal year FY2009, which begins October 1, 2008. I will keep you posted as we get more updates during the conference.

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The EB-5 program allocates 10,000 visas per year for aliens and family members whose qualifying investments result in the creation or preservation of at least ten (10) full-time jobs for U.S. workers. 3,000 of these immigrant visas are set-aside for aliens who invest in designated regional centers, areas of high unemployment or other qualifying rural areas.

The EB-5 visa category started in 1991. Regional Centers started in 1993. The program was due to expire this year. The House of Representatives passed HR 5569, a bill extending the EB-5 Regional Center program for another five years.

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A recent, Memo from Donald Neufeld, Acting Associate Director, Domestic Operations, USCIS, provides supplemental guidance on the processing of I-140s and H-1Bs under AC21.

Some of the Key changes in this Memo are the following:

Post 6th year H1B extensions wll not be available if the workers' Labor certification or PERM application has been revoked, or if the visa petition is not submitted within 180 days following the PERM approval occured on or after July 16, 2007. If you recall this was the extended deadline following the visa Bulletin changes in July of 2007.

Employees in cap exempt H1B jobs may be granted concurrent H1B for cap subject jobs.

Persons may not take advantage of the 180 day Portability to change jobs unless an immigrant visa petition has been approved on their behalf.

Read this important Memo here Download file

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According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, it appears that sometime in early 2008, CBP received approximately one million I-94 Arrival-Departure cards that were misprinted such that they were missing a digit. An I-94 card should have eleven digits, comprised of nine digits, a space, and then two more digits. For example, an I-94 card might have the number 055167890 11 (eleven digits), but the misprinted cards had numbers such as 55157890 11 (with ten digits).

The misprint has resulted in problems such as the Social Security Administration refusing to issue, or delaying the issuance of, a Social Security number to a person otherwise eligible for enumeration who has an I-94 card with a number short by digit.

CBP reported that the defective I-94 cards have been recalled and replaced. It is unknown how many defective cards have been issued. Calgary Airport in Canada is one port known to have issued some of the defective cards, but there might be others.

A person with a misprinted I-94 card may request that CBP issue a new card through Deferred Inspection or at a Port of Entry.

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ICE posted an interactive map and list of SEVIS approved schools to its website. The list of schools is organized by state.

If you are interested in studying in the US, changes are you will need an F-1 student visa. US immigration law allows for the admission as nonimmigrants those who are coming to the US to participate in a full time course of study. Most students enter in F-1 status, although the J-1 visa (for exchange visitors participating in a program approved by the State Department) and M-1 visa (for vocational students) are also sometimes available.

A prospective student must first identify a school that is qualified to sponsor a student for a visa. Here is the most recent list of SEVIS approved schools by State. Click here

More on F1 Visas

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We previously covered the abuse that many European visitors suffer at the ports of entry to the US.
Each year, thousands of would-be visitors from 27 so-called visa waiver countries are turned away when they present their passports, said a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection. In the last seven months, 3,300 people have been rejected and more than 8 million admitted.

Read the shocking story of an Italian visitor, and his 10 day detention at an Immigration Jail for no apparent reason. Click here to Read

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Immigration lawyers and impatient immigrants have been waiting too long for something to happen, and the new Bills introduced a few days ago may be a blessing. One Bil, H.R. 5882, to “recapture” employment-based (EB) green cards that Congress authorized in the past but that went unused before the end of past fiscal years due to government processing delays. Analysts estimate that approximately 200,000 unused EB green cards will be brought back into supply for all employment-based workers.

A new Bill to save he Nursing Shortage has been introduced as well. It is HR 5924, The key points of the legislation are:

1. Lifting of retrogression for Schedule A workers - Any immigrant visa quotas or caps are waived for all visa applications filed for Shortage Occupations (Schedule A occupations: Physical Therapists and Registered Nurses), provided that the I-140 is filed prior to September 30, 2011.

2. 20,000 primary beneficiary quota - While there is no retrogression for Schedule A cases filed before September 30, 2011, Consulates may not approve more than 20,000 primary beneficiary visas in any one year. There is no quota for the immediate family members of such beneficiaries.

3. Expedited Review - The USCIS must review -- and approve or issue an RFE -- on all Schedule A I-140 cases within 30 days of receipt.

4. Grant Fee - All primary beneficiary nursing visas issued under this legislation must pay a fee of $1500. Katrina-effected and HPSA employers do not have to pay the fee.

5. Grant Program - These fees will fund a Grant program. Schools of nursing may draw on this fund based on their student populations. The fees are to be used to attract, train, and retain nursing faculty, purchase educational equipment, expand infrastructure, and attract students.

6. Liberalized US Citizenship for some Health Care workers - Time spent by US Permanent Resident Health acre workers in a developing country will not be held against them in their endeavors to become US citizens.

7. Obligation Attestation - Immigrant visa applicants must attest that they do not owe their country of residence or origin a financial obligation. An obligation is defined as financial assistance that the intending immigrant incurred to defray the costs of education in consideration for a commitment to continue to work in that county.

We welcome the new legislation, the bill will take nurses out of the green card caps until 2011 with a limit of 20,000 principle applicants per year. We will keep you posted with new developments as they become available.

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According to today's USCIS press release, it currently takes almost 9 months to process a naturalization case filed in San Diego County during Summer of 2007. Cases filed in Washington DC seem to have the most delays with close to 15 months.

Why the delay? Last July, USCIS received 460,000 applications for naturalization. That was three times the record for any previous month. For the year, USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications, almost double the normal annual volume.

USCIS is hiring and training hundreds of additional immigration officers to adjudicate these cases. The agency is also conducting naturalization interviews on weekends, after normal business hours and in additional locations.

Read the press release here

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A few days ago we reported on the new OPT rule offering some much needed H1B relief. Only 3 days after it was submitted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 31, 2008, the Office of Management and Budget finished reviewing the interim final rule on Optional Practical Training (OPT). This brings much-needed relief to students with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math, extending the total OPT time from 12 to 29 months. In addition, any student who is beneficiary of a pending H1B petition at the time the OPT authorization is scheduled to expire will be able to extend status until the beginning of the fiscal year.

Read the Q and A on the rule here Download file

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently announced a joint plan to eliminate the backlog of name checks pending with the FBI.

USCIS and the FBI established a series of milestones prioritizing work based on the age of the pending name check. The FBI has already eliminated all name check cases pending more than four years.

“This plan of action is the product of a strong partnership between USCIS and the FBI to eliminate the backlogs and to strengthen national security,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez.

By increasing staff, expanding resources, and applying new business processes, the goal is to complete 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days. USCIS and the FBI intend to resolve the remaining two percent, which represent the most difficult name checks and require additional time to complete, within 90 days or less. The goal is to achieve and sustain these processing times by June 2009.

The joint plan will focus on resolving the oldest pending FBI name checks first. USCIS has also requested that the FBI prioritize resolution of approximately 29,800 pending name checks from naturalization applicants submitted to the FBI before May 2006 where the naturalization applicant was already interviewed.

The target milestones for processing name checks are:

Completion Goal


Category

May 2008 Process all name checks pending more than three years
July 2008 Process all name checks pending more than two years
November 2008 Process all name checks pending more than one year
February 2009 Process all name checks pending more than 180 days
June 2009 Process 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days and process the remaining two percent within 90 days

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As we are anxiously waiting for the H1B lottery to start tomorrow, the government providing some relief for those that are waiting to get their visas and for future students graduates about to apply for work permits. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") released today an Interim Final Rule extending the period of Optional Practical Training ("OPT") from 12 to 29 months for qualified F-1 nonimmigrant students. The extension will be available to F-1 students with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics who are employed by businesses enrolled in the E-Verify program.

"This rule will enable businesses to attract and retain highly skilled foreign workers, giving U.S. companies a competitive advantage in the world economy," said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. "By extending the training period by an additional 17 months to students who are employed by businesses enrolled in E-Verify, we are further ensuring a legal workforce in the U.S. and aiding good corporate citizens."

Another aspect of the rule responds to the situation in which an F-1 student's status and work authorization expires before he or she can begin employment under the H-1B visa program. The Rule addresses this problem by automatically extending the period of stay and work authorization for all F-1 students with pending H-1B petitions. The Rule will also implement certain programmatic changes, including allowing students to apply for OPT within 60 days of graduation.

To be eligible for an OPT extension, an F-1nonimmigrant student must:

* Currently be participating in a 12-month period of approved post-completion OPT;
* Have successfully completed a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics ("STEM") included in the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List from a college or university certified by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Student and Exchange Visitor Program;
* Be working for a U.S. employer in a job directly related to the student's major area of study;
* Be working for, or accepted employment with, an employer enrolled in CIS' E-Verify program. E-Verify is a free, internet-based system operated in partnership with the Social Security Administration that helps employers to determine the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees; and Properly maintain F-1 status.

Read the rule here

FAQ on OPT extensions Download file

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association has provided us with the following information about when family-based adjustment applications under INA sec. 245 get placed in the interview queue, in light of the Feb. 4, 2008 memo from the Immigration Service regarding Name Check Delays: Assuming that an application is otherwise ready to be placed into the interview queue, and the only item remaining is the name check, then the application will be placed in the queue in time for the application to be ready to be scheduled for interview as of the 180th day.

If the application is not ready to be placed into the interview queue (for example, if the biometrics have not been taken), then the application will not be placed into the queue, even if the name check has been completed. USCIS reminds the public that the Field Offices schedule cases when they have available interview slots. The automated system by which Field Offices schedule interviews automatically schedules applications on a first-in, first-out basis (based on the date the filing was received at USCIS, which usually would be when received at the Lockbox), once the NBC identifies a case as interview ready.

I hope the new policy will streamline the process and will speed up the adjustment of status interview scheduling and adjudications.

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The government is not making it any easier for employers these days. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey announced higher civil fines against employers who violate federal immigration laws. Under the new rule, which was approved by Attorney General Mukasey and Secretary Chertoff, civil fines will increase by as much as $5,000. The new rule will take effect on March 27, 2008, and will be published in the Federal Register early next week.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers who violate employment eligibility requirements are subject to civil monetary penalties. Employers may be fined under the Act for knowingly employing unauthorized aliens or for other violations, including failure to comply with the requirements relating to employment eligibility verification forms, wrongful discrimination against job applicants or employees on the basis of nationality or citizenship, and immigration-related document fraud. For each of these violations, the employer has the right to a hearing before an administrative law judge in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

I suggest that all employers concerned with this rule, review all internal hiring practices, update all I-9 forms and verify, and most importantly set up an immigration policy in the work place.

Read more on the new rule here

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For those of you that have been following my FBI name check updates and providing such a positive feedback. Thank you. Here is the recent update from our local office but this will apply anywhere in the country:

As members may know, all persons who apply for citizenship or LPR status are subjected to a fingerprint check as well as an FBI name check procedure. The fingerprint part of that process is normally resolved within 48 to 72 hours. The name check process, by contrast, can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to resolve.

In order to reduce the administrative burdens caused by the sharp increase in litigation caused by the old policy, USCIS has changed its policy for adjustment of status applications through a Memo from Associate Director Michael Yates on February 4, 2008. Where an adjustment of status application is otherwise approvable and the FBI name check request has been pending form more than 180 days, the adjustment application shall be approved. If adverse information is obtained after the case is approved, USCIS may move to rescind the adjustment approval and initiate removal proceedings.

Please note that the previous policy remains unchanged for naturalization cases. Thus, no naturalization case will be approved prior to the successful completion of the FBI name check process.

In the most recent meeting of the AILA/CIS committee, District Director Paul Pierre confirmed that his office and staff are fully aware of the new Interoffice Memorandum from Associate Director Michael Yates. As members may know, San Diego continues to have one of the fastest AOS adjudication timetables in the U.S. The San Diego District will move to pull and adjudicate all cases affected by the new policy as soon as possible.

In order to identify and address those cases which have been pending the longest, the local office will pull all cases pending more than 180 days past the interview date. They understand that 180 days past interview is probably a few months past the date that the name check was originally started but they have to start somewhere. If new fingerprints are needed, the applicant will be rescheduled for prints. After the prints are taken, the case can be adjudicated even if the name check is still pending. If new fingerprints are not needed, the case will be immediately adjudicated.

While the local office refused to formally confirm the number of local AOS cases currently delayed under the name check procedure, informally it is understood that there may be approximately 1200 cases. Unfortunately, these will not all be completed before inquiry day on Tuesday. Members are encouraged to wait at least 6 months past the case interview date before submitting an e-mail case inquiry. Please note that the e-mail inquiry autotext reply to name check subject cases has not yet been updated. Until that happens, members may receive text stating the old policy even though that policy is no longer in effect for AOS cases.

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We were the first ones to report the new policy and changes in background check procedures announced by USCIS on February 4, 2008. Read our post here. The response from the Blog readers has been very positive and supportive.

The most recent update is that Service Center Operations (SCOPS) liaison has confirmed that USCIS agencies are conducting "sweeps" to find adjustment of status cases that can be reviewed for adjudication under the changes discussed above.

AILA reports that, Pennsylvania District Court Holds FBI Name Check Delays in Naturalization Adjudications Are Unreasonable The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania finds for plaintiffs in a suit to end naturalization application adjudication delays due to FBI name checks. Also, it determines it is necessary to require USCIS to revise its regulations to address these delays. Read the case here Download file

Some of our clients and Blog readers were able to use my post analysis and a copy of the memo to start expedited process of their name check cases. Officer in certain states were not even aware of the memo until they saw our Blog post presented by the readers. We are glad to hear that and see a use in practice with the posted information.

I have also filed several requests to expedite cases based on the new memo and here is the response from our local San Diego Office:

yes, over 180 days, some of them had finger prints expired and your case is one of them. The office is in the process of sorting them all out. The ones that had finger print expired will be scheduled. Cases in which the finger print had not expired and over 180 days will be reveiwed which will take time because the Officers had all their work divided prior to having this good news. It will take at least until 90 days these cases to get adjudicated. The sooner you will have the finger prints done the better. Please remember only CASES that are plain Security Checks are pending and no other issues involved. If there are I-72 outstanding and other issues it will not be adjudicated.

Let's hope the new policy will bring much needed name check relief.

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Much has been said about the DV Green Card lottery program, some even said that the program will be terminated all together. But for now the DHS issued a revision of the photo specification rule.

This rule revises the photo requirement as part of the application process for a Diversity Immigrant Visa, to require that the photo be in color. Color photographs enhance facial recognition and reduce the opportunity for fraud.

In the past, photographs submitted at the time of electronically filing petitions for consideration under INA 203(c) for issuance of diversity immigrant visas could be in either color or black and white. As part of the general harmonization of photo requirements for all visa functions, this requirement is being amended to make color photos the only acceptable photographs for a petition for consideration for diversity visa issuance. Compared to black and white, color photographs enhance the facial recognition process and reduce the opportunity for fraud.

Read the Fed rules here Download file

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Finally some relief is coming to those pending FBI name check processing. This February 4, 2008, USCIS Michael Aytes memorandum modifies existing guidance regarding background and security checks on applicants, petitioners, and beneficiaries seeking certain immigration benefits.

As you may know, thousands of applicants are facing name checks delays by the FBI and other agencies. In many cases for no reason what so ever. Now USCIS is issuing this revised policy to align all agencies background checks with those of USCIS.

Under the new policy, applications that are otherwise approvable and the FBI name check has been pending for more than 180 days, the officer must approve the I-485, I-601, I-687 and proceed with Card issuance. So in other words, if the case is good and the FBI is the only reason for the delay after 6 months of delay, USCIS must issue the card. This doesn't apply to pending Citizenship N400 cases at this time for some reason.

We will keep you posted with new development.

Read the internal memo here Download file

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Here is a trivia for Monday morning for you. He is at the heart of a great culture war in Texas – and the nation, credited with bringing us prosperity and blamed for abusing our resources. How should we deal with this stranger among us? Read what the Dallas news has to say about the man of the year - The Illegal Immigrant.

Immigration legal and illegal is certainly going to be the biggest issue in 2008, you will see.

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I just got the recent report from the American Immigration Lawyers Association regarding receipting processing schedule. This is the most current receipting times at CSC, NSC, TSC, VSC as of 1/4/08, and at the Chicago and Los Angeles lockboxes as of 1/14/08.

Click here to get the full report Download file

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As you may know starting January 31, 2008 all US Citizens who enter the US by land and sea ports-of-entry when arriving from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda will need to present a valid passport. In addition to the regular passport, a Passport card will be available.

U.S. citizens may begin applying in advance for the new U.S. Passport Card beginning February 1, 2008, in anticipation of land border travel document requirements. Cards will be available and mailed to applicants in spring 2008.

The passport card may not be used to travel by air. It will otherwise carry the rights and privileges of the U.S. passport book and will be adjudicated to the exact same standards. The Department of State is issuing this passport card in response to the needs of border resident communities for a less expensive and more portable alternative to the traditional passport book. The card will have the same validity period as a passport book: 10 years for an adult, five for children 15 and younger.

Read more here about the Passport Card

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The February Visa Bulletin was just released, and it is getting worse every month. Now The EB2 category for advance degree professionals will be unavailable for a while. This is how we reward the Indian engineers and high skilled professionals that come to our country and help us move forward.

It is unclear for how long the EB2 category will be unavailable for Indian nationals, but this is certainly a sad situation for thousands of applicants waiting for visa numbers to become current. So what is next? Our prediction is that it will get more difficult to immigrate, perhaps China is on the line for the March Bulletin. We will keep you posted if anything changes in this respect.

We link to the February Visa Bulletin here

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As we about to welcome 2008 and wish for the best for us and our families, millions of illegal aliens, will join the celebrations with us. Over the years this, second class America has become part of our life, just like we became part of theirs.

Ellis Cose of newsweek reports:" The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United States has been creeping upward for years. At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid-1920s. The number (an estimated 37.9 million) is bigger than at any previous time in history. "

As arguments about immigration heat up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader questions about assimilation, about how to ensure that people, once outsiders, don't forever remain marginalized within these shores.

I guess that we shall see what 2008 has in store for us.

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It will be a sad end of the year for many pro immigration activists and immigrants (legal and illegal) in the State of Arizona. The new Employer sanctions legislation is the talk of the state for many months now. The state's new employer-sanctions law, which takes effect January 1, will cause some serious trouble to employers and immigrants. The voter-approved legislation is an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for illegal immigrants in Arizona, and to spread fear among employers thinking of hiring illegal workers.

It will be interesting to see how this law will affect the State of Arizona, as I am sure many other state will learn and implement similar legislation in the next few years. My only hope is that the conclusion will be that a comprehensive immigration reform is needed, rather than an enforcement law, this will benefit employers and the workers trying to get jobs.

Read more here... and Merry Christmas!!

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When applicants apply for visas abroad they need to pay a fee for the visa and sometimes additional fees for reciprocity. Well, the cost of such fees will increase next year so it seems.

DOS published an Interim Final Rule raising the fee charged for processing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications, as well as Border Crossing Cards at consulates. The rule is effective January 1, 2008 and comments are due February 29, 2008. All applications before that date are subject to the old fee.

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We reported a few moths ago about the propsed rule requiring all US Citizens to carry passports when crossing to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Congress is seeking to delay the rule requiring passports at all U.S. border crossings next year in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last summer's vacation-killing backlog of passport applications. That was painful I can tell you that.

To read more on this update click here

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I knew that things were getting out of control along the San Diego-Tijuana border, but recently things have taken a turn for the worse. According to the AP:

In an escalation of clashes between U.S. Border Patrol agents and rock-throwing smugglers, agents have begun launching pepper spray and tear gas into densely populated Mexican border neighborhoods, according to witnesses, Mexican authorities and human rights groups.

The more aggressive approach reflects the tense climate in this city's most
notorious smuggling neighborhood, Colonia Libertad, where U.S. agents say
they have had to counter human traffickers' increasingly aggressive tactics by ramping up their own use of force.

Read the full story here

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A new Cable from the State Department clarifies how consular officers should handle cases where an applicants' criminal record shows an arrest or conviction for drunk driving or other alcohol related offences.

Posts generally become aware of drunk driving arrests and convictions after receiving the results of fingerprints taken when an applicant has a CLASS hit. While a drunk driving conviction is not a statutory visa ineligibility, a conviction may indicate that further investigation is needed to determine whether the applicant may in fact be ineligible under Section 212(a)(1)(A)(iii). This applies to applicants who have a physical or mental disorder and demonstrate behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others.

Read More here...

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One of our readers pointed me to the recent article of Ruben Navarrette, the San Diego writer for CNN. He says that opponents of any immigration reform or relief see Hispanic and other immigrants as weakening U.S. identity. For example, One town demanded all library books be in English according to Navarrete. Hispanic immigrants may be the current group at the center of this debate and to be targeted the most.

Living in San Diego, CA, we see the attitude towards Hispanic immigrants every days. The Mexican jokes and stereo types are becoming part of our life. But when you hear of the minutemen project and the like, you know that this is where our country will need to look back at history and make sure we don't repeat it.

Click here for the full article

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We all remember the NO MATCH regulations that were released a few months ago, the ACLU Appeal putting a hold on this tough legislation for employer. Today we have the comments of Mr. Chertoff on the Appeal.

Employers receive a No-Match letter from the Social Security Administration when an employee’s name does not match the social security number it has on file. Sometimes there is an innocent explanation for this discrepancy, such as a clerical error. But sometimes the discrepancy reflects the fact that the employee in question is an illegal alien. When employers receive such No-Match letters, they are on notice that the employees in question may not be authorized to work.

Read the entire post below...

Continue reading "Visa Law Blog - Secretary Michael Chertoff on the NO MATCH Appeal" »

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It is now official that the location of the local San Diego USCIS fingerprinting/biometrics office is moving from its present location at El Cajon Blvd. to 1261 Third Avenue, Suite H. The new ASC is located in the same building as the USCIS Chula Vista Field Office, in an opposite corner suite (Suite H).

See a formal announcement about this below;

Continue reading "San Diego Immigration - New San Diego Fingerprinting/Biometrics Location" »

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If you are going through the immigration process, or know someone that is an immigrant applying for a visa or Citizenship, chances are that you must have heard of the NAME CHECK delays.

FBI and other agencies pull cases for whatever reason and until they are cleared, the immigrants can not complete the immigration process. We have numerous clients pending for years, waiting for this to be completed. Sometimes we had to sue the government to force them to act, but even this option is becoming very complicated.

But is seems that relief is on the way. Immigration Daily, the biggest online immigration publication reports the following:

Immigration Daily has learned that the FBI name check delays that have stalled benefit applications may soon be a thing of the past. We understand that the Executive branch will soon provide name check clearances within a prescribed amount of time. If the clearance is not completed within the designated timeframe, the benefit will be approved by USCIS while the FBI continues to work on the security process in parallel. The rationale to move to this new process is not just better customer service for benefits applicants but also because it will enhance national security (our security demands that the bad guys be apprehended, not merely be denied immigration benefits). The background for this change of heart by the Executive branch is the fact that many federal courts have been coming down hard on excessive name check delays by the FBI. In fact, not only have some courts ordered expedited name check completions but in some cases courts have suggested that the courts have and would use their authority to adjudicate petitions if the Executive branch could not get its act together. The attorneys and litigants who have sought federal court relief over these last several years deserve credit for forcing the Executive branch to adopt a more effective policy in this area (when it does happen, hopefully very soon). Stay tuned

Let's hope for the best.

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This Thanksgiving we have a lot to be thankful for, we live in a country is considered to be the symbol of Freedom and Prosperity. Yet, it seems that this country and the government running it, is doing a very bad PR job is welcoming visitors and immigrants to this country.

In my own practice, I often here horror stories from people that were treated poorly and very disrespectfully by our immigration officials. Tourists detained at airports for no reason, professionals coming to work sent back and barred from coming back, and I can go on and on.

Fareed Zakaria published an excellent article in this week's Newsweek magazine. He states:

According to the Commerce Department, the United States is the only major country in the world to which travel has declined in the midst of a global tourism boom. And this is not about Arabs or Muslims. The number of Japanese visiting the United States declined from 5 million in 2000 to 3.6 million last year. The numbers have begun to increase, but by 2010 they're still projected to be 19 percent below 2000 levels. During this same span (2000–2010), global tourism is expected to grow by 44 percent.

The administration and Congress say the right things, have passed a few measures to improve matters and keep insisting that the problem has been solved. But the data and loads of anecdotal evidence suggest otherwise. The basic problem remains: no bureaucrat wants to be the person who lets in the next terrorist. As a result, when one spots any irregularity—no matter how minor—the reflex is to stop, question, harass, arrest and deport. If tens of thousands of foreigners are upset, so what? But if one day a jihadist manages to slip in, woe to the person who stamped his passport. The incentives are badly skewed.

Click here for the article
I
If we are not going to change the ways we welcome visitors to this country, let's get ready for less tourist, less students and less culture coming this way.......

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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I often deal with government agencies as it relates to immigration, most of the officials we deal with are nice and professionals. Yet from time to time, we come across government officials that feel either they are above the law or that acting as a human being may not be part of the job description.

We often here about ICE agents abusing detainees, government agents acting unethically when investigating aliens and immigrants being deported and entire families torn apart. The recent deportation of a breastfeeding mother is one such story. The decision to separate a mother from her breast-feeding child drew strong denunciations from Hispanic and women’s health groups.

Read more here...

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One of our Blog readers pointed out this morning that we are featured on the American Bar Associations National site. ABAJournal.com is the Web site of the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association and is the most exclusive publication for Lawyer in the US. We are fattered to be recognized by such an important authority and will continue to provide up to date information on our Blog as always.

Happy Veterans day to all of you out there!!

Click for the ABA Blog list here

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From time to time I will be posting about local updates and important changes that will affect clients and local readers of the Blog. In the past few weeks, the local Immigration offices started scheduling Marriage based adjustment of status interviews in the Downtown office in addition to the Chula Vista location. The office in downtown is located at 880 Front Street.

The USCIS officials that I spoke to reported this to be an attempt to ease the pressure from the Chula Vista office and perhaps expedite interviews this way. Traditionally, the downtown office was used for Naturalization and Citizenship interviews.

In addition the Application Support Center on El Cajon Blvd, is now officially closed. The Application support Center is a location where clients go to process fingerprints and biometrics as part of the adjustment of status process.

As of next week, all such appointment will be scheduled at the new Chula Vista location just behind the USCIS main office on third avenue.

We welcome these changes and hope that this will expedite Marriage interviews locally and make the process as smooth and efficient as possible.

To read about the Marriage interview process and for tips on passing click here!

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The up coming New Citizenship Test is generating q lot of interest and anxiety on the part of future applicants. I was interviewed by Fox 6 news last week about this subject and the report aired last night on the 10pm news edition.

Click here to see the report and read the article on the station's website

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Guess what, New I-9 form released. On November 7th, 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") announced that it has released a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, as well at the M-274, Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9.

The revision of the Form I-9 seeks to achieve full compliance with the document reduction requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ("IIRAIRA"), which reduced the number of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees during the employment verification process.

This is huge for employers that were waiting for some substantial revisions since the 1996 legislation.

To read the Fact Sheet from CIS about the New I-9 Form, Click Here.

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I read this morning about a new anti-illegal immigration law that has some farmers and agricultural businesses scrambling for laborers. With excessive enforcement in Oklahoma, no farm workers are to be found to do the job.

Read the full story here...

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House and Senate appropriators are tentatively scheduled to convene a conference on Thursday, November 1st to combine the Defense, Military Construction-VA, and Labor-HHS-Education appropriations into one single bill.

One of the issues with which legislators will have to contend is whether or not to remove the Grassley-Sanders amendment (H.ADMT. 3396) from the Labor-HHS appropriations bill (H.R. 3043) which would add an additional fee of $3,500 to the H-1B visa program.

Looming over any progress made during the conference is the veto threat President Bush issued over most appropriations passed in the House and Senate this year, often citing spending levels as the reason.

~Urgent Action Needed: AgJOBS Consideration Nearing!

The Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 or Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) is likely headed to the Senate floor in the coming week. Immigration advocates believe the Farm Bill is an excellent legislative vehicle to carry the AgJOBS bill (S. 340 and H.R. 371) as an amendment.

Take action today, and urge you senators to support AgJOBS at: http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=10352521

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How many time have you heard people blame immigrants, especially illegal, for all the crimes in the country.

The U.S. has 11.5 million illegal immigrants, about 4 percent of the total U.S. population, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. There are cases where such immigrants get involved in criminal activity, still it is far less than our regular population.

Here is an interesting article from IL

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I got this note from the AILA local chapter and the ACLU. It looks like the border patrol and the police have no mercy when it comes to illegal immigrants. Is this really a time to enforce immigration laws, or should we be fighting fires and keeping our citizens safe?

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties applauds the massive outpouring of resources, volunteers, evacuation sites, and official and community responses to the tragic series of fires that are wreaking havoc on our region.

We especially take note of the outstanding work of firefighters, rescue workers, law enforcement officers, other first responders, and of course the outpouring of community volunteers.

The ACLU is concerned for the safety of those forced to flee their homes with little but the clothes on their backs. We call on all parties responding to victims of these fires to make sure that particularly vulnerable populations are sent a strong message that all those in need should seek shelter, resources and assistance to stay safe, fed, and protected from the elements. The ACLU is monitoring various situations involving prisoners, detainees, farmworkers, Latinos, and immigrants. There have been some reports of troubling incidents of racial profiling.

It has been reported that at least one dozen evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium were detained by San Diego police officers who did not charge any of the individuals, but instead turned them over to U.S. Border Patrol after inquiring into their immigration status, apparently in violation of usual San Diego Police Department policy.

As a result of this incident, we were told, at least 25 evacuees who were in need of shelter and resources fled Qualcomm Stadium for fear of further immigration enforcement activities.

The ACLU is concerned that allowing immigration enforcement activities to take place at humanitarian evacuation sites could deprive people of emergency services they need, even if that is not the intended result. The message needs to be sent loud and clear that the only concern now is the safety of all members of the community. Immigrants cannot be left with the impression that seeking shelter comes with the risk that they or their family members could be handed over to immigration authorities. It would be particularly unreasonable and heartless to demand papers from people who are fleeing the fires, often leaving all their worldly possessions behind. We think this could have a devastating effect and keep many from seeking vital emergency services.

We call on the city and police to honor police department policies designed to preserve community trust in law enforcement, especially in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

We know that city and law enforcement officials share our concerns that all those in need stay safe and receive all the resources and protection that we can offer them during the firestorm. As far as we are aware, the incident described above is an isolated one. Our Executive Director, Kevin Keenan, spoke with San Diego Chief of Police, William Lansdowne, who said he would issue a statement tonight saying that the San Diego Police Department is not interested in enforcing immigration laws and that evacuees should feel secure in seeking refuge at all evacuation centers, including Qualcomm Stadium.

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Many of our local clients, Tech, Bio Tech, and other technology firms ahve been closed for business since Monday. See Report from Computerworld.com

Many of the workers in such compnay are on visas, like H1B and TN visas. We have set up a special email address for workers and employers to write in with questions about status and anything else they might need while not working.

I am hoping by the end of this weekend, business will be as usual in the county.

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The Schumer-Hutchison amendment (H.AMDT. 3404) to increase the domestic supply of nurses and physical therapists by recapturing unused green cards from the years 1996 and 1997 has been introduced. There are estimates of 61,000 extra visas to come. Before the Schumer-Hutchison amendment was passed, it was amended by a Durbin second-degree amendment (H.AMDT. 3449) which attempts to increase the number of nursing faculty and students in the United States, encourages global health care cooperation, and creates a $1,500 fee for a recaptured green card from the underlying amendment. The Durbin amendment also requires that the petitioning healthcare worker attest that he or she has satisfied any outstanding commitment to work in his or her home country.

While these amendments have been incorporated into the Senate’s version of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, this version must now be reconciled with the House’s version of the bill which does not contain these provisions. A conference between House and Senate members to reconcile the differences has yet to be scheduled. There is also the possibility that this bill will be combined with other appropriation bills as part of an omnibus package.

If this will pass will are looking at another year or so of Nurse visas, this is still far from being perfect.

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This is crazy, as if the cap problems with H1B visas are not enough, expect a fee hike legislation to pass soon.

The Grassley-Sanders amendment (H.ADMT. 3396), as modified, was added to H.R. 3043. The amendment would add an additional fee of $3,500 to the H-1B visa program which would be used to create a special education fund to promote studies in the fields of math, science and engineering.

Who will hire H1B workers now?

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A lot has happened in the last few days, and I wanted to make you all aware. Clients are calling the office and we are closed due to the fires. All Federal Government offices and courts are also closed today, we are trying to reach clients to letr them know that visa interview will be scheduled as well.

These are difficult times for San Diegans, but with every crisis we can see why they call this city the Finest. Up to 10,000 people stayed at Qualcomm Stadium overnight after being evacuated from their homes due to San Diego's devastating wildfires. The overnight stay was "extremely orderly" with no major incidents reported, according to a statement issued by City Councilman Jim Madaffer's office. More than 5,000 cars were in the Qualcomm lot, and evacuees slept in cots, tents and their cars.

I passed by the Stadium this morning and the mood of the people staying there is very good. As I donated a few gallons of water to the volunteers, I could see the numbers of people helping , donating food and goods and just spending time to listen. At this time of crisis we can this great city coming together as one unit. When we look backl at this disaster we will see that what matters is the people we love, our families and the hope for a new start for all of us.

At this time the battle with the fire is still going on, I will continue updating our clients and readers of the Blog.

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As I am writing this blog entry from my office in downtown San Diego, San Diego County residents are ordered from their homes as wind-driven wildfires spread from the East County toward the coast.

In what may be the worst disaster to hit our county in decades, we can see a community coming together. Rich and poor, legal and illegal immigrants sharing shelters and stories. In such days we are all the same, just people trying to survive this disaster. Stories like Mario's the undocumented landscaper, assisting the family of a Border Patrol agent to load their truck so they can evacuate on time, will remain forever in my reflection on this terrible period in our city's history.

My thoughts are with the families and the firefighters keeping them safe.

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I read Ruben Navarrette Jr. article on CNN earlier today and he couldn't be more accurate with his analysis of the above.

As an Immigration attorney, I often hear complaints from clients about Police Officers trying to play Immigration Judges. Staements like "your apssport has already expired so how come you are still here" (Most passport have extension sections that the officer was not aware of, also passports do not control one legal status in the US).

Until there centralized training for all US Police officials on immigration related isseus they should remain in the role as protectors of our society from criminals and leave the immigration enforcement to the Federal Governmet. Illegal immigrants that are afraid to ask for help from the police can be more like the subject of abuse by the real criminal our police officers should be going after.

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Civil Rights movement leadres are not happy about House bill 1804, a tough Oklahoma immigration law that will go into effect November 1, 2007.This law blocks undocumented immigrants from obtaining jobs and places strict requirements for receiving public benefits. It also forces that law enforcement check a suspect's legal status on felony and DUI cases and requires court officials to consider a person's immigration status in setting bail.

Read more about this story here

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