Articles Posted in Immigrant Visas

The State Department has advised AILA liaison that due to the large number of approvals issued in the past few weeks, employment-based visa numbers are no longer available for this fiscal year that concludes on September 30, 2009. This affects all categories of employment based immigrant visas. Numbers will become available again on October 1, 2009, as stated in the October 2009 Department of State Visa (DOS) Bulletin.

USCIS will continue to accept I-485 applications in categories showing visa availability based on the September Visa Bulletin, USCIS will not able to approve pending I-485 applications unless a visa number was previously captured. Where a USCIS officer adjudicated or pre-adjudicated a case and it was in the DOS “pending” queue and DOS has sent the electronic notification allocating a number to the Service Center, USCIS should issue the approval.

For those consular processing, because visa numbers for scheduled cases have already been allocated as part of the scheduling process, scheduled immigrant visa appointments at consulates for September will continue and immigrant visas may be issued.

According to a recent Newsweek article, Immigrants irrespective of their legal status are actually good for the job market, and boost the economy.

Lou Dobbs, take note: immigrants are good for our economy. The most skilled create jobs in technology and engineering, says Duke professor Vivek Wadhwa, who estimates that in 2005 immigrant-founded engineering and tech companies employed 450,000 people and generated $52 billion in sales. But even the least skilled more than repay their costs in schools and health care. Two highly respected Australian economists, Maureen Rimmer and Peter Dixon, studied the issue for the libertarian Cato Institute. “The net impact on U.S. households from tighter border enforcement is unambiguously negative,” they found, because even low-skilled immigrants expand the economic pie and create jobs farther up the ladder. Cato’s Dan Griswold says the study shows a $250 billion difference between the most and least restrictive immigration policies.

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USCIS has reminded all applicants for Adjustment of Status, Asylum, Legalization and Temporary Protected Status to obtain an Advance Parole (AP) document before traveling abroad. AP allows an applicant to re-enter the U.S. after traveling abroad.

In order to obtain Advance Parole, individuals must file Form I-131, Application for Travel Document to USCIS. The USCIS cautions individuals planning on traveling abroad to file Form I-131 well in advance of their travel plans (approximately 90 days before) in order to prevent possible conflicts.

We suggest all applicants of I-131 to file it in time to get the AP approval before leaving the U.S., otherwise it could have dire consequences and may result in an individual not being able to re-enter. Therefore, individuals that have a pending I-485 are encouraged to apply for Advance Parole before traveling abroad for easier re-entry if the circumstances of their current status changes.

The USCIS California Service Center is in the process of identifying all pending Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications in the EB-5 category based on the pilot program, and all non-Minister Religious Worker I-485s. All applicants with pending AOS application and for a non-minister Religious Worker in the EB-5 category can bring this to the notice of California Service Center.

Please let us know if you have such application pending before CSC.

U.S. Department of State’s visa bulletin brought some relief for some EB-2 applicants. The cutoff date for India and China moved forward to October 1, 2003 which had recently retrogressed to January 1, 2000. No explanation was provided for the change to October 1, 2003.

Summary of August 2009’ visa bulletin:

EB-1: This category is current for all countries of chargeability.

From time to time we publish posts by guest writers, this article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of court reporter school online at her blog Court Reporter Schools. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com

Obtaining a visa to enter another country is not often an easy job. It involves a great deal of work and numerous formalities before you can are legally allowed to enter the foreign nation. Very often, lawyers who have experience and who are specialized in the visa applications process are able to help you with your visa, especially if you need one to be able to work in a new country or stay there for a while before you decide on your future options. A visa lawyer can help you by:

• Taking care of the paperwork and research: A company that is looking to hire employees from overseas will have to get them special visas that allow them to work for a certain period in their homeland. This means that all applicants and their credentials will have to be screened in order to protect national security and ensure that terrorists and other anti-social elements are not using this visa to enter the country illegally.

USCIS announced on June 22, 2009 that the premium processing service will resume for I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker) cases. This service was suspended since July 2, 2007. The USCIS announcement advises that they will accept premium processing requests for all EB1, EB2, and EB3 cases, except for EB1 Multinational Executive Transferees and EB2 National Interest Waiver cases.

USCIS will charge an additional $1000 filing fee for the premium processing service. USCIS will take one of the following action within 15 calendar days in-lieu-of this fee: approve the case, issue a notice of intent to deny (NOID), issue a request for evidence (RFE), or open an investigation for fraud / misrepresentation. They also provide a dedicated telephone number and email address to facilitate communication regarding the case.

The Nebraska Service Center (NSC) of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has informed American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that all applications for reentry permits will be denied if the fingerprinting is not completed within 120 days of filing. The NSC issued an advisement in June 2009 regarding a change in procedures related to requests for rescheduling biometrics (fingerprinting) appointments for applications for reentry permits. Reentry permits are travel documents used by U.S. permanent residents (green card holders) who need to remain outside of the U.S. in excess of one year. The procedures for requesting expedited fingerprinting have not changed. Applications for reentry permits must be filed from within the United States and the subsequent biometrics appointment must also be completed inside the United States. This request must occur before the appointment date. A request for rescheduling must be accompanied by a reasonable excuse for the inability to appear for the scheduled appointment. Rescheduled appointments are set within a maximum 30-day time frame. Applicants should plan their travel accordingly, as the announcement is absolute with respect to the 30-day time frame.

We will keep you posted for the changes pertaining to biometrics procedure for reentry permits.

On June 26, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the current edition of the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 (Rev. 02/02/09) will continue to be valid for use beyond June 30, 2009. USCIS has requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the continued use of the current version of Form I-9. Once the extension request is approved, USCIS will update Form I-9. At that time, employers will be able to use either the Form I-9 with the new revision date or the Form I-9 with the 02/02/09 revision date.

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