Visa Lawyer Blog

Articles Posted in Immigrant Visas

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services (“CIS”) announced that it has submitted to the Federal Register an Interim Final Rule that will streamline the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process.

The Interim Final Rule narrows the list of acceptable identity documents and further specifies that expired documents are not considered acceptable forms of identification. An expansive document list makes it more difficult for employers to verify valid and acceptable forms and to single out false documents compromising the effectiveness and security of the Form I-9 process. The changes included in the Interim Final Rule will significantly improve the security of the employment eligibility verification process.

The Rule eliminates Forms I-688, I-688A, and I-688B (Temporary Resident Card and older versions of the Employment Authorization Card/Document) from List A. CIS no longer issues these cards, and those that were in circulation have expired. The Rule also adds to List A of the Form I-9 foreign passports containing specially-marked machine-readable visas and documentation for certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia (“FSM”) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (“RMI”). The Rule makes other, technical changes to update the list of acceptable documents. The revised Form I-9 includes additional changes, such as revisions to the employee attestation section, and the addition of the new U.S. Passport Card to List A.

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The nursing shortage in the United States is becoming increasingly problematic and may adversely affect the health care industry. According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 2007 study, the United States will require 1.2 million new Registered Nurses (RNs) by 2014 to meet the nursing demand: approximately 500,000 RNs to replace nurses leaving the field, and “an additional 700,000 to meet growing demand for nursing services.”

In meetings with nursing organizations and stakeholders, the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman heard concerns about the time it takes for a foreign nurse to be admitted to the United States to work. We link t a recent USCIS memo that addresses some of the current problems with Nurse Immigration and possible solutions for the new future.

The linked report, while specifically providing recommendations for improving the processing of Schedule A nurse cases, should also be required reading for all persons active in the field of recruiting foreign nurses to the United States.

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If you were planning to apply for the Green Card Lottery, but have not taken the time to do so, you had better move fast real fast. The DV-2010 lottery application period expires at noon, Eastern Standard Time, December 1st, that is actually today. You can still apply online without having to pay an attorney by clicking here

The DV-2010 program apportions visa issuance among six geographic regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America (other than Mexico ), Oceania, and South America (including Mexico , Central America and the Caribbean ). The world is divided up into high and low admission regions and each of the six regions is divided into high and low admission states. A greater portion of the visas goes to the low admission regions than to high admissions regions. High admission states are entirely excluded from the lottery (those states are listed above)

and low admission states compete equally with other low admission states in the same region. No single state may receive more than 7% (3,500) of the 50,000 allotted visas.

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There is currently a shortage in the United States of nurses, physical therapists and other healthcare workers. This blog post answers questions about temporary and permanent immigration options for nurses and physical therapists.

Work Visas for Nurses

Some nurses could qualify for H-1B visa status if their positions required at least a bachelor’s degree. However, many nursing positions do not require a bachelor’s degree, making the H-1B visa category somewhat difficult to obtain.

Many prospective U.S. employers apply directly for a green card for foreign nurses because there is no requirement to first obtain a labor certification from the Department of Labor. The labor certification process, which requires a very extensive test of the U.S. labor market, has been waived for professional nurses. Thus, applying for a green card option for a foreign nurse may be the preferred option.

Work Visas for Physical Therapists

Physical therapists are generally eligible for an H-1B visa, since the bachelor’s degree is generally a standard requirement for that occupation in the United States. The H-1B visa is available when the occupation requires a bachelor’s degree. If you are a physical therapist in another country, you must first submit your educational credentials to a U.S. state therapy board for a temporary license or permit. (A list of state therapy boards is available on the Federal of State Boards of Physical Therapy website). Once you have a permit, you can apply for an H-1B visa to work in the United States. Once you enter the United States, you will have to take the state licensing exam, and then renew your H-1B visa.

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The Visa Bulletin for November 2008 was published. This Visa Bulletin reflects slight forward movement in the employment-based (EB) cutoff dates.

The EB1 category is current for all countries of chargeability. EB2 category remains current for all countries, except for India and China. The cutoff dates for both India and China moved forward slightly. India’s cutoff date moved forward by two months, to June 1, 2003. The cutoff dates moved forward by several months in all EB3 categories. The worldwide category (for all countries except those specifically listed) as well as the Philippines, in the EB3 has a cutoff date under the November Visa Bulletin of May 1, 2005. The cutoff date for Mexico moved to September 1, 2002. EB3 for China moved forward by four months, to February 1, 2002. EB3 for India moved forward by three months, to October 1, 2001.

Click here for the November Visa Bulletin

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In the past several weeks we were following one of most fierce confrontations, between lawyers and the Department of Labor. First the DOL started auditing all the cases of the largest Immigration firm in the nation, Fragomen. Later, Fragomen sued the DOL, claiming various unfair practices.

This was all a source of concern for us immigration lawyers. If we can not help our clients anymore in filing for permanent residence (Green Cards), what else can we do? Well, the Department of Labor issued some specific guidelines as to what lawyer can and can not do when assisting employers filing under the PERM program. For example:

Attorneys and agents may receive resumes and applications of U.S. workers who respond to the employer’s recruitment efforts; however, they may not conduct any preliminary screening of applications before the employer does so, other than routine clerical or ministerial organizing of resumes which does not include any assessment of, or comments on, the qualifications of any applicants;

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This is a reminder to all I-601 waiver applicants, there is no fee waiver for this application no matter what is your situation. USCIS has received numerous applications filed without the appropriate fee due to an incorrect interpretation of the regulations.

The authority to waive or exempt payment of the $545 fee as discussed in the Code of Federal

Regulations 8 CFR 245.1(f) cites an October 1977 law that applied only to applications from

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1. There is a very high rejection rate of I-907 premium processing requests. (SCOPS chief Barbara Velarde mentioned in Vancouver at the National Immigration conference that the rejection rate was approximately 60%.) Prior to the suspension of premium processing for I-140’s last Fall, only certain I-140 case types were eligible. For example, National Interest Waivers and Multinational Managers were not eligible for premium processing. Those case types are still not eligible for premium processing, even in an “H-out” situation.

2. The current program is only available if the beneficiary is in the U.S. in H-1B status. Those beneficiaries who have already run out of H-1B time, and who changed status or left the U.S., are not able to benefit at this time.

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DOS released the Visa Bulletin for August 2008. In addition to the 3rd Preference category, the Other Workers category is now unavailable.

EB2 category is current for all countries, except for India and China. However, the India and China cutoff date has moved forward to June 1, 2006. This is amazing forward movement, as it is the most favorable cutoff date in EB2 for either country since the July 2007 Visa Bulletin. Individuals from India and China who missed the I-485 filings during July 2007, may have the opportunity to file their I-485s in August 2008. The eligibility to file would apply to those who have EB2 priority dates prior to June 1, 2006 and are otherwise eligible to file the I-485.

Check the most recent visa bulletin here

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We are a small immigration law firm, but we often get contracted by clients of larger firms for second opinion, under a strict confidentiality relationship. In the past few months we have been getting calls from clients or larger firms for PERM, I-140, and other related Permanent Residency cases. Sometimes, we just re assure the client that all is well, in some cases we find serious errors by the larger firms lawyers. Therefore I wasn’t surprised to hear about the following decision by the DOL just this week.

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that it has begun auditing all permanent

labor certification applications filed by attorneys at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP. The department has information indicating that in at least some cases the firm improperly instructed clients who filed permanent labor certification applications to contact their attorney before hiring apparently qualified U.S. workers. The audits will determine which, if any, applications should be denied or placed into department-supervised recruitment because of improper attorney involvement in the consideration of U.S. worker applicants.

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