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Boy, what nice news to start the week with? USCIS announced this morning that, effective today, it is rejecting all employment-based adjustment of status applications where the priority date is not current under the revised visa bulletin. See Visa Bulletin Link USCIS Service Center Operations has advised AILA lawyers that it will be rejecting ALL employment-based adjustment of status applications received beginning today.

So, Do I Keep Filing?

Many clients have asked whether they should keep filing employment-based adjustment applications in light of today’s announcement by the Department of State

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US employers can hire foreign workers again thanks to an important and most likely limited opportunity, as we reported in previous posts about the visa retrogression.

Employment based visa numbers are “current” as of July 2007. This means that backlogs which have prevented employers from hiring foreign workers are clear for at least one month or less. Employers who act quickly can obtain work authorization for foreign workers. I assume that because of this opportunity employers and their attorneys around the nation will be seeking to obtain immigration benefits for workers in many occupations, from high tech, Hospitality to health care.

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I have spent the past few days in Orlando, Florida at the National American Immigration Lawyers convention. What an exciting few days. As lawyers from all across the nation join sessions to learn and debate the current immigration law. Senate has been breathing new life into the immigration Bill and even more exciting the EB Employment based categories become current in the July 2007 Visa Bulletin.

The U.S. Department of State surprised everyone by making almost all employment-based (EB) categories current in its Visa Bulletin for July 2007. This is good news for many who have waited a long time to file their I-485 Adjustment of Status and consular processing cases!

I wanted to congratulate my clients and visitors of our site who have been waiting for years to file under the EB3 and EB2 categories, now is the time to act fast and get the cases ready for the July filing of all I-485 cases.

After almost two weeks touring Europe it is time to go home. I will be taking the early flight from Lyon France, Via London to Los Angeles. During the past few weeks, the Senate debated some of the most important immigration issues in recent US history. While no decisions have been reached, the debate is far from being over.

I can tell you that Europe is facing the same conflicts as the US. The European comission is considering proposals for a crackdown on the large number of illegal immigrants, even as it looks for new ways to admit legally the workers need for hospitality, healthcare, construction,etc. Meanwhile Europe has gotten a substantial boost from the immigrants from the European countries that joined the EC in May 2004.

Looking at the European experience, immigration seems likely to increase rather than decrease in the future. The US must learn from other countries and pass an immigration bill that will change the future of this country for the better. Making the US the number one country to immigrate.

It seems like a deal has been reached and the countdown begins for new Immigration Reform.

Key senators in both parties and the White House announced agreement Thursday on an immigration overhaul that would grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border.

The plan would create a temporary worker program to bring new arrivals to the U.S and a separate program to cover agricultural workers. Skills and education-level would for the first time be weighted over family connections in deciding whether future immigrants should get permanent legal status. New high-tech employment verification measures also would be instituted to ensure that workers are here legally.

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Just like I told many of my clients last month, the Visa Bulletin for June 2007 brings good news for many of you. The immigrant visa cutoff dates moved forward significantly in EB2 for China and India, as well as in EB3 for all countries of chargeability. This means that if a person’s priority date is before the cutoff date as shown in the June 2007 Visa Bulletin, s/he has until June 30, 2007 for the I-485 adjustment application to be received at the USCIS. Those categories that had previously been current remain current.

Click here for the most recent visa bulletin.

Let’s hope that this is a sign for more positive changes in the up coming weeks.

We all expect an announcement from the USCIS regarding proposed fee increases in the very near future. The USCIS had scheduled a press conference to announce the fee changes for Thursday, May 10, 2007, but has postponed it. No new date has been announced. American Immigration Lawyers Association, which I am a member of, and other groups are aggressively exploring litigation strategies, as well as other ways to address the expected fee increases.

As you can see from the summary below, the fee increase is unrealistic and will impose an extreme hardship on many applicants. We call for an immediate revision of this proposed unreasonable rule.

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I was interviewed on May 7, 2007 for 1170 KCBQ Radio regarding our client’s heart breaking story and the up coming Immigration debate. I shared my opinion on why waivers are required for immigrants that enter the US illegally and later marry US citizens. We also discussed potential immigration reform. The radio show host, Rick Amato who interviewed me was not supportive of the bill but we had a polite and interesting debate.

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We just learned today that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has changed its name to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has changed its name to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Both changes took effect 3/31/07.

I have stopped keeping track of the different agencies and the new names they choose everytime. One can only wonder why they keep doing this…….

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“CIS”) announced on April 3, 2007 that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2008 (“FY2008”). CIS will use a random selection process (described below) for all cap-subject filings received by April 3, 2007. CIS will reject and return along with filing fee(s) all petitions received on those days that are not randomly selected.

CIS has determined that as of April 2, 2007, it had received enough H-1B petitions to reach the FY2008 H-1B cap and has set the original final receipt date as April 2, 2007. In keeping with regulations and guidance, CIS will subject H-1B petitions received on the final receipt date and the following day to a computer-generated random selection process.

CIS will reject all cap-subject H-1B petitions for FY2008 received on or after Wednesday, April 4, 2007. CIS will reject and return along with the filing fee(s) all cap-subject H-1B petitions that are not randomly selected.

Employer Petitioners may re-submit petitions on April 1, 2008 when H-1B visas become available for FY2009. This is the earliest date for which an employer may file a petition requesting FY2009 H-1B employment with a start date of October 1, 2008.

As of April 2nd, CIS has received approximately 150,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions. CIS must perform initial data entry for all filings received on April 2 and April 3 prior to conducting a random selection process (lottery). In light of the high volume of filings, CIS announced that it will not be able to conduct the random selection for several weeks.

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