Articles Posted in Work Visas

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego’s small businesses are heading to bankruptcy court at a higher rate than last year, and the city is among the Top 10 metropolitan areas in the country based on the number of filings.

The number of small businesses filing for bankruptcy in the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos region was 387 in the first quarter of 2010, giving it the sixth-highest number of bankruptcies.

In the San Diego metropolitan area, the number of small businesses that filed for bankruptcy was up 12 percent, compared with the same period last year.

Here is the current H-1B Cap count of FY 2011:

Cap Type – H-1B Regular Cap

Cap Amount – 65,000

U.S. Department of State has released the new visa bulletin for August 2010 on July 12, 2010.

Here is the crux:

EB-1 category is current for both Chinese and Indian nationals.

The U.S. Department of Labor launched an online registry allowing the public to retrieve information about temporary agricultural jobs that fall under the H-2A program. The new tool was developed in compliance with regulations implemented by the department on March 15.

The H-2A job registry provides a single, easily searched point of entry for the public to retrieve information about agricultural jobs filed under the H-2A program. It offers a range of customizable searches and gives users the ability to view, print or download information about agricultural jobs easily and without the need to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The tool will display all active agricultural jobs until 50 percent of the period of employment has elapsed, and it will offer an archive of certified agricultural jobs for up to five years.

The Labor Department estimates that more than 700 H-2A applications — for more than 13,000 workers — have been received since March 15. As this system goes live today, nearly 450 active H-2A job orders become available to the public.

USCIS has updated following on July 2, 2010 about the H-1B Cap Count

Cap Type – H-1B Regular Cap

Cap Amount – 65,000

As am Immigration Attorney that processed many H2A farm worker visas, I am happy to present the Take our Jobs initiative.

There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related.

Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

The American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act (ACWIA), imposes annual reporting requirements on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) concerning the countries of origin and occupations of, educational levels attained by, and compensation paid to, aliens who were issued visas or otherwise provided nonimmigrant status under H1B Visas during the previous fiscal year.

Here are some highlights from the report submitted by USCIS earlier this year:

• The number of H-l B petitions filed decreased 15 percent from 288,764 in Fiscal Year

Seems like Nebraska is following in the steps of Arizona. Voters in eastern Nebraska will decide today whether to ban hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants. The vote will be the culmination of a two-year fight that saw proponents collect enough signatures to put the question to a public vote. If the ordinance is approved, the community of 25,000 people could face a long and costly court battle. Either way, the emotions stirred up won’t settle quickly.The vote will be the culmination of a two-year fight that saw proponents collect enough signatures to put the question to a public vote. If the ordinance is approved, the community of 25,000 people could face a long and costly court battle. Either way, the emotions stirred up won’t settle quickly.

From about 165 Hispanics — both legal and illegal — living in Fremont in 1990, the total surged to 1,085 in 2000, according to census expert David Drozd at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He said an estimated 2,060 Hispanics lived there last year. In May, Fremont recorded just 4.9 percent unemployment, in line with the statewide rate and significantly lower than the national average of 9.7 percent.

If approved, the measure will require potential renters to apply for a license to rent. The application process will force Fremont officials to check if the renters are in the country legally. If they are found to be illegal, they will not be issued a license allowing them to rent.

A great tip from AILA to share with our readers regarding the H1B visa. It seems that H-1B petitions for Speech Language Pathologists (SLP) and similar related occupations are being closely monitored to ensure that accurate job duties are being identified to confirm CGFNS (Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools) certification requirements.

There are multiple progressive occupations within the Speech Language Pathology career field including, Teachers of Speech and Hearing Handicapped (TSHH), Teachers of Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLC), Speech Language Pathologist Assistants (SLPA) and Clinical Fellows (CFY), and Speech Language Pathologists (SLP).

While all of these positions require a state license, only SLPs who are certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) may provide direct patient care without supervision, and thus, only certified SLPs require CGFNS certification.

As PERM processing becomes faster in recent months, icert problems continue though. DOL has reported that the incorrect error message that pops up upon entering a date for the prevailing wage source is the result of recent system edit. The glitch will not affect useability, i.e., users can bypass the error message and submit LCAs for processing. In addition, a fix is in development and will likely be in place today or tomorrow. Common recent problem is receiving an inappropriate system warning when entering the Prevailing Wage source. We hope these problem will be fixed soon as the PERM process becoming rather annoying. We will keep our readers posted.