Visa Lawyer Blog

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As he gathers with other movers and shakers at the White House on Thursday afternoon to witness President Barack Obama’s signing of the Jobs Act, AOL Inc co-founder Steve Case is already thinking ahead to the next cause he can help champion behind the scenes: immigration reform.

“Our work’s not done,” Case told Reuters in an interview, adding that he would still pause to celebrate the passage of the Jobs Act, intended to help start-up companies raise money and hold initial public offerings. Case lobbied heavily for the new law, milking his connections in the Washington area to build consensus around the legislation.

Now that the Jobs Act is completed, making it easier for highly skilled immigrants to work in the United States is one of the most important issues facing the startup community, said Case, who runs Revolution LLC, a Washington-based venture investment firm. Revolution focuses on Internet plays and has backed companies ranging from deals company LivingSocial to short-term car-rental service Zipcar Inc.

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I always counsel Lawful Permanent Residents with past criminal convictions to be careful before traveling abroad. Before the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) took effect on April 1, 1997, lawful permanent residents (LPRs) with criminal convictions who traveled abroad did not, upon their return, face inadmissibility – then called excludability – if their trip was brief, casual and innocent.

After IIRIRA, however, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) determined that the new law eliminated this Fleuti exemption for LPRs who had committed a criminal offense that fell within the grounds of inadmissibility. On March 28, 2012 in Vartelas v. Holder, the Supreme Court held that the Fleuti doctrine still applies to LPRs with pre-IIRIRA convictions who travel abroad.

The Court did not reach the question of the continued viability of the Fleuti doctrine for LPRs with post- IIRIRA convictions. Under its retroactivity jurisprudence, the Court found that the legal regime in force at the time of a person’s pre-IIRIRA conviction governs. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, Mr. Vartelas’ removal proceedings should be terminated on remand. This decision directly impacts other Green Card holders with pre-IIRIRA convictions who have been placed, or are at risk of being placed, in removal proceedings after a brief trip abroad.

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We just obtained this information based on reports from the California Service Center, Laguna Niguel, CA, on April 5, 2012, that 22,323 cap-subject H-1B petitions have been received as of April 4, 2012. Approximately 25% of these cases are for U.S. advanced degrees. According to USCIS, the number of filings received in the first few days of the H-1B season is almost double the number of filings received by USCIS during the same time last year.

We will keep you posted any new H1B case filers, better hurry up!!!

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The Rome District Chapter of AILA (RDC) offered the following information from the NIV Chief in Shanghai, Mr. Mr. Richard Larsen. We specially wanted to update on the issue on non immigrant visas and in particular visitor visas for certain kind of applicants.

What is the status of B visa adjudications for pregnant mothers? B for dependent parents? Domestic Partners? What should be provided above and beyond a standard B visa applicant?

Mr. Larsen stated, The law does not prohibit pregnant mothers from applying for B visas or to have their babies in the U.S. The post reviews an application from a pregnant mother like other applications, looking for ties to China, financial resources, credibility, etc. If the post is

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What I really want to know is how could this happen in the first place, and more importantly, for such a long duration – 13 years.

Earl Seth David, also known as Rabbi Avraham David, applied for legal status for 25,000 illegal aliens based on phony claims that U.S. employers had sponsored those aliens for employment.

He operated the scheme out of his Manhattan law firm for 13 years, charging the aliens exorbitant fees of as much as $30,000, prosecutors said.

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In response to questions about projected priority date movement for the remainder of FY2012 posed by followers of our Blog we report based on AILA recent update, Charlie Oppenheim, DOS Chief of Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting, provided a chart with projected visa number movement based on recent patterns of USCIS number use, which recently have seen dramatic fluctuations. The following information can help with some predictions, but keep in mind these estimates are subject to change at any time.

Visa predictions 2012

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Last week U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted a Notice in the Federal Register requesting public comment on its plan to create an alternative process for certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to apply for and receive a provisional waiver of the unlawful presence ground of inadmissibility while still in the United States, if they can demonstrate that being separated from their U.S. citizen spouse or parent would cause that U.S. citizen relative extreme hardship. The goal of the proposed process change is to reduce the time that U.S. citizens are separated from their immediate relatives while those family members go through the consular process overseas to obtain an immigrant visa.

Currently, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who have accrued a certain period of unlawful presence in the United States are barred from returning to the United States for as long as 3 or 10 years if they leave the country. Immediate relatives can obtain a waiver of the unlawful presence bar if they show that a U.S. citizen spouse or parent will experience extreme hardship if they are required to remain outside the United States. The immediate relative also would have to show that they warrant a favorable exercise of discretion. But in order to obtain the waiver, these individuals must depart the United States and wait abroad while the waiver is processed.

Under the current process, therefore, U.S. citizens suffer unnecessarily long periods of separation while family members go through consular processing overseas to obtain an immigrant visa. The proposed process change lessens the length of separation by reducing inefficiencies in the current immigrant visa process.

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With a few days left before the April 2, 2012 deadline, we learned that poor filing decisions make risk your case delivery and as a result miss the H1B cap.

USCIS stated that cases are considered “accepted on the date that USCIS takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct fee,” and that it does not rely on the date the petition is postmarked or the date the petition is delivered to a P.O. Box or USPS address.

Employers are advised that petitions that are sent to USCIS via U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, even those that are addressed to the physical address of the service center, are not actually delivered to the service center, but are instead delivered to a U.S. post office. When received at the U.S. post office, such petitions may even be “signed for” as received by a USCIS official.

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We have announced the TPS for Syrians on March 23, 2012, today this is official. Due to the violent upheaval and deteriorating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that eligible Syrian nationals (and persons without nationality who last habitually resided in Syria) in the United States may apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The TPS designation for Syria is effective today and will remain in effect through September 30, 2013. The designation means that eligible Syrian nationals will not be removed from the United States, and may request employment authorization. The 180-day TPS registration period begins today and ends on September 25, 2012.

To be eligible for TPS, Syrians must meet all individual requirements for TPS, including demonstrating that they have continually resided and been continually physically present in the United States since March 29, 2012. All individuals who apply for TPS will undergo a thorough security check.

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Our office is busy with completing all our H1B petitions to be ready for April 1 deadline. This is a recent update regarding prevailing wage issues. Department of Labor issued revised Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the H-1B 2012 filing season. I wanted to cover the Prevailing Wage topic.

Many of our readers will undergo labor certification in the process of obtaining permanent residence. Those who have been through the process know that documenting the prevailing wage is among the many challenges of a labor certification.

The prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a particular occupation in the geographic area of intended employment. In accordance with procedures issued in 1998, in most cases the State Employment Workforce Agencies (SWAs) are required to determine the prevailing wage rate based on wage surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics under the occupational employment statistics (OES) program. There are exceptions to this for certain positions that are covered under the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) or other Service Contract Act (SCA), or where there is a negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

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