Visa Lawyer Blog

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As of February 20, 2011, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will require that all employers filing Form I-129 petitions seeking employment of H-1B, H-1B1, L-1 and O-1A workers certify that they have reviewed Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to ascertain whether or not an export control license is required for the employment. The certification is contained in a revised Form I-129.

More specifically, employers must certify that they have:

(1) reviewed the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and

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A few days ago we received a Request for Evidence (RFE) for one of our H1B transfer cases as well for a new H3 visa Petition. The Request was stating that the employer can not be verified in the Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) Program, and the employer must submit more documents in order to be verified. Suggested documents are federal Tax returns, IRS registration documents, and more. So what is happening here?

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is beta-testing the use of a commercial business information service to independently verify petitioner information. The Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises (VIBE) Program will be used by USCIS Officers to access electronic records on entities filing Forms I-129, I-140 and I-360, nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for foreign workers.

The electronic records review may include the petitioner’s business activities, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, income and credit rating, ownership, affiliated entities, locations, number of employees, etc. If electronic information negatively affects eligibility or is inconsistent with what has been submitted by the petitioner, a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) may be issued.

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I was interviewed yesterday by Ruxandra Guidi from KBPS Public Radio about the topic Selective Service Encourages Undocumented Men to Sign Up. This is an interesting topic that we will hear more about in the next few months.

Here is a link to the story from the Radio Site

According to U.S. law, a man must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of his 18th birthday. Yet only about 25 percent of American citizens are signed up, and no one knows how many undocumented people have done so.

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Here is an interesting update for our marriage cases readers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the creation of a new employment authorization document (EAD) which also serves as an advance parole (AP) travel permit.

The new card will be available for persons who concurrently file an I-765 application for an EAD and an I-131 application for an AP with their I-485 adjustment of status application in the final stage of the permanent residence process.

The card will be valid for either one or two years, depending on whether the applicant’s immigrant visa preference category is retrogressed. The card will look identical to the current EAD but will have an annotation that states “Serves as I-512 Advance Parole.” Notably, if an applicant only applies for an EAD or an AP, USCIS will issue the legacy version of the EAD or AP. The new card will continue to be a valid List A document for I-9 purposes.

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We all know by now about the Pleasanton university that catered to mostly online students is being called a sham by federal prosecutors who say the university was a front to illegally provide immigration status to foreign nationals.

The complaint, filed by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, claims Ms. Su the founder, was part of an elaborate scheme to defraud, using false statements and misrepresentations to the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the complaint, Su and Tri-Valley University have made millions of dollars in tuition fees for issuing the visa-related documents, enabling foreign nationals to obtain illegal student immigration status.

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This new new information just came in recently, but is already a confusing topic among illegal immigrants.

All Legal Permanent Residents, who are male and between the ages of 18 – 26 years, are required to register for Selective Service (females are not required to register). If you failed to register for Selective Service you will be unable to prove ‘good moral character’ for the requisite five previous years prior to the filing of your application for Citizenship which will in all likelihood result in the denial of the application.

As a rule of thumb, if you missed the window to register, an applicant should wait until age 32 years before filing a Citizenship application.

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The Department of State released the new visa bulletin for March 2011 (http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5337.html) on February 11, 2011.

Employment Based Visa Bulletin for the month of March 2011:

The EB-1 category is current for both Chinese and Indian nationals. In the EB-2 category, the cut-off dates moved forward 7 days for Chinese nationals (from July 1, 2006 to July 8, 2006), and still remained unchanged for Indian nationals (May 8, 2006). In the EB-3 category, the cut-off dates moved forward from January 1, 2004 to January 22, 2004 for Chinese nationals and moved forward from February 22, 2002 to March 15, 2002 for Indian nationals.

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In a recent meeting between the American Immigration Lawyers Association and USCIS the following question was raised:

What is the policy regarding the procedure for a legal name change during the naturalization process. We understand that the CIS permits applicants to complete a petition for legal name change during the application interview. However, at least one field office prohibits male applicants from legally assuming their spouse’s last name, absent a separate legal name change. This practice conflicts with USCIS policy. Please clarify the agency policy.

USCIS representatives responded:

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Here is an important update for our readers. Many applicants are reporting sever delays with I-130 applications for Immediate Relative cases.

In November 2010, USCIS transferred approximately 36,000 Immediate Relative petitions from

the California Service Center to the Texas Service Center. They anticipated that this redistribution

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What do you make of this? Thousands of immigrants from India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling detention centers and triggering investigations.

The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.

Hundreds have been released on their own recognizance or after posting bond. They catch buses or go to local Indian-run motels before flying north for the final leg of their months-long journeys.

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