Visa Lawyer Blog

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UK is getting lot more protests from various quarters. In a rare intervention, eight British Nobel Laureates, including Russian-born Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov who share this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics, have warned that the Government’s plans to put an annual cap on immigration from outside the European Union would deprive Britain of international scientific talent and “isolate” it from the “increasingly globalized world of research”.

Sir Harry Kroto, who got the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996, cited the case of Prashant Jain, an Indian material scientist from the Florida State University, who was offered a fellowship by Cambridge University. But he was refused a visa because he was not able to secure enough points under the points-based immigration system to be eligible for a work permit. He is a researcher who is very clearly going places. It’s an amazing loss to the country. He will probably now stay here in the U.S. when he was quite keen to work in the U.K.. It is a very good example of the problems that immigration (policy) is causing in science. Dr. Jain (28) said he was very keen to work at Cambridge which he described as a “wonderful place” but said he now saw his future in America.

In a joint letter the Nobel Laureates said that Britain’s reputation as a global center of research excellence would be damaged if a rigid cap on immigration made it difficult for universities to recruit the best talent from abroad.

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US plans to maintain a strong presence in the eastern part of the capital, despite moving bulk of services to Arnona neighborhood. After six years of construction, the American Consulate in Jerusalem will open its new facility for consular services on Rehov David Flusser in the southern Arnona neighborhood next Tuesday.

The office that previously dealt with consular services, located on Nablus Road in east Jerusalem, will remain open for consulate programs, along with the facility in west Jerusalem on Rehov Agron, and America House, a cultural outreach center in east Jerusalem.

“The [new] facility was designed to enhance the provision of consular services to American citizens and local residents,” a US Consulate representative said. Consular services include issuing passports and visas, and reporting deaths and births abroad. There are 80,000 registered American citizens living in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which makes the Jerusalem consulate one of the US’s busiest in the world. It maintains an “e-consulate” for Gaza residents, offering most services online.

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As many of our readers know, Chapter 16 of NAFTA (Temporary Entry of Business Persons) provides for the simplified and expeditious temporary entry of businesspersons who are citizens of one country to go into the territory of another. It contains the reciprocal commitments of the United States, Mexico, and Canada to facilitate the temporary entry of businesspersons from one of the three countries. It grants temporary entry to four categories of businesspersons: (1) business visitors (admitted as B-1s); (2) traders and investors (admitted as E-1s and E-2s); (3) intracompany transferees (admitted as L-1s); and (4) professionals (admitted as TNs).

It is important to note that although businesspersons who are citizens of Mexico are entitled to the benefits of NAFTA, they do not have the ease of access to the United States as do citizens of Canada. Canadians can apply for the TN work visa directly at the port of entry from Canada to the USA. Many Canadians are not aware that they can apply for the TN visa on at any Mexican-American port of entry as well.

So how does it work, key requirements?

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On Wednesday, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced S.B. 3932, The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010. The bill takes a broad approach to solving the wide range of problems that plague our broken immigration system.

It offers proposals on border, interior, and worksite enforcement, on legalization, and on future flows of immigration. Now the Senate and House both have a vehicle (Congressman Luis Gutierrez previously introduced a CIR bill in the House last December) for generating a serious discussion on immigration reform in the coming weeks. These bills are a direct response to the overwhelming public demand for solutions to our broken immigration system. Both political parties have acknowledged that this broken system is no longer sustainable, and is disrupting America’s businesses, families, and long-term economic recovery.

Here is a Link to the Bill

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Employers will see higher charges for most employment-based immigration petitions and applications and for premium processing services when a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services fee schedule takes effect on November 23, 2010.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will increase the fees for many immigration filings, including premium processing cases, and will introduce new fees for applications and services that were previously processed without charge, according to a final regulation that is set to be published in Friday’s Federal Register. The new fee schedule will take effect 60 days after publication, on November 23, 2010. Petitions and applications postmarked on or after November 23 must include the new fees.

According to USCIS, the agency is altering its fee schedule to reflect the full cost of processing applications and petitions. New Fees for Employment-Based Filings:

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Many attorneys and clients who filed H1B cases in April 2010 are still waiting for decisions on their cases. This process has become very frustrating for employers waiting for employees to start working, as well other related issues. Why is this happening? We have no clear answer. But the American Immigration Lawyers Association was able to get some clarifications today.

USCIS has advised AILA that the Vermont Service Center and the California Service Center will begin prioritizing the adjudication of pending cap-subject H-1B petitions in an attempt to bring their processing times within 60 days as soon as possible. Cases will continue to be adjudicated in the order received.

USCIS has informally advised AILA that it will prioritize the adjudication of H-1B change of status cases for F-1 cap-gap students who are otherwise prohibited from continuing employment after September 30. AILA Liaison has been coordinating with USCIS to help achieve this outcome. While AILA has been collecting lists of these cases, AILA have been advised that USCIS has the means to independently verify them.

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On September 24, 2010 the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law held a hearing titled “Protecting America’s Harvest” at 9:30 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Here is what Arturo S. Rodriguez President, United Farm Workers of America had to say:

Our society places all the risks and costs associated with a seasonal industry–featuring millions of short-term jobs–on the backs of the workers. For example, if there is a freeze, as occurred last year in Florida and thousands of workers are left without work, there is no unemployment assistance even though emergency aid is promptly extended to agricultural employers.

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This is an important update from AILA for our readers.The following is guidance regarding I-9 and immigration-related discrimination issues in response to the invalidation of pre-July 1, 2010 Puerto Rico birth certificates.

Q: Why is there a new law on Puerto Rico birth certificates?

A: The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which investigates U.S. passport fraud, has long had concerns about the prevalence of fraud in passports based on Puerto Rico birth certificates. The State Department reports that about 40% of all passport fraud investigations involve Puerto Rico birth records. In part, the problem was a result of the prevalent use of birth certificates in Puerto Rico for all sorts of unofficial and official transactions and the retention of original true copy birth records by diverse organizations across all sectors of society, including schools, churches, sports teams, and government voter and driver registration offices. Often these birth certificates were not stored in secure environments and, as a result, many were stolen and sold.

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Paris Hilton is not big in Japan. The socialite and entrepreneur was denied entry into the country by immigration officials because of her very fresh conviction for cocaine possession, and flew home to the United States yesterday, the Associated Press reports. She also canceled her appearances in Malaysia and Indonesia, but told reporters she hoped to return soon.

Hilton, who was detained and grilled by immigration officials for hours Tuesday, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession and obstructing a police officer after she and her boyfriend were busted in Las Vegas by a motorcycle.

What is she was a foreign national trying to enter the US?

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Bad news for Dream Act supporters, On 9/21/10, the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to pass a motion to proceed to consideration of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill (S. 3454). Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had previously announced his intention to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the bill. After it was evident that the votes needed to proceed would fall short, Senator Reid switched his vote to “no” in order to preserve his right to bring the bill up again which would mostly likely be during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress.

Senate Republicans were joined by Arkansas Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in voting down the measure by a vote of 56-43.

Here is what the President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association had to say:

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