Visa Lawyer Blog

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Further to the Department’s proposed rule to amend the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services (Schedule) for nonimmigrant visa and border crossing card application processing fees, this rule raises from $131 to $140 the fee charged for the processing of an application for most non-petition-based nonimmigrant visas (Machine-Readable Visas or MRVs) and adult Border Crossing Cards (BCCs).

The rule also provides new tiers of the application fee for certain categories of petition- based nonimmigrant visas and treaty trader and investor visas (all of which are also MRVs).

Finally, the rule increases the $13 BCC fee charged to Mexican citizen minors who apply in Mexico, and whose parent or guardian already has a BCC or is applying for one, by raising that fee to $14 by virtue of a congressionally mandated surcharge that went into effect in 2009.

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As of May 14, 2010, approximately 19,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions were received. Additionally, USCIS has received 8,100 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

What organizations are cap exempt for example?

Nonprofit Organizations “Affiliated” with Institutions of Higher Education Are Cap Exempt

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Today, the ACLU, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice) filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s sheriffs and county attorneys, asking the court to find S.B. 1070 unconstitutional. It violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law because it unlawfully invites the racial profiling of Latinos and other people who look or sound “foreign-born.”
It also violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution by interfering with the federal government’s authority to regulate and enforce immigration. Our lawsuit is on behalf of a diverse coalition of Arizona residents and organizations including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Southside Presbyterian Church, the Asian Chamber of Commerce of Arizona, and the Muslim American Society.

Read the complete posting from the ACLU website here…

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Last week we became members of Global Alliance of Hospitality Attorneys , this will allow us to serve our clients even better and offer solution to the ever changing global workforce that the hospitality industry is facing.

Whether transferring employees between international properties or employing management trainees, immigration is an integral part of the hospitality industry. The top seven visa types utilized by the hospitality industry are the J-1, H-3,H2B, L-1,E2, TN and H-1B. The following is a brief outline of each of these visa types:

E2 Visa

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has redesigned the Permanent Resident Card—commonly known as the “Green Card”—to incorporate several

major new security features. State-of-the-art technology prevents counterfeiting, obstructs

tampering, and facilitates quick and accurate authentication of the card. Beginning today,

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As of May 11, 2010, approximately 18,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions were filed. Additionally, USCIS has received 7,600 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees. Still fewer visas than expected, sign of the times. We expect filings to pick after the May graduations and into the summer.

So what is this H1B Cap all about?

The current law limits to 65,000 the number of aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status each fiscal year (FY). The numerical limitation was temporarily raised to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003. In addition, excluded from the ceiling are all H-1B non-immigrants who work at (but not necessarily for) universities and non-profit research facilities. This means that contractors working at, but not directly employed by the institution may be exempt from the cap. Free Trade Agreements allow a carve out from the numerical limit of 1,400 for Chilean nationals and 5,400 for Singapore nationals. Laws also exempt up to 20,000 foreign nationals holding a master’s or higher degree from U.S. universities from the cap on H-1B visas.

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After a week full of outrage about the Arizona Immigration law, we are happy to report about an opposite spirit coming all the way from the state of New York.

Gov. David Paterson stepped into the immigration debate Monday, saying he would create the nation’s first “pardon panel” to investigate requests of legal immigrants facing deportation because of past convictions.

Paterson, proposing the measure as the nation is embroiled in conflict over an Arizona law that critics say would encourage racial profiling, said he would pardon immigrants if they meet requirements including rehabilitation and demonstrate they’re not a danger to society.

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The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2010 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Winners should start finding out very soon. Notifications to the randomly-selected diversity visa or “green card lottery” winners are being sent between May and July 2010.

How does it all work?

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats on Thursday unveiled a “framework” for a sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. In wake of the furor over Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, Democrats said the first step toward reform must be bolstered border security.

The REPAIR Proposal, which still needs to be drafted into a formal bill, addresses seven main areas for immigration reform. These include achieving operational control of the nation’s borders to prevent future illegal immigration, finding and removing individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States, halting unauthorized employment using a biometric employment verification system, and maximizing the nation’s economic prosperity through reforms to the legal immigration system.

Among the document’s many recommendations is the proposal to provide an immediate green card to foreign students graduating from a U.S. educational institution with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), who have an offer of employment in a field relevant to their degree. Further, REPAIR would strive to eliminate the family-based immigration backlog over a period of eight years by increasing the per country family immigration quotas from 7 to 10 percent. The REPAIR Proposal would also implement a two-step process to legalize undocumented individuals living in the United States who do not have criminal convictions and who do not pose a threat to national security.

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