Visa Lawyer Blog

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The Visa Bulletin for November 2008 was published. This Visa Bulletin reflects slight forward movement in the employment-based (EB) cutoff dates.

The EB1 category is current for all countries of chargeability. EB2 category remains current for all countries, except for India and China. The cutoff dates for both India and China moved forward slightly. India’s cutoff date moved forward by two months, to June 1, 2003. The cutoff dates moved forward by several months in all EB3 categories. The worldwide category (for all countries except those specifically listed) as well as the Philippines, in the EB3 has a cutoff date under the November Visa Bulletin of May 1, 2005. The cutoff date for Mexico moved to September 1, 2002. EB3 for China moved forward by four months, to February 1, 2002. EB3 for India moved forward by three months, to October 1, 2001.

Click here for the November Visa Bulletin

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So now it is official TN visas can issued for 3 years and not just 1 as before. So many applicants were calling in the past year asking when will the rule become law, well not it is official.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased the maximum period of time a Trade-NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico may remain in the United States before seeking readmission or obtaining an extension of stay. This final rule changes the initial period of admission for TN workers from one to three years, making it equal to the initial period of admission given to H-1B professional workers. Eligible TN nonimmigrants may now be allowed to receive extensions of stay in increments of up to three years instead of the prior maximum period of stay of one year.

Read the press release here Download file

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Home loans held by illegal immigrants in California and across the nation generally have had fewer delinquencies than similar loans held by U.S. citizens, in part because of stricter lending requirements, according to banks, insurers and Realtors.

More than 12,000 home loans were issued in recent years through a special program that relies on government-issued taxpayer identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, according to the association. The identification numbers, known as ITINs, were designed for foreign-born residents living legally in the U.S. but are widely acknowledged to be used primarily by illegal immigrants.

Many of the mortgages nationwide came out of a partnership between Citibank and Acorn Housing, a nonprofit group that helps the poor. Citibank said the taxpayer identification loans have some of the lowest delinquency rates among all affordable-lending programs.

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Exciting news to report from our border crossing here in San Diego. Jose Canseco was held for nearly 10 hours by immigration authorities after agents said they stopped the former baseball star with a fertility drug as he returned from Mexico.

Canceco was detained at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing Thursday after agents searched his vehicle and said they found human chorionic gonadotropin, which is illegal without a prescription. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Virginia Kice, said Canseco was ordered to appear in federal court in San Diego “related to an alleged smuggling violation”.

Read more here

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To ensure that the mailroom does not erroneously reject your non-subject H-1B, make sure the cover letter emphasizes in Bold, 14 point font, colors, etc., that the petition is NOT subject to the cap. Make clear why the petition is not subject to the cap, and state it as simply as possible. In addition, double check that the correct H-1B petition type is indicated on the certified LCA and all accompanying documentation (be consistent!).

Also, remember that when filing H-1B extensions for the same employer, the $500 fraud prevention fee does not need to be paid. Make sure to highlight this in your cover letter to avoid rejections. Provide proof of the prior H-1B petition approved on the beneficiary’s behalf by the same petitioner, highlight the petitioner and beneficiaries’ names, highlight the instructions to the form I-129, indicating that such fee is not required, and provide a statement (in bold) stating why the $500 fee does not apply. Taking such steps will definitely minimize the chances of such filing being rejected.

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It seems that the prediction of more and more enforcement before the elections is true. Federal agents swept through a chicken processing plant today, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside, fearful their loved ones would be deported.

It is a clear message sent by the government – if you are hiring illegals, we will raid you and make sure the rest of the world will know about it. Employers desperate for workers, will find it more and more difficult to hire legally. Those that will hire illegally will pay the price. It is time for our immigration system to change.

Read the full raid story here

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The death last year of Boubacar Bah, a Guinean tailor held in a New Jersey jail for overstaying his visa, showed immigration detention to be one of the most secretive corners of American life. But now Mr. Bah’s story is being retold in an unusually public way: in an online video game.

The game — created by Breakthrough, an international human rights organization in New York that is trying to get the public behind efforts to strengthen oversight, due process and medical help in immigration detention

Read More here

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Due to limited resources the government is using private contractors to secure and run immigration jails. The abuse and terrible conditions in these jails is beyond unreasonable. Many detainees from California are being sent to Arizona and Washington state jails for lack of detention space. Federal authorities are taking a second look at security guards at the Northwest Detention Center, a privately run immigration lockup in Tacoma, after finding that some were hired without preliminary background checks, The Associated Press has learned.

“Clearly this is a cause for concern,” said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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As a lawyer focusing on hospitality immigration, I often educate my clients on immigration issues relating to this industry. The number one concern from most employers is how to hire much needed hospitality workers legally. The often feel that the government is ignoring their needs. I came across this interesting article about a restaurant owner from San Antonio not afraid to raise his voice.

Louis Barrios says that his biggest fear as an employer, a small businessman and an American is that Congress will continue to avoid dealing with immigration reform. Any society with an aging population like ours that doesn’t have a steady stream of immigrant labor is in trouble, he said. By 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of workers between the ages of 16 and 24 will decline, while the number between 25 and 54 will rise only slightly.

That means the only significant growth in the American labor pool over the next eight years will be among those 55 and older. Unless Washington, D.C., expects 60-year-olds to pick crops, wash dishes in restaurants and pound nails in the construction industry, something has to give.

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The process of International Adoptions has become more complex since the passage of Hague Intercountry Adoption regulations. USCIS released questions related to the new Hague intercountry
adoption process and the orphan adoption process since the implementation of the Hague Adoption Convention on April 1, 2008.

We link to the questions below.

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