Visa Lawyer Blog

by

Some good news for the weekend as provided by AILA. On 7/31/08 and 8/1/08, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration held a mark-up session and approved the following three pieces of immigration-related legislation:

H.R. 6020, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would amend the INA to allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes. It passed by a vote of 6-3.

H.R. 5882, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future. It passed by a vote of 8-1.

Continue reading

by

Another sad day for immigration lawyers, employers and workers. USCIS announced it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year 2009.

This is a clear sign the system is not working, we need more visas to jump start our economy and workforce. As of today, employers in the hospitality, construction, retail and more will struggle to keep their business rolling. I call on employers to take a stand and let our government how they are hurting, because the system is broken.

Read the press release here Download file

by

I wanted to point out to an excellent article by staff writer for the ABA, Lynda Edwards, about the faith of those that help our armed forces in Iraq. Many of these people risk their lives to help our soldiers, and you would think that our government will make it easy for them to find shelter in the US, think again.

For refugees, the visa process begins with an interview by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Some must wait almost 5 years to get the process completed. According to the article, failing to aid Iraqis who’ve supported the U.S. would be a grave mistake. Ignoring them sends a dangerous message to the world: Support Americans and we’ll abandon you to be killed. Let us hope that US officials will realize the mistake they are doing by not helping such valuable resources obtain a visa and shelter in America.

Read the article here

by

White teens were charged in what officials said was a fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town. Unless we educate our children to tolerate the immigrant population, we will hear of more stories like this one. There are 20 million illegal immigrants living among us.

Read the CNN story here…

by

Sad but true, it seems that H2B visas will run out in the next few days. Here is a recent count update as provided by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

July 23, 2008 H-2B Count

On July 24, 2008 USCIS updated the count of H-2B petitions received and counted towards the H-2B cap on the USCIS website. As of July 23, 2008, 31,619 petitions have been counted towards the 33,000 cap for the first half of FY 2009.

Continue reading

by

This is a reminder to all I-601 waiver applicants, there is no fee waiver for this application no matter what is your situation. USCIS has received numerous applications filed without the appropriate fee due to an incorrect interpretation of the regulations.

The authority to waive or exempt payment of the $545 fee as discussed in the Code of Federal

Regulations 8 CFR 245.1(f) cites an October 1977 law that applied only to applications from

Continue reading

by

The government is stepping up enforcement efforts against employers. ICE announced that a former and current top executive for a McDonald’s franchisee in Nevada, plead guilty to federal felony immigration offenses for encouraging undocumented foreign nationals to live in the United States.

ICE officials claim that company management employed individuals they knew were in the country illegally, including two restaurant managers, by furnishing them with names and Social Security numbers belonging to other individuals. In addition, Jimmy Moore, 47, the franchisee’s former vice-president, pleaded guilty to one felony count of inducing an illegal alien to remain in the United States. At sentencing, Moore faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Employers beware, things will only get uglier.

Continue reading

by

We process many TN visa cases at our office and through our self help kit guide on the TN Visa Expert Site. The TN visa is available for Canadian and Mexican citizens. The applicant must be coming to work in the United States as one of 65 job titles defined in Chapter 16, Annex 1603, Appendix 1603.d.1.

and possess the required education and/or experience.

Some applicants do not seem to fit the typical job title listed, and our job is to try to stir them in the correct direction. I wanted to bring an example of a recent successful case where we did just that. This applicant held a Bachelor of Commerce with a double Concentration in Organizational Behavior and Marketing from McGill University and a Master’s of Applied Positive Psychology from Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. Original job title was a personal coach. I have looked further into her company and other duties and reralized that Technical Writer could work. This is a good General job title that can be used very effectively when crafting NAFTA TN applications. It worked, and you can read her story below including the cover letter that we used.

———————————-
Hi Jacob, I’m in, With a fresh new TN visa in hand!
I brought a book with me, and when I went in the office, I sat down and started to read. When the agent called me, he asked what position I was applying for. I said “Technical Writer” and then laughed and added “I’m a bit of a nerd!”. He then quickly tried to find my degrees to make sure I qualified and after seeing my transcript, he said “You have a 4.0 GPA?” So I replied “Well… I already said I was a bit of a nerd!” So the agent added it all up – she gets here, sits down and reads, applies for Technical Writer and has a 4.0 GPA on her Master degree from UPenn – that’s solid! He then looked at my articles that I had printed as a proof of experience and started to read them quickly – he said he needed to read them for his own benefit, so that confirmed I was qualified!
He didn’t know that Technical Writer was on the TN list, so he had to dig out a document with all the job descriptions, find it, read it and then compare with my letter. He said I had a very nice letter and asked a few questions to validate some of what he had read, but I really didn’t get a hard time at all! I was actually surprised that it went so easy!
Half hour later, he was taking my picture and finger prints! And so here I am, very happy to be in and very grateful you advised me to go for Technical Writer! Thank you, Jacob!
Warmly,
MJ
See her Letter below

Continue reading

by

1. There is a very high rejection rate of I-907 premium processing requests. (SCOPS chief Barbara Velarde mentioned in Vancouver at the National Immigration conference that the rejection rate was approximately 60%.) Prior to the suspension of premium processing for I-140’s last Fall, only certain I-140 case types were eligible. For example, National Interest Waivers and Multinational Managers were not eligible for premium processing. Those case types are still not eligible for premium processing, even in an “H-out” situation.

2. The current program is only available if the beneficiary is in the U.S. in H-1B status. Those beneficiaries who have already run out of H-1B time, and who changed status or left the U.S., are not able to benefit at this time.

Continue reading

by

Compete America on behalf of thousands of US employers write to congress in support of immigration reform. They write:

U.S. employers rely on EB green cards to keep foreign-born talent living, working and innovating in America. Yet, despite the critical importance of these visas, Congress has failed to address the well documented backlogs in the EB green card system that leave some foreign-born, highly educated professionals waiting over six to 10 years to receive a permanent resident visa.

The three bills will address many shortcomings in the EB green card system. For example:

Continue reading