Visa Lawyer Blog

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If you are going through the immigration process, or know someone that is an immigrant applying for a visa or Citizenship, chances are that you must have heard of the NAME CHECK delays.

FBI and other agencies pull cases for whatever reason and until they are cleared, the immigrants can not complete the immigration process. We have numerous clients pending for years, waiting for this to be completed. Sometimes we had to sue the government to force them to act, but even this option is becoming very complicated.

But is seems that relief is on the way. Immigration Daily, the biggest online immigration publication reports the following:

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We all know that the recent fee hike, and other changes that happened in July created a massive backlog in application processing. Clients are waiting for months just to get receipts. Well now we may have a solution from Sen. Chuck Schumer – Immigration officials should rehire retirees to help clear a backlog of applications that could keep some people from becoming citizens, he said on Thursday:

“For waves of would-be citizens, bureaucratic incompetence is turning the American Dream into a dream deferred,” Schumer said in a news release.

Citizenship and Immigration Services last week announced that people wanting to become U.S. citizens will have to wait 15 months to 18 months, rather than the national average seven months, to naturalize.

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The big Immigration news today in all major news papers that cover US Immigration is the massive delays in application processing. As you may recall due to the fee hike in July millions of applicants filed for Immigration benefits, like Citizenship, family petitions etc.

The application backlog is so large that Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department, is months behind schedule in returning receipts for checks written to cover fees and indicate to clients that the files are in process.

I get calls every single day from clients inquiring about case status, and all we can tell them is that the case is in process. It just doesn’t make sense for this to take so long, but the USCIS were not ready for this volume and now applicants are paying the price.

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This Thanksgiving we have a lot to be thankful for, we live in a country is considered to be the symbol of Freedom and Prosperity. Yet, it seems that this country and the government running it, is doing a very bad PR job is welcoming visitors and immigrants to this country.

In my own practice, I often here horror stories from people that were treated poorly and very disrespectfully by our immigration officials. Tourists detained at airports for no reason, professionals coming to work sent back and barred from coming back, and I can go on and on.

Fareed Zakaria published an excellent article in this week’s Newsweek magazine. He states:

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The California Service Center has informed AILA-CSC Liaison that it has changed its policy with respect to certain forms of concurrent H-1B employment.

In the past, the CSC would approve an H-1B petition for concurrent employment that is cap-subject if the alien was the beneficiary of an approved H-1B petition submitted by a cap-exempt employer, applying a literal reading of INA § 214(g)(6).

CSC has advised that they will start denying concurrent H-1B petitions filed by cap-subject petitioners (such employers that didn’t obtain H1B approval this year) notwithstanding the fact that the alien is already working for a cap-exempt institution. The matter is being taken up by out organization AILA and we will update readers of this Blog.

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I often deal with government agencies as it relates to immigration, most of the officials we deal with are nice and professionals. Yet from time to time, we come across government officials that feel either they are above the law or that acting as a human being may not be part of the job description.

We often here about ICE agents abusing detainees, government agents acting unethically when investigating aliens and immigrants being deported and entire families torn apart. The recent deportation of a breastfeeding mother is one such story. The decision to separate a mother from her breast-feeding child drew strong denunciations from Hispanic and women’s health groups.

Read more here...

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One of our Blog readers pointed out this morning that we are featured on the American Bar Associations National site. ABAJournal.com is the Web site of the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association and is the most exclusive publication for Lawyer in the US. We are fattered to be recognized by such an important authority and will continue to provide up to date information on our Blog as always.

Happy Veterans day to all of you out there!!
Click for the ABA Blog list here

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From time to time I will be posting about local updates and important changes that will affect clients and local readers of the Blog. In the past few weeks, the local Immigration offices started scheduling Marriage based adjustment of status interviews in the Downtown office in addition to the Chula Vista location. The office in downtown is located at 880 Front Street.

The USCIS officials that I spoke to reported this to be an attempt to ease the pressure from the Chula Vista office and perhaps expedite interviews this way. Traditionally, the downtown office was used for Naturalization and Citizenship interviews.

In addition the Application Support Center on El Cajon Blvd, is now officially closed. The Application support Center is a location where clients go to process fingerprints and biometrics as part of the adjustment of status process.

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The up coming New Citizenship Test is generating q lot of interest and anxiety on the part of future applicants. I was interviewed by Fox 6 news last week about this subject and the report aired last night on the 10pm news edition.

Click here to see the report and read the article on the station’s website

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Guess what, New I-9 form released. On November 7th, 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), Citizenship and Immigration Services (“CIS”) announced that it has released a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, as well at the M-274, Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9.

The revision of the Form I-9 seeks to achieve full compliance with the document reduction requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRAIRA”), which reduced the number of documents that employers may accept from newly hired employees during the employment verification process.

This is huge for employers that were waiting for some substantial revisions since the 1996 legislation.

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