Visa Lawyer Blog

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Journalists, reporters, Bloggers and other Media outlets keep calling my office trying to get an explanation as to what happened in July when the new Visa Bulletin was revised, and why is it such a big disaster.

The U.S. State Department surprised the immigration law community, employers and employees alike, in June of this year when it announced that employment based visas would be “current” as of July 1, 2007. They announced this via the Visa Bulletin that is published monthly by the State Department. The fact the The Visa Bulletin was current meant that thousands of applicants finally would be able to file for employment based immigration benefits, some of them after having waited six years or more for backlogs to clear.

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USCIS keeps surprising us all. Effective July 2, 2007, USCIS has temporarily suspended premium processing service for the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Form I-140). USCIS said it anticipates a substantial increase in the number of petitioning employers that will file such petitions because of “pent up demand for preference visa categories.” The volume of I-140 petitions file that request premium processing service is expected to exceed USCIS’s capacity to provide the service, which guarantees that within 15 calendar days of receipt of a petition, USCIS will issue an approval notice, a notice of intent to deny, or a request for evidence, or will open an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation.

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Boy, what nice news to start the week with? USCIS announced this morning that, effective today, it is rejecting all employment-based adjustment of status applications where the priority date is not current under the revised visa bulletin. See Visa Bulletin Link USCIS Service Center Operations has advised AILA lawyers that it will be rejecting ALL employment-based adjustment of status applications received beginning today.

So, Do I Keep Filing?

Many clients have asked whether they should keep filing employment-based adjustment applications in light of today’s announcement by the Department of State

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What a day for Immigration!! Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) held a vote on a motion to invoke cloture early today. A vote on cloture requires approval of 3/5 of the Senate, or 60 votes. The vote to invoke cloture on the underlying bill passed, 64-35. As a result, the Senate will resume consideration this week of amendments to the CIR bill, S. 1639. If the Bill will pass, I will be analyzing it in a special edition of our newsletter as well as on the Blog for the benefit of our readers and the press.

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Many of our readers have been calling the office asking about the status of the Immigration reform. After all, it is all over the news. As much as I like listening to the news, when thet cover immigration law changes, they often get it wrong. They mix the terms, the Green Card process from Citizenship and they (more like Lou Dobbs and Cong. Brian Bilbray) call this debate an amnesty. I call this the right thing to do, NOW.

back in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a procedural vote on a motion to proceed with the Senate immigration reform bill (S. 1639) for Tuesday, June 26, 2007. If the motion passes with 60 or more votes, senators will begin debate on a negotiated list of 24 amendments, split evenly between the two parties.

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If I could get a penny everytime I get into discussions about the “Illegals” in this country, I could be a very rich person by now. The current debate about immigration has divided our nation in so many ways. You can say many things about those that have broken the laws of our nation and entered here illegally, just to get that chance. Shall we reward them for ignoring the rules? I don’t see it as a prize, I see it as a right very well deserved. We are here to help them get there.

Watch the follwing discussion it is how America is so much divided:

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US employers can hire foreign workers again thanks to an important and most likely limited opportunity, as we reported in previous posts about the visa retrogression.

Employment based visa numbers are “current” as of July 2007. This means that backlogs which have prevented employers from hiring foreign workers are clear for at least one month or less. Employers who act quickly can obtain work authorization for foreign workers. I assume that because of this opportunity employers and their attorneys around the nation will be seeking to obtain immigration benefits for workers in many occupations, from high tech, Hospitality to health care.

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So you thought the Bill was dead, not so fast. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is expected to file for cloture on a motion to proceed on the newly reintroduced Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act (S. 1639*) on Wednesday, a move that could pave the way for a final round of debate and votes on the Senate immigration reform proposal.

Faced with two major pieces of legislation to complete before the July Fourth recess – immigration and energy – Senator Reid has threatened to keep his colleagues at work on immigration reform through this weekend. The Senate could begin debate as early as Thursday and may vote Friday on cloture, a procedural motion that must pass with 60 votes before the Senate can move forward with the amendment process. If the motion passes, the Senate could then devote the weekend to votes on amendments, to be followed next week by a vote on final passage.

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I have spent the past few days in Orlando, Florida at the National American Immigration Lawyers convention. What an exciting few days. As lawyers from all across the nation join sessions to learn and debate the current immigration law. Senate has been breathing new life into the immigration Bill and even more exciting the EB Employment based categories become current in the July 2007 Visa Bulletin.

The U.S. Department of State surprised everyone by making almost all employment-based (EB) categories current in its Visa Bulletin for July 2007. This is good news for many who have waited a long time to file their I-485 Adjustment of Status and consular processing cases!

I wanted to congratulate my clients and visitors of our site who have been waiting for years to file under the EB3 and EB2 categories, now is the time to act fast and get the cases ready for the July filing of all I-485 cases.

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After almost two weeks touring Europe it is time to go home. I will be taking the early flight from Lyon France, Via London to Los Angeles. During the past few weeks, the Senate debated some of the most important immigration issues in recent US history. While no decisions have been reached, the debate is far from being over.

I can tell you that Europe is facing the same conflicts as the US. The European comission is considering proposals for a crackdown on the large number of illegal immigrants, even as it looks for new ways to admit legally the workers need for hospitality, healthcare, construction,etc. Meanwhile Europe has gotten a substantial boost from the immigrants from the European countries that joined the EC in May 2004.

Looking at the European experience, immigration seems likely to increase rather than decrease in the future. The US must learn from other countries and pass an immigration bill that will change the future of this country for the better. Making the US the number one country to immigrate.

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