Visa Lawyer Blog

by

We all expect an announcement from the USCIS regarding proposed fee increases in the very near future. The USCIS had scheduled a press conference to announce the fee changes for Thursday, May 10, 2007, but has postponed it. No new date has been announced. American Immigration Lawyers Association, which I am a member of, and other groups are aggressively exploring litigation strategies, as well as other ways to address the expected fee increases.

As you can see from the summary below, the fee increase is unrealistic and will impose an extreme hardship on many applicants. We call for an immediate revision of this proposed unreasonable rule.

Continue reading

by

I was interviewed on May 7, 2007 for 1170 KCBQ Radio regarding our client’s heart breaking story and the up coming Immigration debate. I shared my opinion on why waivers are required for immigrants that enter the US illegally and later marry US citizens. We also discussed potential immigration reform. The radio show host, Rick Amato who interviewed me was not supportive of the bill but we had a polite and interesting debate.

Continue reading

by

Just like I predicated in previous posts, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received enough H-1B petitions requesting exemptions from the fiscal year 2008 (FY 2008) H-1B cap for “foreign workers who have earned a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education” to meet the congressionally mandated exemption limit of 20,000. USCIS has determined that the “final receipt date” for these exempt H1B Petitions is April 30, 2007.

Continue reading

by

What a day! I attended several Marriage based Greed Card interviews today at our local USCIS office and they all went pretty well. All approved, but my clients were stressed. Being questioned by a government official about your personal life is not the most pleasant experience. Most clients just want to know what questions they may ask at the interview.

8_pic_circle1.jpg

The below referenced questions are actual questions that I have compiled after attending numerous of interviews across the US. This is intended to be an exclusive list, rather, just to give you an idea as to what you might expect at your next interview.

Continue reading

by

Our law firm represents numerous hotels and restaurants across the U.S. Over the past several years, we have established ourselves as leaders in hospitality immigration, helping all levels of hospitality professionals. Sometimes their cases are straightforward. Other times, their stories are full of twists and turns.

Our client, a leading luxury hotel in California, was employing Mr. G. as a Banquet manager on a J1 visa. The J1 visa unfortunately allows the employer to keep the employee for a period of 18 months and not more. The hotel was impressed with Mr. G’s work and senior management expressed desire to keep him beyond the J1 term. We presented a few options, first the H2B visa for a short duration employment of up to 10 months. The problem is that H2B visas<a href= ran out in early March and that was not an option. We were left with the H1B visa that would allow Mr. G. to work up to six years. However, we discovered that he did not have a Bachelor's degree in the field of employment, a minimum requirement for the H1B Visa. Mr. G. was not qualified for the H1B visa at the time. His position was also one that did not require a Bachelor's degree.

Continue reading

by

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently published a notice of an update for procedures for State Workforce Agencies (“SWA”) and ETA National Processing Centers to process H-2B labor certification applications in non-agricultural occupations. The H-2B nonimmigrant classification allows temporary non-agricultural workers to come to the U.S. to meet seasonal, intermittent or peak-load needs of an employer where there are no U.S. workers who are able, willing and qualified to accept the temporary position(s).

The H-2B nonimmigrant visa classification may work as an alternative for the H- 1B. The earliest that H2B Labor Certifications can be filed for October 2007 starting date is June 1, 2007, employers must file early, please call or email me if you need more info..

You can read the update here

Continue reading

by

Clients are calling my office in the past week or so, reporting receipt of H1B receipts. A few days later same clients report getting same receipts for the same case. Other clients report receipts issued on the 5th or 6th of April, what is going on here?
The USCIS announced on April 16, 2007, that some of the regular H1B cases subject to the cap will be issued two receipt notices. The reason for this is that the USCIS issued receipts for some (but not all) cap-subject cases filed on April 2nd and 3rd. They changed the procedure before they issued receipts for all cases. Under the new procedure, the USCIS stopped issuing preliminary receipt notices once they realized that the H1B cap had been met on the first day these cases were accepted. The USCIS conducted a random, computer-generated lottery on April 12, 2007 to select the H1B cases that would receive the limited cap numbers.

We are in the process of receiveing receipts for cases that were selected, I assume that if no receipts are received by our office, by early next week clients should assume that the cases were not selected.

Continue reading

by

Are you stressed enough with the H1B craziness, well here is another update.

I just learned today that 20,000 H1B numbers reserved for person’s with advanced degrees may be gone by the end of this week, more or less by Thursday afternoon. As you know the 65,000 general cap was reached on April 2, 2007.

There is currently legislation pending in Congress that may help increase the cap and provide relief for the thousands of workers ready to come and work in the US. Many readers ask us what they can do to help. Click here to find out

Continue reading

by

We just learned today that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has changed its name to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has changed its name to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Both changes took effect 3/31/07.

I have stopped keeping track of the different agencies and the new names they choose everytime. One can only wonder why they keep doing this…….

by

So what is the update with the H1B Lottery? We have received advance notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that on April 12, 2007 it conducted the computer-generated random selection process to determine which H-1B petitions, subject to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for the 2008 fiscal year (FY 2008), would continue to final processing.

The agency has confirmed that it received a total of 123,480 cap-subject petitions on April 2 and 3. These petitions were labeled with unique numerical identifiers, and a sufficient number of petitions to reach the annual H-1B cap was then selected randomly by computer. The chosen numerical identifiers were then transmitted to the appropriate Service Center for further processing.

Within the next four weeks, a receipt notice will be generated for each petition that was selected by lottery for adjudication. Those that were not chosen will be sent back to the petitioner or authorized representative along with the fee(s).

For cases that were initially filed with requests for premium processing, the 15-day premium processing period begins on April 12, which is the date petitions were chosen through the random selection process.

Continue reading