| | The Business Immigration Monthly is Hammond Law Group’s news eZine, directed at international workers and employers seeking the most up-to-date news on U.S. immigration issues, specifically those that impact workers on H, L, E, and O visas and workers seeking permanent residency. News items will be of particular interest to those in the Healthcare, IT and staffing industries.
Featured Article
October Visa Bulletin - What does it all mean?
Written by Sherry Neal, Partner
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/monthly/featured-article-september-2009.pdf
October Visa Bulletin
The Department of State has released the October Visa Bulletin here. The good news is that EB3 categories are available, the bad news is that they are backed up to 2001 and 2002 depending on the category (EB3 All Chargeability is backed up to June 1, 2002, EB3 China is at February 22, 2002, EB3 India is April 15, 2001, and EB3 Philippines is June 1, 2002)...making the movement effectively the same as being unavailable. EB2 China and India experienced minimal movement forward as well.
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4575.html
USCIS Releases I-485 Inventory Statistics
On September 23rd, the USCIS released an inventory of I-485 data online. With this data, Applicants can more reliably estimate their expected wait times for green cards. This information will assist Applicants in making informed decisions that impact their life in the US. The thanks goes to Deputy Chief of Service Center Operations Rober Kruszka and his team for recognizing the importance of releasing this information to the public. Stay tuned to HLG for more information regarding this inventory and making reliable wait time predictions.
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2009,0928-i485inventory.pdf
USCIS Upgrades Website and Case Status Page
The USCIS has just updated its website and its online case status page to make it more user-friendly and to provide more information about the status of a pending case. The page now identifies whether the case is in one of the following modes: Acceptance, Initial Review, RFE, Testing and Interview, Decision, Post Decision, or Document Production/Oath Ceremony. A section has also been added to the bottom of the page which allows the user to see updated processing times. This upgrade should be a vast improvement over the old system which provided little detail about the status of a case beyond the fact that it was pending or a Request for Evidence had been issued.
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard.do;jsessionid=cbaLrEWGArUova6hG9Dps
USCIS Considers Fee Increases
The LA Times is reporting that US immigration officials are considering another round of fee increases and budgets cuts next year. The new director of the USCIS, Alejandro Mayorkas, commented that “financial challenges” have caused the agency to once again consider potential fee increases. The Service is dealing with a $118 million dollar revenue shortage, due primarily to a decrease in the number of applications for citizenship and skilled worker visas filed. To help address this shortage, the service has requested $206 million in assistance from Congress. The potential increase in fees has many in a panic as the hopes of citizenship for low to moderate income Green Card holders become farther and farther out of reach. Mayorkas has hopes however, as he states that improvements are already being made to make the service more efficient. Further, he states the Service is “focused on ensuring that we are ready to address comprehensive immigration reform.”
Full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig24-2009sep24,0,1871688.story
H-1B Cap Not Reached Yet!!!
As of September 18th, USCIS announced that it has received 46,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. USCIS continues to accept regular cap-subject H-1B cases. The Masters cap has received the full subscription of 20,000 petitions. USCIS continues to accept Masters cases since their experience is that not all accepted cases will be approvable.
http://www.uscis.gov/
Brain Drain: Opportunities Abroad Encourage Skilled Immigrants' Exodus
In a recent USA Today article by Emily Bazar entitled “Opportunity fuels skilled immigrants’ exodus”, Bazar comments that it is the rise of foreign economies coupled with the immigration-related delays that are causing the exodus of a large number of foreign nationals, particularly Indians and Chinese from the US. In an interview with Nil Dutta, an H-1B worker from India who like many others remains waiting for his green card priority date to become current, Dutta replies “I had a lot of enthusiasm and was very eager to work for this country. It’s all fizzled out. It seems I’m not wanted…In 10 to 15 years, I could be much better off in terms of position as well as money in India.”
Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-20-brain-drain-home_N.htm
HLG to hold the 5th Annual Symposium on the International Recruitment of Healthcare Workers
HLG will be holding its 5th Annual Symposium on the International Recruitment of Healthcare Workers on Friday November 13th, 2009 starting at 9:30am in Crowne Plaza Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This event is FREE to attend. For more information or to register, email Hillary Sterberl at has@hammondlawfirm.com.
*** This event does fill up fast. Make sure to register EARLY to secure your spot ***
Amy Dalal to attend Techserve Alliance National Conference
Associate Amy Dalal will be attending the TechServe Alliance National Conference to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 7 through October 9th. TechServe Alliance, formerly known as NACCB, is a collaboration of IT services firm, clients, consultants, and suppliers dedicated to advancing excellence and ethics within the IT services industry. This will be the third year Amy has attended this conference which gives HLG a unique opportunity to not only learn about industry news and trends, but also to meet new and existing clients attending the conference.
Conference information: http://www.techservealliance.org/about-techserve/about-techserve.cfm
Did You Know?
In this new section, each month HLG will be sharing a basic rules and regulations that both employers who hire nonimmigrant workers and employees who are on nonimmigrant visas should know.
Did you know that:
All costs associated with the first part of the Green Card process, i.e. the labor certification process, must be borne by the employer. The employee cannot bear these costs. Employees may still pay for fees and costs associated with the I-140 and I-485 processes.
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