Business Immigration Monthly :: October 2007 Issue

Volume 3, Issue 10, October 2007

The Business Immigration Monthly is Hammond Law Group’s latest web-based newsletter, 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.

November Visa Bulletin
The Department of State has released the November Visa Bulletin. There has been no movement in any of the categories.
For full visa bulletin see: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3827.html

USCIS Issues Receipt Notice Update
USCIS has released the latest receipt notice update. The Service has clarified that they will honor the date the application is received in the mailroom, and this should be the date reflected on the receipt notice. As of October 12th, 2007, the USCIS has completed data entry and issued receipt notices for applications and petitions received on or before the dates indicated:

Form Number	Date Rec’d
California Service Center
N-400	8/01/2007
All other forms	7/30/2007
Nebraska Service Center
I-131	8/14/2007
I-140	8/14/2007
I-485 (employment based)	8/14/2007
I-765	8/14/2007
N-400	7/29/2007
All other forms	8/05/2007
Texas Service Center
I-131	8/13/2007
I-140	N/A
I-140 concurrently filed with I-485 I-485 (employment based)	8/13/2007 8/13/2007*
I-765	8/13/2007
N-400	7/18/2007
All other forms	9/16/2007
Vermont Service Center
N-400	7/25/2007
All other forms	8/1/2007

*The California Service Center and the Vermont Service Center are currently assisting in the data entry of employment based I-485 petitions (including I-140, I-131, and I-765 petitions) received at the Texas Service Center between the dates of 7/28 and 8/8. Thus, applicants may receive receipt notices from a service center different than the one they originally applied to.
For full update see:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ace7ec20cfbd4110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD

USCIS Issues FAQs Regarding Receipt Delays
The USCIS has released a frequently asked question section to receipt delays on their website. The Service has admitted that they are experiencing significant delays in fee processing and inputting of cases into their tracking system. In an effort to provide applicants further information regarding the delays and the impact on their cases, the Service has released the answers to some frequently asked questions on their website.
For FAQs see: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=82b06a9fec745110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD

No-Match Rule Delayed...Preliminary Injunction Filed
Public outcry followed the announcement of the implementation of the no-match rule and has resulted in litigation delaying the implementation of the rule. A federal court judge in the Northern District of California was the first to issue an order halting the Social Security Administration’s issuance of the “no match” letters to approximately 140,000 employers until October 11th. Thereafter, the AFL- CIO filed a preliminary injunction with the Northern District of California further extending the injunction order. Of this order Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated, “we are disappointed by the district court’s decision today that temporarily continued the injunction against the regulation. We are reviewing the decision with the Justice Department and will examine all of our options, including appeal…The American people have been loud and clear about their desire to see our nation’s immigration laws enforced. We are taking aggressive steps at our borders and in the interior to do just that and the no-match regulation is an important part of our efforts. We will continue to aggressively enforce our immigration laws while reviewing all legal options available to us in response to this ruling.”
For background on the SSA’s No-Match Regulation see: http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/monthly/featured_article_82007.pdf

For copy of AFL-CIO filing see: http://www.bibdaily.com/pdfs/aflpi.pdf

For Secretary Chertoff’s remarks see: http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1192048059536.shtm

Study Highlights "Reverse Brain-Drain" on US Tech. Market
The Social Science Research Network has recently released a study conducted at Duke, NYU, and Harvard universities entitled, “Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part III.” This study highlights the disparity between the large pool of skilled workers awaiting their immigrant visas and the small number that actually do get these visas and concludes that such a disparity has in effect created a reverse brain drain of highly skilled workers from the US. The authors of the study write, “This paper is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants' contributions to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Earlier research revealed a dramatic increase in the contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property over an eight-year period. In this paper, we offer a more refined measure of this change and seek to explain this increase with an analysis of the immigrant-visa backlog for skilled workers. The key finding from this research is that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States. This imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled workers' home countries.”
For full study see: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1008366

SSRN homepage: http://www.ssrn.com

Immigration Outlook: Free Seminar for Employers and Employees

Friday, November 16th at the Newark Liberty International Airport Marriott in New Jersey

Mike Hammond, Amy Dalal and Chris Musillo will be speaking at this event.