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GetVisas® Immigration UpdateA Newsletter for Clients SEASONS GREETINGS and a JOYOUS NEW YEAR TO ALL! CONTENTS
Congress Dodges Comprehensive Immigration Reform Facing political polarization magnified by early campaigning for the next Presidential election, Congress found itself unable to pass long-awaited Comprehensive Immigration Reform this past summer. Restrictionist rhetoric and the fear of backlash from vocal, conservative voters torpedoed proposed solutions to caps on temporary workers that are hurting American businesses and dealing with millions of undocumented aliens who were drawn to the United States by the opportunity for employment in industries where there are not enough U.S. workers. These and other immigration-related problems, such as multi-year backlogs in legal business and family immigration preference quotas, beg for resolution. But don’t expect any action from this Congress in an election year. Chances are good that any real reform will have to wait until 2009. H-1B Caps continue to be a problem for employers, with the black-out on 2008 H-1B’s achieved on the second day of filing this year. The H-2B visas have all been accounted for, too. No more new H-2B’s will be available until after October 1, 2008. The Congress hasn’t yet found the political will yet to deal with these vital issues affecting American businesses and the Economy. Rather, led by the House of Representatives, Congress members have favored enforcement measures (to “protect against terrorists”) over the needs of American businesses. If you think this is the wrong approach to take, then please contact your congressional representatives to express your views. The Congressional Switchboard numbers: House Switchboard: 202-225-3121; Senate Switchboard: 202-224-3121. All Employers Must Use New I-9 Form for All New Employees On December 26, 2007, all employers were required to begin using the revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) for each employee hired in the United States. The revised version of the form includes the revision date (Rev. 06/05/07) printed on the lower right corner. Employers who fail to use the revised form will be subject to applicable penalties. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received 2.4 million applications in July and August of 2007. As a result, the USCIS is hiring many more officers to handle the vastly increased workload. However, this large influx of applications is bound to create processing delays across the spectrum of applications the USCIS processes. Owing to a doubling of naturalization applications, too, the USCIS predicts that processing times for naturalization applications filed after June 2007 will run 16 to 18 months. USCIS INFOPASS Scheduling System is User-Friendly The USCIS has eliminated long lines and long waits at its local Field Offices with the automated, computer-based INFOPASS system. You can now go on-line to schedule a variety of different types of appointments and know that you will be able to get right in to see an immigration officer. (A similar scheduling system also applies at most overseas consulates.) The new employment labor certification system called PERM has proven much quicker than the old labor certification system. Backlogs under the old system were finally eliminated in September after a wait of up to six years for some workers. By contrast labor certifications under PERM have occurred as quickly as several weeks. Although the costs and the degree of effort are about the same, the PERM system offers vastly reduced processing times. These improvements come at a time when the Department of Labor has tightened use of labor certifications by eliminating substitution and limiting the validity of approved labor certifications to six months. If the I-140 Immigrant Petition is not filed within that time, the certification will expire. Filing the I-485 Adjustment of Status will still depend on immigrant visa availability as shown by the Visa Bulletin. GetVisas®Website Gives Direct Access to Useful Information Want to check your case status, look up processing times for an application you plan to file, check delays for a permanent employment immigrant visa petition, read visa procedures on the embassy website in your home country? A great starting point for all of these questions is the Froman Law Firm GETVISAS.COM Website Resources page. If you need to change your address with the CIS, the Form AR-11, used to report address changes, can be downloaded from the USCIS website, through the Resources page. In fact, you may just want to explore all the links we have on the Resources page of GetVisas.com. You can finish up by resetting your clocks by the Atomic Clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory—a great way to start the New Year!
This Newsletter is prepared as a service to our clients. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice in a given case. We welcome feedback concerning the Newsletter or suggestions for future topics to discuss. Please contact us with your specific questions. If you would like to receive this Newsletter by email when it is published, send a message to visas@getvisas.com requesting to be added to the Newsletter list. DAVID FROMAN, Principal Attorney Please address your correspondence to: Froman Law Firm Our Missouri office is located at: 3610 Buttonwood Drive Email: Website: GetVisas® is a registered service mark of the Froman Law Firm representing our Business and Immigration legal services.
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