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GetVisas® Immigration UpdateA Newsletter for Clients SEASONS GREETINGS
and a JOYOUS NEW YEAR TO ALL! CONTENTS
Will Comprehensive Immigration Reform Happen? Lawmakers have been talking about and the public has been awaiting Comprehensive Immigration Reform for at least the last three years. President Obama said he supports it. Will we finally get it this Spring? Or will our elected officials come up with yet another excuse to avoid the hard decisions necessary to reform our broken immigration system? In addition to border security and employment verification measures, such reforms could include increased immigration quotas, higher numerical caps on temporary employment visas, and some means for those without documentation to work toward permanent legal status. Watch what the Senate and the House of Representatives will do (or not do) about our immigration laws. To express your opinion, call your Representative or Senator via the Switchboards: House : 202-225-3121; Senate: 202-224-3121. Miraculously, we have not yet hit the caps this year for H-1B and H-2B visas. This is another sign of fewer job opportunities brought on by the severe recession. However, as the employment picture begins to improve, we can expect a return to capped out quotas for these visas being reached early in the application period unless Congress steps up to raise the caps to a reasonable level that will support U.S. businesses. This is not an issue of displacing U.S. workers. By and large, the workers hired under these programs have different skill sets than available U.S. workers. Otherwise, U.S. employers would not go to the great expense and inconvenience of having to apply for and subject themselves and their prospective employees to the patience-straining process of obtaining the necessary authorizations to import and employ foreign workers. Department of State Will Use New Form DS-160 Worldwide for Nonimmigrant Visas Taking a further step to modernize its visa application process, the Department of State will implement the web-based form DS-160 at all U.S. Embassies and Consular Posts by April 30, 2010. This means the end of hand-written visa applications on old form DS-156. The new application will apply to all nonimmigrant classes except K's (fiancee and spouse visas). The Department is working to translate the new forms into major languages. For assistance with the new form, contact our office. In a number of recent cases, "priority dates" have been
an issue. The priority date is the date of filing an immigrant petition
or a labor certification. This date is used to place your petition
in the queue when there are not enough immigrant visas available
to satisfy the number of applicants per country per year. The Citizenship
and Immigration Services and the Department of State are going to
look at the priority date on your petition to determine if you are
eligible to be processed for immigration. Sometimes, however, you
can use an earlier priority date. For example, children can often
use their parent's priority date; and in the Western Hemisphere,
even their grandparents' priority date. This means that if your
parent or grandparent was a U.S. citizen or permanent resident,
you may possibly benefit from their priority date. Even for sons
and daughters over 21 years of age, their under-21 status may have
been saved under the Child Status Protection Act, or they may be
entitled to "follow-to-join" their parent in the same
status as the parent. If you have any of these issues and need assistance
sorting it all out, please contact us. If you have had a problem with a non-licensed Notario or Immigration
Consultant and thought you could never get help, here is an answer.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has researched this
problem state-by-state and produced a guide. Here is a link to it:
http://aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=26749 Use Our Get Visas* Website for Access to Useful Information To check your case status, find processing times for an application, check your Priority Date on the current Visa Bulletin, or read visa procedures on the U.S. embassy website in your home country, just go to the Froman Law Firm's GETVISAS.COM website's Resources page. If you need to change your address with the CIS, you can do it on-line by linking to the USCIS website, through the Resources page. You can find foreign embassies in Washington, D.C. and U.S. embassies around the world, as well as many other linksBall on the GetVisas.com Resources page. Holidays and Economic Recovery Times are tight for many of us right now with a long recession mostly behind us and the Holidays ahead. It is hard to think about budgeting for past or future legal services. However, thinking of legal expenses as an investment, that will pay you dividends future, whether in your business or your immigration status, makes periodic "investing" a smart idea. With new technologies available, many clients are taking advantage of bi-weekly or monthly payments transferred directly and automatically from their bank accounts. It is easy to set up and monitor. Contact us if this makes sense for you. GetVisas®Website Gives Direct Access to Useful Information 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 Email: Website: *GetVisas® is a registered service mark of the Froman Law Firm representing our Business and Immigration legal services.
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