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GetVisas® Immigration UpdateA Newsletter for Clients CONTENTS
NEWS LETTER ARCHIVE
SEASONS GREETINGS and a JOYOUS NEW YEAR TO ALL! Important Issues and New Developments in Immigration Law Froman Law Firm Has New San Diego Address and Phones Please note our new address and phone numbers listed at the end of this Newsletter. Our old San Diego address and phone numbers are no longer valid. Please be sure to update your address book. H Visa Update: Caps Again!
Last year both H-1B (specialty workers) and H-2B (non-agricultural temporary workers) quotas were reached early in the year, resulting in caps for the rest of the year. But this Fiscal Year, the unbelievable happened: all H-1B quotas were used up by the first day of the Fiscal Year, October 1, 2004! This means no more H-1B specialty occupation visas will be available for first-time, non-academic employees until October 1, 2005. Academic institutions and those extending their H-1B status are exempt from the cap and can continue to apply. Some options using other visas may exist for certain groups of professionals. However, this unsatisfactory situation can only be remedied by the Congress raising the cap to a realistic level that reflects the needs of American business. If this affects your business, your Congressional Representative and Senators need to hear from you! USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap after Only Three Months As of January 3rd 2005, USCIS has reached the annual H-2B cap of 66,000 for Fiscal Year 2005. Petitions received after the close of business Jan 3rd will be returned and refunded to the petitioners. Petitions can be resubmitted or new ones submitted when they receive labor certification approvals for work commencing on or after October 1st 2005. This is even worse than the H-1B cap because options for H-2B workers are limited to non-existent. Concerned business owners should make their views known to their Congressional Representatives. DHS Institutes New Programs to Better Track Foreign Visitors: Biometric Visa Program and US-VISIT Beginning last fall, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instituted the Biometric Visa Program. Under this new system, the machine-readable, tamper resistant visas and travel documents include biometric identifiers. Applicants for immigrant or nonimmigrant visas must now submit fingerscans of their two index fingers and photographs along with their applications. These photos and fingerscans are then stored on a national computer database. When a person with a visa then tries to enter the United States, his or her biometric information will appear at the Custom and Border Protection point of entry. Before entering, the person must give fingerscans for comparison with those in the database to ensure that he or she is the valid holder of the visa. Certain visa categories are exempt from the biometric processing including: diplomatic, official, and NATO visas and applicants under age 14 or above age 80. The DHS recently installed the US-VISIT system in the 50 busiest entry-exit ports in the US. So far the results of this implementation have been very positive. The entry-exit times for foreign visitors have been cut by half and the system has stopped nearly 400 criminals trying to escape the law. The goal is to be implement this system in every entry-exit port of the US by December 31st 2005. The system uses a digital photograph and two fingerscans. It eliminates the need to fill out the Form I-94 by hand. It is now completed electronically by scanning the visitor=s traveling documents. Currently the system is only used at secondary inspections stations. Once fully implemented, it will be used for all visitors. Temporarily exempt from the US-VISIT system are Canadian citizens and Mexican citizens who cross the border with a Border Crossing Card. The DHS hopes that these programs will more carefully and accurately identify persons eligible for entry into the United States and facilitate easier and legitimate travel and trade across our borders. Consolidated Processing for Employment Immigration Will Likely Speed Processing The USCIS has decided to consolidate the processing of the I-140 Immigrant Petition and the I-485 Adjustment of Status Application in employment-based cases. For the last year or so, the two applications could be sent in at the same time, but processing was separate. The Immigrant Petitions were approved in a few months, but the Adjustment Application might take a year and-a-half. This change should mean quicker processing times for Employment-based Adjustment applications, rather than the nearly two years currently in effect in many areas. Remember, if you are an alien, even though you may have your "green card" you are required by law to keep the USCIS informed of your residence. Federal Regulations require that you inform the USCIS within 10 days after you have moved to a new address. Before 9/11/2001, this rule was not heavily enforced. However, the USCIS is now enforcing this rule in an effort to identify and locate all aliens within our country. Therefore, it is important to keep the USCIS informed of any changes of address you have. The Form AR-11, used to report address changes, can be downloaded from the USCIS website, which you can reach through the Resources section of our website. Or you can call the National Benefits Center phone number, 800 375-5283. If you have questions about the forms or procedures, contact me. The DREAM and Student Adjustment Acts Have Bipartisan Support On April 20th, elected officials and hundreds of students and advocates from around the country held a rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of the DREAM Act, S. 1545, and the Student Adjustment Act, H.R. 1684. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reports that it “strongly supports the passage of this bipartisan legislation that provides deserving students with an opportunity to apply for legal status and continue their education, and urges Congress and the Administration to support a measure worthy of these deserving children. The dreams of these children should not end at high school graduation. By providing the opportunity for these children to go to college and gain legal status, America will both strengthen its economic foundation by creating a more educated work force and introduce justice and fairness to our immigration system.” (From AILA news release.) 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 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 Froman Law Firm representing our Business and Immigration services.
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