The agent said ICE "was supposed to be concentrating on criminals, not on Dream students," said Ralph Isenberg, a Dallas businessman who advocates for immigrants and made it his cause to prevent Ms. Zanella from being deported. Mr. Isenberg's challenges to ICE had kept Ms. Zanella in the country even after the final date for her deportation in February. - NYT
Latest update and log on H-1B cap count.
This rule changes Department regulations to broaden the authority of a consular officer to revoke a visa at any time subsequent to issuance of the visa, in his or her discretion. These changes to the Department's revocation regulations expand consular officer visa revocation authority to the full extent allowed by statute. Additionally, this rule change allows consular officers and designated officials within the Department to revoke a visa provisionally while considering a final visa revocation. - DOS
The mayor, a political independent and the billionaire founder of his eponymous company, often calls for stiffening border controls while relaxing limits that bar employers from bringing in highly educated foreign workers. Bloomberg said that all too often currently, foreigners who earn graduate degrees in the United States must return overseas to find work, depriving the nation of their skills and talents, "Stapling a green card to a diploma would be a very smart thing to do and I've always thought that," he told reporters. - Reuters
Military service has long been one route to U.S. citizenship. Now the Army and Navy, in need of specialists and language skills in wartime, are speeding things up by allowing recruits to wrap up the process while they're still in basic training. - AP
Note: This is the total volume of pending I-485 at USCIS service centers and field offices, not the pending I-485 inventory used for the green card tracker.
| USCIS National Volume - I-485 | |
| Month and Year | Feb. 2011 |
| All Other Pending | 226,069 |
| Pre-adjudicated awaiting visa number | 145,967 |
| Awaiting customer action | 27,388 |
| Completions | 45,474 |
| Receipts | 36,231 |
| Total Pending | 435,655 |
The USCIS Service Center Operations Directorate invites interested stakeholders to participate in the next Monthly Stakeholder Teleconference scheduled for Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 2:00pm Eastern Time. The topic for this teleconference will be Appeals and Motions and will include a discussion of Form I-290B appeals and motions and Form EOIR-29 appeals. - GovDelivery
Several important issued were addressed during this meeting, including adjustment of status for alien immediate relatives admitted under the Visa Waiver Program, and H-1B portability under INA §214(n)(2
"H-1B portability pursuant to AC21 §105 applies to nonimmigrants who are currently in H-1B status or an authorized period of stay based on a timely filed extension of an H-1B status petition. USCIS interprets INA §214(n) as allowing nonimmigrants who are 8 currently in H-1B status, or who are in a period of authorized stay as a result of a pending H-1B extension petition, to begin employment upon the filing by the prospective employer of a new non-frivolous H-1B petition on the alien's behalf. H-1B portability does not apply to a nonimmigrant who is in a valid status other than H-1B" - USCIS
One of the ways in which the U.S. is committing "national suicide" is through its vast, opaque system of visa checks, which affects several hundred thousand people every year—even though government officials acknowledge that fewer than 1 percent of those screened raise any legitimate security concerns. Because of the names associated with these reviews—Condor, Donkey, and Mantis—government officials refer to system as "the Animal Farm," adding an Orwellian sobriquet to an Orwellian process. Another way the U.S. is doing itself in is through the quota on temporary work visas for skilled foreigners, which is less than half what it was a decade ago. And although a growing educated population in Asia and Latin America has hugely expanded the pool of qualified applicants, skilled migrants are limited to only one third of the roughly 400,000 permanent-resident green cards handed out every year. Some skilled immigrants from India face waits of up to 35 years for a green card; even those with the most advanced university degrees wait between four and 15 years, says Prakash Khatri, former ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. - Newsweek
DOS released the visa bulletin for May, 2011. Although EB2 India didn't advance as much as expected, there were positive signs indicating a potentially bigger movement by the end of FY2010. The Visa Office also offered their predictions on visa number availability for the next few months.
A budget stalemate that gripped the nation ended just before a midnight deadline Friday as congressional leaders and the White House agreed to a package of spending reductions to avert a federal government shutdown. - LA Times
This section of law allows certain aliens to change or port the offer of employment on which their adjustment of status application is based from one job to another job as long as both jobs are in the same or similar occupational classification. Within these questions and answers, the term "port" or "porting" means to change the offer of employment from one job to another job in a way that allows an applicant to remain eligible to adjust status without having to file a new I-140 immigrant petition. - USCIS Q&A
Lin was sentenced to two years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $5,200 to the United States. Lin pleaded guilty to the charges on Oct. 20, 2010. Lin is expected to be deported upon completion of her sentence. In all, 23 defendants have been sentenced and 10 employment agencies shut down in ten related cases. - ICE
" I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the H-1B program and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) efforts to combat fraud and misuse of this nonimmigrant visa classification. I am Donald Neufeld, the Associate Director for the Service Center Operations Directorate (SCOPS) of USCIS. In this position, I am responsible for overseeing the adjudication of petitions for the H-1B nonimmigrant classification. I welcome this opportunity to explain how the H-1B program works and USCIS' efforts to combat fraud while ensuring that U.S. companies are able to obtain the highly skilled temporary workers needed to conduct business and strengthen our economy. I will begin with a summary of the procedural steps for seeking the H-1B visa, the necessary qualifications to obtain the visa, and the role of USCIS and the Departments of Labor and State in the process." - Transcript
Montenegro is hardly unique, given the high U.S. unemployment rate these days. Her situation reflects a trend that some researchers call "brain waste" — a term applied to immigrants who were skilled professionals in their home countries, yet are stymied in their efforts to find work in the U.S. that makes full use of their education or training. - AP
Ninety-five-year-old Leeland Davidson discovered recently that he's not considered a U.S. citizen, despite living nearly 100 years in the country and serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII. - Yahoo
Newsweek gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. Citizenship Test - 38 percent failed. The country's future is imperiled by our ignorance. In this week's issue, Andrew Romano looks at the risks involved in America's ignorance. - Yahoo
A senior attorney with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was sentenced this morning to 212 months in federal prison for taking nearly one-half million dollars in bribes from immigrants who were promised immigration benefits that would allow them to remain in the United States. - DOJ
Put simply, Self Check gives workers fast and secure access to their employment eligibility information before they apply for jobs. In this way, workers are able to identify whether there are any inaccuracies in their Social Security Administration or DHS records before they seek employment, and submit corrections for any inaccuracies ahead of time. Self Check also assists employers by reducing the number of tentative mismatches that could otherwise result when a worker's government records are not updated. - USCIS
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today it will start accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2012 cap on April 1, 2011. Cases will be considered accepted on the date USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked. The cap (the numerical limit on H-1B petitions) for FY 2012 is 65,000. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with U.S. master's degrees or higher are exempt. - Announcement
In light of the recent earthquakes and tsunami, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds Japanese nationals of certain U.S. immigration benefits available upon request. USCIS understands that a natural disaster can affect an individual's ability to establish or maintain lawful immigration status. The following questions and answers address temporary relief measures available to nationals of Japan. - USCIS
Right now the UK media is making a lot of noise about new Visa rules which mean "super-investors" willing to put £5m into a UK bank account will get the right to stay indefinitely in Britain after only three years. This is two years faster than the average migrant who still has to wait five years. Deposit £10m and the time drops to two years. Clearly the new rules are aimed at high-value investors and entrepreneurs.
However, what the media is missing is the new rules governing entrepreneurs wanting to enter the UK. Now, beginning April 6th, "high-potential" entrepreneurs will be allowed to come to the UK so long as they have £50,000 in funding from a reputable organisation. - Tech Crunch
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today, in response to recent stakeholder feedback, that it is currently reviewing its policy on H-1B cap exemptions for non-profit entities that are related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education. Until further guidance is issued, USCIS is temporarily applying interim procedures to H-1B non-profit entity petitions filed with the agency seeking an exemption from the statutory H-1B numerical cap based on an affiliation with or relation to an institution of higher education. - USCIS
Combine the word "nuclear" with the word "meltdown," and you get something which sounds really scary to the average person. But all those scientists on cable news talking about what's happening in Japan aren't always clear about what a nuclear meltdown is, and isn't. Is it an explosion? Will it burn a hole to the center of the earth? Does it spray radioactive stuff into the air, poisoning the surrounding landscape? - CS Monitor
Harvard Maintenance Inc., a national janitorial company, will lose over half its Minnesota work force after an immigration audit, making it the second major business in that state to be hit by an Obama administration crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants. - WSJ
USCIS reminds Japanese and other foreign nationals stranded in the United States due to the earthquakes and tsunami that they may be permitted up to additional 30 days to depart. If you have exceeded or are about to exceed your authorized stay in the U.S. you should contact your local USCIS office as soon as possible.
Heavy demand for numbers in the Family-base First preference (F1) category has required the retrogression of the Worldwide, China-mainland born, and India cut-off date for April. Further retrogression is possible.
China EB2 cut-off date inched ahead, while India EB-2 remained standstill. All EB3 categories moved forward slightly.
"The IRS and the Department of Revenue don't really care much about what your immigration status is," Parra said. "They're just enforcing the law of 'You work here, you live here; therefore you need to file a tax return.' And neither the Department of Revenue nor the IRS can or will or do exchange any of that information with any immigration offices at all. That's illegal, basically." - MPR News
U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it will permanently close its field office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on March 31, 2011. As of March 25, applications and petitions previously accepted by the USCIS Ho Chi Minh City Field Office may be filed with the U.S. Department of State Consular Section there. Where authorized, the Consular Section will assume responsibility for processing certain cases. - USCIS
Below is a list of USCIS forms that were updated or modified on March 4, 2011. Although some older editions are still accepted, it is recommended that new applications be submitted with the new forms:
If you have already scheduled an H or L visa interview appointment at the Mumbai Consulate, you may keep that interview time. No new H or L visa appointments will be made at the Mumbai Consulate. New H and L interviews may be scheduled at the other U.S. Consulates in India or the Embassy in New Delhi.
Nobody disputes that Nikolaos Skokos is adept at what he does, which is keeping unruly crowds away from Celine Dion, the singer, and helping to whisk her away safely to her next engagement.
Part bodyguard, part driver, Mr. Skokos is, by all accounts, an accomplished security consultant. But the Department of Homeland Security doubts he is at the very pinnacle of his profession, so accomplished the world over that Mr. Skokos, a Canadian citizen who lives in Las Vegas, merits a special visa to live permanently in the United States. - NYT
USCIS is proposing a new rule to electronically register H-1B employers, and estimates the new system would save U.S. businesses $23 million over the next decade. The registration system would help employers avoid unnecessary effort and expense of submitting H-1B petitions, as well as Labor Condition Applications (LCA), for workers who would be unable to obtain visas under the statutory cap. - Announcement
Two months after police arrested over a dozen DREAM Act-supporting activists and students who dug in at U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's San Antonio office and refused to leave, the senator told San Antonio business leaders she would try to craft a new, lesser version of the DREAM Act — one without a path to citizenship. - San Antonio Current
Beginning March 15, 2011 [Update: the date is now changed to April 1] all Change of Address, (Form AR-11) and Alien's Change of Address, (Form AR-11 SR) will change filing locations. Now, you must file all change of address forms at the new address. Change of address forms mailed to the old location will be forwarded to the new filing location for 45 days beginning March 15, 2011 until April 28, 2011. - USCIS
The best way to report an address change with USCIS is to complete the online form, though.
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