THE OH LAW FIRM
Immigration Law Practice for Over 30 years

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06/18/2013: CBO Releases Reports of Impact of CIR 2013 - Reduces $197 Billion Deficits and Increases $175 Billion Savings During Next 10 Years!! Mama Mia!!!

• CBO News Release on the Subject
• Economic Impact Analysis
• Cost Estimate Analysis

06/18/2013: USCIS Releases Monthly Processing Times Update 06/18/2013

• See our homepage.

06/18/2013: USCIS H-4 Employment Authorization Proposal in Limbo, Pending CIR 2013

• The USCIS initiated this process for the purpose of attracting and retaining high skilled workers. The agency inteded to complete the proposed rule making process by March 2013. Pending the rule making process, however, the Senate has taken up this issue in a different context. USCIS proposal does not require reciprocal treatment in the H-4's countries and only requires that the H-1B spouses are intending immigrants and initiated the green card process and are eligible for 7th year or three-year increment extension of H-1B under AC 21 act, meanwhile the Senate CIR bill does not require anything other than reciprocal treatment in the H-4's countries. Accordingly, there are some policy differences underlying the two proposals. This should not stop the USCIS from completing the proposal with some amendments and implementing the policy. The rule making process has been extended with no end in sight. We encourage the USCIS leadership to complete and implement this administrative fix as soon as possible.

06/18/2013: Twenty Eight (28) Additional Amendments Introduced Yesterday in the Senate for CIR 2013

• The total number of amendments that have been introduced on the Senate floor now exceeds 130. With only a few legislative days remaining before the July 4th recess, there is no way the Senate could take up each of these amendments and timely take care of the bills as scheduled. It thus appears that there must be active compromise machine running behind the scene and most of these amendments may pass in the form of unanimous consent at the end of the day. The Senate floor will take care of only less than five amendment bills today, but as time passes, a large number of the amendment bills may be taken care of each day. Please stay tuned.

06/18/2013: Embattled Director of ICE John Morton Departs Leaving Conflicting Legacy in Immigration Enforcement

• Reportedly he submitted resignation to take up a job in a private sector. He had to carry out two difficult and conflicting missions to enforce deportation at record numbers on the one hand and to save undocumented immigrants with no criminal record on the other under the Obama Administration policy of immigration reform. Because of the latter policy, he had to face challenges from his own subordinates in and out of courts. We wish him well.

06/17/2013: Senate to Start Votes on Amendments to CIR 2013 Beginning from Tomorrow

• Today, Sen. Harry Reid received unanimous consent that the Senate will proceed with debate on amendments to S. 744 (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) from 12:30 until 2:15 PM on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. Additionally, at 3:00 PM, the Senate will proceed to votes on Thune amend #1197 (Require the completion of the 350 miles of reinforced, double-layered fencing described in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 before registered provisional immigrant status may be granted and to require the completion of 700 miles of such fencing before the status of registered provisional immigrants may be adjusted to permanent resident status), Landrieu amend #1222 (Apply the amendments made by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 retroactively to all individuals adopted by a citizen of the United States in an international adoption and to repeal the pre-adoption parental visitation requirement for automatic citizenship and to amend section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act relating to automatic citizenship for children born outside of the United States who have a US citizen parent), Vitter amend #1228 (Prohibit the temporary grant of legal status to any individual who is unlawfully present in the US until the Sec. of Homeland Security certifies that the US-VISIT System has been fully implemented at every land, sea, and airport of entry and Congress passes a joint resolution stating that such integrated entry and exit data system has been sufficiently implemented) and Tester amend #1198 (Modify the Border Oversight Task Force to include tribal government officials). Lastly, all amendments are subject to a 60 yea vote threshold for adoption.
• All of the previous amendments are subject to a 60 yea vote threshold for adoption!

06/17/2013: CBO (Congressional Budget Office) to Release on 06/18/2013 Report on Impact of CIR 2013 on Budget and Economy for Next 10 Years

• As we reportedly a few times, CIR advocates have been waiting for this report released because it would repudiate earlier Heritage Foundation study estimating burden of over 6 Trillion on the country's budget and economy for the next 10 years. The researcher of the report resigned from The Heritage Foundation relating to this defective report. The CBO report is expected to project its impact rather positively for the next 10 years, which will help the CIR advocates. Stay tuned to this website for the CBO report.

06/17/2013: Alert: Revised ETA 9141 Prevailing Wage Determination Form Effective Tomorrow, 06/18/2013

• Effective 06/18/2013, the iCERT Portal will use a revised version of the ETA Form 9141. OFLC states that minor changes were made to clarify information needed for more efficient application processing. A fillable copy of the form is available here.
• Requests submitted prior to June 18 using the iCERT Portal based on the previous ETA Form 9141 will be completed and returned using that version of the form. Any form initiated in a user's system but not submitted, however, will not be able to be submitted. In addition, requests on the previous ETA Form 9141 can no longer be "reused" in iCERT to submit a new request for processing. Users can complete a new form by logging into your iCERT Portal account, clicking on "Begin New ETA Form 9141" and completing all the mandatory fields.

06/17/2013: USCIS Releases Syrian TPS Extension Application Procedure

• This regualtion was officially published in the federal register this morning, and the USCIS has released the information on the procedure to apply for the extension. Read on.

06/17/2013: Senate Resumes CIR 2013 This Eveining With All the Positive News in the Media Reports

• The Senate floor will resume CIR 2013 amendment process this evening. In the meantime, there are all the good news about potential passage of this bill in the Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham joining Sen. McCain and Sen. Schumer predicting passage of this bill with 70 votes, Sen. Robert Mernendez who one time predicted there were not yet 60 votes now predicting passage of this bill at least with 60 votes or more at this time, Sen. Marco Rubio assessing the situation that the Senate bill is almost perfect at this point. There is also an alarming news confirming that should the GOP fail to pass this bill, the GOP would lose in the 2016 national presidential election. These news should add pressure on the House Republican leaders to start working on the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Please stay tuned.

06/15/2013: White House OMB Approved USICE Extension of Employment Authorization for Syrian F-1 Students Experiencing Severe Economic Hardship as a Direct Result of Civil Unrest in Syria since March 2011

• Just as the USCIS extension and redesignation of TPS for Syrians, this ICE proposed extension of employment authorization for Syrian F-1 students appeared to be handled on expeditious matter since ICE submitted it on 06/14/2013 and the OMB approved it the same day on 06/14/2013. It is anticipated that the notice will be published in the federal register in the near future. For the details, please stay tuned.

06/15/2013: White House OMB Approved USCIS Extension and Redesignation of Syria for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) on 06/14/2013

• This TPS extension and redesignation was submitted to the OMB for its approved on 06/14/2013 and the OMB approved it the same day on 06/14/2013. This extension notice will be published in the federal register on Monday, 06/17/2013. Here is the advance copy of the notice. It will be extended for 18 months, from 10/01/2013 through 03/31/2015
• On March 23, 2012, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced her intent to designate Syria for TPS for eighteen months. The TPS designation for Syria was effective 03/29/2012 through 09/30/2013. The redesignation decision of 06/14/2013 is to extend the current designation.

06/15/2013: CBO Takes its Upcoming Report of 10-Year Budgetary and Economic Impact of CIR 2013 Serious and Decides to Skip Regular Semi-Annual Budgetary and Economic Report

• On Thursday, 06/13/2013, the CBO wrote the House and the Senate that they will not issue the regular report which is supposedly due in August 2013 for two reasons, among others: One is that the first semi-annual report is usually due in March but this year the report was issued in May 2013 and since they do not anticipate a big change in forecast for three-month time span between May 2013 and August 2013, they have decided not to issue the second semi-annual report in August. Secondly and more importantly, they reported that their on going work on the report of the budgetary and economic impact of CIR 2013 is so demanding in work forces and other resources that time and resources do not allow them to issue regular report in August.
• The CBO's upcoming report on its (CIR 2013) next 10-year budgetary and economic impact is so crucial that everyone has been watching and waiting for this report. There have been similar reports which have been released lately, but the CBO report will way outweight over other reports. Please stay tuned.

06/15/2013: Anticipated Movement of EB-2 Visa Cut-Off Date for India in August Visa Bulletin and Signs of USCIS Initiating Adjudication Process

• We reported quite earlier that EB visa cut-off dates for the 4th quarter might move ahead because the Visa Bureau of the U.S. Department of State has traditionally been using a large number of visas before the fiscal year is over not to waste any immigrant visa numbers for that fiscal year. Use of the last minute potential unused numbers include family-based as well as employment-based visa quota numbers. In July 2013 Visa Bulletin, the Visa Bureau also predicted that the EB-2 number for India might move ahead in August or September. On top of this prediction which was released in the July Visa Bulletin, there are a lot of reports from the Indian EB-485 applicants that after a long period of pause, they all of sudden started to receive RFEs for their pending EB-485 applications and other contacts from the USCIS, indicating that the Service Centers have initiated a process to adjudicate the pending EB-485 applications with certain cut-off dates for EB-2 Indians. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the new cut-off date for India EB-2 could be August 2008. Where do they get these large numbers? Apparently, there are unused numbers from the family-based immigration system as well as unused employment-based numbers from other countries. Before the end of this month, we may get the correct information from the DOS representative who will attend the AILA Annual National Conference from 06/25/2013-06/29/2013. We will keep our readers posted of the information from the conference site.
• Progress of EB-2 visa numbers will also allow those EB-2 Indians to file EB-485 applications, who have their approved I-140 but could not file EB-485 applications because of the visa number regression. Come mid-July, they may get a good news and may have to be busy to prepare and file EB-485 applications beginning from August 1, 2013. We wish the best for our EB-2 Indian visitors.

06/15/2013: DOL ICERT Site Outage Early Tuesday Morning, 06/18/2013

• OFLC has announced that he iCERT System would be unavailable from 6AM to 10AM ET on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 for routine maintenance.

06/15/2013: House Move to Finish Up Piecemeal Immigration Bills

• House Judiciary Committee will initiate markup sessions in the week of June 10, 2013 for various piecemeal immigrant bills, apparently to comply with the House Speaker's direction. The first two bills which they will take up include border security and employment enforcement bill plus agricultural guest worker bill. There are other committees in the House that have also been working on piecemeal immigration bills. Yesterday, the following bills have been referred to such committees in the House:
  • H.R.1760 : Immigration and Naturalization Investment Ventures for Engineering, Science, and Technology in America Act of 2013, sponsored by Rep Adam Schiff of California. Referred to Immigration Subcommittee. This bill was initially introduced on 04/25/2013.
  • H.R.1812 : Partner with Korea Act sponsored Rep Peter Roskam of Illinois. This bill was initially introduced on 04/26/2013. This is E-3 visa proposal for South Koreans. This bill was referred to the Immigration Subcommittee yesterday.
  • H.R.1923 : Bill to provide for the eligibility of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for designation for participation in the Visa Waiver Program for certain visitors to the United States. This bill was initially introduced by Rep Mark Amodei Nevada on 05/9/2013. This bill was referred to the Immigration Subcommittee yesterday.
  • H.R.2131 : SKILLS Visa Act, sponsored by Rep Darrell of California which was initially introduced on 05/23/13. This bill was referred to the Immigration Subcommittee yesterday.
• Let's see how much these proposals are reflected in the House version of CIR. Similar to these proposals are included in the Senate CIR bill, as amended.

06/14/2013: USCIS Releases DACA Processing Updates 06/14/2013

06/14/2013: A Very Partisan and Contentious Senate Floor CIR Bill Amendment Process

• Upto June 13, 2013 (Thursday), 106 amendments had been introduced on the Senate floor. However, the Senate debates and proceedings were focused only on six amendments (1183, 1195, 1197, 1198, 1222, 1228) and none of them could pass or were voted out. Grassley's controversial #1195 was the only amendment that was voted but tabled, practically killing this amendment, and all remaining five amendments have been laid aside. The Senate floor was contrasted to the Senate Judiciary Committee Markup Sessions which were less contentious and bi-partisan, more or less. The Senate floor will indeed be "extremely" hot for the next two weeks after the Senate returns with this bill next Monday.
• AILA will have an annual national conference in San Francisco from 06/25/2013 through 06/29/2013, during when the temperature on the Senate floor is likely to be the hottest. This reporter will attend this conference and be tied up with conference sessions, even though this reporter will keep monitoring the CIR legislation process whenever he finds a time to do that. The leaders of the government stakeholder agencies, including the USCIS Director, Chief of Foreign Labor Certification, Chief of Visa Bureau, and other important policy makers will participate in the annual conference updating where they are in management, practice, and policies. It is hoped that the conference does not waste time with the CIR as most of the members are up-to-date with the news in the Hill. We hope to see the conference to focus more on stakeholder agency issues including their direction for the next one year rather than legislation.

06/13/2013: House Yet to Find a Direction for Immigration Reform

• Pushed by the House Speaker for the committees to wrap up any piecemeal immigration bills, the House Judiciary Committee is reportedly scheduled to take up three something bills beginning from next week with a target to complete them before July 4th as mandated by the Speaker. In the meanwhile, the House's gang’s bill is currently being reviewed by legislative counsel which is one of the last steps before it is released and expected to be unveiled within the next couple of weeks, if everything goes well. Third option can be to pick up the Senate bill when it is passed and sent to them by the Senate. The House has only a limited time to pass immigration reform bill before August which is the deadline set by the House Speaker. Problem appears to be there is no consensus as to a firm House plan and direction, when the Senate is moving and hopping all around to pass its CIR bill with a target date before the 4th of July.

06/13/2013: PERM Processing Times Update as of 06/04/2013

• Analyst Review (Clean Case): 01/11/2013
• Audit Cases: 07/31/2012
• Reconsideration Cases: 06/03/2013
• Government Error Cases: Current

06/13/2013: USCIS AAO (Administrative Appeals Office) Processing Times Update as of 06/03/2013

06/13/2013: Senate CIR Additional 32 Amendments Introduced on 06/02/2013 (Visit Amendments Site)

• Sen. Joe Manchin (1226)
• Sen. Dean Heller (1227)
• Sen. David Vitter (1228, 1254)
• Sen. Roger Wicker (1229 - 1232)
• Sen. Jack Reed (1233)
• Sen. Dean Hetter (1234-1235)
• Sen. Pat Toomey (1236)
• Sen. Jeff Merkley (1237)
• Sen. James Risch (1238)
• Sen. Mark Kirk (1239)
• Sen. Barbara Boxer (1240, 1257, 1258)
• Sen. Tom Udall (1241-1242)
• Sen. Johnny Isakson (1243-1245)
• Sen. Orrin Hatch (1246 - 1249)
• Sen. John Cornyn (1251)
• Sen. Robert Casey (1252)
• Sen. Bill Nelson (1253)
• Sen. Susan Collins (1255)
• Sen. Jerry Moran (1256)

06/12/2013: USCIS Amends Policy of RFE and NOID Issuance Guidelines

• USCIS has posted the final policy memorandum on Requests for Evidence (RFE) and Notices of Intent to Deny (NOID). This policy takes effect immediately.

06/12/2013: Amendment Vote Procedural See-Saw by Two Senate Giants

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid moved for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to votes on five amendments (Grassley amend #1195, Thune amend #197, Vitter amend #1228, Landrieu amend #1222 and Tester amend #1198) with a 60 yea vote threshold and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley objected to motion. Senator Grassley in return moved for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to votes on six amendments (Grassley amend #1195, Leahy amend #1183, Thune amend #197, Vitter amend #1228, Landrieu amend #1222 and Tester amend #1198) with a simple majority vote and this time Senator Majority Leader objected to motion. Hmm.........................

06/12/2013: Text of All Amendments

06/12/2013: Sen. Grassley Supports the CIR Bill and Propose his Amendment #1195

• It is very surprising that the Senator Grassley introduced his amendment S. AMDT 1195 with a statement that he supports the CIR bill and just amend RPI trigger provision as follows: (Purpose: To prohibit the granting of registered provisional immigrant status until the Secretary has maintained effective control of the borders for 6 months). On page 855, strike line 24 and all that follows through page 856, line 9, and insert the following:
  • "(1) PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTERED PROVISIONAL IMMIGRANT STATUS.--Not earlier than the date upon which the Secretary has submitted to Congress a certification that the Secretary has maintained effective control of the Southern border for a period of not less 6 months, the Secretary may commence processing applications for registered provisional immigrant status pursuant to section 245B of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by section 2101 of this Act." This amendment will be voted today.
• Very good!

06/12/2013: Amendments (S.AMDT) to CIR 2013 Bill Introduced on the Senate Floor Yesterday, 06/11/2013

• Yesterday alone, the following 45 amendments were introduced in the Senate:
  • Sen. Patrick Leahy (1181 - 1183)
  • Sen. Chuck Schumer (1184 - 1194)
  • Sen. Churck Grassley (1195)
  • Sen. John Thune (1196 - 1197)
  • Sen. John Texter (1198)
  • Sen. Barbara Texter (1197)
  • Sen. Rand Paul (1200 and 1202)
  • Sen. David Vitter (1201)
  • Sen. James Innofe (1203-1206)
  • Sen. Mike Lee (1207 - 1217)
  • Sen. Tom Udall (1218)
  • Sen. Joe Manchin (1219 - 1221)
  • Sen. Mary Landrieu (1222)
  • Sen. Jack Reed (1223 - 1224)
  • Sen. Marco Rubio (1225)
• The texts are yet to be made available. We will report the texts of the amendments as they are made available.

06/12/2013: Senate Judiciary Chairman Final Report of CIR 2013 as Amended and Presented for Senate Floor Action

• On June 7, 2013, this report was printed and has just been released as the Senate floor is about to debate and act on new amendments on the Senate floor. The report gives all the information about this bill "in plain language," including background of this bill. Those who want to follow the Senate floor debates and actions hereon may want to read and understand the final version of CIR as reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman after amendments in the Senate Judiciary Committee markup sessions. Here is the Report 113-040.

06/11/2013: Senate also Passed Motion to Proceed Consideration of CIR Bill and All Set for Debates for Amendments

• Senate passed this motion by 84:15 absolute majority votes after 4:00 pm today. By this produral clearance, the Senate floor is ready to debate the amendments which Senators will introduce on the floor. Some of the amendments which were defeated in the Senate Judiciary markup sessions may be reintroduced on the floor.
• Readers, ARE YOU READY? So far so good, isn't it?

06/11/2013: Senate Passed Motion to Cloture by 85:15 Majority Vote at 2:45 Today Removing Filibuster Roadblock

• This is indeed a large majority vote for the motion. With this cloture motion passage, the Senate will return at 4:00 pm today to vote on Motion to Proceed without filibuster chances. Amendments will then be debated for the next several days. This absolute majority vote will send an important signal to the House. GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!
• The new Senator from New Jersey, Jeff Chiesa, who was sworn in yesterday voted for the cloture motion. Here is the vote record.

06/11/2013: McCain/Kennedy 2006 CIR Bill, Senate Gang of 8 2013 CIR Bill, and Potential Assessment of Budgetary/Economic Impact of CIR for 10-Year Period

• CIR 2013 proponents are anxiously waiting for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the impact of CIR 2013 on the country's budget and economy for the next 10 years because two bills are more or less similar and the CBO report for 2006 CIR bill impact was positive. In a letter written to the Rep. Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee Chair, on May 2, 2013, the CBO reported that "in 2006, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) prepared a cost estimate analyzing the potential budgetary and economic effects of S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, as introduced on April 7 of that year. CBO and JCT estimated that the bill would increase federal revenues by $66 billion and direct spending by $54 billion over the 2007–2016 period; if the amounts of discretionary spending authorized in the bill had been appropriated...."
• The actual report was submitted to Senator Chuck Grassley on May 16, 2006. Readers may be interested in reading the full text of the 2006 CBO report on impact of 2006 CIR bill.

06/11/2013: Effective July 12, 2013, Nonimmigrant Mexicans Can Travel to New Mexico Within 55 Miles of New Border Zone Without I-94

• We posted earlier this change approved by the OMB. This notice will be published tomorrow and will take effect in 30 days from tomorrow. Here is the rule.

06/11/2013: CIR in Senate Faces First Challenge Today at 2:15 P.M. to Overcome Potential Filibuster

• Yesterday, the Senate passed unanimous consent to take up Motion to Proceed to Consideration of CIR bill at 10:00 a.m. this morning. This motion now faces a filibuster and a motion to cloture must be passed before the bill can move on for debates on new amendments which will be filed by Senators on the Senate floor. Motion to cloture requires 60 votes. There will be a vote on Motion to Cloture at 2:15 p.m. today. As we reported yesterday, because of this procedural hurdle, the debates on new amendments on the floor will be delayed today until 4:00 p.m. It is hoped that the Motion to Cloture to Motion to Proceed passes sucessfully this at 2:15 this afternoon so that this bill can move on at least at the level of the upper chamber of the federal legislature in this nation.
• Yesterday, an interim Senator Jeff Chiesa from New Jersey was sworn in. He is a Republican, but it will be interesting to witness which side he will take in the today's Motion to Cloture this afternoon for the CIR Motion to Proceed. His colleague Senator from New Jersey expressed his wish as follows: " Jeff's father was a chemical plant worker who died when Jeff was 8 years old. So he and his two sisters were raised by his mother who was a teacher. I am sure his family is very proud of him today as the father of two children. They are extremely proud of him for all he has done throughout his career and particularly today as he becomes the newest Member of the Senate. He was asked at the press conference with the Governor, when the Governor announced him as his designee, what did he intend to accomplish in the Senate. For those of us who have served in the Senate for a while, we know it takes a little while, and that is a tough question to ask someone, what they are going to be able to accomplish in 5 months. But I think Senator Chiesa comes at a time in which we are having some momentous debates in this Nation. Certainly, as it is ongoing on immigration reform, he will have an opportunity to cast some critical votes in that regard. I look forward to talking with him about some of those issues as well as other critical issues that will come before the country over the next 5 months. I look forward to working with him on behalf of the people of the State of New Jersey and our Nation. I am sure, even though it is only 5 months, he is going to make a significant mark in the Senate."
• President Obama will come forward this morning at 10:00 a.m. to rally support for immigration reform as Senate weighs bill. The president will speak shortly after 10 a.m. from the East Room of the White House, focusing on the economic and national security benefits of immigration reform. Read on.

06/10/2013: Republican House Speaker Lays Out House CIR Timelines

• There is one positive development on the House side. Speaker John Boehner announced his CIR schedule: (1) Various ongoing piecemeal immigration bills in House committees should be finished up and acted upon before 4th of July, 2013. (2) No matter whether piecemeal solutions and comprehensive immigration solutions, the Speaker wants to see the House passes immigration reform bill either before or until the Senate passes its CIR bill, S. 744 or by August at the latest. The House really needed such leadership and we welcome Speaker Boehner's leadership at this critical juncture. There was one additional positive development. After one of the House Gange of 8 left the group, the former Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, announced that he supports the comprehensive immigration bill which the House Gang has been developing. There have been sporatic news reports both pro and con, particularly con based on individual legislators's spinning news, but thus far, overll CIR is heading in the right direction in both Senate and House. The shortly released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on 10-year budgetary impact of CIR 2013 will add to this development a step farther. Immigrants should help these legislators and leadership by keeping in contact with their legislators (both House and Senate members) in their juridictions to support the CIR legislation. Read on.

06/10/2013: Senate CIR 2013 and Role/Power of Senate Majority Leader on Senate Floor Proceedings

• Senate floor will take up this bill at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. How this bill will move along on the floor somewhat depends on the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Read what he had say.
• Senate floor CIR schedule of today and tomorrow:
  • Today: From 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Senate is considering the Motion to Proceed to S. 744 bill. The time until 5:00 p.m. will be equally divided, with Senator Sessions or his designee controlling 2 hours and Senator Leahy or his designee controlling the remaining time. After taking care of other legislation, Senate will resume in the evening consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 744 bill, with Senator Sessions or his designee controlling 1 hour.
  • Tomorrow: Until 12:30 p.m. Senate will resume consideration of the Motion to Proceed to S. 744 bill. The time until 12:30 p.m. equally divided and Senator Sessions controlling up to 1 hour. At 2:15 p.m., there will be a cloture vote on the Motion to Proceed to S. 744 bill. If cloture is invoked, at 4:00 p.m., there will be a vote on the Motion to Proceed to S. 744 bill.
• Accordingly, tomorrow marks a first test day for this bill to proceed with this bill in the Senate. Watch the result of the cloture vote tomorrow afternoon.

06/10/2013: The EOIR Reissued Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Practice Manual as of 06/10/2013

• On 06/06/2013, the Office of Chief Immigration Judge reissued the Practice Manual for immigration court practices. Today the EOIR reissued the BIA Practice. Those practitioners who practice before the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals may want to update their library. Here is the BIA Practice Manual.

06/10/2013: Reminder of USCIS Field Office Closure in Tegucigalpa, Honduras as of 06/20/2013

• USCIS announces a reminder that its field office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras will be closed on Thursday, June 20, 2013. The USCIS Field Office in San Salvador, El Salvador, will assume Tegucigalpa’s former jurisdiction (Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua), and the U.S Department of State (DOS) Embassy in Tegucigalpa will assume responsibility for certain requests.

06/10/2013: USCIS Loosens Up Naturalization Requirements for Certain Interpreters, Translators & Security Related Positions in Iraq and Afghanistan

• The USCIS updated the section of the USCIS Policy Manual on 06/10/2013 on time spent abroad by interpreters and translators employed by or under contract with the Chief of Mission or U.S. armed forces and added certain security-related positions as types of qualifying employment and additionally the physical presence requirement is now covered and employment is no longer required to have taken place in Iraq or Afghanisistan.
• Before today's amendment, the policy allowed individuals employed abroad as interpreters or translators in Iraq or Afghanistan by, or under contract with, the Chief of Mission or U.S. armed forces to treat time abroad as residence in the United States for purposes of naturalization.

06/08/2013: President Obama Asks Today that He Wants to Have CIR Bill on His Desk By the End of Summer This Year and No Later

• As the Senators will start debating and introducing amendments beginning from Monday, 06/10/2013, the President has issued a statement through internet that he wants to have the Congress passed CIR bill on his desk at least by the end of Summer this year. He also addressed to the public to contact their Senators and House Representatives to act and vote for the CIR 2013 to add pressure on the members of the Senate and the House. Read on.

06/08/2013: USCIS Considers User Fee (Filing Fee) Schedule Changes

• Congressional report indicates that the USCIS is finalizing a study which will inform an updated fee schedule. No date has been released, but it will be released sooner or later. In fiscal year 2014, USCIS estimates it will expend $3,095,253,000.

06/07/2013: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Statement in Opening up CIR Debate on Senate Floor Today

"I applaud the efforts of the Gang of Eight, four Democrats and four Republicans, who set aside partisan to face immigration. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. It is gratifying to see this package of commonsense reforms which will make our country safer and help undocumented immigrants get right with the law. I had a number of meetings over the last few days with pollsters taking a look at this legislation, and they all acknowledge that the vast majority of the American people want us to move forward on this. Democrats, independents and Republicans, recognizing the system is broken and needs to be fixed. And, they all agree on a pathway to citizenship. And I have committed to as open as possible process for amendments. I don't want to say totally open because sometimes with the procedures we have here, as with the Farm bill, people throw monkey wrenches into things and we're not able to do as we want to do. But we'll wrap this legislation up before the July 4 recess. I hope senators will take advantage of today's time for debate. I look forward to a thorough and thoughtful discussion and deliberation of this legislation in the days ahead."

06/07/2013: State Department Visa Cut-Off Date Predictions (August-October 2013)

• Family-Based: (each month)
• Worldwide dates:
  • FB-1: Up to five weeks
  • FB-2A: Could become “Current” at some point during the coming months.
  • FB-2B: Four to seven weeks
  • FB-3: Three to five weeks
  • FB-4: Three to five weeks
• Employment-Based (each month)
  • EB-1: Current (All countries)
  • EB-2:
    • Worldwide: Current
    • China: Up to two months
    • India: At this time it appears that the availability of “otherwise unused” Employment Second preference numbers will allow for movement of this cut-off date in August and/or September. It is expected that such movement will generate heavy new applicant demand, primarily by those who are upgrading their status from the EB-3 category. A sustained level of heavy demand could impact the cut-off date at some point during fiscal year 2014.
  • EB-3:
    • Worldwide: No additional movement. This cut-off date has advanced 18 months during the past three months. Such rapid movement can be expected to generate a significant amount of new demand, with the impact not being felt for three to five months. Therefore, the cut-off date will be held until it can be determined what level of demand is to be expected, and whether it is likely to be sustained.
    • China: No additional movement
    • India: Up to three weeks
    • Mexico: No additional movement
    • Philippines: Up to two weeks
  • EB-4: Current
  • EB-5: Current
• The above projections for the Family and Employment categories are for what is likely to happen during each of the next few months based on current applicant demand patterns. Readers should never assume that recent trends in cut-off date movements are guaranteed for the future, or that “corrective” action will not be required at some point in an effort to maintain number use within the applicable annual limits. The determination of the actual monthly cut-off dates is subject to fluctuations in applicant demand and a number of other variables. Unless indicated, those categories with a “Current” projection will remain so for the foreseeable future.

06/07/2013: July 2013 Visa Bulletin

06/07/2013: State Department Releases EB-Visa Demand Data for Determination of Cut-Off Dates for July 2013 Visa Bulletin

• This data is released as of today, 06/07/2013.

06/07/2013: CIR 2013 (S. 744) on the Senate Legislative Calendar No. 80 and Senate Floor Schedule Next Week

• On May 28, 2013, this CIR 2013 bill was placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 80. The Senate began consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform. A motion was entered to close further debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, and, in accordance with the provisions of Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, and pursuant to the unanimous-consent agreement of June 6, 2013, a vote on cloture will occur at 2:15 p.m., on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. However, subsequently, the motion to proceed was withdrawn. Then a unanimous-consent agreement was reached providing for further consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill at approximately 9:30 a.m. today, Friday, June 7, 2013.
• Here is the unanimous-consent-time agreement which was reached concerning the procedure for the next several days: that following any Leader remarks on Friday, June 7, 2013, Senate continue consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform; that the time until 1:30 p.m. be divided as follows: Senator Sessions, or designee, controlling three hours, and the Majority Leader, or designee, controlling the remaining time; that following any Leader remarks on Monday, June 10, 2013, Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744; that the time until 5 p.m. be divided as follows: Senator Sessions, or designee, controlling two hours, and Senator Leahy, or designee, controlling the remaining time; that at 5 p.m., Senate resume consideration of S. 954 (Farm Bill), to reauthorize agricultural programs through 2018, with the time until 5:30 p.m. equally divided between the two Leaders, or their designees; that at 5:30 p.m., all post-cloture time be considered expired and Senate vote on or in relation to the Leahy amendment, with no amendments in order to the amendment prior to the vote; and upon disposition of the Leahy amendment, Senate vote on passage of S. 954, as amended; that upon disposition of S. 954, Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744, with Senator Sessions, or designee, controlling one hour of debate on Monday, June 10, 2013 evening; that following any Leader remarks on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, Senate continue consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744, with the time until 12:30 p.m. equally divided between the proponents and opponents; with Senator Sessions, or designee, controlling up to one hour of that time; that at 2:15 p.m., on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744; and that if cloture is invoked on the motion to proceed, the time until 4 p.m., be equally divided between the proponents and opponents; and at 4 p.m., Senate vote on the adoption of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 744.

06/07/2013: House Passed 06/06/2013 H.R.2217 DHS Appropriations Act, 2014 With Rep. Steve King Amendment on Funding Ban for Morton Memo & DACA Programs

• This appropriations bill has raised a number of controversies because of some poisonous amendments proposed along the way. The most controversial amendment includes Rep. Steve King (Iowa) proposal to cut funds for DHS' Morton Memo and Deferred Action program for Dreamers (DACA) and other prosecutorial discretion programs witholding deportation of certain undocumented aliens with no criminal records and favorable factors. This bill will go through House-Senate Conference Committee down the road and there is no chance that this provision will survive in the final DHS appropriations bill for 2014 since the Democratic Senate will never agree to the provision and even if the Conference keeps this provision, the President is likely to veto the bill. It is just considered a political statement of Rep. King against immigration.
• At this time, the stake is much less for this program for the President in that the USCIS has already received almost two thirds of potential DACA candidates and potentially this program can be completed in the next several months. However, politically, this provision is considered invasion into the power of the Presidency under the U.S. Constitution and the President will never succumb to such legislative action.

06/07/2013: OMB Cleared 06/06/2013 a Final Rule Extending the Border Zone from 25 Miles to 55 Miles in the State of New Mexico

• Under current DHS regulations, certain nonimmigrant Mexican nationals presenting a Border Crossing Card, or other proper immigration documentation, are not required to obtain a CBP Form I-94 (Form I-94), if they remain within 25 miles of the border (75 miles in Arizona). This rule amends the DHS regulations to extend the distance these visitors may travel in New Mexico without obtaining a Form I-94 from 25 miles to 55 miles. This change is intended to promote commerce in southern New Mexico while still ensuring that sufficient safeguards are in place to prevent illegal entry to the United States. Since it has been cleared, the CBP is likely to implement this final rule soon.

06/06/2013: House Gang of 7 CIR Bill Likely Finalized and Introduced in the House as Early as Next Week or Soon Thereafter

• Rep. Carter, one of the members of Gang of 7, indicates that four (4) of its five(5) sections have already been written. The bill may come in between 450 and 500 pages, well short of the length of the Senate immigration bill, which began at 844 pages and has gotten longer as it has gone through committee. He hopes that the bill be introduced next week. However, even if this hope is not materialized, there is a good chance that the bill may be introduced within a few weeks. Surprisingly, departure of one member has brought a brighter prospective for the House bill, unlike our concern that it would cripple the Gang's efforts. Let's wait and see.

06/06/2013: With Naming of Republican Attorney General of New Jersey as Interim U.S. Senator Pending Election in October 2013, Republicans Gained One More Seat in the U.S. Senate

• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appointed today New Jersey state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, a Republican, to temporarily fill the seat held by the late Frank Lautenberg, pending election in October 2013. Accordingly, GOP has gained one more seat in the Senate, at least until October. It is not certain how this will affect the CIR 2013 votes in the Senate later this month, a report indicates that he might vote with Republicans.

06/06/2013: Sen. John Cornyn Reveals his Proposed Compromised Amendment to Senate CIR 2013, S. 744

• Sen. Cornyn is one of the Republican Senators who objected to the S. 744, as amended, at the end of the markup sessions in the Senate Judiciary Committee. He now reveals his proposed amendment which is likely to be introduced on the Senate floor next week. This will be one of the important compromise amendments which will be introduced to expand the number of Senators to support the S. 744. Please read the following outline and news report
  • Outline
  • Statement
• Sen. Cornyn is the Republican Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee.

06/06/2013: Office of Chief Immigration Judge Reissues Entire New Immigration Court Manual Online

• U.S. Department of Justice, EOIR, Office of Chief Immigration Judge reissued the entire Immigration Court Practice Manual due to updates in software used to produce the manual. Page numbers throughout the manual have therefore changed. The manual has also been updated due to implementation of the EOIR eRegistry, as well as other specific changes. Please note that the EOIR eRegistry goes into effect on June 10, 2013. All of the changes to the Immigration Court Practice Manual have been made to the Practice Manual available online.

06/06/2013: Reminder - Two USCIS ELIS Webinar Sessions "Today" With Questions & Answers Opportunity

• On May 20, 2013, USCIS added the feature of new USCIS Immigrant Visa Fee payment using USCIS online ELIS. There have been numerous reports of problems with this new feature by attorneys disallowing payment of the fees by attorneys on behalf of their immigrant visa applicant clients. Since February 1, 2013, immigrant visa applicants who receive an immigrant visa package at an overseas U.S. Embassy or Consulate are required tot pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee in order to receive their Permanent Resident Card (commonly referred to as the Green Card) in the United States.
• USCIS will host two webinars on today, Thursday, June 6, 2013, to give interested individuals an opportunity to view the features of USCIS ELIS and ask questions about the system. Those who want to participate in this webinars may register early this morning by clicking here.

06/06/2013: Reminder - iCERT Site Will Be Down "Tonight"

• Those who have to file LCA for H-1B and PERM Prevailing Wage Determination Request within today should file the applications during the day today since the iCERT site is scheduled to be down tonight for maintenance.

06/06/2013: House Amendment Bill to Retaliate Brazil for U.S. Visas Failed

• Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio introduced yesterday in the House a controversial bill in the form of an amendment to H.R. 2217 to prohibit the use of funds by USCIS to provide visas to Brazilians failed with 50:373 votes.

06/06/2013: House Amendment Bill to Keep 287(g) Enforcement Passed

• Yesterday, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia introduced an amendment to H.R.2217 to prohibit the use of funds to be used in contravention of section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1357(g)). This amendment was passed by voice vote.

06/05/2013: Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, Abandons House Gang of 8 After Today's Meeting

• Last minute negotiation today reportedly failed and the key Republican member of the Gang of 8 abandoned the Gang of 8, crippling this group. Some good news is that the rest of 7 members would remain in the group as House Gang of 7 instead of Gang of 8. This will keep an opportunity opened for introduction of the House version of the CIR 2013 in the House, even though the future of such bill may be uncertain. After all, the result of today's meeting of Gang of 8 is better than total collapse of the group. It is hoped that the remaining Gang of 7 completes the draft and introduces the bill as soon as possible.

06/05/2013: House Gang of 8 Reportedly on the Blink of Collapse and House Republicans Stuck with Piecemeal Reform Option

• What a disaster!

06/05/2013: Senate Mourns for Late Senator Lautenberg

• Senate voted unanimous consent S. Res 161 with 99 sponsors to mourn for the death of Sen. Lautenberg and Senate will not be in session today to attend funeral services. The Senate will return to the session on 06/06/2013 with the 99 membership, pending the election for the seat in New Jersey to fill the vacancy late this year. CIR proponents have lost one supporter of the bill in the midst of wildest fire of anti-CIR spinning in the media by the Senators who oppose the CIR. Apparently, these Senators attempt to mislead the public, hiding the magic power of compromises in the legislative process and underestimating the level of intelligence of the public. The truth is there is still the strategy of 60 or 70 game for the Senate action for this bill on the floor beginning from next week. For instance, one of the hardest opponents of the bill, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has even declared that he would support the bill "if" the bill is amended on the floor to tighten border security and H-1B integrity loopholes which he failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee markup sessions. Senators, the public is not that naive nor a three year baby who knows only "hard" wooden boxes that can build only two boxes high. if they put two boxes together.

06/04/2013: Senate CIR 2013 Vote Target: 60 or 70?

• Understandably, pro-CIR vote counts may depend on how many Republican Senators the CIR strategists can lean on. Senator McCain initiated spinning of myerious number of 70 votes in support of the CIR bill in the Senate. Lately, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer joined the wagon with 70-vote flag prediction. To break a filibuster and pass CIR 2013, Democrats need only 60 votes, and assuming hypothetically that all Democratic Senators will vote for the bill, they only need five Republican Senators to join them. There may be a few Democratic Senators who may be sources of trouble for this strategy, but it does not mean that Democrats will need that large number of Republican Senators to make 60 votes.
• This 70 vote strategy is becoming controversial among pro-CIR advocates. What's the source of the fuss with 70 number? Here is the mystery. Requiring more Republican or other Senators who oppose the current bill will require more "compromises," particularly from the conservative Republicans. The 60-vote strategy may lean on more liberal CIR bill the Democrats can count on without the support of too conservative Republican support, while the 70-vote strategy may demand accomodation of conservatives' demands in the amendment process on the Senate floor to pass the bill. For the reasons, CIR advocates fear losing their agenda in the final bill, should the leaders target at 70-vote strategy. Aha.....! No wonder why there is a fuss. It will be interesting to watch where these Senate CIR strategists will eventually settle behind the scene. There is a predicament: From the perspectives of a strategy to add pressure on the House to act on the CIR, these strategists may need 70-vote strategy. However, from the perspectives of immigration advocates who do not want to see too much compromise ahead, 70-vote strategy may be too troubesome.

06/04/2013: USCIS Reopens Citizenship Grant Applications Until Tomorrow, 06/05/2013

• USCIS has announced that it is reopening the FY 2013 Citizenship and Integration Grant Program funding opportunity announcement (DHS-13-CIS-010-002). Applications may be filed through Grants.gov from June 3, 2013 through June 5, 2013 at 11:59:59 PM EDT. USCIS learned after the close of the original application period on May 22, 2013 that Grants.gov rejected a significant percentage of applications to this funding opportunity. Given those rejections, USCIS is reopening this opportunity for a brief period to allow potential applicants to resubmit an application. Organizations that successfully submitted an application through Grants.gov before the May 22, 2013 deadline are not required to resubmit. Read on.

06/04/2013: Immigrant Community Saddened by Death of Senator Fank Lautenberg of New Jersey Yesterday in Critical Senate CIR Legislation Time

• Senator Lautenberg has been an adocate of immigration and immigrants lost an important ally in the Senate, particularly at a time when the CIR 2013 bill is about to be decided on the Senate floor. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to name a fellow Republican to temporarily replace Lautenberg until New Jersey voters can elect a new senator as early as this November. Report, however, indicates that it will not deadly affect the votes for CIR 2013 in the Senate as it appears that the Senate has more than 60 votes to pass this bill. Yesterday, there was a report that the mayors in Utah pressured Utah Senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, to vote for the CIR 2013. Senator Mike Lee has been in the front of opposing the CIR.

06/04/2013: USCIS Memorandum 05/31/2013 on Ethiopia's Requirement of PAIR (Pre-Adoption Immigration Review) & I-600 Processing

• Effective September 1, 2013, the Government of Ethiopia will require that the prospective adoptive parents include evidence that the U.S. government completed a PAIR review of the prospective adoptive child’s immigration eligibility. The PAIR program allows prospective adoptive parents to file a Form I-600 petition before they complete the adoption or obtain legal custody of a child for purposes of emigration and adoption. USCIS will review the child’s immigration eligibility and issue a preliminary determination of immigration eligibility before prospective adoptive parents complete the adoption or obtain legal custody of a child in Ethiopia. After the adoption has been completed, the U.S. Department of State or USCIS will issue a final decision on the Form I-600 petition.

06/04/2013: USCIS Releases 05/01/2013 Updated Naturalization Applications Data as of End of March 2013

06/04/2013: USCIS Releases 05/01/2013 Updated Immigration Benefits Applications Data as of End of March 2013

06/03/2013: PERM Processing Times Update as of 05/06/2013

• Analyst Review (Clean Case): 12/21/2012
• Audit Cases: 06/30/2012
• Reconsideration Cases: 04/29/2013
• Government Error Cases: Current

06/03/2013: Unconfirmed Rumor of Furloughs Affecting USCIS and DOL Foreign Labor Certification Business

• People can notice from these agencies' websites that their activities and program management paces have lately been slowed down. Apparently, these agencies do not want to disclose their ongoing furloughs as affected by sequestration, but unconfirmed information indicates that their businesses have lately been affected by furloughs and this may continue through September 2013.

06/03/2013: Senate Floor Anticipated Schedule for Senate CIR 2013 Bill, S. 744

• Leading Senate Democrats have confirmed that the bill will be on the Senate floor either on 06/07/2013, Friday, or the week of 06/10/2013 at the latest. There is also no change with the target date of the bill for these leaders to vote on the bill before July 4th Independence Day holiday. Despite anti-immigration legislators and anti-immigration groups' media spinning that the bill would fail or even if it is successfully passed in the House, it will be dead in the House, the general consensus is that the House will have to take up their own CIR bill soon. Otherwise, the House may turn into a Democratic House after November 2014 midterm election. Report indicates that in the last election, over 70% of Hispanics voted for Obama and over 70% of Asians voted for Obama, leading to a disaster to the Republican party. Remember 111 "conservative" economists wrote a letter to the Congressional leaders to pass a broad comprehensive immigration reform legislation on May 23, 2013! Read on.

06/03/2013: USCIS and AILA/Local Bar Meeting Minutes

• USCIS has been updating the issues, policies, and practice from time to time, which are not available to the immigration customers other than the members of the AILA, until the USCIS posts the meeting minutes at the USCIS website. These minutes are very important for the immigrants, employers, immigration sponsors to learn the state of the agency on various issues. The following are the meeting minutes which our readers may want to review to update the USCIS practice and policies on various issues:
  • USCIS Field Operations - AILA Q&A: On 04/11/2013, USCIS Field Operations Directorate (FOD) hosted an engagement with AILA representatives. Thus this minute updates USCIS local field office issues including family-based immigration.
  • USCIS - AILA Meeting Q&A: On 04/11/2013, USCIS hosted an engagement with AILA representatives. USCIS discussed issues related to waivers of inadmissibility, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA for Dreamers), the USCIS Policy Manual, as well as other issues.
  • USCIS Verification Division and AILA Metting Q&A: On 04/11/2013, The AILA Verification and Documentation Liaison Committee met with the USCIS Verification Division in Washington, DC to discuss recent updates to the E-Verify and SAVE programs - notably the release of the new Form I-9 and M-274.
  • USCIS National Benefits Center - Florida Bar Association Liaison Teleconference Q&A On 03/21/2013, the USCIS National Benefits Center (NBC) hosted a teleconference with the Florida (FL) Bar Association attorney liaisons.
• The foregoing reflects that the USCIS Service Center Operations Directorate and AILA minutes have yet to be released, which will be the primary sources of information for the employment-based immigrants, EB nonimmigrants and employers.

06/02/2013: DOL iCERT System Outage Alert

• Next week, there will be two outages:
  • 06/04/2013 (Tuesday) from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM ET
  • 06/06/2013-06/07/2013 (Thursday-Friday) from 8PM ET to 6AM ET
• Hmm... Anything is cooking? As reported PERM site will be unavailable on 06/06/2013 (Thursday) from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET.

06/01/2013: Republican Conservatives Schedule a Bi-Cameral Meeting Next Wednesday, 06/05/2013, to Find a Direction for Republicans for the Immigration Reform

• As the Senate floor is poised to determine its CIR 2013 bill this month, the House Republicans have been under pressure to determinine its party platform. Currently, there are two Republican groups among House Conservative Republican leaders advocating their conflicting positions: One is piecemeal reform group and the other is comprehensive reform group. Piecemeal group is represented by ultra-right wing and anti-immigration legislators that generally oppose any immigration reform by way of advocating piecemeal immigration reform which is not workable under the given political environment, and comprehensive group is represented by less conservative group that advocates immigration reform within the conservative Republican platform. At this time, the House Republican leaders have failed to reach a compromise between these two groups with no unified party platform for the immigration reform. Coming Wednesday's meeting between the House Republican leaders and the Senate Republican leaders in the immigration reform issue will help the Republican party to determine its direction under the mounting pressure timewise.
• Report indicates that this meeting is called by the Republican Study Committee inviting House immigration legislation leaders including Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and the Republican leader in the House Immigration Gange of 8 on the House side and Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Rand Paul, and Senator Mike Lee on the Senate side. Reportedly, the House group invited more Republican Senators to the meeting but apparently other Republicans were not that enthusiastic to participate in the meeting. Thus far, the only determination that has been disclosed from the House side on immigration reform was not to take up the Senate bill by the House and would rather push its own immigration reform legislation. The question then remains how and in what way. They are struggling to find an answer to this question. Speaker of the House appears to agree more with comprehensive approach than piecemeal approach, but the House Immigration Gange of 8 still struggles to produce a bi-partisan House CIR bill. They are in predicament in that if they fail to produce their own bill, eventually they will have to act on the Senate CIR bill and rejection of the Senate CIR bill without their own alternativeswill result in politically devastating consequences in the coming national elections in 2004 and 2006. This consequence can be further exacerbated by the forthcoming release of Congressional Budget Office (CBO)'s report on assessment of budgetary impact of CIR 2013 for the federal government for the next 10 years.
• It is our assessment that under the given circumstances, the House Republicans will eventually go for its own comprehensive immigration reform approach accomodating somewhat ultra right wing conservative Republican platform and attempt to push hard its platform at the House-Senate Conference Committee level after they enact their own CIR bill to minimize the impact of negative political fallouts in national elections in 2004 and 2006 for their outright opposition to the immigration reform, no matter whether in piecemeal or comprehensive. The party will not be able to ignore the reality and public opinion that do not want to see and witness any further ideological extrapolation of party politics. Let's watch how the drama will unfold from next week.

05/31/2013: iCERT Site Outage Alert

• The iCERT System will be unavailable from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM ET on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 for routine maintenance.

05/31/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Releases CIR 2013 (S. 744) as Amended

• Senate Judiciary has released the S. 744 as amended, incorporating all the amendments which were made in the Judiciary Committee.

05/31/2013: USCIS Customer Service Unavailable on 06/1/2013 Night

• USCIS Customer sites will not be available from 6:00 pm of 06/01/2013 to midnight of 06/02/2013.

05/31/2013: Two Other Immigration Forms That Will Expire in Mid-June 2013

• I-751 Form: The current form has edition date of 01/12/2011. This form will expire on 06/15/2013. Effective 06/16/2013, the USCIS will reject the current form and require to use new form with the edition of 04/11/2013. From 06/16/2013, the USCIS will reject the current form of 01/12/2011. This form is used by Conditional Permanent Residents and their U.S. citizen spouses to petition to remove their conditional permanent resident status.
• N-300 Form: The current N-300 form of edition date of 10/30/2011 will expire on 06/16/2013. Effective June 17, 2013, the USCIS will reject the current form of 10/30/2011 and will accept only the new form dated 03/21/2013. This form is used for Application to File Declaration of Intention. Please make a note of it.

05/31/2013: Both State Department and Labor Deparment Have Released Alerts That Old Version G-28 Form Would Not be Acceptable

• The new version of G-28 form took effect on 05/26/2013 and the USCIS has been rejecting the old form G-28 since then. Occationally, legal representatives have to file the USCIS form G-28 with the State Department or the Labor Department for legal representation. For the reasons, these two federal departments have released their alerts that they do not accept old version G-28 from legal counsels. This does not end with DOS and DOL. All other related federal agencies will refuse to take old form. The Ombudsman's office of DHS has also released the same news that they will not accept old version G-28. Beware!
• How people distinguish between old and new form G-28? New form has a bar code at the bottom.

05/31/2013: Fate of India EB-2 in the 4th Quarter FY 2013 Visa Bulletin

• The State Department is allocating immigrant visa quota by quarter for a fiscal year and last quarter that starts with July tends to show two different cut-off dates depending on the USCIS consumption of visa numbers. Sometimes it comes out with a total negative impact with the result of visa number retrogression for certain preference categories and for certain countries, and sometimes it comes out with a very positive movement not to waste any unused visa numbers for the fiscal year. The latter situation takes place for the employment-based immigrant categories when the exhaustion of EB numbers by the USCIS was slow. This happens because unlike the family-based immigrant visa quota, in the employment-based immigrant quota, about 85% or more numbers of total EB visa numbers are consumed by the USCIS as opposed to a limited number consumed by the American visa posts throughout the world. Since the July 2013 Visa Bulletin is anticipated to be released within next 10 days, Indian EB-2 immigrants who have been suffering the most from the stagnant cut-off date for the past several months are anxious to see some movement in July, August, and September 2013. We will cross our fingers for them.

05/31/2013: Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Likley Assessment of Impact of S. 744 Legislation on Federal Budget for Next 10 Years "Minimal"

• As we reported earlier, this report is due to be released in the next few days. Depending upon its report, it can have a critical negative or positive impact on the ongoing Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation process. Report indicates that this report may come out with a positive assessment in favor of the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Senator Sessions of Alabama who is a frontier legislator to oppose the CIR as well as the Ranking Member of Senate Budget Committee reportedly released a statement that the CBO should assess differently, with the anticipation of CBO assessment in support of the CIR.
• It is indeed a positive news for CIR. However, anti-immigration forces, including NumbersUSA, reportedly have been engaging in a massive campaign to oppose the CIR and to support piecemeal immigration reform. Additionally, as we reported earlier, there is an ongoing feud within the IT industry between Silicon Valley U.S. mega IT businesses and foreign consulting businesses, the former pushing the CIR and the latter opposing CIR unless it is revised in support of their business. Invisibly, this has also been creating a friction between the foreign workers that will take maximum benefits under the Senate CIR bill and the consulting business employers that will suffer most under the bill. It is hoped that the bill be amended to remove poison pills against the consulting businesses from the current draft at the end of the day, but it is an irony, when it comes to interests of the parties, that there is a conflict between the employer sector and employee sector in the IT industry. As we reported earlier, foreign high-tech workers cannot agree more with the current Senate CIR bill that contains all the sweet juices in it for them.

05/30/2013: USCIS Releases Final Policy Memorandum EB-5 Adjudications Policy 05/30/2013

• This Memorandum replaces earlier memorandums on EB-5.

05/30/2013: USCIS Announcement of TPS Extension for Salvadorans

• As we reporter earlier, this notice has been published in the federal register. The USCIS announcement gives additional information for implementation of this extension of TPS for Salvadorans.

05/30/2013: PERM System Outage Next Thursday 06/06/2013

• The PERM System will be unavailable from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET on Thursday, June 6, 2013 for routine maintenance.

05/29/2013: Prevailing Wage Rate Anticipated to Go Up Substantially Beginning from 07/01/2013

• Currently, H-1B and PERM labor certifications require employers to pay minimum of prevailing wage or actual wage whichever is higher to hire a foreign worker temporarily or permanently. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification does publish every year new prevailing wage data based on Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) and applies this data for determination of prevailing wage effective July 1 each year. The new data is expected to be released in July and taking effect from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.
• As anybody can guess it, the prevailing wage rate under the new OES is likely to go up substantially considering the changing economic environment and rising inflation rate. In April 2013, Bureau of Labor Statistics released the estimate OES data that gives some idea as to the rate of increase for each occupation and each city, county and metropolitan area. DOL will use this BLS data to publish the OES wage data in July 2013. There is the data.

05/29/2013: El Salvador TPS Designation Extension Until 03/09/2015

• This federal register notice will extend the designation of El Salvador for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months from September 10, 2013 through March 9, 2015. The extension allows currently eligible TPS beneficiaries to retain TPS through March 9, 2015 so long as they otherwise continue to meet the terms and conditions of TPS status. Re-registration is limited to persons who have previously registered for TPS under the designation of El Salvador and whose applications have been granted. Certain nationals of El Salvador (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in El Salvador) who have not previously applied for TPS may be eligible to apply under the late initial registration provisions, if they meet: (1) at least one of the late initial filing criteria and (2) all TPS eligibility criteria (including continuous residence in the United States since February 13, 2001, and continuous physical presence in the United States since March 9, 2001). USCIS will issue new EADs with a March 9, 2015 expiration date to eligible Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs under this extension. Through this Notice, DHS automatically extends the validity of EADs issued under the TPS designation of El nSalvador for 6 months, from September 9, 2013 through March 9, 2014, and explains how TPS beneficiaries and their employers may determine which EADs are automatically extended and their impact on Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) and the E-Verify processes. This notice will be published in the federal register tomorrow, 05/30/2013.

05/28/2013: "Korea" Missing in the List of Countries in the New I-140, I-102, and N-600 Forms

• USCIS has been revising immigration forms including drop-down list of country of birth or country of citizenship/nationality. In the earlier forms, petitioners or applicants just filled out name of countries. We are not certain as to what purposes the drop-down country list serves. Surprisingly, we detected that Korea or South Korea or North Korea or Republic of Korea or People's Republic of Korea is completely missing! When these forms are filed in papers, customers may be able to fill it out by hand or typewriter, but one wonders what happens if people file I-140 form online. We have contacted the USCIS to remind them of this critical flaw in the new forms. We have no further information available about as to what other countries could be missing in the drop-down list of countries. It is hoped that USCIS acts quickly to correct this problem in the revised forms.

05/28/2013: New G-28 Form and Additional USCIS Guidance

• As we posted earlier, effective yesterday, the USCIS required a new G-28 form and old form G-28 was no longer acceptable. However, the new form G-28 and its instruction form failed to give answers to the attorneys who represented both petitioner (sponsor) and the alien beneficiary. Here is the USCIS additional guidance:
  • A separate form for the applicant and petitioner, if an attorney represents both;
  • Separate Form G-28s for each individual application or petition, if multiple forms are filed;
  • If one G-28 is filed for I-907 Premium Processing Request and the underlying petition form I-129 or I-140, and the completed G-28 form is not acceptable, it will lead to both I-907 and accompanying I-129 or I-140 being not acceptable.
• Watch out!

05/27/2013: CBP Automated I-94 Web Application Demonstration

• By this week, all the ports of entry in this country will implement automated I-94 and nonimmigrant may have to print out online a copy of I-94, since paper I-94 is no longer issued to the nonimmigrants at the ports of entry. Accordingly, upon your arrival, after you pass the inspection and enter the U.S. nonimmigrants should go to the web application site and print out a copy of web I-94. Please see this video demonstration to see how you can can print it out using your computer.

05/26/2013: El Salvador TPS Designation Extension Got Nod From OMB

• OMB cleared this proposal to extend designation of the nationals of El Salvador TPS and EAD. It is likely that the DHS may publish the notice in the federal register in the near future. Three Central American countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salavador have been granted extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and employment authorization for the past several years.

05/26/2013: 2014 Senate Mid-Term National Election Map

• Please see which Senator(s) in your state faces reelection in 2014 Midterm Senate national election who should be more conscious of the CIR legislation because of its potential impact on the party nomination on the one hand and the actual election in November 2014 on the other. For the party nominations, those seeking reelection tend to move to either far right or far left. For the national election, those seeking reelection tend to move to the center after the party nomination. Thus generally, the Senators in red states seeking relection may be increasingly affected by the far-right conservatives for their party renomination. That is why the CIR must be passed before the summer break of the Congress.

05/25/2013: House and Senate Adjourned and Will not Return to Sessions Until 06/03/2013

• The Senate and the House passed resolution to adjourn during the Memorial Day week through 05/31/2013, Friday. Therefore, they will not return until Monday, June 3, 2013. Pending the Senate floor action on S. 744 CIR 2013 bill, readers see a lot of spinning by pro and con political forces to influence the members of the Senate. The first mission of the Gang of 8 is to assure minimum of 60 votes to break any potential filibuster against this bill, and an Hispanic member of the Gang of 8 Senators has released an alert before the Hispanic audience that 60 votes were not ready. This appears to be intended to ignite Hispanic community to rise up and engage in campaigns to pressure the Senators in their states. Therefore, his statement is not necessarily backed by any evidence. It should be taken more or less a tactic of spinning to ignite Hispanic community just to make it sure, in worst case, any potential filiters can be broken on the Senate floor. A young and new Republican Senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has a reputation of engaging in filibuster on the Senator floor has announced that he would introduce amendments, potentially implying that he can be a potential candidate of filibuster. Additionally, there are a lot of spinning in the media by interest groups to support or oppose the bill for their interests.
• This is the time when the readers should not be swayed and discouraged by ongoing spinning in the media and campaigns by these stakeholders and politicians. Thus far, the Republican Senate Minority Leader has expressed his support for the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Only some members of Tea Party Republicans potentially pose a threat of filibuster. Accordingly, immigration advocates, particularly high skilled foreign workers, should keep working with their Senators in their states to support the bill. Readers should also learn to take media reports using "filters." Never take some of those reports on their face value!

05/24/2013: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Reportedly to Take up Senate CIR Bill on Senate Floor in the Week of 06/10/2013

• Report indicates that the Senate CIR bill, S. 744 will be on the floor in the Senate during the week of June 10, 2013. The report also indicates that the Senate Gang of 8 are determined to stay together tightly to make this bill passed successfully in the Senate. Because of such Senate schedule, a tension and heat has been rising in the House to cope with the pressure. Under the circumstances, the House Gange of 8 are likely to introduce their bill in early June 2013. Please stay tuned to this website for the development in the House.

05/24/2013: Scheduled Implementation of I-94 Automation by the End of May in All Ports of Entry and Advisory to Print Out & Keep Online I-94 Copy

• The CBP is scheduled to roll out and complete the I-94 automation by May 31, 2013 in all ports of entry including airports. Employers may advise their nonimmigrant employees to print out a copy of automated I-94 electronically and keep a copy for themselves as well as an additional copy for the employer files just for the company record. Here is the link to the automated I-94 printout site.

05/24/2013: Current PERM Labor Certification Processing Times

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has yet to upto their monthly processing time report, but available information including this office reflects that they are currently approving those cases which were filed early January 2013. It thus appears that currently they are taking about four and a half month to approve clean cut cases. Those who need H-1B extension beyond the six-year limit and are required to file I-140 petition under AC 21 104(c) in three-year increment should keep in mind somewhat delayed current processing times for PERM applications.

05/24/2013: House Speaker Determined to go with its Own CIR Bill Rather Than Senate CIR Bill

• Readers will recall our earlier posting that the House will have two options: One is just to take up the Senate CIR bill and return the bill with amendments to the Senate for the Senate action. Second option is to put aisde the Senate CIR bill and take up its own CIR bill, and then once the House bill is completed, to propose the House-Senate joint conference committee to produce the House-Senate compromised bill. We also reported that the House leaders are struggling with this decision for two different groups taking different preferences. However, the House Speaker reportedly declared that the House will never take up the Senate bill itself and would take up yet-to-be-introduced its own bill with the expection to go through the conference committee process. House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appears to be struggling herself with this decision. The circumstances thus adds a tremendous pressure on the House Gange of 8 to introduce the House's own CIR bill. As we reported earlier, the House Gang of 8 informally announced that the members had agreed to the "piinciples" of the House version CIR, but the reality happened to be far from agreement with all the issues. The ongoing pressure may lead them to produce a "final" compromise within the House Gang of 8 group and introduce the House version of CIR bill in the House when they return to the session after the Memorial Day recess.
• From the perspectives of immigration advocates, it does not matter which option the House would take. The key is the speed of action. Under the pressure of given political environment, the Speaker of the House appears to be determined to move forward fairly in good speed not to turn the House as a guilty party for potential failure to pass a CIR bill in 2013 with the potential negative political fallouts in the Midterm national election in November 2014 and the Presidential election in November 2016. We will see whether the process can be completed before their summer recess, which is considered a "mandate" for the CIR 2013 bill to survice and to be enacted in 2013. Otherwise, after all the pains and aches of the political process, the CIR 2013 can fall into a dead valley and turn into a history. In the meantime, readers, enjoy the long weekend. Monday is a legal federal holiday.

05/24/2013: USCIS I-140 Processing Statistics as at 03/31/2013

05/24/2013: USCIS EB-I-485 Processing Statistics as at 03/31/2013

(As one can appreciate it, preadjudicatiion cases remain more or less stand-still as they may not preadjudicate EB-485 applications under the current visa number standstill movement. NSC is still showing a large volume of customer awaiting EB-485 cases. Most of these cases must be RFE. Otherwise, case loads are well balanced between the two Service Centers.)

05/23/2013: Current Version of G-28 for Attorney or Representative Representation in the Immigration Proceeding Not Acceptable Effective 05/26/2013, Sunday

• Attorneys and representatives must use new version, dated 02/28/2013, with bar codes at the bottom effective 05/26/2013. This means practically today was the last date to use the current version G-28 form assuming that it was filed overnight. This form raises some issues, particularly when the attorney appears in dual representation of both petitioner and beneficiary. There is no space or item to show the alien beneficiary client in such legal proceeding. Instruction form does not answer to this question. For instance, when an attorney appears for a married couple in the family-based immigrant proceedings, in old forms, there was a space to write the name of the beneficiary in the G-28 forms even though the form is signed only by the petitioner and the legal counsel. The USCIS should answer to this question sooner than later since use of the new form is mandatory effective Sunday. One wonders how the intake office of the USCIS Service Centers and field offices will learn which alien beneficiary the attorney represents in the legal proceeding. It is odd to give just the name of petitioner alone without disclosing which alien beneficiary the attorney will also represent. It is hoped that the form is revised to correct this problem.
• This issue goes deeper than the form G-28. The USCIS has been working on transition to online filing system and as part of this transition, it has already revised the regulation elminating the distinction between the petition and the application. Currently, the "petition" is filed by a petitioner sponsoring certain immigration benefits for an alien beneficiary. One the other hand, the "application" is filed by an alien. The regulation has removed the terms "petition" and "application" replaced by "benefit request." Current petitioner and beneficiary are turned both into parties seeking "benefit request." Accordingly, form the forthcoming immigrant and nonimmigrant forms, one cannot tell whether a sponsor is required and whether there is a sponsor for the legal proceeding. This will be particularly troublesome for the legal counsels making dual representation as well as third party stakeholders. The rights and privileges of the immigrant or nonimmigrant sponsors (current petitioner), mostly U.S. citizens, U.S. entities or permanent resident should be distinctively different from the rights and privileges of the alien beneficiary under the U.S. constitution and other laws. When there will be no distinction between the sponsor and the alien beneficiary under the single term of "benefit requestor," the country's legal system and judicial process will witness a confusion, not to mention how they should call them - same term of "benefit" requestor or "benefit" applicant for both? It may be too late to change it since government's transformation program has moved to a certain stage, which is a river of no return at this time as billions of dollars have been pumped in for the transformation program. Too late, but something to think about on the occation of change of the G-28 form encompassing such singular term concept and system.

05/23/2013: USCIS Releases Employment-Based I-485 Inventory Data as of 04/02/2013 for Service Centers and Field Offices

• This data is important for the EB-485 waiters to figure out their place in the waiting queue of employment-based green card applications in the Visa Bulletin, showing roughtly how many EB-485 applications are awaiting before himself and herself in priority date. This is possible because this data is compiled by priority date rather than I-485 filing date. All they have to do it is to locate their priority date in the table and add up all other cases which have earlier priority dates than his or hers to learn roughly how many cases are pending for each country ahead of his/her priority dates. Enactment of comprehensive immigration reform legislation may make these data less informative but enactment of CIR in 2013 still remains an open question. Those who have yet to file employment-based I-485 should add up all the data in the table for their coutries to learn how many cases are pending ahead of them as of April 2, 2013. EB-2 for India has been stalled in the Visa Bulletins for a while and DOS prediction was not too promising, but as we approach the last quarter of this fiscal year (July-September), there can be some changes depending on the EB-2 visa numbers yet to be used for this fiscal year not to waste any EB-2 numbers for this fiscal year. Senate CIR 2013 bill proposes to eliminate the per country quota limit for employment-based immigration, which can wipe out the EB-2 waiting line for India and China in a few years, but again this legislation remains an open question. Besides, even if this bill passes, it will take a while to see the actual impact of such legislation for the EB-2 quota movement for India and China. Pending all of these opened questions, the EB-485 may have to do some homework, especially during this weekend, using calculators to look for their places in the long waiting lines for EB-2 or EB-3 for their countries. Here we go.

05/23/2013: Soon-to-be-Released CBO Report of Budgetary/Economic Impact of CIR 2013 and its Critical Impact on the Future of CIR 2013 Legislation

• The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) was expected to release this report earlier but there has been a delay. Report indicates that it is likely to be released in early next month, June 2013. Release of this report will play a critical role in the Republican House CIR legislation process. Readers may recall that the conservative Think-Tank The Heritage Foundation attacked the ongoing CIR 2013 legislation process based on its faulted report of estimated impact of such legislation at the level of over $6 Trillion to scare the nation that is recovering from economic recess, deficit, and unemployment rate. It turned out the report was faulted and the writer of the report resigned from his job with the Heritage Foundation. It was indeed a remarkable blow for the Heritage Foundation and its reputation as well as the ultra-right wing anti-immigration forces.
• But it is not over yet. Soon, the CBO is scheduled to release its assessment of budgetary impact of CIR 2013. The Gange of Eight are hopeful that the report will reflect that the CIR 2013 will have ZERO budgetary and economic impact. The CIR 2013 advocates are also praying that the report will come out with a positive impact on the CIR legislation process. Please stay tuned to this website.

05/23/2013: Read the Reaction of H-1B Opponents to Victorious H-1B Reform for Tech Industry in Senate Judiciary Schumer-Hatch Compromise

• Obviously, it was a huge blow for the H-1B opponents and they are likely to keep fighting on the Senate floor and in the House. Well, it's not over till it's over!

05/22/2013: Fate of H-1B Dependent IT Consulting Businesses Under the Senate Judiciary Passed CIR Bill

• Throughout the Senate CIR legislation process, the public detected and learned a friction between U.S. businesses and foreign consulting businesses when it comes to H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrant visa program reforms. From the perspectives of the U.S. businesses that have a stake in "attracting and retaining" talented foreign workers in the U.S., their goal of reform focused on relax of restriction on recruiting and hiring foreign talented workers in nonimmigrant visa reform and allowing green card options for those talented foreign worker employees to a maximum extent. On the other hand, the stake of foreign consulting businesses lied on removal of restrictions to placement of foreign workers not at the site of the foreign businesses in the U.S. but other businesses and clients in the U.S. as consultants. At the end of the day, the final determination of the Senate Judiciary committee awarded a huge gift to the U.S. IT business directly employing talented foreign workers and not through the staffing or consulting foreign businesses. The CIR bill focused on "green card" benefits for these foreign workers rather than their nonimmigrant benefits. Meanwhile, the H-1B dependent employers will suffer a huge blow because of the failure of the Committee to strike out the provision on the "outpalcement ban" for the H-1B dependent and L-1 employers. Senator Hatch attempted to strike the provision, but his final comprovised amendment failed to include this amendment.
• However, it does not mean that consulting service businesses will be wiped out even under the Committee bill because there is a saviour provision for these businesses. It is "intending immigrant" provision that exclude the number of H-1B and L-1 employees who have started the green card process from counting the total number of H-1B and L-1 employees for the determination of H-1B "dependent" employers. Since outplacement ban applies only to the H-1B dependent employers, the consulting businesses may be able to circumvent the law by filing en masse employment-based green card petitions for their H-1B and L-1 employees to reduce the total tally of H-1B and L-1 employees, whereby the employers could avoid from falling in the dead valley of "H-1B Dependent Employer."
• At the end of the day, who will then turn out to be the "ultimate winners" from this Senate Judiciary Committee proposal? You got it. Foreign workers! They will receive incredible amount of benefits from this proposal in both immigrant and nonimmigrant proceedings, including free change of employers! This proposal will change employment decision from employer market to employee market in that employees will enjoy upper hand in employment process and decision. The bill even mandate the H-1B dependent employers to offer minimum of Level II wage and banning Level I wage for the foreign workers. The legislative intent of this proposal is to achieve the nation's interest and goal of "attracting and retaining" talented foreign workers, in a way at the sacrifice of foreign businesses in this country. We will see how this legislative strategy of this nation will survive throughout the end of the legislative process.

05/22/2013: White House Press Release on Senate Judiciary CIR Action

05/21/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Passed the CIR 2013 Bill as Amended Today 13:5 Majority Votes

• The 13:5 vote result is very significant for the fate of this bill in the forthcoming Senate floor action. With Republican Sen. Flake and Sen. Hatch joining the Democrats along with other Republican members of Gange of 8, it is indeed hopeful that this bill may pass in the Senate close to 70! The role of Sen. Leahy, Chairman of Judiciary, was indeed significant, smoothing out the process throughout the Judiciary Committee markup sessions. The last deal break was achieved by Sen. Hatch and Sen. Durbin by reaching a critical compromise at 11:40 a.m. this morning (a compromise between tech industry and labor union). When the session turned into sour and confrontational, the Chairman brought up the birth day celebration for the Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken, turning the session into a session of friends and sharing pizzas and cakes during a short break. Additionally, the Chairman asked a moment of silence for the horrible and tragic natural disaster in Oklahoma city. Without such "veteran" sofisticated political skills, this bill could not have achieved in the way it was witnessed at the end of the day today. Another remarkable achievement of the Chairman: Opening the markup and amendments to the public through the web cast! This should be a model for all other Congressional sessions including the committees and subcommittees in both Chambers. On behalf of our readers, we salute the Chairman Sen. Leahy for his remarkable skills and achievement!

05/21/2013: CIR 2013 Bill Markups Likely Completed Today

• Unlikely previous sessions, this session revealed some confrontations but has been moving along fast as scheduled. What's next? The bill as amended by the Committee will be taken up at the Senate floor, most likely after the Memorial Day Holidays. That's it? Nope. There will be many more amendements introduced by the Senators, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and non Judiciary Committee members. It will thus take time before the final bill is voted. The Senate leaders hope to finish the job in June 2013. It is likely that this bill will have no big hurdle to pass on the Senate floor. Question remains whether it will indeed pass with 70 yeahs. Should it happen, it will add a tremendous pressure on the House leaders to act on CIR promptly. The House leaders appear to be divided into two groups. One group wants to act the Senate CIR bill without its own CIR bill. Meanwhile, there is another group in the House that want to have its own CIR bill introduced and acted upon its own bill so that the House and the Senate go through conference committee to act on the House-Senate compromised bill. Thus media and public attention may shift from the Senate to the House after the Memorial Day holidays as the Chapter One of the CIR 2013 legislative process is about to wind down in the upper chamber of the federal legislature.

05/21/2013: Hatch-Schumer Compromised Amendment for H-1B and L-1 Worker Sailed Through Smoothly and Likely Pass in the Committee Before 5:00 p.m. Today

• The compromised Hatch-Schumer Amendment passed the Committee. Very good news for high-tech industry.

05/21/2013: USCIS Updates Processing Times on 05/21/2013

05/21/2013: Senate Judiciary Wrap Up CIR 2013 Markup Session Today!

• The Chairman announced that he hoped to finish the markup session today rather than another session on the 23th, which strongly indicates that a deal has reached on the Hatch amendments which can be taken care of today. Please stay tuned.

05/21/2013: "Presence Requirement" for Legalization Eligibility Cut-Date Stays 12/31/2011

• At the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bluementhal withdrew his amendment #15 which proposed the cut-date change to 04/17/2013.

05/21/2013: Unconfirmed Sources Indicate Deal Reached and Senate Judiciary to Take Up Sen. Hatch Amendments Today

• His amendments include whoppy increase of H-1B visa annual cap numbers and removal of H-1B/L-1 visa restrictive bills from the CIR bill to support high tech industry. Sen. Hatch is known to be a key Senator for the CIR bill to sail through the conservative oppositions towards a successful enactment of the CIR 2013 this year. Please watch today's markup.
• Senate Judidiary Committee will continue the CIR 2013 markups today, 05/21/2013, Tuesday and 05/23/2013, Thursday.

05/21/2013: Senate Judiciary Scheduled to Complete and Pass the CIR 2013 Bill, as Amended, Before Memorial Day Recess Next Week

• By now, most of the issues have been revolsed at the Committee level, but there are a few tough amendments that will have to be resolved, including H-1B and L-1 visa restrictions and gay issue. These issues have been delayed for backroom compromises. Report indicates that all of these issues will be resolved during this week and send the bill to the Senate floor.

05/21/2013: USCIS Field Office in Okalahoma Closed Today

05/21/2013: USCIS Immigrant Fee Payment Moves to USCIS ELIS

• USCIS advises that it has moved the online payment of the USCIS Immigrant Fee to its Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS). Customers must now pay the $165 USCIS Immigrant Fee using USCIS ELIS after they receive their immigrant visa package from the Department of State and before they depart for the United States. USCIS ELIS is easy to use and provides direct access to case status updates. New immigrants will also use USCIS ELIS to file future applications and petitions when they become available in the system.
• This fee has been in place since Feb. 1, 2013. Immigrants who receive their visas at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad must pay the fee online. The fee allows USCIS to recover the cost of processing the immigrant visa package and other information as well as producing and delivering the permanent resident card after immigrant visa holders are admitted to the United States. Immigrants will soon be directed to the USCIS ELIS website to create an online account and pay the immigrant fee. The fee does not apply to certain special immigrants and those entering the United States through the inter-country adoption programs.
• The USCIS Immigrant Fee is a separate fee from the Department of State immigrant visa application.
  

05/20/2013: Continuation of Senate Judiciary CIR 2013 Markup Today

• This session is very important in that I will focus on Title II Immigrant Visas.

05/18/2013: Senate Judiciary CIR Markup Continuation on 05/20/2013, Monday

05/18/2013: H-1B Politics Shifts to Backroom in Senate Judiciary Markup Sessions

• Story goes that High-tech's leading advocate in the immigration bill fight, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), has bought himself some time, until Tuesday, to get his amendments passed that help IT industry. Current bill includes highly restrictive proposals against H-1B and L-1 employers requiring no displacement attestations and recruitment attestions for H-1B filing which are currently required only for the H-1B dependent employers filing for non-exempt H-1B employees, and restriction to filing of H-1B under the outplacement ban provisions for H-1B dependent employers, among others. Hatch amendments propose to strike such provision to save high tech industry in general and particularly staffing and consulting businesses. There are ongoing fierce lobbyies by such high tech and consulting businesses. Accordingly, negotiations are underway to come up with a compromise where Sen. Hatch gets a block of amendments through alleged negotiation with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer to support Sen. Hatch's amendments and Sen. Hatch's support to give his support for the entire immigration bill in return. Aha! Apparently, Sen. Hatch did not have enough votes to pass his amendments, had the session continued, and earned extra time to work it out in the backroom before they are voted next week. This needs an extra push because there is a strong opposition to the Hatch amendments by the IEEE USA, backed by Sen. Durbin and Sen. Grassley.
• So, life goes on and we will have to wait for another drama that will unfold next week after the arm-twisting political see-saw games in the backroom among the most powerful politial power players in the Senate. Hew...............!

05/17/2013: USCIS DACA Processing Statistics Update May 2013

• As of 04/30/2013, the statistics are as follows:
  • Total Received: 515,922
  • Total Approved: 291,859
  • Total Denied: 2,352
• Not bad at all.

05/17/2013: Summary of 44 Amendments to S. 744 Passed

05/16/2013: House Gang of 8 Reportedly Reached Agreement on House Version CIR & in the Process of Getting Approvals from House Leaders

• Report indicates that a bipartisan group from the House of Representatives reached an "agreement in principle" on immigration legislation, said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, a Republican member of the group.
  A Democratic aide familiar with the discussions said all eight members of the group signed on and told CNN that Democrats and Republicans "will now run the whole package past their respective leadership and colleagues" and aim to formally introduce legislation at the beginning of June. As we reported earlier, the House Judiciary Committee will have a hearing on 05/22/2013 Senate bipartisan CIR bill. Reportedly, the House version of House Gange of 8 will be quite different from the Senate version of CIR. In a way, though, it is a positive news.

05/16/2013: Staffing/Consulting Company Outplacement Ban Decision Postponed Until Next Week

• Sen. Hatch amendment to strike this provision will be delayed until next week. For now, it is somewhat a good news.

05/16/2013: Sen. Leahy Amendment #2 to Make EB-5 Regional Center Program "Permanent" in Judiciary CIR Session Today

• Passed!

05/16/2013: Irish E-3 Visa Program Sustained as Provided in CIR 2013 Bill by Sen. Grassley's Withdrawal of his Amendment to this Provision in Judiciary Sesseion Today

• Congratulations to the Irish community!

05/16/2013: Senate Judiciary Passes Visa Waiver Program for Hong Kong

• This amendment was proposed by the senator from Hawaii. As we noted last Tuesday, Title IV is heavily lobbyed by foreign countries as their business and trade interests are involved. Involved nonimmigrants will benefit from such amendment "indirectly."

05/16/2013: Senate Judiciary to Continue CIR Markup Session Beginning 9:30 a.m. Est

• There are only four or five amendments for Title IV (Nonimmigrant Visa Reform) that are left over for the today's session. Those amendments are likely to be taken care of as soon as the Committee returns to the session this morning. One of the crucial amendments proposes to remove from the CIR "Outplacement" bar or restriction for staffing and consulting businesses. Even though preservation of "Intending Immigrant" provision in the bill would give the foreign staffing and consulting businesses for a room to breathe even under the Outplacement restrictions for consulting businesses, unless this part of the bill is eliminated from the bill, foreign consulting businesses will be deadly affected for their business in the future in this country. Once this amendment is agreed, from the perspectives of employment-based immigration reform, most of the important amendments will have been taken care of as the Committee will focus on Title III "Interior Enforcement" including enforcement of immigration law. Reportedly, approximately 40% of immigrants fall out of status after entering the country legally. Accordingly, today's remaining session will focus on law enforcement issues. Here we go. Watch the session that starts now! Please go to our home for web cast.

05/16/2013: House Judiciary Hearing on "S. 744 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986: Lessons Learned or Mistakes Repeated?" on 05/22/2013 Wednesday

• Report indicates that the House Republican leaders are under the tremendous pressure and stress for the following ongoing two developments: One is the lightening rod pace of move of Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, S. 744 in the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing hard to finish up S. 744 amendments within this week. The Chairman wants to finish up by Friday, but not, wants to keep opening session on Saturday to finish up this bill before the end of this week by all means. Besides, as we opined earlier, the Senate Judiciary session is considered a model for bi-partisan collaboration and cooperation in handling such a legislative bill as the CIR which will affect the demographic changes and political landscape for the country permanently. Secondly, reports indicate that the House Gang of 8 is helplessly stuck and may not be able to produce any House version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. In the eyes of the public and the nation, the House is thus facing a serious problem of its image as incapacitated and broken legislative chamber.
• The Senate is yet to complete its legislative process for the CIR bill, but the House Judiciary Committee wants to initiate a hearing process to focus on the Senate bill from the angle of the failed 1986 comprehensive immigration reform. There is a risk of scheduling such hearing when the House does not have its own bill and its own vision for the future of this nation. Such hearing can just be taken as a negative reaction to the Senate bill. We will watch how the hearing will be structured and who will be invited to testify at this hearing.

05/15/2013: Reminder - Applications for FY 2013 Citizenship & Integration Grant Program Due by 05/22/2013

• On April 18, USCIS announced the availability of the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, a competitive grant opportunity which promotes immigrant civic integration and prepares permanent residents for citizenship. Applications are due by May 22, 2013. No extension! For details, click here.

05/14/2013: Senate Judiciary Adjourned Until Thursday 05/16/2013

• The committee took care of most of the important amendments to Title IV Nonimmigrant Visa Reform today except a few amendments, including Outplacement ban sriking amendment by Sen. Hatch that will be voted on Thursday. Senate will then move on to the amendments to Title III employment enforcement. By now, most controversial amendments have been taken care of and resolved. All in all, the text of the Gang of 8 bill survived in most parts in a surprising cooperative and collaborate sessions between the Republican and Democratic members of the Committee. This reporter was indeed impressed by the way the committee handled the matters since in most of the committees' sessions, the vote results have shown mostly in party lines, especially in the House committees. Those who watched the webcast would agree with this reporter that except a couple of confrontations, the members worked together, frequently crossing party lines, in acting on amendments. It thus appears that the Senate CIR bill, S. 744 may indeed pass the Senate successfully.

05/14/2013: Sen. Grassley Amendment to Strike Special Trade Visas to South Korea: Defeated

• Special trade visas for South Korea survives.

05/14/2013: Sen. Schumer Amendment #3 to Give 10,500 New E-Visas to African and Caribbean Basin Countries: Agreed

• Arguably to maintain diversity in immigration even after elimination of diversity visa program.

05/14/2013: Sen. Grassley Amedment #62 "Intending Immigrant" Survived!! Grassley Amendment Defeated!

• This amendment proposed to exclude "intending immigrant" employees from counting H-1B employees for the purpose of determination of H-1B dependent employers and other provisions. Intending immigrant is an employer who has commenced with the green card process. Among the members of Senate Judiciary Committee, the strongest Republican allies to H-1B visa programs included Sen. Flake, Sen. Hatch, and Sen. Cruz. This is a huge victory for staffing and consulting companies!

05/14/2013: Sen. Grassley Amendment #60 Deafed

• This amendment proposes to require a good faith recruitment before filing a H-1B petition. Currently only H-1B Dependent Employers are required to engage in recruitment before filing H-1B petition with a proof there was no qualified U.S. worker available in the job market in the area. There was a big division within the Republican party members of the Committee on this issue.

05/14/2013: Sen. Ted Cruz Amendment #5 Defeated

• This amendment proposes to increase the annual cap of H-1B to 325,000, and give EAD to H-4 spouse.

05/14/2013: Sen. Grassley Amendment #67 Defeated

• This amendment mandates one (1) % of H-1B or L-1 employers be audited without complaint or any wrongdoing.

05/14/2013: Morning Session Did not Look too Good for H-1B Employers

• As anticipated, the overall sentiment of the Senators in the CIR session of Senate Judiciary Committee this morning was not necessarily friendly for the H-1B employers. The amendments for Outplacement ban of H-1B workers and Intending Immigrant amendments for H-1B dependent employers have yet to be taken up this afternoon, but considering the overall sentiments which they expressed this morning concerning foreign businesses, it is not too promissing. We will see what will happen at the afternoon session.

05/14/2013: Sen. Grassley Amendment #58 Passed with No Objections

• With the strong support of Sen. Durbin, this amendment disclosing employer name, location, etc. in the required 30-day DOL website posting as condition for H-1B petitions was passed with no objection from any single member.

05/14/2013: Sen. Sessions Amendment #1 Defeated by 1:17 in Senate CIR Session Today

• This amendment is to adopt "point-system" reform of whole immigration system including family-based immigration as a means to control the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. and selectively accept immigrants based on merits. Considering the late Heritage Foundation employee resignation saga, it is not surprising that even all the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee present at the session except one rejected such amendment. Even Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas "strongly" opposed this amendment.

05/14/2013: USCIS Confirmation of Guangzhou Field Office Closure on 05/14/2013, 05/15/2013, and Pending Further Notice

• The USCIS Office in Guangzhou will be closed on Tuesday, May 14 and Wednesday, May 15. Customers scheduled for appointments on either of these dates will be contacted by our office when a future appointment date has been set.

05/14/2013: Primary Stakeholders of Today's Senate Judiciary CIR 2013 Session

• CIR 2013 covers four (4) Titles: (I) Border Security; (II) Immigrant Visas; (III) Interior Enforcement; and (IV) Reforms to Nonimmigrant Visa Programs. Today's session is scheduled to take up Title IV Nonimmigrant Visa Programs. Here primary nonimmigrant programs include employment-based nonimmigrant visa programs, such as H, L, E, W, etc. These are programs that profoundly affect the foreign countries and their businesses in the U.S. or their trade with the United States. While the primary stakeholders of Title II immigrant visa programs are foreign worker employees and U.S. businesses, the primary stakeholders for Title IV are foreign countries and their businesses. For the reasons, there will be huge bulls' fights behind the public's eyes between U.S. labor market protectionist forces including Senator Grassley and Senator Dick Durbin, who are backed by the labor unions, and foreign countries, especially rising new economic powers in the world, and their businesses in and with the United States. Most noticeable foreign businesses are India and IT staffing/consulting businesses of India, but there are other countries as well that have been quietly but actively lobbying behind the media spotlight. They include Ireland and South Korea to get the benefits of E-3 visas which are currently limited to Australia. E-3 program extension to these countries are included in the CIR 2013 bill and their fight is to retain the provisions. On the other hand, IT stafffing/consulting businesses and the stakeholder foreign countries have been lobbying hard at the diplomatic and political levels to remove the restrictive provisions on H-1B and L-1 visa programs including "outplacement ban" for H-1B dependent employers and L-1B employers. Against the potential loss in the fight on this front, they have been fighting hard to keep one provision which will serve as their saviours, "intending immigrant" provision, which will take out most of H-1B employees of the staffing/consulting businesses if they have initiated employment-based green card process, whereby they can avoid from being trapped in the "H-1B Dependent Employers" who will be banned from placing their foreign workers in the U.S. business as well as paying incredibly high filing fees and costs to employ H-1B and L-1 foreign workers. Believe it or not, it is not only the U.S. labor market protectionists who have been fighting against these staffing and consulting foreign businesses but also U.S. giant IT businesses in Silicon Valley for their interests hiring foreign workers bypassing staffing/consulting businesses of foreign countries and achieving their competitive edge in their businesses in the world economy.
• The stateks are so high that the today's Senate Judiciary session is considered the most crucial session next to legalization of undocumented immigrants and immigrant visa reforms where "employees" are considered the primary stakeholders rather than employers. Legalization and immigrant visa reforms will also be taken up within this week, but the level of heat will be much less than the today's session that involves the fights between labor unions and foreign business as well as U.S. IT businesses against staffing/consulting businesses backed by foreign businesses.
• The fight will not end today, as the pro and con forces will have several backup options down the road, including fighting at the House level and at the potential Senate-House conference committee level in the future. There will be another level of fight as their last resort - fight to kill the comprehensive immigration reform bill itself such that their interests are preserved at least at the current level under the existing immigration laws or through piecemeal immigration reform legislations in the future. Drama will not be over at the end of the day today. It will just be a first and tiny step in the CIR 2013 legislation this year and there will be a long road ahead during the next three to four months. Watch how this process will start today.

05/13/2013: USCIS Announces Today its International Field Office in Guangzhou Closure Until Further Notice

• The announcement states that USCIS will reschedule all appointments once the office reopens. There is no explanation for the closure. Please stay tuned.

05/13/2013: Reportedly All Arriving F, M, and J Students Referred to "Secondary Inspection" at the Airports

• According to the NAFTA which is the key sources for international students and school DSO visa issues, it appears that DHS has instituted an interim policy of referring all arriving F, M, and J students, including students who have never had a SEVIS record termination, to secondary inspection where SEVIS can be accessed, to ensure that individuals whose SEVIS records have been terminated are not readmitted without a thorough review of the students’ situation. Under the unusual circumstnaces, the NAFSA recommends the following to travelling F, M, and J students:
  • An individual referred to secondary inspection should be prepared for the admission process to take significantly longer, and should take this into account when arranging connecting flights and airport pickups.
  • Being prepared with the right documentation can help the process go more smoothly. For example, before leaving and reentering the United States, returning individuals should make sure that their visa is valid, their SEVIS record is in Active status, and their SEVIS form has been properly endorsed with a travel signature. They may also wish to travel with other documentation showing that they are in good academic and SEVIS status. Also see Arrival Procedures for Students or Exchange Visitors on the CBP website, which, even though it has not yet been updated to reflect these new procedures, does provide some helpful information.
  • Anyone reentering who may have had a SEVIS record terminated in the past should be prepared with current documentation and reasoning that establishes their ability to resume their program in the United States.
• For the other details, please visit NAFSA site.

05/13/2013: State Department to Increase Processing Fees for J Program Sponsor Designation/Redesignation & J Visa Administrative Processing Fees Effective 06/12/2013

• The State Department is revising regulations to increase the Application Fee for Sponsor Designation or Redesignation and the Administrative Fee for Exchange Visitor (J-1 Visa Holder) Benefits assessed for providing Exchange Visitor Program services. Reportedly there are more than 1,400 sponsor organizations and 300,000 Exchange Visitor Program participants. The new fees will be as follows:
  • (1) For filing an application for program designation and/or redesignation (Form DS- 3036)--$3,982.00.
  • (2) For filing an application for exchange visitor status changes (i.e., extension beyond the maximum duration, change of category, reinstatement, reinstatement-update SEVIS status, ECFMG sponsorship authorization, and permission to issue) --$367.00.

05/11/2013: Heritage Foundation and Vulnerability of Merit-Based System (AKA Point-System) in CIR

• The Heritage Foundation strongly supported the Point-System Immigration Reform in 2007 which stirred ethnic and racial controversies at the time and ended up with failure. One wonders how the current controversy involving Jason Richwine of the organization will affect the components of point-system immigration reform in the current CIR bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee took care of amendments for Title I (Border Security component) on 05/09/2013. The Senate Judiciary Committee will return on Tuesday (05/14/2013, 10:00 a.m.) and reportedly take up amendments for Title II (Immigrant Visas). Other sources of information indicate that it will rather take up amendments for Title IV(Nonimmigrant Visa Reforms - primarily H-1B, L-1, and W Nonimmigrant Visas), which is also very controversial at this time because of its critical impact on the IT staffing and consulting businesses. Title II is pro-Republican and pro-employment-based immigration component, even though there are some positive reforms for family-based immigration system as well, while Title IV is pro-Democrat and pro-Labor Union component. Employment-based immigration reforms under Title II reflect a stong philosophical concept and framework which the Heritage Foundation has advocated over the years. For the reasons, next Tuesday's session of the Senate Judiciary Committee on CIR may look somewhat different from the scene which readers witnessed last Thursday since both Title II and Title IV are extremely controversial at this time. Please do not miss this session. We will set up the web cast link that day.

05/10/2013: Ouch!

• There is a Washington Post blog of 05/10/2013 that indicates that Jason Richwine, the co-author of a controversial immigration study released this week by the Heritage Foundation arguing that immigration bill would cost $6.3 trillion, reportedly resigned his position with the Heritage Foundation. The report also indicates that he had written a doctoral thesis at Harvard University arguing that the United States should focus its immigration efforts on those with high IQs. Unreal.

05/10/2013: USCIS AAO (Administrative Appeals Office) Appeal Processing Times Released 05/10/2013

• Remarkably, As of May 2, 2013, processing times of almost entire types of cases are "current!" Current means upto 6 months, but considering the fact that some cases took from one year to two years or longer, this is a remarkable progress.

05/10/2013: June 2013 Visa Bulletin

• Wow! Worldwide EB-3 moved to 09/01/2008, including China and Mexico! Here is the State Department prediction for EB-3 situation: The Employment-based Third preference category cut-off date for most countries has advanced significantly for a second month in a row. This recent movement of the dates is not indicative of what can be expected in the future. Rapid forward movement of cut-off dates is often followed by a dramatic increase in demand for numbers within three to six months. Once such demand begins to materialize the cut-off date movement will begin to slow, or even stop for a period of time.

05/10/2013: Senate Judiciary CIR 2013 Continuation Markup Session Scheduled on 05/14/2013, 10:00 AM

• Those who are interested in web case may revisit this posting next Tuesday.

05/10/2013: USCIS Menu of Potential Immigrant (EB-1 & EB-2) or Nonimmigrant Visa Pathways for Foreign Entrepreneurs.

• USCIS intends to expand Entrepreneurs in Residence Initiative (ERI) program that can open additional pathways to various employment/investment related immigrant and nonimmigrant visa pathways. Read on.

05/10/2013: House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee "Piece-meal" Immigration Hearings on 05/16/2013

• While the Senate Judiciary Committee marked up and debated CIR 2013, the House Judiciary Committee has been conducting "step-by-step" piecemal immigration reform hearings. Next Thursday, the House Judiciary will open hearings for the following two piecemeal immigration reform bills:
  • H.R. 1772: Legal Workforce Act, which was introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas on 04/26/2013 to reform e-verify employment verification and reinforcement of immigration integrity.
  • H.R. 1773: Agricultural Guestworker Act, which was introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia on 04/26/2013 proposng a new H-2C temporary agricultural worker program as separate from the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program which is managed by the US Department of Labor.
• Readers are aware that the House has its own 'Gange of 8' tthat has been working on the House version of CIR 2013, but this group of legislators have been experiencing 'divide' and have yet to come up with compromises. As one can easily understand it, the House version of immigration reform is likely more 'conservative' approach than the Senate version. There is an unconfirmed report that the earliest they could come up with compromise will be not before June 2013. Interestingly, June 2013 is the Senate's timeline to complete its CIR 2013 bill. Since the CIR legislation must pass both the Senate and the House before the Congress goes into 'summer recess' at the end of August, the Congress will have a tight schedule to achieve a bill successfully as it may have to go through the Senate-House conference committee process at the best. Accordingly, unless the House members are kept pressured by the immigration advocates, the chance of passage of this bill in 2013 and for that matter within a next few years will be 50:50 at this point. Remember our reminder: 'Piecemeal' and 'Delay' will be killers of CIR in 2013 and for a next few years. There has been developing an unfortunate division within the IT business community between the Silicon Valley giants and IT staffing/consulting business groups from their assessment that the employment-based immigration reform component of the Senate CIR 2013 bill represents the Silicon Valley giants compromise at the sacrifice of IT staffing and consulting businesses in that the bill is focused on immigration benefits for high-tech talents directly recruited by the Silicon Valley businesses and harsh on foreign workers recruited and supplied by staffing and consulting businesses by imposing enhanced restrictions on their H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrant visa opprtunities. The current Senate bill will thus seriously affect the Indian consulting businesses in the United States. Unless this conflict is resolved, there is a potential fall-out of the friction leading to staffing/consulting groups again joining the piece-meal advocates and opposing comprehensive immigration reform movement. This is something to watch closely for the next two or three months.

05/09/2013: CIR Amendments Agreed or Rejected in Senate Judiciary Committee Today

• Click here. Vote means roll call vote (Yeah/Nay), W means voice vote.
• Senate Judiciary Committee Official Record:
  • Sponsors' Amendment (MDM13313) - Vote: 14-4 (Agreed To)
  • Leahy1-(EAS13369) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Grassley2-(HEY13238) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Grassley5-(ARM13617) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Sessions36-(MDM13430) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Cornyn6-(ALB13436) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Flake1-(MDM13451) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Flake2-(MDM13456) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Feinstein6-(MDM13537) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Feinstein7-(MDM13459) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Feinstein8-(MDM13520) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Hirono24-(ARM13613) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Grassley4-(EAS13439) - Vote: 6-12 (Not Agreed To)
  • Schumer2-(EAS13444) - Vote: 14-4 (Agreed To)
  • Lee4-(MDM13493) - Vote: 6-12 (Not Agreed To)
  • Grassley1-(HEY13237) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Grassley24-(DAV13369) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Feinstein9-(MDM13538) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Sessions37-(MDM13365) - Vote: 7-11 (Not Agreed To)
  • Coons2-(EAS13605) - Withdrawn
  • Blumenthal10-(DAV13376) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Cruz1-(MDM13528) - Vote: 5-13 (Not Agreed To)
  • Hirono23-(EAS13376) - Vote: 10-8 (Agreed To)
  • Sessions38-(MDM13366) - Withdrawn
  • Feinstein11-(ARM13559) - Withdrawn
  • Feinstein1-(EAS13279) - Vote: 10-8 (Agreed To)
  • Feinstein10-(MDM13491) - Adopted
  • Leahy4-(EAS13416) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Sessions9-(MDM13544) - Vote: 6-12 (Not Agreed To)
  • Cornyn1-(ARM13593) - Vote 6-12 (Not Agreed To)
  • Feinstein2-(HEN13550) - Adopted by Voice Vote
  • Sessions11-(MDM13441) - Vote: 6-12 (Not Agreed To)
  • Cornyn2-(MDM13521) - Withdrawn

05/09/2013: What a Wonderful Markup Session the Senate Judiciary Had for CIR 2013!

• Some of the readers must have watched the web cast video of the session and must have wondered where one finds any bickering, confrontation, screaming, etc. between the Demoratic and Republican party members. They were so courtious, respectful, professional among themselves like close friends or family members among themselves! How impressive the session was. All of the members of Senate Judiciary Committee deserve big two thumbs up!!!!!! This was a model cooperative session this reporter has ever witnessed. It is hoped that this cooperative sprit continues throughout all the legislative process between the Republican and Democratic members in both the Senate and the House. WONDERFUL!
• Today's session ended with the border security component which is Title I of the CIR 2013. From the perspectives of immigrants and stakeholders, juicy or sour debates will begin hereon when the Committee returns to the session again.

05/09/2013: Great News for RPI Legalization Immigrants

• Today's Senate Judiciary hearing on CIR 2013, the Committee rejected Sen. Chuck Grassley's amendment to delay RPI application pending the assurance of border security. Accordingly, the current provision of triggers upon DHS "implementation" of Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy and Southern Border Fencing Strategy 180 days (six months) after the enactment of this bill will stand as proposed in S. 744. Had the Sen. Grassley amendment prevailed, the time point for RPI application would have been much delayed beyond 6 months from the enactment of this legislation. Good news.

05/09/2013: House Bill, H.R. 1886, to Prohibit Border Crossing Fees Introduced

• The Senate Judidiary Chairman from Vermont has scheduled to debate his amendment bill to CIR 2013 on Norther Border (Canada) crossing fee as one of the first amendment to discuss and debate today. The bill proposes to remove this provision on the ground that it would affect the traffic and trade and business for the State of Vermont, his state. On the House side, another legislator introduced a bill yesterday, apparently for the same reasons to protect the State of Washington from such border crossing bill. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington introduced H.R.1886 to prohibit land border crossing fees. When it comes to the borders, all the public had knowledge was illegal immigrant trafficking. Now people should know that the Northern border and Southern border to this country involves more than immigration border security issue, especially for the border states.

05/08/2013: Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Report to the Congress on 2013 Update of Description of the Immigrant Population

05/08/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Sen. Leahy, Releases Information on Markup Process for CIR 2013

• The Markup will begin at 9:30 a.m. on 05/19/2013.
• It will start with debating the sponsors’ amendment that provides technical corrections and improvements to the legislation, followed by debating of over 300 amendments in the order of the Titles in the bill.
• Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will next recognize members wishing to offer amendments to the so-called “trigger” section of the legislation.
• The committee will then move to Title I of the bill, which focuses on border enforcement.
• The first amendment Leahy will offer Thursday will be his amendment to bar fees for crossing U.S. land borders. Leahy has pointed out the harm that a border fee on the Northern Border would cause to Vermont’s economy and to the historic cultural ties that Vermonters have with Quebec. In its budget request for Fiscal Year 2014, the Department of Homeland Security has requested funds to study the idea of charging fees for border crossings. The first title of the bill focuses on border security.
• Additional titles of the legislation address immigrant visas, interior enforcement and improvements to nonimmigrant visa programs. Leahy has previously said the markup session will resume on May 14, May 16, and future days as needed to complete consideration of the bipartisan legislation before the Memorial Day recess. (05/27/2013, Monday, Memorial Day)
• [Senage Gange of 8 earlier released information on their timeline of the Senate floor action in June, 2013.]

05/08/2013: Hardliner New Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas Proposes in CIR Amendment to Make Naturalization Ineligible for Those Willfully and Unlawfully Present in the U.S.

• He proposes that no person who is or has previously been willfully present in the United States while not in lawful status under the INA shall be eligible for U.S. citizenship.
• He proposes H-4 spouse employment authorization with no conditions attached, unlike the original bill S. 744 or USCIS proposed and pending rule for H-4 spouse EAD.

05/08/2013: Sen. Coon Proposes in CIR Amendment Professional/Business License Opportunities for Employment Authorized Nonimmigrants

• This is an interesting amendment that provides that individuals authorized to be employed in the United States may not be denied professional, commercial, or business licenses on the basis of immigration status.

05/08/2013: Sen. Chuck Grassley Proposes in CIR Amendment to Prohibit Certain F-1 Precompletion Practical Training Program Pending SEVIS II Tracking System in Place and Implementation

• The Senator proposes that DHS may not permit an alien admitted pursuant to section 101(a)(15)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(F)) to engage in employment in practical training through a work-study arrangement, an internship, cooperative education, or any other required practicum that is offered by a sponsoring employer through a cooperative agreement with a school until after the date that the DHS has—(1) implemented all recommendations related to practical training employment provided by the Comptroller General of the United States; and (2) fully implemented and deployed the SEVIS II tracking system of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

05/08/2013: Sen. Chuck Grassley Proposes in CIR Amendment to Delay Implementation of New "Dual Intent" Benefits for F-1 Students Pending SEVIS II Tracking System in Place

• The Senator proposes to delay the effectiveness of the provisions on dual intent for F nonimmigrants seeking higher degree until one year after the deployment of the 2nd generation SEVIS II is in place. Thank Lord. He is not opposing dual intent reform itself but just delay conditioned upon implementation of SEVIS II tracking program in place.

05/08/2013: Sen. Chuck Grassley Proposes in CIR Amendment to Require, for Both H-4 & L-2 Spouses EAD Eligibility, Reciprocal Law in the Spouse Country of Origin

• This proposal practically takes away the current L-2 spouse employment authorization provision in the immigration statute for certain countries, including India, that do not provide such reciprocal benefit to U.S. workers in their countries, not to mention practical implication of blocking USCIS administrative fix proposal for H-4 spouse employment authorization through regulation rather than legislation.

05/07/2013: Sen. Chuck Grassley "Alone" Introduces "77" Amendments!

05/07/2013: Senator Leahy Introduces Amendments to S. 744 Giving "Permanent Partners" Equal Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Benefits as "Spouse" Under CIR 2013

• This will be one fo the most controversial amendments that collide with Republicans in both Chambers. Because of the risk involved, President Obama expressed his view that he would sign CIR 2013 with "Gay" provisions in the CIR 2013. Since spouses of permanent residents will enjoy the status of immediate relatives with no visa quota limit, permanent partners of U.S. citizens and permanent residents will enjoy speedy immigration status with no wait times. See initial media reaction.

05/07/2013: Wow, Amendments to S. 744 (See Above)

• After passing the deadline of 5:00 p.m. for submitting CIR 2013 amendments by the members, the Judiciary Committee of the Senate has start posting the amendments. Senators have submitted multiple amendments and the Judiciary Committee is likely to be buried in the amendments on 05/09/2013 markups!

05/07/2013: DHS to Extend Designation of El Salvador TPS

• DHS has just submitted the OMB for its review the TPS designation notice for El Salvador. The extension will be published in the federal register once it is cleared by the OMB. Stay tuned.

05/07/2013: State Deparment Employment-Based Visa Demand Data for Determination of June 2013 Visa Bulletin

05/07/2013: Office of Foreign Labor Certifications Permanent and Temporary Labor Certification Determination Disclosure Data for FY 2013 Second Quarter (Jan-March 2013)

• The OFLC has just released this data which shows determinations issued between October 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013. The Second Quarter data is the part which has just been updated and made available. This data allows the employers, employees, and public to access to all the PERM and Temporary (H-2A, H-2B, LCA, and Prevailing Wage Request) labor certification applications which were filed by the employers and have been determined by the OFLC in FY 2013 through the end of March 2013.
  • PERM cases
  • H-2A cases
  • H-2B cases
  • H-1B LCA cases
  • Prevailing Wage determination cases
• This data can be valuable, particularly those who do not have a copy of the determination which is needed for their follow-up proceedings such as I-140 priority date recapture, details of the applications, and other purposes. The data is arranged in order of date of filing and series of application numbers.
• For fact sheets and statistics for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 for each of these programs, please revisit our posting on 04/11/2013.

05/07/2013: Mounting Anti CIR 2013 Campaign by Anti-Immigration Forces Led by The Heritage Foundation, Conservative Think Tank

• As the Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to act on this bill beginning from 05/09/2013, the Heritage Foundation has mounted a campaign to derail the bill with release of their alleged report of the cost of CIR 2013 for the tax payers and the nation's economy as a scare tactic targetting at the public. Currently, the anti-CIR campaign is spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation with a couple of conservative Radio Talk Show hosts and Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama. The credibility of this report is seriously questioned at this time until Congressional report on the subject is released and there is an open question as to how much these forces can affect the process under the changed political environment this time around unlike the previous experiences. In 2007, the Heritage Foundation used the tactic of so-called Point System Immigration Reform, practically killing the CIR in 2007. The point system of reform is also adopted in the CIR 2013 but in different shapes and different impact, causing less impact than its experience in 2007.
• At this time, more worrisome development lies with the increasing conflict in the Middle East ignited by so-called bombing in Syria and potential involvement of our country in the volatile conflict in that part of the world. Depending on the country's decision on its involvement in the ongoing conflict, the nation's attention and focus may be totally obsessed with the conflict, sidelining and derailing the CIR legislation as the nation's top priority. The impact of development of this conflict on the CIR 2013 can be more intense and fierce unlike the incident of Boston marathon bombing.

05/06/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee CIR 2013 Amendment Tracking

• Tomorrow, 05/07/2013, is deadline for submitting and distributing amendments to the members of the Judiciary Committee. Thus far, no one has submitted amendments. They are likely to file it tomorrow.

05/06/2013: Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Hearing on Role of Immigrants in America's Innovation Economy in the Context of CIR 2013

• This hearing is scheduled on 05/08/2013, Wednesday.

05/06/2013: Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing on CIR 2013 Scheduled on 05/07/2013

• This Committee will hear testimonies from the DHS leadership team including the following: Read the Written Testimony.
  • The Honorable David F. Heyman, Assistant Secretary for Policy
  • The Honorable Kevin K. McAleenan, Acting Deputy Commissioner, USCBP
  • Michael J. Fisher, Chief, U.S. Border Patrol, USCBP
  • Daniel H. Ragsdale, Deputy Director, USICE
  • Anne L. Richards, Assistant Inspector General, Office of Audits, Office of Inspector General
• The hearing appears to be focused on the border security and immigration enforcement components of the CIR 2013 bill.

05/05/2013: Do You Want to Know How Money and Business Make CIR 2013 Work?

• Read the background story in today's New York Times.

05/05/2013: Top Vacancies of OMB Come on Top of Furloughs with a Mess in Regulatory Affairs

• We have been monitoring the White House OMB's pattern of function in the areas of agencies' regulation review and oversight. We also reported for more than a year, and learned that the OMB revealed unusual pattern of behaviors of "extending" review of the agencies rules. At one time, almost all the regulations were "Review Extended." On top of that, OMB was supposed to release semi-annual rule making agenda, which it skipped and placed the public in the dark as to the government agencies' agenda of rule-making activities which provide an important information for the public to participate timely in the government agencies rule-making and policy making process. What happened? Now we have the answer. Report indicates that the OMB has lacked a top regulations coordinator since August, 2012, when Cass Sunstein stepped down! On top of this mess, the OMB was hit by furloughs. Reportedly, OMB issued furloughs on March 7 to 480 employees!!

05/04/2013: The Signs of Successful Compromise with S. 744 - CIR 2013

• The term "compromise" inherently implies that the two ends of a spectrum move close to the center by accepting concessions for common goal. Then question remains how successful the compromise was as reflected in the Senate CIR 2013 bill. The most visible sign and evidence of success with S. 744 include, among others, disappearance of bickering relationship between the "legalization" advocates and the reformers of "legal immigration" system. The past comprehensive immigration reform history will reflect that these two stakeholders had fought each other until the end of the legislative process. Look at what is happening now. The advocates of employment-based immigration that symbolize the legal immigration system reformers had always opposed any "comprehensive" immigration reform, joining the advocates of piecemeal immigration and in some sad instances, joining the anti-immigration groups such as NumbersUSA or FAIR. We do not see this any more after the S. 744 was introduced. Why? Because they know that S. 744 contains the "sweetest"reforms they can think of from their perspectives which they have advocated in the form of piecemeal reform in the past. The change is related to increased understanding of implication of the terms "Piecemeal" and "Delay," all thanks to their education with themselves on the fact that legislative process does not take place in vacuum and rather takes place in the political reality with a play of different and conflicting political strategies and agenda among different political forces. In a sense, some of them were able to get out of some level of "naivete." One of the reasons why some political leaders say that this CIR has the best chance to make it this year is the weakening impact of anti-immigration forces that have lost some of their past allies. The inherent philosophical and political conflicts between the legalization advocates and the advocates of reform of legal immigration system are still there, but now they are in the same bed rather than in two different beds. As it is truth with a married couple sleeping in the same bed, sleeping in a same bed does not have to mean that there are no disagreements in every aspect of their lives. At this time, because of the political reality, the past two bickering immigration forces are sharing one same bed and not in two separate beds. They do not have to kiss each other, and again as is the truth with a married couple, they can fight and argue each other, but sharing the same bed itself implies that there is at least some level of peace between the "two." It is hoped that this unlikely bed-fellow relationship will continue throughout this comprehensive immigration reform process and until to the end. We salute to the Senate Gang of 8 for the job well done!

05/03/2013: USCIS Schedules a Stakeholder Teleconference on Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Process on 05/10/2013

• USCIS indicates that in the first two months since USCIS implemented the Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver process on March 4, 2013, it has seen a higher than anticipated rejection rate due to filing errors. USCIS is thus scheduling a stakeholder teleconference on the subject to provide an overview of the application process, discuss eligibility criteria and highlight filing tips so that individuals can ensure USCIS accepts their filing at intake. Subject matter experts from USCIS and the Department of State will also be available to answer questions related to procedural and operational matters. Those who are interested in participating in this important teleconference should click here to register.

05/03/2013: Strategy to Pass the CIR 2013 by 70 Yeah Votes Out of 100 Votes in the Senate

• It was not too long ago when Senior Republican Senator and leading member of Senate Gang of 8 predicted that the Senate would pass the bill with 70 yeah votes. At the time, a number of people wanted to figure out where the "mystery" number came from. It now appears that we now have an answer. The President reportedly expressed that the Senate should pass the bill with 70 votes in order to pressure the Republican House Speaker Boehner to support CIR 2013, otherwise he could be painted as a devil in the eyes of the public and the Hispanics. In order to pass the bill with the 70 majority votes, Obama also expressed that amendments should be controlled as amendments will affect some Senators to vote Yeah and for the purpose, the Senate should keep the proposed bill intact without too much changes. What You Know?! No wonder why the four members of Gang of 8 (McCain, Schumer, Durbin, and Flake) amended the bill with only "cosmetic" changes to induce the Senate members to keep focusing on the Gang of 8 bill without changing the colors too much. The apparent concern appears to be involved with the mounting pressure from "Gay" community to amend the bill to give them equal right as a spouse of the married couple. Apparently, in order to address this community which is an important constituency for the Democrats, it appears that Obama implicitly hinted that he would take care of the issue once the current CIR bill would come to his desk without any serious amendments. Hmm..... All this reporter can think of his executive power to fix the issue administratively when it comes the immigration issues for the Gays. Readers, wait and see how this "apparent" strategy of the President and leading members of the Senate Gang of 8 will unford in the Senate beginning from next week. Remember their goal is to encourage amendment bills without changing the color of the existing bill. Therefore, should any amendments be introduced by next Tuesday, May 7, 2013, the current deadline for the Senate Judiciary Committee for amendment bills, which go beyond the strategy, such amendments are likely to be taken care of at the Judiciary Committee level, probably with a scalpel.

05/03/2013: Current Edtition of I-751 Form Not Acceptable Effective 06/16/2013

• The USCIS has published a new form with the new edition dated 04/11/2013. Please make a note of it.

05/03/2013: Relocation of USCIS Field Office in Tuscon, AZ and Office Closing 05/02/2013 Through 05/07/2013

• The USCIS Tuscon, AZ Field Office is closed through Tuesday May 7, 2013. Reopening to the public on Wed May 8, 2013. The reason for the closure is to move to new offices: 4474 South Coach Drive, Tucson, AZ 85714.

05/02/2013: Different Standard of "Approvable When Filed" Between I-140 Petition and Labor Certification for 245(i) Grandfathering

• The proof of "approvable when filed" for the labor certification application or, if I-140 immigrant petition is filed without the labor certification application requirement, for the I-140 petition, is the key to establish eligibility for grandfathering of 245(i) immigration relief. There is a same requirement for AC 21 portability of the I-140 petition in the context of change of employer after the labor certification is approved and I-140 petition and EB-485 are filed and pending. It is the same language, but the Board of Immigration Appeals of the U.S. Department of Justice distinguished the standards for 245(i) grandfathering between the labor certification application and the I-140 petition in the Matter of Butt, 26 I&N Dec. 108 (BIA 2013), Interim Decision #3779 (April 19, 2013, BIA) by ruling that "An alien will be presumed to be the beneficiary of a “meritorious in fact” labor certification if the application was “properly filed” and “non-frivolous” and if no apparent bars to approval of the labor certification existed at the time it was filed for the purpose of 245(i) grandfathering.

05/02/2013: Minnesota Senate Passed “Path to Prosperity Act,” Allowing DACA Students State Financial Aid, In-State Tuition & Private Scholarships

• This bill has yet to pass in the State House, but this is the State Democratic bill and both Chambers are Democratic majority in Minnesota plus Democratic Governor. (As a side note, Minnesota is a "blue" state, sending two Democratic Senators to the U.S. Senate. These two Senators from Minnesota are also the members of U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, potentially playing an important roll with Democratic voice in the Senate immigration reform legislation process. The mayors of cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the State Capital City, are also Democrats. Gotcha? Very and very blue in color.) This bill is likely to pass in the State House as well. By passage of this bill, the State of Minnesota will become one of 16 states to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students and one of just four (4) states to offer them financial aid. There are fewer than 500 DACA students in Minnesota to take advantage of the program each year, but proponents said it would have far greater symbolic impact. Under the bill, they are required to attend a Minnesota high school for at least three (3) years and graduate to be eligible, and pledge to apply to change their immigration status as soon as they are eligible. Read on.

05/01/2013: Reminder - Effective 05/01/2013, FY 2014 DV Immigrant Lottery Registrants Can Check Their Lottery Results

• DV 2014 Program: DV-2014 entrants will be able to check the status of their entries starting 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) on May 1, 2013 through Entrant Status Check (ESC) on the E-DV website. Review more about Entrant Status Check.

05/01/2013: CIR 2013 Sponsors Amend the Text of the Bill

• The four (4) of sponsors (8) amended the text of the bill to make some adjustment or corrections with the bill numbers but amendment includes some serious substantive changes in some areas of immigration. The four sponsors of this amendment to the bill are: Sen. Schumer, Sen. Durbin, Sen. Graham, and Sen. Flake. We will try to post some of these changes in the CIR 2013 Discussion site as well as this Breaking News site as soon as we complete our review of the text.

05/01/2013: Important Changes to the Original Senate CIR Bill Text by the Sponsors

• The bill sponsors have made a number of changes to the texts of the bill after it was introduced. In the employment-based immigration reform, the following amendments bring a significant impact:
  • Numerical Limitation Exempt "Doctoral Degree" includes not only the U.S. degrees but also "Foreign Equivalent Degree."
  • In STEM Advanced Degree Exemption, the fields of specialty qualified for such exemption are revised to: "technology, engineering, or mathematics included in the Department of Education’s Classification of Instructional Programs taxonomy within the summary groups of computer and information sciences and support services, engineering, mathematics and statistics, biological and biomedical sciences, and physical sciences, from a United States institution of higher education"

05/01/2013: Obama Administration Should Not Halt Administrative Fixes Inititally Planned and Initiated

• We are walking through a similar path of the Bush Administration's efforts to fix broken immigration system in the past, which included the efforts of immigration reform through legislation as well as administrative fixes. The Bush Administration at the time laid out 26 areas of fixes. The CIR failed at the time but some of the administrative fixes survived, including 17-month extension of STEM OPT, extension of Canadian TN visa terms from one-year program to three-year program.
• The President Obama failed to keep his first Presidential election campaign promise to achieve the CIR during the first terms. Whether he actually intended it or not intended, in order to make up the hole in the immigration reform during the first Presidency and running for the second terms, the President planned and implemented in part administrative fixes of immigration system facing the Republican challenge in the second term Presidential election. In legalization area, he used his executive power to loosen up immigration enforcement against immigrants who were out of status with no serious criminal record and other adverse record in this country. This policy was implemented in the form of so-called Morton Prosecutorial Exercise of Discretion. Under this program, a fairly large number of undocumented immigrants with no adverse reports were saved from deportation, albeit no immigration benefits. Later, it announced in June 2012 the DACA program to relieve the undocumented Dreamers who landed on this soil with no fault of their own from deportation and granting so-called "Deferred Action" with the benefit of employment authorization. By now, almost half a million of these Dreamers have received the relief. Another program it launched was so-called Provisional Unlawful Presence of Waiver program that allows those immigrants who were present in the U.S. unlawfully and could not adjust to the lawful permanent resident status despite their U.S. citizen immediate relatives in the country a benefit of continuously staying in the U.S. without being deported until their immigrant visa applications with the application for a waiver of unlawful presence were being processed. All of the foregoing administrative fixes were targeted at the Hispanic immigrants who are in most cases present in this country unlawfully.
• Believe it or not, most of these administrative fixes were conceived in the USCIS internal memorandum which was leaked to the media and has never been adopted as a formal Memorandum of the agency. In this internal memorandum, the Obama Administration also intended to extend its effort to fix in some of the employment-based immigration system. One of the most visible fixes it contained was the H-4 spouse employment authorization as an incentive to keep the talented H-1B nonimmigrants during their green card journeys. It also included a proposal to loosen up the current tough practice against EB-1 immigration programs, particularly Outstanding Researchers and Teachers. All of these administrative fixes in the area of employment-based immigration, albeit limited, were planned to be implemented. Thus despite the embarrassing leakage of the internal memorandum, the USCIS leadership ventured to initiate the rule-making process for H-4 EAD program. The ICE also intended to implement a program to allow F-2 spouses and children of F-1 foreign students to participate in the education program while they stay in this country as accompanying family members. The ICE thus initiated the rule making process. Unfortunately, all of the foregoing administrative fixes of the employment-based programs are currently and practically halted for unknown reasons. Accordingly, when it comes to the administrative fixes of broken immigration system, the Obama Administration has failed to keep a balance between the Hispanic immigrants and the employment-based immigrants. We urge the Obama Administration to correct the problem. The foregoing plan for the employment-based program fixes falls under his executive power to implement it without needs for legislation.

05/01/2013: Potential Issues of Challenges in the House Against the Senate CIR Bill, S. 744

• The Senate CIR is potentially facing challenges in the two areas, among others, in the Republican House. One is the conservative Republican legislators in the House and the other is the family-based immigration reform supporters within the Democratic legislators in the House. In order to deal with the conservative Republicans in the House, we suggested that immigrtion reform supporters should reach business community to solicit their strong support. For the family-based immigration reform advocates, the Democrats themselves must work hard to deal with their internal problem. Currently, there are ongoing massive movements in the country among apparently Democratic constituent community to oppose the S. 744 unless the Congress fixes from allegedly too pro-employment-based immigration proposal to more family-based immigration reform program. They argue that the CIR 2013 should keep a balance in the immigration reform in the "legal immigration system" between the employment-based proposal and the family-based immigration reform. Accordingly, this will remain a tough challenge within the Democratic party itself for the House to successfully pass this bill in the House. The House Gang of 8 is likely to release their proposal sooner or later, but the ongoing movement out there in the field may contront the proposal, according to the media reports, with oppositions. Well, nothing is easy when it comes to politics. Let's wait and see what specific family-based immigration reforms will have to be accomodated in both the Senate bill and the House bill as a compromise. It is obvious that the Senate bill itself may witness some changes in its own bill from the employment focused proposal to a compromised bill along the way. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, himself addressed this issue after the bill was introduced in the Senate. We are likely to see amendments after amendments in both Chambers, starting from May 9, 2013 in the Senate.

05/01/2013: USCIS Immigrant Fee Payment to Move to USCIS ELIS

• USCIS announces that USCIS is moving the existing online payment for the USCIS Immigrant Fee to its Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS). Customers will soon pay the $165 USCIS Immigrant Fee using USCIS ELIS after they receive their immigrant visa package from the Department of State and before they depart for the United States. USCIS ELIS is easy to use and provides direct access to case status updates. New immigrants will also use USCIS ELIS to file future applications and petitions when they become available in the system.

05/01/2013: Department of State Proposed Rule to Change Exchange Visitor Program for Teachers

• The proposed rule clarifies the duration of program participation; change eligibility requirements with respect to verifying English proficiency; and reduces the required teaching or related experience from three years to the equivalent of two years full-time teaching experience; introduce a required cultural component; and proposes the implementation of a two-year bar for repeat participation to foster the purpose of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, (“Fulbright-Hays Act”). This proposal was initiated a long time back and has been stuck with the OMB review process. This proposed rule will finally be published in the federal register tomorrow. For the advance copy, please click here.

04/29/2013: Senator Marco Rubio Seeks Your Input to Improve the Introduced CIR 2013

• It is nice of him to solicit inputs from the public and stakeholders for him to consider probably amendments to improve the pending bill. Remember that amendments must be filed and distributed to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee by May 7, 2013, next Tuesday and readers do not have much time left to contact and send them their ideas for the Senators' consideration to introduce amendments. To send your inputs, please click here.
• Probably, other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee may seek your inputs as well.

04/29/2013: USCIS AAO (Administrative Appeals Office) Processing Record for FY 2012

• Parties file appeal of USCIS denial decisions for many different reasons, sometimes for tactical reasons. Other than monthly processing reports released by the AAO, the details have remained in mistery. The AAO had to release this detail to respond to the FOIA (Freedom of Information Request). Those who consider filing of appeals not for tactical reasons but for bona fides reasons may want to review this FOIA record of AAO Appeal Processing, partically amount of time the AAO needed and percentage of appeals denied or approved. The record shows that the rate of sustaining on appeals is exceedingly low.

04/28/2013: CBP Video of Web I-94 Application Demonstration

• As we reported earlier, beginning from 04/30/2013, automation of I-94 will be implemented starting from certain ports of entry and completed by 05/31/2013, meaning that by the end of May 2013, automation of I-94 will be implemented at all ports of entry. Here is the I-94 Automation Roll Out Schedules.

04/28/2013: Senate Judiciary Chairman Notice of Filing Deadline for Amendments to S. 377 (CIR) by 05:00 p.m. (EST), May 7, 2013

• Senate Judiciary Committee has issued a notice that all amendments to S.744 must be filed and circulated by 5 PM (EST) by next Tuesday, May 7, 20213 for consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Committee is also scheduling an Executive Business Meeting on this bill on Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. For the official notice, please click here.
• Right on! We will see how many and what type of amendments will be poured in by the deadline. Does your heart beat a tiny bit faster?
• Below are the contact information of Senate Judiciary Committee Members:

Patrick J. Leahy (Chairman)(D), T: 202-224-4242, F: 202-224-3479
Chuck Grassley (Republican Ranking Member), T: 202-224-3744, F: 202-224-6020
Sheldon Whitehouse (D), T: 202-224-2921, F: 202-228-6362
Dianne Feinstein (D), T: 202-224-3841, F: 202-228-3954
Chuck Schumer (D), T: 202-224-6542, F: 202-228-3027
Orrin G. Hatch (R), T: 202-224-5251, F: 202-224-6331
Michael S. Lee (R), T: 202-224-5444, F: 202-228-1168
Richard Durbin (D), T: 202-224-2152, F: 202-228-0400
Jeff Sessions (R), T: 202-224-4124, F: 202-224-3149
Lindsey Graham (R), T: 202-224-5972, F: 202-224-3808
Amy Klobuchar (D), T: 202-224-3244, F: 202-228-2186
Al Franken (D), T: 202-224-5641, F: 202-224-0044
Christopher A. Coons (D), T: 202-224-5042, F: 202-228-3075
Ted Cruz (R), T: 202-224,5922, F: Not Available
John Cornyn (R), T: 202-224-2934, F: 202-228-2856
Richard Blumenthal (D), T: 202-224-2823, F: 202-224-9673
Jeff Flake (R), T: 202-224-4521, F: 202-228-0515
Mazie Hirono (D), T: 202-224-6361, F: 202-224-2126

04/27/2013: Success of CIR 2013 Will Depend on Pressures from Business Community

• Unlike the previous experience in the past immigration reform legislation history, it is clear by now that this year around, business community has realized that the needs of their desperately needed talents and lower skilled workers cannot be met through any piecemeal legislation because of the political environment and the only way the business community can achieve their goal is to pass the CIR in 2013, not necesarily to help the legalization immigrants but for their own interest. It appears that they arrived at this conclusion for another reason that the CIR 2013 is a product of compromise that sufficiently represents and protects interests for both groups, to wit the the needs of foreign workers and legalization for undocumented immigrants. Thus, the business community, including employment-based immigrant groups, should pump up their pressures on the conservative Republican members of the House to accept the compromise and agree to CIR rather than impractical and unrealistic piecemeal legislation activities. This is critically important at this juncture because the business communities are the consituents of the conservative Republican community and conservative Republican House members would not be able to ignore the voices of their constituents. As we reported yesterday, the Hispanic pressure alone will not be sufficient to work with the members of Republican House representatives unlike the Senate members because of different dymatics that underlie and control conservative Republcian House members. We urge the business community and employment-based immigrant community to come forward and add more pressures on the conservative Republican House members.

04/27/2013: Beautiful Moonlight Shining Through the Window

• Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we reached close to 70 degree with clear blue sky yesterday. Last night, we had a full Moon, shedding a beautiful moonlight through the window. At last, the Spring is here with us. Watching a full Moon brings us "dreams" and "love in our heart." One of the rare moments to enjoy such emotion in a life that is buried in the hand-held smart phones most of the time.

04/27/2013: Two Piece-Meal Immigration Bills Introduced by Current and Former Chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee

• As we reported earlier, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman announced that he intended to deal with immigration reform issues piece by piece. Yesterday, the following pieces were introduced by the leading House Republicans:
  • Representative Larmar Smith of Texas and former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced in the House H.R.1772 to make mandatory and permanent for the E-Verify program with 42 co-sponsors. Here is the press release by the current Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
  • Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and current Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced H.R.1773 to create a new nonimmigrant H-2C work visa program for agricultural workers. Here is the press release by the Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
• It is anticipated that these two bill will be taken up quickly for hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, when the House returns to the session in the week of May 6, 2013.

04/26/2013: What Are Rate of Winning Opportunity in the H-1B Cap Lottery

• Oldies may remember that in old days, H-1B cap often reached the 1st day of April in a number of years. This had led to change of rule to require the INS/USCIS to keep receiving the cap petitions for the first 5 business days even if they had received enough cases on the first business day in April. Then how did they decide to select the number of cases? Since many cap petitions were denied or withdrawan or rejected after being selected, they looked back and determined the percentage of those denial, withdrawal, rejection etc. which did not take out the cap number at the end of the day when they actually adjudicated. In old days the rate was very high, and to this reporter's recollection, they considered the rate of 15% of 85,000 cap, meaning that they accepted 15% more cases of total 85,000. Later their estimate of denial, withdrawal, or rejection was lowered to about 10% and they added 10% more cap cases when they determined the cut off date. 10% of 85,000 means 8,500 more cases leading to total of 93,500 selection. In December 2012, the USCIS released their statistics of denials, withdrawals, or other failed cases, which turned out to be a little over 9% of 85,000 cap in average. Therefore, when they determined the cutoff date (there was no lottery), they added these numbers on top of 85,000. Since we had a lottery this year, the chance is that they could have used 10% additional selection and selecting altogether plus or minus 93,500 cases in the lottery selection. See the USCIS report of the past several years cap statistics.
• What does this mean? Since they received 124,000 this year, 93,000 selection ended up with about 75.4% winning chances. Thus, if you filed 10 cap cases out of which only 7 cases are selected at the end of the day, you will turn out to be a loser. On the other hand, if you get 8 cases selected, you should consider yourself a winner in the lottery process. Remember 10% additional selection is this reporter guess and there is no evidence that they actually took the number. But considering the past several years' statistics, this reporter's guess may turn out to be close to the facts. But who knows that they went back to the old practice of taking 15% more cases assuming that they will deny more cases this year. Lately, H-1B petitions have been encountering increased challenges by the adjudicators in California Service Center and Vermont Service Center.

04/26/2013: USCIS Online Customer Service Not Available this Sunday, April 28, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Eastern)

• USCIS will conduct system maintenance and the following sites will not be available during the time:
  • Check My Case Status
  • Sign-Up for Case Status
  • Check Processing Times
  • Change of Address Online
  • Civil Surgeon Locator
  • Office Locator
  • E-Request

04/26/2013: FY 2014 H-1B Cap Processing

• Employers have been receiving Receipt Notices for winners en masse either via email or regular mail depending on pp or non-pp cases. From the information which was released by a responsible official of the USCIS earlier that the receipt notices would be mailed to the winners by early May, one can speculate that the employers may have only about one week to learn whether their cases made it in the lottery. Sadly, the employers may start receiving rejected packages in the mail sometime next month. This H-1B cap season was indeed a very stressful year because for a last years, the employers did not have to deal with the H-1B cap crash in five days, not to mention commercial delivery services mishaps on first couple of days. Well, it is what life is about, ups and downs over the course and journey of life. Heck, this is a Friday. Please enjoy the Friday. We may be blessed with a "real" spring this weekend and all the way to the summer. What a short spring it will be!

04/26/2013: Senate Practically Recesses Until May 6 Other Than Pro Forma Sessions In-Between

• Next Wednesday is a May Day. Now readers will understand how short period of time the Senate has to take care of the CIR 2013 bill. There is no question about that Sen. Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee will mark up this bill soon after the Senate returns on May 6, 2013.

04/26/2013: New STEM Entrepreneur Immigrant Visa Classification Bill Introduced in the House

• Rep. Adam Schiff of California introduced in the House yesterday H.R.1760 proposing an entrepreneur-based immigrant category for alien entrepreneurs who have completed or are in the process of completing a degree in STEM. A bill such as this one probably is not introduced as a piecemeal bill but pose this subject of the bill for the forthcoming the House CIR bill of House Gang of 8. He is a Democrat.
• House Small Business Committee Contracting & Workforce Submittee also had a hearing yesterday on STEM Workforce and Immigration Reform. Here are the texts of witness testimonies
  • Rep Richard Hanna (R-NY): Opening statement
  • John Tyler, General Counsel and Secretary, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO
  • Nagappa Ravindra, President, Ravi Engineering and Land Surveying, P.C., Rochester, NY
  • Ryan Costella, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Click Bond, Carson, City, NV
  • Morgan Reed, Executive Director, Association for Competitive Technology, Washington, DC

04/26/2013: USCIS I-140 Processing Statistics as at 02/28/2013

04/26/2013: USCIS EB-I-485 Processing Statistics as at 02/28/2013

04/25/2013: USCIS also Resumed Processsing of H-2B Petitions

• As we reported yesterday, the Interim Final Rule of the DOL Wage Methodoloty took effect yesterday and DOL resumed Temporary Labor Certifications for H-2B that had been suspended. The same had happened with the USCIS and USCIS has also resumed processing of the H-2B petitions that was suspended.

04/25/2013: ICERT Outage Alert

• The iCERT System will be unavailable from 8 AM to 9:30 AM ET on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 for routine maintenance.

04/25/2013: Time for F-1 OPT H-1B Cap Filer to Review OPT Cap Gap Rule Summary of USCIS

• FY 2014 H-1B cap receipt notices are currently being delivered to the employers at this time. There are some F-1 OPT whose OPT will expire soon and will continue work under the cap gap rule until September 30, 2013 unless the petition is denied. There are a few advisories which the USCIS provides in its summary which these cap gap OPT H-1B filers should learn including the issue of DSO extension of OPT on SEVIS I-20 and issue of travel before October 1, 2013. Here is the link.

04/25/2013: Conflict of House Democratic and Republican Leaders on CIR Agenda and Schedule in the House

• As we have repeatedly reported, the CIR must pass the Congress before the Congress goes into the summer recess after August because of the political landscape which will gradually change when the Congress returns after the summer recess as affected by the Republican party's internal struggle for party nominations of 2014 election candidates that starts to roll in gradually and the candidates and the party swifting to the right as witnessed in the latest national election. Remember what happened with the Governor Romney? Accordingly, the Democrats want to see passage of the CIR by August as stated by the House minority leader, Rep. Nancy Peloci, while the Republican leaders have no motives to move fast as revealed by the House Judiciary Committee Chairman. He disclosed his plan as to how the House Judiciary will handle immigration reform. You guessed it! ONE-BY-ONE, PIECE-BY-PIECE. The House CIR Group of 8 appears to be continuously working on the House CIR bill, but at this point, the key is not when such bill will be introduced but how it will be handled by the Repulican majority House once the House bill is introduced or once the Senate passes the Senate bill. Do readers see a drastic contract between the Senate Judiciary Chaiman and the House Judiciary Chairman?? One acts like a rabbit and the other wants to crawl like a turtle or even a snail. Unless the House leaders are pressured by the public, the CIR 2013 can turn into a dream.

04/25/2013: Senate Confirmed Appointment of New Director for White House OMB Yesterday

• Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Sylvia Burwell to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget by 96 to 0 votes. We welcome aboard Ms. Burwell to the OMB that has been experiencing vacancy in leadership. The OMB has a much and much bigger role, but in the past two years, its function of overview of federal agencies' rule-making activities has shown somewhat not 100% perfect. We have no evidence as to the root cause of the problem, but we just hope that the new leadership brings a pattern of regularity in line with its aged old tradition in rule making overview function. We have been tracking its activities of overview of rule making activities of the federal agencies, particulartly immigration and visa stakeholder agencies including DHS, DOS, DOJ, and DOL, for several years by now and we look forward to her leadership in this part of the OMB functions.

04/24/2013: Success of CIR 2013 Requires More Than Hispanic Power

• Report indicates that 60 % of Republican congressman represent fewer than 10 % Hispanic voters back home. The constituency of the House members is different from the constituency of the Senate members. Each House representative deals with and represents a small district in a state, while each Senate member deals with and represents the whole state. Accordingly, there are practically no Hispanic pressures in some House representatives districts, while the Senators are much more under the pressures of Hispanic power. This difference of dynamics of constituencies between the Senate and the House indicates that in order for the CIR to pass in the House, the business groups that represent the employment-based immigrant community and Hispanic and first industry group that represent the legalization community must work together for common interest. The history of immigration reforms reflects that there have been bickering between the business community and legalization community, business community working with mostly Republican and conservative political forces and legalization community working with the pro-Democratic Hispanic and first industry communities. The CIR 2013 should be different. Review of the Senate Gang of 8 product clearly indicates that the interests of these two conflicting groups are remarkably well compromised and represented in the bill. It means that passage of this bill will serve "mutual" interests of both groups. Accordingly, these two groups should unite and work together and push together in support of this bill. For the employment-based immigrant community, one cannot expect anything more than what they see in the bill. At this time, immigrant communities are in too low keys and too quiet. Let the legislators hear your voices aloud!

04/24/2013: Immigrant Visa Fee Payment and Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Application, I-601A

• The USCIS has been accepting this application since 03/04/2013 to allow US citizens and their immediate relatives in unlawful presence in the U.S. to stay together pending the processing immigrant visa applications at visa processing and interview at the visa posts. Along with this initiatives, USCIS required proof of immigration visa fee issued by the visa posts. The USCIS has released a news that I-601A has been rejected because of the failure to enclose the immigrant visa fee payment receipt issued by the visa posts. Please make it sure to pay the immigration visa fee to the visa posts and enclose the receipt notice issued by the visa posts when they submit I-601A application. For the announcement and other details, please click here.

04/24/2013: Effective Today, DOL Resumes Processing of H-2B Temporary Labor Certification Applications

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has just issued an announcement that as the Interim Final Rule on Wage Determination Methology in compliance of the court order took effect today, it has resumed the processing of the H-2B labor certification applications. Pending this rule, both DOL and USCIS suspended processing of H-2B until yesterday. USCIS is likely to announce the same soon. DOL is making available Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to assist filers with complying with the requirements of the joint Interim Final Rule. The FAQs address the applicability of the new prevailing wage methodology, employer wage obligations, requests for review and the processing of pending H-2B prevailing wage requests and H-2B applications for temporary labor certification. To learn more, please read the FAQs.

04/24/2013: DACA (I-821D) and Related EAD Processing Times Added to USCIS Monthly Processing Times Hereon

• The current month report dated 04/03/2013 for the cut-off date of processing time determination of Febuary 28, 2013 reflects that as the cut-off time, the Service Centers processing I-821D DACA applications which were received on 08/31/2012 and related EAD processing takes 90 days throughout the five Service Centers.

04/24/2013: Ongoing Dreamer's Relief Facing Potential Jeopardy

• As we reported a way back after the DACA was launched by the Obama Administration, ten (10) ICE agents filed filed a law suit in the federal district court in Northern Distirct in Texas, Crane et al. vs. Janet Napolitano, Civil Action No. 3:12-cv-03247-O, seeking injunction against the discretionary relief under so-called Morton memorandum. This news has been almost forgotten from people's memory, but Bloomberg news reports that a judge in the lawsuit has issued an order with the indication that the claim is likely to prevail. There is no final court decision yet, but this opinion raises a horrific nightmare for the Dreamers. The involved judge's memorandum and order was filed with the court record yesterday, 04/23/2013. In this memorandum and order, the Judge stated that "the Court concludes that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Directive and related provisions of the Morton Memorandum violate 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), but the Court defers ruling on Plaintiffs’Application for Preliminary Injunction (ECF No. 24) until the parties have provided the Court with additional briefing." Read the full text of the Court's Memorandum and Order.
• Please stay tuned for development of this court case.

04/23/2013: USCIS Six Webinar Schedules on Revised I-9 Form for Employers

• Employers, you do not have to register to participate in the webinar. You just click the date when you want to particiate 15 minutes before the start time in this Webinar link.
  • 4/23/2013 Tuesday, 9:00 am, est
  • 4/24/2013 Wednesday, 1:00 pm, est
  • 4/25/2013 Thursday, 2:00 pm, est
  • 4/26/2013 Friday, 1:00 pm., est
  • 4/29/2013 Monday, 1:00 pm, est
  • 4/30/2013 Tuesday, 2:00 pm, est
• All the employers are encouraged to participate in this webinar so that they are upto date on employment verification compliance without any lapse.

04/23/2013: Text of Testimony of DHS Secretary in Today's CIR Hearing at Senate Judiciary Committee

• Chairman statement
• DHS Secretary Testimony

04/23/2013: USCIS National Customer Service Center (800 Number) Experiencing Connection Difficulties

• USCIS has announced that over the next few days, the National Customer Service Center will be making some important system enhancements to the 1-800 number. As a result, some callers may experience difficulty in connecting with a customer service representative or may be disconnected unintentionally. We appreciate your patience as we work to complete these changes as soon as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.
• We hope that the system maintenance alleviates the current wait time on 800 number calls from 30 minutes to one hour to talk to an official.

04/23/2013: USCIS ELIS Maintenance Outage Scheduled on April 28

• USCIS has announced that USCIS Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS) will be temporarily off line on Sunday, April 28 from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT as the system is updated.
  

04/23/2013: Yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on CIR

• Readers must have noticed from the list of witnesses who were invited to the hearing certain names of the individuals and organizations that some of them represent well-known anti-immigration forces. Some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are also hardline conservaties and considered opponents of immigration and immigration reform. We are glad that they were invited and given the same and equal voices with proponents. The report indicates that some of them focused on three issues that can derail the immigration reform. One was the samo, samo, and samo tactic of delay that can kill the chance for CIR in 2013. The second was again the samo, samo, and samo tactic of piemeal reform argument that can kill not only the chances for CIR but also any piecemeal immigation reform in 2013 under the current political landscape and environment. The third was the recent Boston bombing incident to stir xenophoebic political environment in the country. Their voices are heard and we keep reading and watching in the media the news of anti-immigration forces spinning anti-immigration wheel using the Bonston incidents. Under such environment, time is of essence for the Congress to successfully pass the CIR this year. Apparently, the Senate Gang of 8 agrees to such assessment and marching ahead to speed up the process. There appears to be no change with their timeline to place the bill on the Senate floor next month, May or June at the latest. The legislative process and timeline will give enough opportunity to inject their voices from all different sectors through amendments. This reporter personally has some different views on certain components in the CIR, but shares general concensus that the bill is well balanced and compromised for all different sectors including immigration opponents. Compromise inherently means that there is a winner and there is a loser when it comes to details but their overall interests are sufficiently reflected in the bill. That is what democracy is about. There will always be hardliners and extremists who refuse to accept any compromises other than their self interests, but at the end of the day, the voice of "people" and the "nation" will prevail.

04/22/2013: Scheduled Release of H-2B Methodology Interim Final Rule in Federal Register on Wednesday, 04/24/2013

• The DOL and the DHS are making available for public inspection a copy of the Interim Final Rule, Wage Methodology for the H-2B Program, Part 2, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on April 24, 2013. This Interim Final Rule, developed jointly by the DOL and the DHS revises the prevailing wage methodology used by the DOL to calculate certain prevailing wages paid to H-2B workers and U.S. workers recruited in connection with an H-2B Application for Temporary Employment Certification. This Interim Rule is published in response to a court order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 21, 2013, in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis, 09-cv-00240 (E.D. Pa). The court order vacated a portion of the 2008 wage methodology rule dealing with the way the DOL determines the prevailing wage when relying on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, and provided the DOL with 30 days to come into compliance. On the effective date of the Interim Final Rule, the DOL will resume processing both pending H-2B prevailing wage requests and H-2B applications for temporary labor certification based on the OES wage survey data, in accordance with standards set in the Interim Final Rule. Pending release this Interim Final Rule, both DOL and DHS have lately suspended processing of H-2B cases. Here is the advance copy of the Interim Final Rule. For additional details and updates, please visit OFLC site.

04/22/2013: Implementation of Revised I-9 Employment Verification Form Effective 05/07/2013 and USCIS Six Webinar Schedules of the Revised Form

• The employers are required to use this revised I-9 form for employment verification effective 05/07/2013. The current form will no longer be acceptable effective 05/07/2013. If audited, use of the current I-9 form will constitute a violation of employment verification for the employers effective 05/07/2013. Considering the imporance of this change, the USCIS intends to schedule additional five webinars to introduce the revised form to the emloyers. Please stay tuned for the specific schedules of these webinars.

04/22/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Business Meeting on 04/25/2013 on "S. 744 The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act”

• Wrapping up the three public hearings, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduling its Executive Business Meeting on Thursday, 04/25/2013 on this bill.

04/22/2013: WOW! Senate Judiciary Scheduling Another CIR Hearing Tomorrow!

• Three hearings and three consecutive working days. Thank you, the Honorable Chairmain Patrick Leahy. You are indeed a dedicated people's legislator.
• The witness who will testify on the hearing on Wednesday, 04/23/2013 is the DHS Secretary Napolitano. Her testimony was initially scheduled on today's hearing but rescheduled because of the Boston bombing incident.

04/22/2013: Text of Testimonies of Witnesses (Live Webcast) Before Senate Judiciary Hearing Today on "The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744”

• Arturo Rodriguez
• Charles Conner
• Alyson Eastman
• Megan Smith
• The Honorable Jim Kolbe
• Tamar Jacoby
• Rick Judson
• Brad Smith
• Professor Ron Hira
• Neeraj Gupta
• Fred Benjamin
• Gaby Pacheco
• Janet Murguia
• Dr. David Fleming
• Mark Krikorian
• Laura Lichter (AILA)
• The Honorable Kris Kobach
• Mark Shurtleff
• The Honorable Bill Vidal
• Janice L. Kephart
• Chris Crane
• Dr. Steven Camarota
• Grover Norquist
• The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman

04/21/2013: CIR 2013 Discussion Site

• We initially thought to discuss some of the provisions of CIR 2013 on this site, but we have changed our mind and decided to open a new page for CIR 2013 discussion in order to help the visitors who are affected by the bill as well as those who are not affected by the bill. Thus, this site will keep focusing on the report of breaking news, and the new CIR 2013 site will exclusively focus on the CIR issues. We have received a huge number of questions relating to the effective dates of different programs in the bill. The next largest number of questions have been presented to us on STEM immigration. For a while, we will focus on the proposed changes in "legal immigration" system for the reasons, among others, that there are plenty of sources of information which are available in various sites on internet for the reform relating to the issues of "legalization of undocumented immigrants" because there are a huge number of stakeholders that have been focusing on such issues and will probably continue to focus on those issues because the issues involve more than 11 million immigrant potential customers as opposed to those who are in legal immigration waiting lines or about to go into such lines. Besides, the text of reform of legal immigration system is more confusing and complicated than the legalization issues in the bill. Readers should keep in mind that our discussion on the 2013 CIR site can never be, in any sense, considered an authoritative legal source to rely upon. Literally, it will remain just "discussions." In reporting summary, we have already made a few errors for a number of reasons: The outlines which we relied on involved some issues and potential sources for confusion. Thank you for your patience. We have a long way to go to see the reform of the immigration system for two main reasons, among others. Firstly, most of these proposals are likely to be changed in the final product through the amendment process. Secondly, most of the reforms in the bill will not take effect immediately upon enactment of the bill. This is just a first and small scatch of a huge face of a gorilla named CIR 2013.

04/20/2013: Boston Marathon Bombing and Potential Impact on CIR Legislation Process

• Report indicates that Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asserted at the yesterday's Senate Judiciary hearing on CIR that there had been some flaws with the immigration system in this country allowing such terrorists in the Boston bombing to become legal immigrants in this country and the country should look at the loophole in the immigration system and legislation. Accordingly, he allegedly asserted that the Senate should take time in handling the current proposed CIR bill. As readers are aware of, some ultra right wing conservative forces and anti-immigration forces have been advocating two proposals, when it comes to immigration reform. One was that the CIR legislation should be handled carefully and in slow pace and the other was their proposal that immigration reform should be legislated in piecemeals, one by one and one at a time. The problems for the immigration adovates for these proposals comes from thes implication and reality of the first proposal that because of the 2014 national election and primary in the Republican party which will add a heat after the summer recess of the Congress this year, it will lead to the death of CIR legislation this year. The implication and reality of second proposal come from the fact that there is no chance that any piecemeal immigration reform bill will be passed in the Congress while there is a CIR bill in the legislative process. For the reasons, the immigrant communities and the immigration advocates should unite for common causes and interests to educate the public with the implication and results of such proposals on the comprehensive immigration reform. This will be particularly important for Hispanic community since the grass root members of the community may not find potential implication and consequences of such proposals unless they read beyond what they see on the papers and on the TV screens. Remember that their important festival is coming soon, Cinco de Mayo! The Boston bombing does not have anything to do with immigration issues, not to mention immigration reform legislation!

04/20/2013: Reader Friendly Text Version of CIR Bill, S. 744

• The bill which we previously posted was not reader friendly and it was practically impossible to follow different titles, subtitles, chapters, sections, etc. Now we have more reader friendly version of the text available.

04/19/2013: Thank You for All the Wonderful Questions and Issues Raised on CIR

• This reporter feels really blessed that the readers emailed us such interesting questions, even with suggestions, including its implication on AC 21 benefits and many other creative questions. This reporter will be tied up for the next few days, but will certainly look at the provisions of CIR and current law relevant to the questions and will try to post the points later part of next week. We ask readers to give us a week to work on the answers. This bill is unusually legalese in the texts. Please enjoy your weekend. Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we had a snow storm with blizzard looking wind blowing snow all over yesterday. The trees look beautiful and artistic all right, but it was miserable to drive and step out of the car and walk to a building with the messy grounds, not to mention chilly and cold blowing wind. The winter this year in Minnesota was depressingly too LONG.........................this year!! Where is the spring??

04/19/2013: Employers, Did You File Non-Premium Processing H-1B Cap Cases? You are Not Alone in the Waiting Line.

• There is no official report which has been released by the USCIS but apparently the involved leader of the USCIS reported in a seminar as to what was happening. They apparently said that they started sending out both email and hard copy receipt notices for the premium processing cases first beginning from April 8, 2013, followed by mailing out of non-premium case notices in the mail. According to the participants in the seminar, mail notices are likely to continue through May. Employers and lawyers, including this reporter, started receiving hard copy receipt notices or filing fee check clearance in their online banking, only from the last few days. Those who filed non-premium processing Master cap cases should not give up their hopes yet because those who failed in the first Master cap lottery were mixed with the regular cap cases and ran through the regular cap lotttery process second time around with other regular non-premium processing cases. Apparently, rejection and return of the packets to the loser employers will not take place for a while, probably not before early May. We share the emotional pains with these employers and their legal counsel as we are going through the same pains, religiously checking online banking status and mail boxes every single day! It is hoped that the relief which is provided in the CIR on the upward adjustment of cap numbers comes to a reality at least after this painful lotteries this year. STEM is proposed to be taken out of the cap in the first place, and we must tell them, 'you, lucky you!'

04/19/2013: Point System Immigration Reform under the Name of Merit-Based Immigration System in CIR

• For the first time, this reporter had a chance to go through the check list of the point system in the CIR and experienced an emotional pain, even though we understood the logics and justification behind the proposal. This reporter even dropped tears at one point as it reminded, rightly or wrongly, of some events in the world history, discrimating against certain groups of human beings because of their race, age, level of education, or other genetic criteria. As a member of older generation, the members of the Senate Gang of 8 must have shared this emotional pain with this reporter, even though they refrained from expressing it. There was even a mixed feeling that history repeats itself for good or for bad. This reporter was born in Korea. The country had a history thousands of years back that when a person reached 70 years of age, the family took the elder person to a remote mountain and left the person to die in starvation and pains. The old history of human dignity lost in the alleged "judgment" of the society. We just hope that Darwinism does not govern human society again.

04/18/2013: List of Witness to Testify Before Senate Judidicary Committee Tomorrow on CIR

• Chairman Senator Leahy Statement
• Peter Kirsanow, Partner, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Arnoff
  Commissioner, United States Commission on Civil Rights
  Cleveland, Ohio
• Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President, American Action Forum

04/18/2013: Thank You for All the Interesting Questions

• We appreciate it for all the interesting questions our readers have been presenting to us. Some questions are very fascinating and some questions are even educational. We will try to answer some of these questions along the way. Some are very hot-botton issues. Please bear with us.

04/18/2013: Unfair and Unjustifiable Treatment of Employment Authorization in CIR Between High Skilled Worker (H-1B) Spouses and Lower Skilled Worker (W) Spouses

• The CIR recognizes importance of high skilled workers and certain lower skilled workers in nonimmigrant visa system to support the country's economy. As an incentive for the primary high skilled workers and and the primary lower skilled workers in certain sectors of industries, the CIR offers employment authorization to the spouses of these foreign workers. Such incentive also recognizes the importance of keeping nuclear family together without separation in the employment-based immigration system as well as the dignity and respect for individual spouses as a member of the society. From the foregoing perspectives, there should be no distinction or need for different treatment between the spouses of high skilled workers and lower skilled workers spouses. For no justificable reasons, however, the CIR treats them differently in that a string is attached to the H-4 spouse employment authorization requiring a reciprocal law in their home countries as qualification as opposed to no string whatsoever attached to the spouses of W visa lower skilled workers. The Senate should address and correct this issue as the bill goes through the legislation process.

04/18/2013: Q&A on Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

• This bill is huge documents. Because of the amount of documents and issues it covered, it will take some time before anyone including stakeholders and other sources can develop and release a good summary. It appears that the 17-page outline of the CIR was not done well with some apparent errors, ambiguities, and missing information on critical issues. Until a good summary is released, we would like to entertain Q&A on piecemeal issues. However, unlike our previous practice, we will not create a separate Q&A site. We would rather use this Breaking News page to post answers as best as we can. For instance, readers must have noticed that we posted the issue of H.R. 3012 elimination of per country numerical limitation in employment-based immigration for the first time, which issue was missed in the official 17-page outline but involves very critical issue for employment-based immigration community. Readers can send us their questions to our office email, ohlaw@immigration-law.com. As readers can appreciate, it will take time for us to post the answers in view of the huge documents which we will have to sip through. Readers are asked to bear with us and keep patience to find answers for their questions in this site. We will post some answers to the questions not based on FIFO (First In First Out) but the weight of issues and impact on immigrants. Please also keep in mind that the answers we post are neither legal advice nor law/rules. It is just simple understanding of one individual legal counsel. Accordingly, readers are not supposed to rely on our internet posting of information as the sources of law. We already have a few questions which some readers have emailed.

04/17/2013: CIR Eliminates Per Country Numerical Limitation for Employment-Based Immigration

• Section 2306(a) of the CIR eliminates employment-based per country numberical limitation. The outline which was released before the bill introduced apparently omitted this. Please read Section 2306(a) of the CIR.

04/17/2013: Exact Time of CIR Bill Introduction

• It was introduced after the Senate returned from a break at 02:05 a.m. this morning and not April 16, 2013. Even though it was introduced on the 04/16/2013 legislative day, it is an error for any sites to report on 04/16/2013 that the bill was already introduced in the Senate.

04/17/2013: H-4 Spouse EAD Administrative Fix Proposal and CIR Legislative Proposal

• After reading the CIR bill, we wonder whether this bill has caused the USCIS proposed rule on the subject in limbo at the OMB. The H-4 EAD proposal is very narrow in both the administrative option and legislative option. For the USCIS proposal, it is narrowly applied to the H-4 spouse only when the H-1B primary spouse has been in green card journey and is available for either 7th year H-1B extension or 104(c) three-year increment extensions pending green card proceedings. The H-4 spouse EAD proposal in the CIR appears to be very narrow as well in that unless their home country immigration law allows a similar benefit to the spouse of the American worker in their countires, this option will also not available to the involved H-4 spouses in this country.
• We have not checked with the Indian immigration law relating to the subject of present interest, but a visitor forwarded the following information to this reporter, which was very information and educating to the reporter. Indian immigration law experts may send this report their comments on the subject. "The work visa for H4 will be allowed only if the country from where the applicant came from allows work permit for spouses. This is so much confusing and complicated as each country has their own way of dealing with it. For India we have visa "X" for spouses and in India if the spouse can prove that he/she is highly skilled and have a job offer of more than $25,000K per annum, they will issue a work permit. In India getting a job is not at all difficult and is unlike the red tapes we have here in US. But interpreting the India laws can in effect mean that India does not allow work permit."
• For this matter, we want to solicit participation of immigrants from all different countries in discussion of their immigration laws on this subject. Believe it or not, there are many immigrants and visitors who are familiary with their immigration laws in their home countries. Please share your knowledge with your colleague immigrants in this country.

04/17/2013: The Bill Number of "The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013" izz................S.744

• The statement of Senator Schumer in introducing the bill is as follows:

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first before I get into the substance here tonight, on behalf of myself, Mr. MCCAIN, the Presiding Officer, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. BENNET and Mr. FLAKE, we are introducing comprehensive immigration reform. Bottom line, a lot of work went into this bill, and I want to thank all of the staffs who have been up until now allowing us to introduce this bill as we promised in this legislative day. We are undergirded by the fact that Americans will be fair, balanced, and filled with common sense for legal immigrants and the 11 million here living in the shadows, as long as they believe we will not have future waves of illegal immigration. I believe our bill meets that test.

So I would like to thank everybody, including the great floor staff who waited very late tonight. I would like to thank my friend, colleague, and roommate, Senator DURBIN, for staying up this late, and Leon Fresco, Stephanie Martz and all of our staffs who worked so hard on this great legislation whose voyage begins now.

• Upon floor introduction, this bill was successfully read twice without filibuster objection and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

04/17/2013: Senator Chuck Schumer Introduced the CIR Bill in the Senate's 04/16/2013 Session That Continued After Midnight

• Apparently considering the impact of Boston bombing incident, the Senator officially introduced this bill yesterday "in low key" after midnight session of the Senate. Apparently it was carefully orchestrated (?) in that it was the Senate's 04/16/2013 session all right, but clock wise, it was after passing midnight and in day count, it should be considered 04/17/2013. It is now official and not just "revealed." Congressional report may have a problem to determine the specific date of introduction of this bill.

04/16/2013: Priority Placed on Our Reporting of Highlights of Components of Immigration Reform in the Senate CIR Bill

• Upto now, we have posted highlights of reform of "legal" immigration system and skilled worker nonimmigration visa system because the media, stakeholders, and the political leaders have reported almost exclusively such other components of "legalization" of undocumented immigrants, "border" security, immigration law enforcement and re-enforcement including employment verification, low-skilled worker nonimmigrant visas, and agricultural worker visas. Being overshadowed by such lopsided attentions given to the foregoing components of immigration reform, the other important immigration reform components of "legal immigration system," particularly "employment-based" immigration system, have been exposed to a very limited extent until now. In order to keep a fair balance of immigration reform among different components, we have decided to give a priority to report our highlights of the legal immigration system reform and employment-based immigration system report. Such priority of our reporting, however, does not imply that other components of immigration reform are less important and less crucial by any means. In fact, they are equally or even more important than legal immigration system report. We just want to give an equal share to the legal immigration system reform report by giving some level of its exposure to the political leaders, stakeholders, and the public which the media has failed thus far. Along the way, we will also report highlights of other immigration reform components as well. We ask the readers to keep patience.

04/16/2013: President Obama Reportedly Hails Senate CIR Bill

• As we posted earlier, the political power compromise for both Republican and Democratic parties is fairly well worked out in this bill. Apparently, the President also noticed and agrees to that. The only sectors of population that will cry and scream will be those at the farthest end of the spectrum of ideology. Without doubt, they are minority in the current political landscape. We salute to the members of the Senate Gang of 88888888. We, the people, want to see this bi-partisan cooperation/collaboration continue in every legislative process hereon and forever! Senator Marco Rubio has also done a good job under the very complex and delicate political environment. We also want to give him two thubs up.

04/16/2013: Highlights of Skilled Worker (Professional) H-1B Program and Annual Cap Reform in the Senate CIR Bill

• H-1B Annual Caps:
  • Increase the annual Regular Cap from current 65,000 to 110,000.
  • Current Advanced Degree is changed from any U.S. Advanced Degrees to U.S. STEM Advanced Degrees. Therefore, even if one has a U.S. Advanced Degree, unless the major field is a STEM, he or she will fall under Regular Cap.
  • New U.S. Advanced Degree cap will be increased from current 20,000 to 25,000.
  • Depending on the Increase/Decrease of High Skilled Jobs Demand Index and Increase/Decrese of Unemployment Index for the occupations in Management, Professional or Related Occupations' as measured by the DOL BLS data, the cap will be either increased or decreased each year but not to exceed 10,000 each year.
  • No matter what those two indexes are, the maximum annual cap cannot go beyond 180,000. Thus assuming that because of the favorable unemployment index and favorable increase in demand for professional workers every year, since the cap cannot increase more than 10,000 a year, after 5 years, no further increase of the H-1B cap will be allowed as it will reach maximum cap 180,000 under any circumstances.
• Employment Authorization for H-4 Spouses if they come from a country that provides reciprocal treatment to spouses of U.S. workers in the country.
• 60-day Grace period for H-1B to change or extension of status after termination of employment.
• U.S. labor market test requirement to file a H-1B petition through DOL job search site for minimum of 30 days before the employer is qualified to hire a H-1B employee.
• Restrictions for H-1B Dependent Employers:
  • Employers hiring 50 or more employees, out of which 30% are H-1B or L-1 foreign workers: Additional $5,000 filing fees for each H-1B or L-1 petition
  • Employers hiring 50 or more employees, out of which 50% are H-1B or L-1 foreign workers: Additional $10,000 filing fees for each H-1B or L-1 petition.
  • FY-2014: If H-1B or L-1 foreign workers in total employees are more than 75% of the total employees, such employer will be banned from filing new H-1B or L-1 petitions.
  • FY-2015: If the rate of H-1B or L-1 foreign worker is 65%, such ban will be triggered.
  • FY-2016: If the rate of H-1B or L-1 foreign worker is 50%, such ban will be triggered.
• One positive reform: Foreign student coming here to study in a Bachelor degree or advanced degree program will be given a visa that enjoys "dual intent." Accordingly, such student cannot be denied a visa at the visa posts or denied an admission at the port of entry for their immigrant intent if they sought immigrant proceedings. Additionally, the USCIS will not be able to deny extension or change of status based on the immigrant intent of the student because of pending immigrant petitions by relatives or employers.

04/16/2013: DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) Releases Latest Reports

• These reports are very important in guiding the DHS to manage its business, formulating policies, and reforming its practice. Must Read Materials.

04/16/2013: Highlights of Reform of "Legal" Immigration System under the CIR Bill

• Family-Based Immigration Reform:
  • Repeal EB-4 for brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens 18 months after enactment of CIR.
  • Current FB-2 for spouses and minor children of permanent residents are merged with the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizen category, along with parents of U.S. citizen and they will not be subject to immigrant quota. (Biggest Winners in the Family-Based System Reform!!!)
  • There will be only two categories in the Family Preference Categories:
    • Unmarried adult children
    • Married adult children who file before age 31, and unmarried adult children of permanent residents.
• Repeal of Diversity Visa Program. Winners of FY 2013 and FY 2014 will receive immigrant status.
• Employment-Based Immigration Reform:
  • Categories Exempt from Annual Numerical Limits:
    • Derivative beneficiaries (spouses and children) of EB immigants (Thus spouse and chldren of EB immigrants will no longer take out EB visa numbers)
    • Current EB-1A Extraordinary Workers
    • Current EB-1B Outstanding Researcher or Teachers
    • Current EB-1C Multinational Corporate Executives & Managers
    • STEM Ph.D
    • Physicians who have completed foreign residency or waiver.
  • Categories Subject to Annual Numerical Limits:
    • Current EB-2 Advance Degree holders, and US STEM Master Degree holders who earned the degree 5 years immediately before petition is filed: 40%
    • Skilled Worker (current EB-3): 40%
    • Special Immigrants: 10%
    • Immigrant Investors: 10%
  • Special Start-Up Visas for Entrepreuners
• Merit-Based Visa System After 5 Years: (Former Point System of Bush CIR)
• Caveat: For the full analysis, please read the text of the Outline Released by the Senate Gange of 8 yesterday.

04/16/2013 Outline of CIR Bill Released

• The CIR bill is entitled "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013." This outline was released to stakeholders and certain media late yesterday. Here is the full text which readers can read and also download.

04/16/2013: Senate Gange of CIR 8 Cancels CIR Release Press Release Which was Scheduled at 11:00 A.M. This Morning as Affected by the Boston Incident

• Report indicates that this bill will indeed be introduced in the Senate today but there will be no press conference by Senate Gang of 8 because of yesterday's Boston accident. ABC News exclusive report indicates that all the members of Gange of 8 have already signed off the bill and the bill was ready for introduction in the Senate. Unconfirmed sources indicates that the CIR includes the "point system" reform of legal immigration system which was the backbone of the Bush CIR bill that failed in 2007. The bill also appears to eliminate the current DV lottery program, replaced by certain immigrant benefits to a few African country nationals, including Ethiopia, Egypt, etc. The bill reportedly includes many business supported bills including STEM exemption from the annual immigration limitation as well as H-1B nonimmigrant petitions, and many other pro-foreign worker programs. Please stay tuned. As a compromise for eliminating immigrant petition for brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens, the bill appears to include pro-permanent resident petitions sponsoring the spouse and children without a quota limitation. The details have yet to be learned from the actual bill, but the reform of the "legal" immigration system appears to be focused on skilled worker immigration in both family-based and employment-based immigration system and to relieve the U.S. citizen and permanent resident immigration sponsors for their foreign nuclear families mermbers (spouse and children) from the pains of separation for years and years because of the quota system and allow reunification which has been their dreams. Upon formal introduction of this bill today, Sen. Chuck Schumer is reportedly scheduled to report the President on the bill.
• Senate Judiciary Committee will reschedule two CIR hearings, one on this Friday, 04/19/2013, and the second on Monday, 04/22/2013. Reportedly, the Chairman postponed the Committee hearing to give more time for the Senators to read the bill before the Judiciary hearings.

04/16/2013: House Bill for E-3 Visa to South Korea Referred to House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee for Action

• Rep. Eni Faleomavaega introduced H.R.1279 on March 20, 2013 in the House to allow E-3 visas to South Korean nationals, which are currently granted to Australian nationals. Facing limited availability and restrictions in H-1B and L-1 visa programs, more and more countries have sought this option without much success, such as Irish.

04/15/2013: Senate Gang of 8 CIR Schedule of Introducing Bill Delayed From Tuesday to a Later Date This Week

• The most up-to-date report indicates that drafters of the CIR bill have been racing to complete the text of a comprehensive immigration reform bill slated to be unveiled on Tuesday, with minor loose ends causing some in the Senate’s Gang of Eight to urge a delay to presenting the sweeping legislation. However, with pressure growing after multiple missed deadlines for the completion of the reform bill, sources within the group tell NBC News that the proposal is still likely to be formally presented in a press conference tomorrow but not in the Senate. In order to accomocate the adjusted schedule of the bill drafters and potential delayed schedule for introduction in the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee postphoned its scheduled CIR hearing on Wednesday, 04/17/2013 and rescheduled to next Monday, 04/22/2013.

04/15/2013: USCIS Schedules a Teleconference of Provisional Waiver of Unlawful Presence Process

• The USCIS is scheduling this teleconference on Friday, April 19, 2013 (Eastern) to discuss the process of applying for provisional unlawful presence waivers within the United States. During the teleconference, USCIS will provide an overview of the application process, discuss eligibility criteria and highlight filing tips. Following the overview, USCIS and representatives from the Department of State will be available to answer questions related the provisional unlawful presence waiver process. Those who are interested in participating in this teleconference may click here for information on registration.

04/15/2013: Clarification of 2014 H-1B Cap Lottery Selection

• The USCIS announcement which was released on 04/08/2013 indicates that on April 7, 2013, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as a “lottery”) to select a sufficient number of petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 for the general category and 20,000 under the advanced degree exemption limit. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing. The agency conducted the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected were part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.
• Thus it was made clear that the USCIS completed computer selection process on April 7, 2013 and email notices could be sent out to the Premium Processing Request filers dated 04/08/2013. Since computer selection did not mean that their usual intake process for the huge number of cases was completed, it is obvious that it will take time for the winners in the lottery, other than Premium Processing filers, to learn through their online bank filing fee check status statuses of their cases. There was oversight in our previous posting. We stand corrected on this.
• Some of the clarification in this posting is also confirmed by the USCIS by updating the H-1B cap site on 04/15/2013. Please click here for the USCIS cap count update site.

04/15/2013: Reported 1,500-Page Senate CIR Bill Expected in the Senate Tomorrow and Less Known Legal Immigration Reform, Overshadowed by Legalization and Border Security/Immigration Enforcement Reform Discussions

• Media report has been almost totally obsessed with the issues of legalization of undocumented immigrants, border security, and reinforcement of immigration enforcement reforms. Overshadowed by such media and political leaders almost total attention to and obsession with these issues, the details of reform of legal immigration systems in the upcoming Senate CIR bill remain undisclosed and less known. Through the leak of the Senate Gang of 8's final agreed-draft of the CIR bill in the last week, the rough outlines of the issues of the foregoing primary issues of the media attention have fairly well been known by now through the media reports, but unfortunately the outlines of the proposed reform in the legal immigration system, particularly employment-based immigration system, remain in the dark. The anticipated introduction of the CIR bill in the Senate tomorrow thus remains at the center of the current or prospective legal immigrants' attention, in a sense, more intensely than undocumented immigrants because of the less leaked and least reported and discussed outlines of the legal immigration reforms. Since the CIR bill is reportedly about 1,500 pages in volume, it will take quite some time before any one to understand the details of the proposed reforms in many different areas, not to mention the legalese text of the bill. However, it is expected that the sponsors of the bill as well as stakeholder groups are expected to release their summary of this bill in a fairly short period of time and this site will try to report such summaries as quickly as possible once this bill is introduced. Please stay tuned to this website for the summary of the upcoming Senate CIR bill.
• Introduction of the bill should be taken as a drop of water in the sea as mountains of amendments are anticipated to be introduced in the both Chambers for the next several months, which can change the colors and shapes of the final bill to a great extent. Accordingly, this site intends to monitor these amendments which will be introduced at the committee level as well as on the full floor of the two Chambers along the way. Please sit tight with your seat belt in the back seat of the CIR wagon for the next several months. Don't make fuss with typos and non-substantive matters in the report. Formats cannot overweight over the substance, if you are intellectuals and intelligent readers.

04/14/2013: At Least One Key Member of Senate Gang of 8 Reconfirms Tuesday as the CIR Bill Introduction Date

• Senator Rubio was ambivalent about the date when the bill is scheduled to be introduced in the Senate, but reportedly Senator Schumer released the information that the bill would indeed be introduced on Tuesday, 04/16/2013, as we reported earlier. We will see whether this schedule will indeed be materialized. This is today's report and fresh enough.

04/14/2013: CIR Bill 1,500 Pages?

• Was this information a slip of tongue of Candy Crowly of CNN this morning or this reporter's hearing error? Even 150 pages should sound too much to this reporter. Can anyone send this reporter what they heard about this part of Rubio interview on CNN this morning?

04/13/2013: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Introduced H.R. 1525, Family Immigration Focused Immigration Reform Bill

• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas introduced yesterday in the House H.R. 1525, a family-based immigration focused comprehensive immigration reform bill with no other co-sponsors. She introduced similar bills in previous Congresses. Again, this bill does not appear to be introduced with any expectation to be enacted as a stand-alone bill, but with a hope to be incorporated in the House version of the CIR in the future. Her previous bill in 2007 may give readers some idea on this new bill.
• Reminder: This bill is not the forthcoming CIR bill which is currently being crafted out by the House Group of 8 Legislators.

04/13/2013: Senate CIR Bill Reportedly Ready to be Introduced in the Senate Tuesday 04/16/2013

• Various reports indicate this morning that the Senate Gang of 8's Comprehensive Immmigration Reform bill is poised to be introduced in the Senate coming Tuesday, April 16, 2013 in time for the scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee's first hearing on Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, followed most likely by the Judiciary Committee markups in May and the full Senate floor action in June. Some more details may be disclosed in the tomorrow morning (Sunday) Candy Crowly 'State of Union' show on CNN with her scheduled talk with Senator Marco Rubio as the key guest. Please watch this show on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. EST.
• This Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation will help both parties in that the philosophy underlying the bill lies with a resolution to share the powers between the Republicans and the Democrats through the compromise. However, the history will record that the real winner will be the Republicans more than the Democrats in that this legislation will help for the Republicans to share the growing Hispanic constituency and recover from the Mitt Romney's devastating defeat in the last Presidential election that assaulted and antagonized the Hispanics through the so-called "self-deportation" concept which was reportedly derived from and pushed by the nation's anti-immigration groups. As we reported earlier, learning this lesson, the Republicans took a position this time around to distance themselves from these anti-immigration groups, despite their continuing massive campaign to pressure the legislators against the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. This campaign was most visibly targeted at the Senator Lindsey Graham who is scheduled to run for reelection in coming mid-term national election in November 2014.
• There will be ups and downs along the legislative process, but we want to see closure to this chapter in one way or another. After all, all the legislators and political leaders are game players more than anything else in the American political process, constantly looking at the changing political environment for their political calculations and searching soul for their political survival.

04/12/2013: Legalization Relief Under Senate CIR Bill Limited to Those Who Entered the U.S. Before January 1, 2012?

• Read on.

04/12/2013: USCIS Releases DACA Processing Update Today for the DATA at the End of March 2013

• The USCIS has released this data somewhat earlier than the past practice. We thank the USCIS for that. The Total Receipt still remains below 490,000. This release includes two pages and readers should roll down to see the second page that gives details by each state.

04/12/2013: Senate Bill to Grant Visa Waiver Program Membership to Hong Kong

• Yesterday, Sen.. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii introduced in the Senate S.703 to provide for the eligibility of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region for designation for participation in the visa waiver program for certain visitors to the United States. This bill is co-sponsored by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.
• According to the sponsor's statement, on July 1, 1997, after over 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China, retaining its own currency, free market economy, political system, civil liberties, and immigration policies. This autonomy was recognized by the United States and affirmed by Congress in passing the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act. Today the United States has a robust bilateral relationship with Hong Kong, a global financial and trading hub, which was our 10th largest export market last year and whose trade ties are significant for many States. The State Department considers Hong Kong an important law enforcement partner in combating money laundering and eliminating funding for terrorist networks. Despite our visa policies treating it separate from Mainland China, because it is not a ``country,'' Hong Kong is unable to be considered for the Visa Waiver Program. The Visa Waiver Program is an essential tool for promoting travel and tourism to America while protecting national security by allowing precleared business and leisure travelers from 37 countries to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without obtaining a nonimmigrant visitor visa. Hong Kong has secured visa waivers for its passport holders from over 140 countries and territories, including allies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and all member states of the European Union. Hong Kong has already extended visa waivers to American citizens. Our laws shouldn't be a barrier to do the same in the future. As our largest industry, tourism is important to Hawaii, especially from Asia. Our largest source of foreign tourists comes from Japan, a visa waiver country since 1988. In 2011, domestic and international visitors to Hawaii spent $16.9 billion which supported 160,800 jobs in the islands according to the U.S. Travel Association.

04/11/2013: PERM Processing Times Update as of 04/01/2013

• It now takes longer time. Clean-cut cases takes now takes close to four (4) months. See the following details:
  • Analyst Review (clean-cut cases): 12/10/2012
  • Audit cases: 06/30/2012
  • Reconsideration Request cases: 04/04/2013
  • Government Error cases: Current
• The employers who need the H-1B three-year increment extension based on the approved I-140 petitions must consider the foregoing labor certification processing time changes.

04/11/2013: OFLC Prevailing Wage Determination Processing Times as of 03/26/2013

• Currently processing requests which were received in February 2013. PERM PWD processing times is upto 60 days; H-2B PWD processing times is upto 30 days; H-1B PWD processing times is upto 60 days. PWD reconsideration and Center Director Review processing times is the same as above depending on the type of cases.

04/11/2013: PERM Fact Sheet Update on 03/26/2013 for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 (January - March 2013)

• This fact sheet gives the details of numbers certified, denied, withdrawn, and all the details of backgrounds of cases by region, etc. Very informative data to review.

04/11/2013: Prevailing Wage Determination Fact Sheet Update on 03/26/2013 for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 (January - March 2013)

04/11/2013: H-1B LCA Fact Sheet Update on 03/26/2013 for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 (January - March 2013)

04/11/2013: H-2B Temporary Labor Certification Fact Sheet Update on 03/26/2013 for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 (January - March 2013)

04/11/2013: H-2A Temporary Labor Certification Fact Sheet Update on 03/26/2013 for the 2nd Quarter of FY 2013 (January - March 2013)

04/11/2013: USCIS ELIS Site Outage Alert Sunday 04/14/2013 for Maintnance

04/11/2013: Senate CIR Bill Pushed Back Again by Gun Control Debates Today

• Report indicates that immigration reform legislation initially set to be unveiled as early as Thursday could be delayed until next week as the Senate’s Gang of Eight scrambles to finish the bill. Yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio was scheduled to brief the GOP meeting the outline of the so-called Gang 8 CIR agreement but reportedly could not accomplish it being pushed off by the gun control subject. According to Senator Graham, the agreement should be reported to the GOP before the bill is introduced. The story goes on and on and on.

04/11/2013: Haven't 8 Players in the Senate and 8 Players in the House Reached a Limit Working Behind the Closed Doors?

• The eight players in each Chamber can not take over the whole legislative process at micro levels without any limit. The good lesson was learned in the earlier Kennedy-McCain CIR which was worked out behind the closed door taking a long time but eventually failed. Thus far they have played important roles and missions to bring out some level of compromises among all different constituencies, but such process cannot lead to a complete compromise behind the door because there will always remain the far right and the far left consituents who will never accept any compromises, no matter what form and what shape of compromise these players iron out. It has now reached the time and stage when the compromise process should be undertaken in an opened door and allow all the legislators to participate in the process in the opened legislative process with increased debates from pro and con immigration reform forces. Current delay in the closed door "micro-legislatures" is no longer acceptable. It is the time that the whole macro legislature takes over the role of legislation process through opened negotiations and compromises with the active participation of stakeholders and people in the open arena and not behind the door to make a decision in one way or another. We thus fully support Senator Leahy's initiation to bring the process into the opened process from the closed door process.

04/11/2013: Written Testimony of DHS Secretary in Congress FY-2014 DHS Budget Request

04/10/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Schedules Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation Hearing on 04/17/2013

• There were mixed signals of spinning coming out of individual members of the Senate Gange of 8 as to whether the bill would indeed be introduced in the Senate Tomorrow, Thursday. The Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee has set up a hearing scheduled at 04/17/2013, which will without doubt add a tremendous pressuse on the Gang of 8, when some of them are playing politics. Politicans should not "underestimate" the intelligence of the public.

04/10/2013: May 2013 Visa Bulletin Released

• Snag for EB-2 India
• Good News for EB-3 except India and Philippines: The EB-3cut-off date for most countries other than India and Philippines has advanced significantly. This has been done in an attempt to generate demand so that the annual numerical limits may be fully utilized, and such movements may continue for the next few months. The rapid movement of cut-off dates is often followed months later by a dramatic increase in demand for numbers. Once such demand begins to materialize the cut-off date movements will begin to slow or stop.

04/10/2013: USCIS Issues Alert for I-539 Filers

• USCIS has issued an alert to remind I-539 applicants to include all required evidence when submitting Form I-539. Initial evidence is required for all applications regardless of whether they are electronically filed in USCIS ELIS or mailed to USCIS. For the full text of the alert, please click here. Also follow the filing tips.

04/10/2013: USCIS Schedules National Spanish Language Teleconference Today

• USCIS representatives will share Agency updates and will be available to respond to your questions.
  • Topics: I-601A Provisional Waiver, DACA, TPS and other topics of interest
  • Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2013
  • Time: 3:00 p.m. a 4:00 p.m. (Eastern)
• Participation: Vía teleconference at 1-800-857-6924
  Password: Enlace)

04/10/2013: Pro Immigration Reform Rally in the Nation's Capital Today

• Will this help and add pressure on the Gang of 8 to indeed introduce the CIR bill tomorrow? We'll see.

04/09/2013: Senate CIR Gang of 8 Scheduled to Introduce the Bi-Partisan CIR Bill Thursday, 04/11/2013?

• Report indicates that the long-awaited Senate CIR is scheduled to be introduced in the Senate on Thursday. Today is a Tuesday. One day, Tomorrow, will be a long day for the anxious CIR supporters to wait and see whether the bill will indeed be introduced on Thursday. Let's wait and see.

04/09/2013: Are You H-1B Cap Premium Processing Filer Receiving Receipt Dated 04/08/2013 with Promise to Complete Within 15 Days?

• Before you jump off your seat, you should calm down. H-1B cap PPS is currently suspended until 04/15/2013 and the 15-day clock will not run until 04/15/2013. Apparently such notices are an error. Do not expect to claim and get refund of PPS fee of $1,225 when you receive the decision after 04/23/2013 but before 05/01/2013. Just keep your excitement of being a winner in the lottery!
• By the way, some attorneys are proposing the USCIS to adopt an administrative fix of the broken employment-based immigration system not to count spouses and children for annual EB quaota. Currently, the quota numbers that are taken out by the spouses and children exceed the principal foreign workers and adopting of such administrative fix will de facto increase the EB numbers available for the foreign workers more than double! According to the analysis of these lawyers, this is something do-able within the current immigration statute and without passing a legislation. Importance of nuclear family unity in the employment-based immigration categories should be taken seriously on top of the other family reunification program in the family-based immigration system in fixing the immigration laws.

04/09/2013: One Wonders What Causes a Snag in the DHS Agenda to Extend Benefits to the Spouses of H-1B Professionals and Foreign Students

• DHS conceived admirable policies to extend some benefits to the spouses of foreign professionals as an incentive for the principal foreign professional to stay in this country. One is the USCIS proposed rule to extend the employment authorization to H-4, spouses of the H-1B professional who are in the middle of permanent resident tracks. The other one is the ICE proposed rule to provide greater incentive for international students to study in the United States by permitting accompanying spouses and children of academic and vocational nonimmigrant students with F-1 or M-1 nonimmigrant status to enroll in less than a full course of study at an SEVP-certified school. Both of these proposed rules are currently experiencing a snag in the White House OMB. H-4 EAD rule review has been extended and ICE's spouse education opportunity rule has passed 90-day period for review but not even extension. One wonders whether this snag would violate the rule-making Executive Order that governs the limit of the OMB inaction. Strange! Hello, OMB, are you there?

04/09/2013: Flood of Immigration Bills Referred to the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Yesterday When the House Returned to the Session

• There were many bills which were initially introduced in the 112th Congress and reintroduced in the House early this years. These bills are now referred to the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. As the House CIR Group of 8 are poised to introduce the House version CIR in the House soon, these bills are intended to address the proposals as part of the components for the eventual House CIR bill. The House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee will thus remain very busy with the immigration bills.

04/09/2013: H.R. 633, former H.R. 3012, Which was Reintroduced in the House Referred to the House Judiciary Committee for Action

• This bill was reintroduced in February 2013 by Rep. Chaffetz of Utah with Rep. Labrador and Rep. Lofgren as co-sponsors. The text is the same with previous H.R. 3012 that was introduced in the 112th Congress and failed in the Senate last year. This bill proposes to eliminate per country limitation in the employment-based immigration system.

04/09/2013: Startup Act 3.0 H.R.714 Referred to the Judiciary Committee of the House

• This bill which was reintroduced in February 2013 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. This bill also includes elimination of per country limit in employment-based immigration system.

04/09/2013: Reuniting Families Act H.R. 717 Moves to House Judiciary Committee

• This bill was introduced by Rep. Michael Honda of California as H.R.717 in February 2013 to reform family-based immigration system

04/09/2013: H.R.640 -- Student Visa Security Improvement Act

• This bill was introduced in the House in February 2013 and now moves to the Judiciary Committee for action. This bill proposes to reinforce security in processing F, J. M visa processing.

04/08/2013: USCIS Appeal (AAO) Processing Times as of 04/02/2013

04/08/2013: EB Demand Data for Determination of May 2013 Visa Bulletin as of 04/08/2013

04/08/2013: USCIS Report of Total H-1B Cap Cases Received: About 124,000

• Read on. It turns out the number is less than double. They received about 40,000 more.

04/08/2013: USCIS Teleconference on Implementation of Customer Identity Verification at Field Office on April 16, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)

• This stakeholder teleconference will introduce and discuss on this new program. Specifically, during the engagement, subject matter experts will explain what CIV is, how it will work, and whom it will affect. Stakeholders will also have an opportunity to ask questions. Please click here if you want to register.

04/08/2013: USCIS to Implement Customer Identity Verification at Field Offices

• Effective May 6, 2013, USCIS will implement Customer Identity Verification (CIV) in its field offices. Individuals will now be required to submit biometric data, specifically fingerprints and photographs, when appearing at USCIS offices for interviews or to receive evidence of an immigration benefit. For CIV, an individual appearing at a USCIS field office for an interview or to be issued evidence of an immigration benefit will have his or her identity biometrically re-verified. Examples of evidence include temporary travel documents, parole authorizations, temporary extensions of Form I-90, and temporary I-551 stamps on passports or on Forms I-94 to evidence lawful permanent resident status. Individuals coming to USCIS field offices for other purposes, such as an Infopass appointment or as the guest of an applicant or petitioner, will not submit biometric data. Under this new process, staff will take two fingerprints and a photograph of the individual and input this information into the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology’s (US-VISIT’s) Secondary Inspections Tool (SIT). SIT is a Web-based application that processes, displays and retrieves biometric and biographic data. US-VISIT also links databases associated with border inspections and security. After identity verification is satisfactorily completed, individuals will proceed to their interviews or be issued their immigration documents.
• For the details, please click here.
  

04/08/2013: Here We Go, Gang of 8 Prediction for Introduction of CIR Bill in the Senate Appears Not Until the End of Week, at Best

• Reportedly staffers of Gang of 8 have been sitting in the same room to talk and work out the specific languages of the bill. In the meantime, as we reported yesterday, a process will continue through Sen. Rubio to smooth out the heat and level of opporsition by the ultra right wing GOP Senators once the bill is introduced. What a tedious and stressful job! The job is still at an "Overture" level of a classical music concert. For the concert to reach a climax burning emotions of the audience, it still has a long way to go, and the clock never stops and nervousness slowly starts kicking in the minds of CIR supporters. Tell them that this is the last tolerable delay for introduction of the bill in the Senate.

04/07/2013: As the Senate Returns to the Session Tomorrow, 04/08/2013, No CIR Bill is Likely to be Introduced by the Senate Gang of 8 Tomorrow

• With the news abound in the media that the Senate Gang of 8 settled all the issues, the anxious CIR supporters hope to see the CIR bill introduced on the first day when the Senate returns to the session tomorrow. However, to their disappointments, it may not happen because of the development early last week. The ultra right wing four Republican Senators who are also members of the Judiciary Committee reportedly demanded Senator Marco Rubio to report them the details of the agreed text of the bill and how far the GOP's principles had been compromised in the agreement. Reportedly, Senator Marco Rubio reported to the Gange of 8, who consented to his report to the GOP leaders. Based on these decisions, the Senator Rubio is scheduled to report to the Republican Policy Luncheon this week the agreed CIR bill outlines. Accordingly, even though there is no disclosed information on the specific schedule of introduction of the CIR bill, common sense dictates that in due respect of these fellow Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, the Gange of 8 may wait until the Senator Rubio's report to his party is completed. Oh Yeah, Oh Year, we know how disappointed anxious CIR supporters are, but giving a little bit of space for breathing to these powerful conservative Republican leaders may not hurt too much inasmuch as the delay would not stretch out more than just a few days rather than weeks or months. Let's see how the drama will unfold.

04/07/2013: This Year's H-1B Cap Crush May Trigger USCIS Implementation of H-1B Cap Online Pre-Registration Requirement Coming Years

• Almost everyone predicted that the 2014 H-1B cap would reach earlier this year than last year which reached in June considering the changing business and economic environments but not as early as the first few days of April. In order to deal with this kind of problem, the USCIS initiated a rule-making process requiring pre-registration of H-1B cap employers indicating how many cases and for which beneficiary(ies) they will file before the employers can file actual petitions. Proposed regulation was published but finalizing of the rule making process by drafting and submitting Interim Final Rule to implement the new process had been pushed off and delayed. One of the factors could have been no recent experience of reach of the H-1B cap on the first day or first five business days in April. But the reality knocked the door of the USCIS sooner than anticipated. In a way, implementation of new pre-registration process may also help the employers to avoid the kind of panics which they had to go through this year. Overnight delivery services must have made a lot of money during about one week period of time but they also experienced pains at the same time for not being able to handle the avalanches of packets properly and timely tarnishing their business images, not to mention the employers who had to go through literally panicking situation. Well, for good or bad, it is all over now and employers will just have to relax and wait for the results of lottery. Gradually sweet spring breeze is coming in the air and we may take more time to take a walk outside or drive a car to enjoy refreshing air with windows down. AHhh............................!

04/06/2013: U.S. Master Degree H-1B Cap Filers with Double Dip of Opportunities in the Forcoming H-1B Cap Computer Random Selection Process

• This year, the special 20,000 cap numbers for U.S. Master or higher degree holders were also exhausted in the first five days of the FY 2014 H-1B cap season. For the reasons, the USCIS is required to run the computer random selection process first for the 20,000 special cap U.S. Master degree holder H-1B cap applicants. Possession of U.S. Master or higher degree is not enough for this special opportunity, unless they requrested in the H-1B cap petitions the Master Cap Exempt option. Those who did not seek the Master Cap Exempt option will not be able to request the USCIS to include them in the H-1B 20,000 special cap random selection process. They will be limited to the opportunity of "Regular Cap" random selection opportunity. Once the U.S. Master Cap random selection is completed, those who sought the U.S. Master Cap Exempt option but failed to be selected in the computer random selection process will be automatically added to the pool of Regular Cap filers who will go through another random selection process as described below. Therefore, those U. S. Master degree cap filers who failed to be selected initially will have another opportunity to win in the following computer random selection process, enjoing double dipping opportunites to be selected in the H-1B cap selection process.
• All the H-1B cap filers who sought "Regular Cap" options in their H-1B cap petitions plus U.S. Master degree cap filers who failed to make it in the foregoing U.S. Master degree lottery process will then go through the computer random selection process to pick at least 65,000 Regular Cap winners. The total cap of 65,000 includes 6,800 special numbers for H-1B1 petitions for Singapore (5,400) and Chile (1,400), but usually, the USCIS gets approximately similar number of spill overs for the Singare and Chile from the previous fiscal year and the USCIS was able to use almost entire 65,000 cap numbers for the H-1B Regular Cap filers.
• From the foregoing summary, the Regular Cap employers and H-1B visa status seekers may be able to guess what kind of delay they will have to experience to find out whether their cases are succeessfully selected. We just wish the best for all the H-1B filers. Enjoy the weekend.

04/05/2013: Now Cap Has Reached and Final Date is Determined, and Question Remains Total Numbers and Numbers That Will be Rejected Thru Random Lottery Process

• The guestimate indicates that the total numbers may be very large. Including the U.S. Master Degree Cap of 20,000, total cap number alone amounted to 85,000! Could it be double or triple of this number? Considering the statement in the USCIS announcement that becuase of the volumes, lottery process is likely to take some time, the total numbers must be indeed very large. The real pain with the volume is amount of time the employers must endure to learn whether their cases have been selected and how many. The amount of time the employers must embrace could be somewhat shorter for the winners in that it includes only lottery running time plus processing of Receipt Notices for their victorious cases. But the amount of time the other employers who failed in the lottery must be tortured can be indeed very L-O--N---G--------- since it will involve processing of mailing of rejected "packets" AFTER lottery process is completely over. Ay Ya Yay *************.Zzzzzzzzzz.

04/05/2013: USCIS Announcement of Reach of H-1B Cap

• USCIS Reaches FY 2014 H-1B Cap
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. After today, USCIS will not accept H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption.
• USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013. The agency will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. Due to the high number of petitions received, USCIS is not yet able to announce the exact day of the random selection process. Also, USCIS is currently not providing the total number of petitions received, as we continue to accept filings today. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. USCIS will provide more detailed information about the H-1B cap next week.

04/05/2013: Summary of New and Updated Citizenship & Naturalization Policies of USCIS

• This update of Chapter 12 of the USCIS policy manual replaces its previous manuals and policies and those seeking naturalization or practitioners who practice in this area may review and keep a copy in their online library for reference to seek answers to their question on naturalization policy issues.

04/05/2013: ICERT Outage Alert

• The iCERT will be unavailable from 8 pm ET on Thursday, April 11, 2013 to 6 am ET Friday, April 12, 2013 for routine maintenance.

04/05/2013: USCIS Releases 2013 Poverty Guidelines, I-864P

• Despite the earlier release of 2013 Pover Guidelines by HHS very early this year, it took a while for the USCIS to release and implement its Poverty Guidelines for 2013. The new version is dated 03/01/2013. The previous version of 2012 and any earlier version is no long valid. Those who process family-based immigration and family-based consular processing should comply with the new poverty guidelines and the sponsors of the family-based immigration must meet these new income requirements.

04/05/2013: One Estimate for Total H-1B Cap Filing on 04/01/2013

• The USCIS has yet to release the exact numbers the agency has received, but the Computerworld, relying on the sources of information from those who help the agency to process intakes of incoming cases for the Service Centers, estimates that on day one, which is April 1, 2013, the agency probably received about 60,000 or more cases. It is thus obvious that the USCIS must have received more than the cap numbers by now and it is almost certain that the USCIS may announce early next week that the cap reached by Friday, April 5, 2013 and soon thereafter they may have to run the process of computer random selection of winners among those that were filed in the first five days. By now, the question remains not whether the agency has received enough numbers but rather how many more numbers they have received and how many cases will have to be rejected after the electronic random selection process. However, until the USCIS releases official cap reach announcement, people may keep filing H-1B cap cases since the foregoing figure represents just an estimate and not official.
• Unreal! Come to think of the employers that rely on high tech foreign workers for good or bad that cannot hire new H-1B employees after this cap season until October 1, 2014! It will be obvious that the businesses may have to face the crisis in the Clinton era in late 1990's when the economy boomed and high tech foreign workers turned into expensive commodities with rising rate of wages for such occupations. At the time, employee market dominated the employer market because of the shortage of high tech foreign workers. Offer of "incentives" to attract and hire the limited resources of high tech foreign workers, including offer of free lap top computers or even fancy automobile to attract and hire their needed foreign workers. Demand and supply issue, sounds familiar? Oldies will remember all of these traumatic experience at the time. The condition in late 1980s and 1990s eventually led the Congress to pass so-called AC-21 Act to attract and keep the needed foreign high tech workers! Remember 7-year extension of H-1B pending green card proceeding, three-year increment extension of H-1B for those who attained I-140 approval, and opportunities to change employers 180 days after filing of EB-485 green card application? This legislation was induced by two forces: One was the legacy INS backlogs in processing of cases and the other was rising demand market with limited resources of supply of the needed high tech foreign workers.
• Don't be surprised if the history will repeat itself. With the potential passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, the USCIS may again face a crisis of dealing with avalanches of case loads with a limited resources and funding. Obama Administration's implementation of DACA program for DREAMers effective August 2012 has already added a tremendous pressure on the USCIS' limited resources and funding to handle half a million DACA cases. Processing of cases across the board has witnessed delays and 800 customer service phone line requires from 60 minutes to one hour wait to reach a customer service person on the other end of the line to ask questions. In the past, it took less than either two minutes or five minutes! What about the country's economy? Stock market starts booming and the pace of economic recovery is being accelerated as time goes by. Without doubt, this will create demand market for highly skilled foreign workers, inducing rise of wages for such professional jobs. Will the country be able to afford another cycle of such crisis? Why crisis? Because it will affect the competitiveness of the American businesses because of the rising wages and shortage of needed high tech workers. Reform of employment-based immigration system is critical.

04/04/2013: Senator Marco Rubio Walking a Nervously Thin Line of Position as a CIR Proponent and as a CIR Opponent in the Eyes of Media

• Read how Miami Herald, the leading news paper in his home state, see his ambiguous stance on the CIR.

04/04/2013: USCIS Invites Stakeholders to a Web-ex Training Session on Immigration Relief for Victims of Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence and Other Serious Crimes

• This session will be scheduled on 04/17/2013 from 2:00-4:00 pm (Eastern). In this session, the Vermont Service Center and Office of Policy and Strategy will provide an overview of the various forms of immigration relief available to victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and other serious crimes. For the details, please click here.

04/04/2013: USCIS Updates Processing Times on 04/03/2013

• See the home page.

04/04/2013: Reports of Inability to Confirm Delivery of Some of H-1B Cap Packages Scheduled to be Delivered to the Vermont Service Center

• Some employers are presently undergoing panicky nightmares because of inability to confirm for their H-1B cap packages which they shipped out via commercial overnight delivery services which were scheduled to be delivered on Monday or Tuesday. Their nightmare stems from the predicament that should they file the same package again and should it happen that the initial packages have in fact been delivered, they can face both cases denied after paying expensive filing fees in double. It has yet to be confirmed by the official sources, but unconfirmed sources indicate that there are some packets which could have been delivered without scanning and because of the problem, neither VSC nor the involved overnight delivery service can trace and confirm deliveries that easily. We hope the USCIS posts some helpful answers to the ongoing nightmares for these employers. At this time, we have no answers as to what these employers will have to do because of the risks involved in one of two ways: If they file a duplicate and it turns out VSC indeed received the initial filing, they are taking a risk of both cases being denied. On the other hand, if they do not do anything, they are taking a risk of failure to file their cap cases timely before the cap numbers reach. What a predicament!

04/04/2013: House CIR Group of 8 Proposal for Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants, One of the Components of CIR Legislation

• Under the shadow of the visible Senate CIR 'Gang of 8,' reportedly the House CIR group of 8 has developed a very interesting proposal for the CIR component of "legalization of undocumented immigrants." Reportedly, the proposal lays out three different groups with different legalization relief:
  • Group I: DREAMers & Low-Skilled Farm Workers: Expedited road to legal status in order not to punish those who were brought illegally to the country by their parents, and agricultural workers who are desperately needed in the American farm industry to put the meals on your dining tables, which has been strongly backed by the labor union community.
  • Group II: Undocumented immigrants with a family or an employment relationship that would allow them to apply for legal status but for their EWI (Entry Without Inspection) by crossing the borders and subject to 3-year bar or 10-year bar. Reportedly, this group may receive the relief of waiver of unlawful presence which is more or less similar to the current provisional waiver of unlawful presence, I-601K relief. This relief will require them to apply for either family-based or employment-based immigrant visa at the American consulate in their home countries with the relief of waiver of 3-year or 10-year bar from unlawful presence in the United States. There appears to be one string attached to this relief, to wit, that they should complete a series of hurdles including paying fines and back taxes and learning English,
  • Group III: The rest of other undocumented immigrants: They will be given a “provisional legal status” if they come out of the closet, pay fines and back taxes, and learned English.. The provisional legal status would allow them to live, work and travel in the country legally, but they will have to apply for permanent resident status through regular immigration process after 10 years and apply for naturalization in 5 years after they obtain the permanent resident status, just like any other legal immigrants. Obviously, this proposal requires them to stay in the long line of regular legal immigration seekers on first come and first out basis.
• This proposal appears to be a workable compromise between the Republican party and the Democratic party from the perspectives of this reporter's earlier proposal to reach a compromise to share power in a balanced way by way of Republicans being assured of the Group III's being unable to attain citizenship with voting power for the next 15 years or longer and at the same time, Democrats being given an opportunity to expand their constituency base from the legalized undocumented immigrants through naturalization, albeit longer than 15 years in the future. Because of the existing backlogs in the immigrant visa numbers, it may take not just for 15 years but many and many years. You guessed it! Very interesting! We support the House version of legalization relief for the CIR in that it is a "realistic" political compromise with achievement of balance of powers between the two parties, at least for more than two decades.

04/04/2013: USCIS Online Customer Service Tools Unavailable This Sunday, April 7 (10:00 am - 02:00 pm ET)

• USCIS announces that it will conduct system maintenance on Sunday, April 7, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern. During this time, the following online tools will be unavailable:
  • Check My Case Status
  • Sign-Up for Case Status
  • Check Processing Times
  • Change of Address Online
  • Civil Surgeon Locator
  • Office Locator
  • E-Request
• Beware.

04/03/2013: Potential Expansion of Visa Waiver Program as Part of Senate CIR Bill

• Report indicates that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a leading member of Senate Gang of 8, has been pushing “JOLT” Act – Jobs Originated Through Launching Travel as part of the Senate CIR bill. The JOLT Act proposes to loosen up Visa Waiver Program qualification requirements to allow expansion of VWP availability to boost the international visitor traffics, whereby boosting the country's economy. Obviously, this is not an important component of the CIR under negotiation and compromise in the Senate, but interesting to note all different interests coming into play as part of the comprehensive immigration reform process. There is already one VWP bill in both Chambers to admit Israel into the membership of a groups of nations for VWP program.

04/03/2013: W-2 Visa for Lower Skilled Workers in Business-AFL/CIO Agreement for CIR

• According to the AFL-CIO, a key player for lower-skilled worker compromise with the business for comprehensive immigration reform, one of the key components of the CIR principles which the bipartisan Senate "Gang of Eight" came to an agreement in principle includes a new kind of worker visa program called the W-Visa. Read the AFL-CIO summary of five things which people should know about the W-Visa proposal.

04/03/2013: Update on Suspension of Adjudication of Most H-2B Petitions Following Court Order

• As announced by USCIS yesterday, April 2, 2013, USCIS has temporarily suspended adjudication of certain H-2B petitions while the government considers appropriate action in response to the Court order entered March 21, 2013 in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis, 2:09-cv-00240-LDD (E.D. Pa). The USCIS updates the notice today to answer questions on "What This Means for H-2B Employers" and "What This Means for Your Pending H-2B Petition."

04/03/2013: CBP Releases Today I-94 Automation Roll Out Schedules by Location and Port of Entries (POE)

04/03/2013: CBP Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) on I-94 Automation

04/03/2013: Pending "Final Date" Determination by USCIS, Employers Should Keep Filing H-1B Cap Petitions As Soon As Possible

• The "final date" will not be announced until next week at the earliest since the USCIS is required to keep receiving cap cases until the end of the business day of Friday, 04/05/2013, even if they have already received more than enough numbers during the five-day period. The announcement of "final date" will be critically important. If the final date is determined to be Friday, 04/05/2013, then any cases which are received by the two Service Centers after Friday will be rejected for regular cap cases, and all the cases which they received during the five-day period will be put into the computer random selection process, producing some losers. If the final date is announced in later part of next week or any other farther later dates, those cases which were received by Friday, April 5, 2013 will be safe, no matter what. However, for those cases which are received after Friday, April 5, 2013, will be handled one of the two ways. One option is to reject any cases which are received after the "final date," whatever that date may be. The second option is to put all the cases which are received on the final date and one day after the final date into the computer ramdom selection process. For the reasons, employers will have nothing to lose keep filing the cap cases until they determine and announce the final date for the cap petitions.
• Employers should keep in mind that the "final date" is not the date when the USCIS announces reach of the cap. By the time they announce the final date, it will be either a day or several days earlier than the date of announcement. Firstly, the employers should hope that the final date which they announce next week or any later dates is not April 5, 2013 to avoid the computer random selection process. Secondly, the employers should hope that the final date which they will announce is determined at a later date as later as possible so that the employers who filed between April 6 and the final date can also avoid the computer random selection process unless it was filed at the last minute of the final date. Good luck, employers!

04/03/2013: PERM Site Outage Alert (3:00 pm - 6:00 pm EST) Today

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has posted that the Permanent Online system will be unavailable from 3:00 PM ET to 6:00 PM ET on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 for routine maintenance. Beware.

04/03/2013: Sen. Leahy and Sen. Rubio Exchance Letters on Timing on Introduction of CIR in the Senate

• Report indicates that Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a letter to the Senate Jundiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to slow down his push for scheduling CIR debates in the Judiciary. In response to that letter, Sen. Leahy wrote him back a letter that introduction of CIR bill was 'urgent.' Hmm.............................. Will be interesting to see what the fall out of this confrontation will be for their political ambitions and careers considering the fact that timing is the key to either success or failure to the CIR 2013. You will be interested in reading this Leahy vs. Rubio news.

04/03/2013: USCIS Announcement of Honduras TPS Extension and Registration Information

04/03/2013: USCIS Announcement of Nicaragua TPS Extension and Registration Information

04/02/2013: Critical Week for CIR Bill in the Senate Next Week

• This week, there are a lot of activities by both pro or con activists at the community level throughout the country to add pressure on the legislators who take recess in their hometown neighborhood. There is already a sign that Senator Marco Rubio again dwindle on his position apparently as affected by the ultra-conservative and anti-immigration forces. As we reminded earlier, the momentum for introduction of the CIR bill in the Senate in the next week can be materialized only when the immigrant communities are en masse mobilized and add pressure on the legislators within this week. It is too silent and quiet out there.

04/02/2013: Fedex Delivery Delays of H-1B Cap Cases Unnerves Employers and Foreign Professionals

• Attorneys and AILA report that there was a failure of delivery of the H-1B cap filings by FEDEX yesterday and currently situation appears to be fluid. No one knows the exact cause of these delays. It could be related to the Service Centers' demand to cope with the mountain of packages or Fedex own problem. The employers are advised not to worry too much about the reach of cap, because as this site repeatedly advised the employers, delay time would not affect their cases for the purpose of cap inasmuch as they are delivered to the facilities of CSC or VSC befond the end of the agency's business day on Friday, April 5, 2013. Relax, employers!
• If you have yet to file the cap cases, feel free to do so without worrying about the cap. Just to make it sure that yours are delivered to the buildings of CSC or VSC by Friday. Postmark does not work!

04/02/2013: CRS Report of U.S. Immigration Policy: Chart Book of Key Trends

• This report is a chart book of selected immigration trends that touch on the main elements of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). The main issues in the immigration debate typically include increases to border security and enforcement of immigration laws within the U.S. interior, expansion of employment eligibility verification, and reforms to the system for legal temporary and permanent immigration. The thorniest issues concern policy options to address the millions of unauthorized aliens residing in the country. This report offers snapshots of time series data, using the most complete and consistent time series currently available for each statistic. Some of the time series span decades, others capture only a few years. The key findings and elements germane to the data depicted are summarized with the figures. For those who seek more complete analyses of the issues, the report cites Congressional Research Service (CRS) products that discuss the policies underlying the data presented in each of the figures. Read the full text.

04/02/3013: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Updates H-2B Temporary Labor Certification Status

• Office of Foreign Labor Certification announces that effective March 22, the Department is holding in abeyance the issuance of final determinations on most pending H-2B applications for temporary labor certification and those it received after March 22, while it considers appropriate action in response to the Court order entered March 21, 2013 in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis, 2:09-cv-00240-LDD (E.D. Pa). That order granted a permanent injunction against the operation of the portion of the 2008 wage rule related to certain prevailing wage determinations and gave the Department 30 days to come into compliance with the Court order.
• The Department will, however, continue to process and issue final determinations on H-2B applications for temporary labor certification where the employer's wage offer is based upon a prevailing wage not enjoined by the court order: those utilizing applicable Collective Bargaining Agreements, acceptable private wage surveys or Service Contract Act or Davis Bacon Act wage determinations. The Department intends to promulgate a revised wage rule within 30 days of the date of the Court order. This will allow the Department to resume providing employers with both prevailing wage determinations and final determinations on their H-2B applications for temporary labor certification.

04/02/2013: USCIS Temporarily Suspends Adjudication of Most H-2B Petitions Following Court Order

• USCIS has released an alert that effective March 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is temporarily suspending adjudication of most Form I-129 H-2B petitions for temporary non-agricultural workers while the government considers appropriate action in response to the Court order entered March 21, 2013 in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis, 2:09-cv-00240-LDD (E.D. Pa). That order granted a permanent injunction against the operation of the portion of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2008 wage rule related to certain prevailing wage determinations and gave DOL 30 days to come into compliance with the Court order. Premium processing of H-2B petitions will be suspended until further notice. Petitioners who have already filed an H-2B petition using the premium processing service and receive no agency action on their case within the 15 calendar day period will be issued a refund. The Department of Labor intends to promulgate a revised wage rule within 30 days of the date of the Court order. This will allow USCIS to resume adjudication of all H-2B petitions.
  

04/02/2013: Advance Copy of Federal Register Notice of TPS Desgination and EAD Automatic Extension for Nicaragua

• This notice extends the designation of Nicaragua for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months from July 6, 2013 through January 5, 2015. The 60-day re-registration period runs from 04/03/2013. USCIS will issue new EADs with a January 5, 2015 expiration date to eligible Nicaraguan TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs under this extension. However, given the timeframes involved with processing TPS re-registration applications, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes that all re-registrants may not receive new EADs until after their current EADs expire on July 5, 2013. Accordingly, this Notice automatically extends the validity of EADs issued under the TPS designation of Nicaragua for 6 months, from July 5, 2013 through January 5, 2014.
• Certain nationals of Nicaragua (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Nicaragua) who have not previously applied for TPS may be eligible to apply under the late initial registration provisions, if they
  meet: (1) at least one of the late initial filing criteria and (2) all TPS eligibility criteria (including continuous residence in the United States since December 30, 1998, and continuous physical presence in the United States since January 5, 1999). Read the full text for additional details.

04/02/2013: Advance Copy of Federal Register Notice of TPS Designation and EAD Automatic Extension for Honduras

• This notice will be published tomorrow, 04/03/2013, extending the designation of Honduras for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months from July 6, 2013 through January 5, 2015. The 60-day re-registration period runs from 04/03/2013. USCIS will issue new EADs with a January 5, 2015 expiration date to eligible Honduran TPS beneficiaries who timely re-register and apply for EADs under this extension. However, given the timeframes involved with processing TPS re-registration applications, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes that all re-registrants may not receive new EADs until after their current EADs expire on July 5, 2013. Accordingly, this Notice automatically extends the validity of EADs issued under the TPS designation of Honduras for 6 months, from July 5, 2013 through January 5, 2014.
• Certain nationals of Honduras (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Honduras) who have not previously applied for TPS may be eligible to apply under the late initial registration provisions, if they
  meet: (1) at least one of the late initial filing criteria and (2) all TPS eligibility criteria (including continuous residence in the United States since December 30, 1998, and continuous physical presence in the United States since January 5, 1999). For the details, read the full text of this notice.

04/01/2013: Initial Unofficial Sources of Information Indicates H-1B to Reach by Friday, 04/05/2013, as USCIS Predicted

• There are unofficial reports coming out from verious sources relating to the FEDEX, UPS, USPS indicating that there were massive (5 digits) overnight deliveries to the California Service Center and Vermont Service Center today, April 1. Please stay tuned for development of this news.

04/01/2013: USCIS Processing Times Update 04/01/2013

• See the home page.

03/31/2013: Senate Judiciary Chairman to Schedule Extensive Mark-up & Debate on CIR Bill in April

• As the Senate version of CIR bill is likely to be officially introduced in the Senate in the second week of April 2013, the Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, reportedly has agreed to have extensive mark-up and debate on the bill in April. The iron of the 2013 CIR will get "hot." Are you ready to strike it while it is hot? Start contacting and encouraging Senators in your states to participate in and support the CIR legislation this week. They will stay there in your states at least during this week (03/31/2013-04/07/2013). Immigrants and stakeholders, try not to be greedy or selfish or obructionist or bickering each other at this stage as there is a common interest at this time across the board for achievement of immigration reform this year in one form or another. This bill appears to be a compromised and fairly well-balanced bill helping family-based and employment-based immigration communities together as well as undocumented immigrant community. The country and history will watch your behaviours!

03/31/2013: OMB Approves TPS Designation Extension for Publication in Federal Register for Hondura & Nicaragua on Friday, 03/29/2013

• Late Friday, the White House OMB cleared these TPS designations and automatic EAD extensions for Honduaran and Nicaraguans for publishing in the federal register. The TPS extension and automatic EAD extension will not take effect until they are published in the federal register and until the effective dates which are provided in the notices. Please stay tuned.

03/30/2013: Break-Through of Last Sticking Issue for Senate CIR Bill Reportedly Made Today, Saturday

• The New York times reports today that the nation’s top business and labor groups have reached an agreement on a guest worker program for low-skilled immigrants. Pay for guest workers was the last major sticking point on a broad immigration package that stalled introduction of the bill in the Senate by the Senate Gang of Eight. Accordingly, the report indicates that the Senate version of CIR bill will be introduced in the Seante when the Senate returns to the session after their two-weeks of Easter break. The agreement appears to involve, according to the report a reform for low-skilled worker program such a way that the program would start at 20,000 visas, rising to 35,000 visas in the second year, 55,000 in the third and 75,000 in the fourth. In the fifth year, the program would expand or shrink based on the unemployment rate, the ratio of job openings to unemployed workers and various other factors. The agreement calls for a maximum of 200,000 guest visas granted each year. One third of all visas available in any given year would go to businesses with fewer than 25 employees. No more than 15,000 visas per year would go to construction occupations. Business groups, which had long been pushing to allow in 400,000 such guest workers each year, will get what they regard as an adequate number to meet the needs of employers. For the related report, please click here.

03/30/2013: Expiring N-400 Naturalization Form and USCIS Advisory

• Until further notice, applicants should continue using the March 22, 2012 edition of Form N-400 currently available. This form should continue to be used even after the OMB control number expiration date of March 31, 2013, has passed. USCIS will provide updated information about the new version of the Form N-400 as it becomes available later this year. See the advisory.
• Readers may want to know that pending the OMB review and approval of the revised or updated forms, people are allowed to use expiring or expired forms until the agencies release the new updated or revised forms under the rule-making procedure. Best practice is to check with the form site of the USCIS website before using the currently expired forms. Inasmuch as no updated forms are available on the site for the expiring or expired forms, people may just use the currently available forms on the USCIS websites without any risk.

03/30/2013: Travel Update Pending Implementation of Automation of I-94 Form Effective 04/30/2013

• As readers are aware of, automation of I-94 form and airport procedure will not be implemented until 04/30/2013 or later depending on the specific port of entry one enters. Pending implementation of the automation I-94 form, people may follow the CBP's latest advisory which was published on 09/17/2012. During the period of transition, the nonimmigrants may encounter some confused stakeholder government agencies including SSA, DMV, Schools, etc. During the latest CBP teleconference on release of the rule of automation of I-94 form, it was revealed that some of these stakeholder agencies rely on the CBP entry stamps on the passports only or such stamps plus I-94 and it appeared the CBP's answers to this confusion were to follow the stakeholder's requirement pending further clarification. After the automation is implemented, nonimmigrants may print out and carry with them online I-94 form for peace of mind.

03/30/2013: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Announcement of Delay of Effective Date of H-2B Wage Final Rule

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification announces that the Department of Labor has published a notice in the Federal Register delaying the effective date of the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-agricultural Employment H-2B Program final rule (2011 Wage Final Rule), which was published on January 19, 2011, 76 FR 3452. In light of the enactment of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, Pub. L. 113-6, which establishes the Department's appropriations through September 30, 2013, and also continues the prohibition of the expenditure of the Department's appropriated funds to implement, administer, and enforce the 2011 Wage Final Rule, the Department is delaying the effective date of the 2011 Wage Final Rule.

03/29/2013: Employers, Revised Form I-9 Released Effective 03/08/2013 and Current Version Not Acceptable Effective 05/07/2013

• Employers, read the announcement. See what have been changed from the current form by visiting the newly released online E-Verify Connection. The changes include, among others:
  • Instructions for Form I-9 are six pages (formerly 3) with links to resources
  • Form I-9 is now two pages
  • Fillable with drop down menus for date and country of issuance
  • Data field titles are clearer
  • Section 1- New Fields:

• E-mail address and phone number (optional)
•Alien Authorized to Work
•Foreign passport and country of issuance

• Section 2:

•Employee’s name on top of form
*New fields for List A document combinations

• Read also Revised Instructions for Completing the revised form I-9. You can also visit the I-9 Central Home page.

03/29/2013: OFLC Correction/Rescission Notice of H-2A (Temporary Agricultural Workers) Prevailing Wage Rates for Certain Occupations Processed

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification announces that it has published in the Federal Register a notice correcting certain prevailing wage rates established by the January 8, 2013 notice for H-2A workers and workers in corresponding employment engaged in the open range production of livestock in Texas, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. In addition, this notice rescinds prevailing wage rates established by the January 8, 2013 notice for H-2A workers and workers in corresponding employment engaged in sheepherding and goatherding occupations in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. In the absence of the January 8 prevailing wage rates for sheepherding and goatherding, the Department is reverting to previously established prevailing wage rates for these occupations.
• To learn more, please read the Federal Register notice.

03/28/2013: USCIS Fiscal Year 2012 Accomplishments

• Good summary. Read on.

03/28/2013: USCIS Published New G-28 Form Today and Current Form Not Acceptable After 05/26/2013

• USCIS has announced that today, USCIS published a revised version of the Form G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative. Attorneys and accredited representatives may begin using the revised form immediately. USCIS will not accept prior versions of the form after May 26, 2013.
  
  USCIS would like to remind attorneys and accredited representatives of the following tips to ensure their Form G-28 is properly filed:
  " Complete all fields and ensure the form is signed by both you and the client
  " Complete a separate form for each client:
  o If you represent both the applicant and petitioner, complete a separate Form G-28 for each individual you represent
  o If your client has filed multiple forms, complete a Form G-28 for each individual application or petition
  " Ensure your client's name appears exactly as it does on the related benefit form
  Further information, including the full instructions for completing the Form G-28 and additional filing tips, can be found at www.uscis.gov/g-28 .

03/28/2013: OFLC Notice of Hold of Prevailing Wage Determination for H-2B (Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers) Effective 03/22/2013 Pending Court Decision Compliance

• OFLC has released the following notice for the H-2B stakeholders: Effective March 22, the Department is holding in abeyance most pending H-2B prevailing wage requests and those it received after March 22, while it considers appropriate action in response to the Court order entered March 21, 2013 in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis, 2:09-cv-00240-LDD (E.D. Pa). That order granted a permanent injunction against the operation of the portion of the 2008 wage rule related to prevailing wage determinations and gave the Department 30 days to come into compliance with the Court order. The result is that the Department can no longer make prevailing wage determinations based on the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey four tier wage system. The Department will, however, continue to process prevailing wage requests not enjoined by the court order: those utilizing applicable Collective Bargaining Agreements, acceptable private wage surveys or Service Contract Act or Davis Bacon Act wage determinations. The Department intends to comply with the Court order within 30 days by promulgating a revised wage rule. This will allow the Department to resume providing employers with prevailing wage determinations.

03/28/2013: Hats-Off to Foreign Labor Certification Office's Remarkable Performance of Avalanches of H-1B LCAs Timely

• Probably in everyone's one corner of mind, there must have been a question as to how the OFLC would handle the avalanche of LCA filings during the past two or three weeks. It is indeed remarkable that the OFLC has been superbly performing their jobs under the current stressful circumstances certifying LCAs timely in seven (7) days!! The staff of OFLC, including the Chief of OFLC, certainly deserve a "than you" from employers and professional foreign workers for their job well done.

03/28/2013: FY 2014 H-1B Cap Filing Last Minute Advisory

• Please make it sure that your packets are not delivered to the agency on Sunday as it will be rejected with the deadly consequences. Double check filing jurisdictions as filing with the wrong Service Center will end up with rejection. They will not forward to the correct Service Center. Remember that if the worksite are more than one location for the employee, for instance, Florida and California, the case is filed with the Service Center that has jurisdiction over the headquarter of the employer. Please double check this with the USCIS customer service phone line. Double check that all forms are there with no missing signatures, no missing or incorrect check of boxes or wrong or missing information in the forms. Double check that the filing fee checks are completed and signed without error or missing information including case type, employer name, and alien name. Any correction on the filing fee checks will be rejected with the deadly consequences. Double check the dates of checks. Checks should not include the Service Center addresses. Even though the instructions for the forms ask to sign in black ink pen, in some cases, the cases can be rejected because of their misunderstanding that the signature is not original and a copy. This is true if one uses "fine" black ink pen. Please make it sure to sign in "bold" black color ink pen or dark blue color ink pen. Against the loss or misplace of your filing in the Service Center facilities, you may want to print the tracking numbers on your cover letter so that the overnight delivery services delivery confirmation can be identified and matched with a "specific" filing. Otherwise, there will be no proof that the delivery confirmation represents your "specific" filing. Double check spelling of the employer name and the alien name. On the mailing envelopes, mark clearly specific case type using "color markers." If you use U.S. express mail from the West Coast to file with the Vermont Service Center, delivery to the physical building of the VSC may miss the agency pickup truck at the postal station in some cases because of the difference in the time zone. It can be otherwise if you ship out from the East Coast to the California Service Center. The chance is better or accurate that your envelope will reach the physical address of the CSC, again due to the benefit of time zone difference. But please ask the postal stations this question to make it sure the correct time your packed will reach the destination at the destination time. GOOD LUCK!

03/28/2013: EOIR Final Rule Changing Policy on Forwarding Asylum Applications to Department of State from Current Mandatory to Discretionary

• Currently, EOIR forwards to DOS all asylum applications that are submitted initially in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. The final rule amends the regulations to provide for sending asylum applications to DOS on a discretionary basis. For example, EOIR may forward an application in order to ascertain whether DOS has information relevant to the applicant’s eligibility for asylum. This rule change will take effect on April 28, 2013. Read on.

03/27/2013: CSC Reopened Today and Operates Normal

• USCIS announces that the USCIS California Service Center (CSC) has reopened following a temporary closure due to plumbing issues. Deliveries have resumed and USCIS does not anticipate any delays due to the closure.

03/27/2013: Further Information on Automation of I-94 Implementation

• Even though the regulation takes effect on 04/26/2013, automation will be implemented only beginning from 04/30/2013. Moreover, it will be implemented at different times depending on the location of the port of entry. The locations of port of entries will be phased in four period such that port of entries in certain cities will be the first week of April, followed by different ports of entries at different cities in the scond week, third week, and all remaining port of entries in remaining areas at the fourth week. Accordingly, by the end of May, 2013, all ports of entries will implement automation of the form I-94. In today's teleconfeence, they covered many questions and answers that would be very helpful to all the nonimmigrants, their employers, stakeholder federal and state and local agencies, and relatives. We strongly encourage the CBP to post Q&A on automation of the form I-94 AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The CBP will use I-94 automation page (www.cbp.gov/I94) but it will not go live until April 30, 2013. Current website of the CBP does not give the details, not to mention Q&A, other than their announcement. Since there are so many unanswered questions in the announcement which need to be answered for their customers, they should post detailed FACT SHEET and QUESTIONS & ANSWERS as soon as possible!

03/27/2013: CBP Invites to Teleconference on Automation of I-94 Today at 3:00 p.m. EST

• CBP invites interested individuals to participate in a stakeholder teleconference on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern). During the teleconference, subject matter experts from CBP will provide an update on the process to automate Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, and answer questions. Please use the information below to join the teleconference. We recommend that you call in 20 minutes before its start.
  
  Call-in Number: 1-888-566-7682
  Passcode: AUTOMATION
  
  This call is intended for stakeholders only. Members of the media who have inquiries should call (800) 826-1471 or email cbpmediarelations@dhs.gov

03/27/2013: USCIS Continues to Require Paper Form I-94

• Relating to the CBP announcement of automation of the form I-94, the USCIS has announced that "USCIS will continue to require applicants to submit a paper copy of Form I-94 when requesting certain benefits. Other government agencies, such as State Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs), also require a paper copy of Form I-94. Moreover, nonimmigrants who are authorized to work may present a paper copy of Form I-94 to their employers during the employment eligibility verification (Form I-9) process." CBP announcement included an advisory that even after automation of the form I-94, people can produce a paper copy of I-94 online for such purposes, but it is not clear whether this will satisfy the paper I-94 requirement of the USCIS. Please stay tuned additional clarification by the USCIS.
• Caveat: Another announcement of the USCIS alerts that individuals who go through secondary inspection, such as asylees, refugees, and parolees, will be provided a paper copy of Form I-94 by a CBP officer. It probably means that they need a CBP produced paper I-94. Hew................................................!

03/27/2013: USCBP Scheduled to Implement Automation of Form I-94, Eliminating Paper I-94 Forms Effective 04/26/2013

• The USCBP published the Interim Final Rule to introduce online I-94 system that will take effect on April 26, 2013. Along with the release of the rule, the USCBP released an announcement of "Automation of Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record - Eliminates Paper Forms, Streamlines Admission Process." According to the announcement, the automation means that affected visitors will no longer need to fill out a paper form when arriving to the U.S. by air or sea. Once this is implemented, travelers wanting a hard copy or other evidence of admission will be directed to www.cbp.gov/I94 (which will go live on 04/26/2013) to print a copy of an I-94 based on the electronically submitted data, including the I-94 number from the form, to provide as necessary to benefits providers or as evidence of lawful admission. Unlike some misconception out there, they are not eliminating I-94 as proof of lawful admission. It is just converted to an online system which is accessible by the involved alien as well as any sources that need an access to the online I-94. Everything goes cyber these days. Amazing.

03/27/2013: USICE Releases SEVP (Student & Exchange Visitor Program) Policy Guidance on Reporting Instructional Sites 03/21/2013

03/27/2013: DOL Notice of Delay of Effective Date of H-2B Wage Final Rule as Affected by Legislation Prohibiting Fund for Impelementation of the Rule

• DOL is delaying the effective date of the Wage Methodology for Temporary Non-agricultural Employment H2B Program final rule (the Wage Rule) in order to address legislation that prohibits any funds from being used to implement the Wage Rule for the remainder of FY 2013. The attached notice has been sent to the Federal Register for posting and publication. The DOL will publish a notice in the Federal Register delaying the effective date of the Wage Methodology for the Temporary Non-agricultural Employment H-2B Program final rule (2011 Wage Final Rule), which was published on January 19, 2011, 76 FR 3452. In light of the anticipated enactment of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, which establishes the Department's appropriations through September 30, 2013, and also continues the prohibition of the expenditure of the Department's appropriated funds to implement, administer, and enforce the 2011 Wage Final Rule, the Department will delay the effective date of the 2011 Wage Final Rule.

03/27/2013: USCIS Field Office Closure Alert

• All offices in St. Croix, USVI, St. Thomas, USVI and San Juan, PR will be closed on March 29, 2013 in observance of Good Friday.

03/26/2013: CSC Temporary Closure Update

• It appears they are closed only for two days, 25th and 26th.

03/26/2013: CSC Temporary Closure Update

• As we reported earlier, the CSC remains closed today because of the plumbing problem. Accordingly, delivery to the CSC facility was not available for two days, yesterday and today. There is no information available about whether it will also remain closed tomorrow. Accordingly, those who need filing of cases because of approaching deadline should be prepared to file it tomorrow. People are advised to keep contacting FEDEX, UPS, and other delivery services. For further development, please stay tuned.

03/26/2013: USCBP Notice of New Definition of Form I-94 Including Paper and Electronic Formats

• This notice which will take effect tomorrow adds a new definition of the term “Form I-94” that includes the collection of arrival/departure and admission or parole information by DHS, whether in paper or electronic format. The definition also clarifies various terms that are associated with the use of the Form I-94 to accommodate an electronic version of the Form I-94. This rule also adds a valid, unexpired nonimmigrant DHS admission or parole stamp in a foreign passport to the list of documents designated as evidence of alien registration. These revisions to the regulations will enable DHS to transition to an automated process whereby DHS will create a Form I-94 in an electronic format based on passenger, passport and visa information DHS currently obtains electronically from air and sea carriers and the Department of State as well as through the inspection process. For the full details, please click here.

03/26/2013: Senate Scheduled to Recess Until 04/08/2013 and House Scheduled to Recess Util 04/09/2013

• Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That when the Senate recesses or adjourns on any day from Friday, March 22, 2013 through Tuesday, March 26, 2013, on a motion offered pursuant to this concurrent resolution by its Majority Leader or his designee, it stand recessed or adjourned until 12:00 noon on Monday, April 8, 2013, or such other time on that day as may be specified by its Majority Leader or his designee in the motion to recess or adjourn, or until the time of any reassembly pursuant to section 2 of this concurrent resolution, whichever occurs first; and that when the House adjourns on Monday, March 25, 2013, on a motion offered pursuant to this concurrent resolution by its Majority Leader or his designee, it stand adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, or until the time of any reassembly pursuant to section 2 of this concurrent resolution, whichever occurs first. The Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, or their respective designees, acting jointly after consultation with the Minority Leader of the Senate and the Minority Leader of the House, shall notify the Members of the Senate and House, respectively, to reassemble at such place and time as they may designate if, in their opinion, the public interest shall warrant it.

03/25/2013: USCIS Confirms Plumbing/Flooding at CSC and CSC Temporary Closure for Delivery Effective 03/25/2013 Pending Further Notice!

• The following is the USCIS official alert: USCIS California Service Center Closed Due to Plumbing IssuesOn Monday, March 25, 2013, some customers were notified of delivery delays to the USCIS California Service Center (CSC). The delays were the result of a temporary closure of CSC due to plumbing issues. The CSC will remain closed on Tuesday, March, 26, 2013. Deliveries will resume once CSC reopens. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will provide updates as they become available.
• What a worst time it is, considering the fact that the California Service Center and Vermont Service Center must start taking in FY 2014 H-1B cap petitions beginning from April 1, 2013.

03/25/2013: Reported Holding of Delivery of Packages to CSC by UPS and Fedex for Flooding at CSC

• AILA reports today that AILA liaison has received reports that Federal Express and UPS are holding deliveries to the California Service Center for the alleged flooding at CSC. AILA is currently in the process of confirmation and further information through its liaison. Please stay tuned.

03/25/2013: PERM Processing Times as of 03/04/2013

• The dates represent priority dates. Readers may notice that PERM takes a little bit longer.
  • Analyst Review (Clean Case): 11/14/2012
  • Audit Cases: 06/30/2012
  • Reconsideration Request Cases: 03/04/2013
  • Government Error Reconsideration Cases: Current

03/25/2013: DOL LCA Site Outage During Weekend Drove FY 2014 H-1B Cap Last Minute Filers Panicking

• The DOL iCERT site for H-1B LCA and PERM site experienced outage during the weekend. Those H-1B cap last minute filers who wanted to file last minute LCA to beat the potential H-1B cap exhaustion by Friday, April 5, 2013 were panicking. It is hoped that the sysems come back today.

03/23/2013: Senate CIR Bill Before the End of March?

• According to a report, one of the key player, Senator Chuck Schumer, stated on 03/21/2013 that the Gange of Eight was expected to" meet our goal of having comprehensive immigration reform supported by all eight of us by the end of March. We’re on track." Hmm..... Sounds good and interesting. Let's wait and see.

03/22/2013: Reported Increase of Annual H-1B Cap Numbers (Double) in Forcoming Senate CIR Bill

• Computerworld reports that H-1B component of the forthcoming CIR bill would double annual H-1B cap numbers. Read on.

03/22/2013: USCIS Eliminates Saturday Telephone Customer Services

• USCIS has announced that the USCIS National Customer Service Center (NCSC) is introducing new public hours of operation for our toll-free number at 800-375-5283. Effective immediately, USCIS will eliminate Saturday hours of operation. Beginning April 1, the NCSC will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, in all four time zones in the contiguous United States. This adjustment will allow USCIS to better serve customers during peak contact hours and respond more quickly to customer needs.

03/22/2013: USCIS Updates Monthly Processing Times 03/22/2013

• See our home page.

03/22/2013: Reminder - USCIS Customer Service Tools Outage for Maintence This Sunday 5:00 am to 3:00 pm (est)

• See the USCIS notice.

03/21/2013: Senate Judiciary Chairman Impatient With CIR Bill Delays

• Report indicates that the hardline conservative Republican Senators including Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote a letter to the Judiciary Chairman to slow down his push for CIR agenda warning that fast-tracking immigration reform was "a prescription for a real problem.” Some take such Republican Senators action negatively as a delay tactic to block the CIR in 2013. The Chairman Leahy reportedly reacted Wednesday with a release of statement that ongoing protracted behind-the-curtain negotiation rather had been causing delays in CIR efforts as no issues can be debated before the nation and the ultimate stakeholders, the public and constituents. Apparently, the conservative Republican Senators have come forward with such demand as the Chairman wanted to see debates on CIR issues for the public and constituents. Readers must have noticed that the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman lately scheduled and opened hearings on immigration reform issues more or less aggressively. As this site repeatedly reminded the readers over and over, delays will be number one killer for the CIR 2013 and immigration reform advocates have started turning impatient over the so-called behind the curtain CIR players in both House and Senate causing delays in open debates on the immigration reform in the legislative process. This apparent confrontation within the Senate Judiciary Committee gives an opportunity for the readers to peak through the dark veil "hidden agenda" of political players which laypeople would not be able to detect in most cases. Political players always use "tactics" "strategies" and "hidden agenda." Only fools will take what is printed in the newspapers and on the TV screen on their face values and without filtering. Other term of these tactics, strategies, and hidden agenda are also called "spinning" and "veil." Got it, readers?

03/21/2013: USCIS Processing Volumes & Trends by Types of Cases and by Processing Offices as of End of January 2013

03/21/2013: House Bill to Issue 10,500 E-3 Visas to South Koreans

• Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega from American Samoa introduced in the House yesterday H.R.1279 to issue up to 10,500 E-3 visas per year to nationals of the Republic of Korea (South).

03/20/2013: USCIS ELIS Outage This Sunday

• The USCIS Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS) will be temporarily off line on Sunday, March 24 from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT as we update the system.

03/20/2013: House Speaker Rep. John Boehner Supports House Bi-Partisan Gang of Eight Ongoing Drafting of House Version CIR

• In a way, this can be one of the most important developments for the prospects for CIR legislation as the House has been considered one of the deadly bottlenects for CIR in 2013. Obviously, we will have to wait and see what the compromised House version of CIR contains, but along with the late news of GOP official report reassessing its direction and political strategy from the perspectives of the reality of political landscape, this news must be taken as a very important development for CIR. No matter what it will look like, just the fact that House GOP leadership backdowned to go for and support CIR is indeed an important change in the direction of winds as it will open a window for the two parties to go through the negotiation and compromise process along the way. Prior ultra right wing position against the CIR literally shed a dark shadow for the CIR. Please see the news report.

03/20/2013: USCIS Federal Register Notice of Liberian DED Filing Procedures for EAD Application and Automatic Extension of EAD Documents for Current DED Liberians

• Read on for the "official" notice. Read also USCIS instructions.

03/19/2013: Senator Chuck Grassley Reintroduced H-1B and L-1 Visa Restriction Bill in the Senate

• Yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa introduced S.600 "The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013" in the Senate to reforrm and reduce fraud and abuse in certain visa programs for aliens working temporarily in the United States. Following is the summary of this bill in his press release:
  • Requires all companies to make a good faith effort to hire Americans first.
  • Requires prospective H-1B employers to list available positions on a Department of Labor sponsored website for a period of 30 days prior to petitioning for foreign labor.
  • Prohibits employers from advertising only to H-1B visa holders.
  • Prohibits companies from outsourcing visa holders to other companies. A waiver is provided for companies that can attest that they have not displaced a U.S. worker, and if it is not a “labor for hire” arrangement.
  • Provides that the wages paid to H-1B visaholders must be the highest of (1) the locally-determined prevailing wage for the occupational classification in the area of employment; (2) the median average wage for all workers in the occupational classification in the area of employment; or (3) the median wage for skill level 2 in the occupational classification found in the most recent occupational employment statistics survey.
  • Increases the ability of the departments of Labor and Homeland Security to enforce worker protections by allowing random audits, and removes burdensome requirements for initiating Department of Labor investigations.
  • Ensures that an H-1B application filed by an employer that employs 50 or more U.S. workers will not be accepted unless the employer attests that less than 50 percent of the employer’s workforce are H-1B and L visa holders.
  • Requires Department of Labor employees to share information about H-1B petitions with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
  • Requires that each employer filing an application for an H-1B visa holder must submit to the Department of Labor the W-2 tax form for each H-1B visa holder employed during the previous period.
  • Increases administrative fines per violation from $1000 to $2000 and from $5000 to $10,000 for willful misrepresentation and restricts the ability of these companies to participate in the future recruiting of H-1B and L-1 employees.
  • Requires State Department consular officers to provide a brochure to visa holders about their rights under the H-1B and L visa programs. The employee would also get copies of his immigration paperwork, and a list of employer obligations (including wage and working condition requirements).
  • Requires an L visa holder to prove that a legitimate business is being set up in the United States, modifies the wage requirements and outplacement rules, provides L visa holders with a brochure about their rights, and requires a report on the blanket petition application process.
• Full text of the bill. A similar bill was proposed at the end of 112th Congress as his alleged compromise to drop his filibuster against H.R.3012 EB per country limit elimination bill. Apparently, the Senator is positioning his agenda against H-1B and L-1 visa program, again as bargain chip for the ongoing CIR efforts, that demands reinforcement of immigration enforcement.

03/19/2013: DOL Notice of Details of Furlough, Taking Effect on 04/15/2013 Through September 2013

• As we posted earlier, the DOL announced 4,700 employee furlough as part of the sequester belt-tightening program. Details of its impact on the foreign labor certification programs have yet to be released.

03/19/2013: State Department Schedules a Meeting in Washington on FY 2014 Refugee Admission Program

• There will be a meeting on the President’s FY 2014 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Department of State’s Harry S. Truman Building’s George C. Marshall Conference Room, 2201 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20520. The meeting’s purpose is to hear the views of attendees on the appropriate size and scope of the FY 2014 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Those who ae interested in attending at the meeting may click here for the details.

03/18/2013: FY 2014 H-1B Cap - USCIS Prediction

• "Based on feedback from a number of stakeholders, USCIS anticipates that it may receive more petitions than the H-1B cap between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013. "

03/18/2013: GOP Reality Self-Assessment on CIR and Other Issues

• What a wonderful and honest analysis and assessment! Read on. See the impact of this GOP report on the Senate CIR Gang of Eight.

03/18/2013: USCIS Limits RFE Response Time to 30 Days for I-601A Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Applications

• According to the USCIS policy memorancum, to avoid lengthy delays in immigrant visa processing, USCIS is limiting the RFE response time to 30 days for RFEs issued for Form I-601As. The 30-day RFE timeframe will help streamline USCIS processing, prevent delays at the NVC and at consular posts, and allow applicants to complete immigrant processing in a more timely manner.

03/18/2013: Senate Judiciary Immigration Reform Hearings This Week

• Senate Judiciary is scheduling the following hearings, but reports indicate that there are still several issues which the Gang of Eight could not reach an agreement, causing delays in drafting and introducing the Senate version of CIR. On the House side, there have been reports that House Gang of Eight was close to release the House version of CIR, but no details have been released except that the House version will reduce the family-based immigration by eliminating family-based immigration preferences sponsorship for brothers and sisters and restrictions to parents for sponsoring adult sons and daughters not to increase over all immigrant visa numbers. Sounds familiar? This component of the House version will collide head-on with the Senate version with a potential de.ja vu all over again of the past failed comprehensive immigration reform efforts for a number of reasons including potential implication of such bill for racial and ethinic re-balance of the country's population in the long haul. With a fading hope for a successful CIR, we want to see the CIR bills of whatever forms or shapes as soon as introduced and acted such that at least some important piece-meal immigration reforms can be resolved in the future. Currently, these piece-meal immigration reform efforts have been a hostage to the ongoing CIR political games.
  • Today, 03/18/2013: “How Comprehensive Immigration Reform Should Address the Needs of Women and Families”
    • Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy Statement
    • Ai-jen Poo, Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance, New York, NY
    • Dr. Karen Panetta, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA
    • Mee Moua, President and CEO, Asian American Justice Center, Washington, DC
    • Susan Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
    • Jennifer Ng’andu, Director, Health and Civil Rights Policy Project, National Council of La Raza, Arlington, VA
  • Wednesday, 03/20/2013: "Building an Immigration System Worthy of American Values"
    • Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leadhy Statement
    • Ahilan Arulanantham, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
    • Michael Cutler, Senior Special Agent (Ret.), Immigration and Naturalization Service, New York, NY
    • Professor Paul Grussendorf, Retired Immigration Judge, Shepherdstown, WV
    • Jan C. Ting, Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, PA
    • Pamela Stampp, Esq., Attorney, Castro Law Firm, Wilmington, DE
• We will post the text of testimonies of the witnesses as soon as they are made available. Readers are encourated to revisit this posting later.

03/17/2013: USCIS Clarifies That H-1B Cap Premium Processing Can be Filed from 04/01/2013 But Adjudication Will be Started from 04/15/2013

• There was some confusing on this issue. The USCIS clafies distinction between filing and adjudication. USCIS clearly now states that the H-1B cap petitions can be filed with the Premium Processing Service Request beginning from April 1, 2013, but adjudication of such Premium Processing H-1B petition will start only beginning from April 15, 2013. Good enough clarification.

03/16/2013: Bleak Future of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation in 2013

• After the November 2012 election, this site has spent enormous amount of time to review the issues and bottlenecks for past CIR efforts, including the history of Reagan CIR proposal in 1980s and Kennedy-McCain CIR in 2000's. Shockingly enough, the current CIR players in the Congress and the White House are moving towards a direction more or less copying the past efforts that ended up with a failure. As we suggested, the success to the CIR this time around would depend on these leaders to accept overall increase in "legal" immigrant visa numbers rather than being messed up with power struggles between the Republican and Democratic parties relating to the demographic changes and attempting again to achieve agenda of the immigration reform to contain and control of the number of "legal" immigrants in the long haul. This CIR move in 2013 is doomed to failure. The country may as well focus on piecemeal immigration reform efforts focusing on the reform of the immigration system that can boost the country's economy first. How disappointing these political leaders are. We have lost faith in these political leaders.

03/16/2013: U.S. STEM Ph.D. Degree Earned Immigrant Green Card Bill Introduced in the House

• Yesterday, Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota introduced in the House H.R.1227, Stopping Trained in America Ph.D.s from Leaving the Economy Act (STAPLE Act), in the House to give permanent resident status to immigrants with U.S. Ph.D. degree in STEM and also to be exempted from the numerical limitations on H-1B. For the outline of the bill, please read the sponsor's press release.

03/16/2013: Brief History of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Efforts in the 109th and 110th Congresses to Inform Policy Discussions in the 113th Congress

• This Congressional Research Service report of February 27, 2013 review the recent past efforts of the Congress on CIR from the perspectives of ongoing CIR efforts in the current Congress. Read on.

03/15/2013: H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Cap Page

• New DACA filings have been substantially reduced in numbers.

03/15/2013: USCIS Releases DACA Processing Statistics Update 03/15/2013

03/15/2013: Liberian DED Extended to 09/30/2014

• The President issued a memorandum extending the DED for Liberian for 18 months from April 1, 2013.

03/14/2013: March May be 'Come and Gone' for Senate Gang of 8's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

• Immigration advocates have been anxiously waiting to see a CIR bill introduced in the Senate in March by the 'Gange of 8.' However, there is no sign that this bill will be introduced within March and they may go to their neigborhool soon to participate in the Christian religious holidays of Passover, Good Friday, and Easter. There are already some spinning leaks of information that the earliest anyone can see such bill in the Senate will be April. Too bad. This site has repeatedly brought up the issue of importance of time for a successful CIR legislation and running time is number one enemy to the CIR legislation. Hope is still there but more or less waning slowly as time goes by.

03/14/2013: House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee to Discuss New Rules for Private Bills to Seek Permanent Resident Status by Individual Legislation

• The Congress (House and Senate) has been receiving a number of private bills by the members to seek grant of permanent resident status for certain individuals bypassing the current immigration statutes and by enacting a legislation for a specific individual granting a lawful permanent resident status through an individual legislation. Today, the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee is scheduled to act on the new rules for private bills as to the procedure and other conditions to introduce such bills. For the text of this rule, please click here.

03/14/2013: Witnesses and Texts of Testimonies at Today's House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Hearing on "The Separation of Nuclear Families under U.S. Immigration Law"

• Randall Emery, President American Families United
• Mathi Mugilan Paguth Arivalan, Lawful Permanent Resident
• Demetrios Papademetriou, President, Migration Policy Institute
• Clarissa Martinez-De-Castro, Director, Immigration and National Campaigns, National Council of La Raza

03/13/2013: iCERT System Problem Fixed and in Full Operation for H-1B LCA Filing

03/13/2013: Sequestration and Impact of Furlough for Immigration and Visa Related Federal Departments

• Reports indicate that the components of the DHS that are affected by the sequestion are immigration law enforcement directorates, according to the DHS Secretary's report to the Congress. As we reported earlier, the USCIS will not be affected because the funds for USCIS operation are coming from immigration filing fees. The State Department that includes visa posts is reportedly not hit by any massive furloughs, at least until June 2013 and visa processing may be minimally affected by the sequestion, at least for now. The story is different for the U.S. Department of Labor. As we reported earlier, the activing Secretary of U.S. Department of Labor released a news that 4,700 employees are hit by furloughs. There is no information available about at this time as to the number of employees of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification that are or will be hit by furlough. Since the operation of the OFLC does not rely on fee revenue, it is likely that the OFLC will be affected by this tragic sequestration. No one will be surprised to hear a news that foreign labor certification process will be eventually affected by the sequestion in one way or another and will witness some slow downs.

03/13/2013: Companion Bills "Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act" in the House & Senate Introduced to Give Green Cards to Certain Liberians

• With less than 20 days remaining before Liberian refugees living legally in the United States face deportation, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) are calling on the Obama Administration to lift the March 31st deadline and reintroducing the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act to allow eligible Liberian nationals to continue living here legally and provide them with a path to citizenship. Current DED for Liberians is destined to be expired this month and human right organizations have also been petitioning the President to extend the DED but so far no promising news from the White House. This extension requires President's Excutive Order.
• On the Congressional side, legislative bills were introduced yesterday in the House and the Senate to grant permanent resident status to certain liberians. The Senate bill, S. 527, was introduced by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Islands with six co-sponsors, including Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Al Franken (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and William “Mo” Cowan (D-MA), and the House bill, H.R. 1087, was introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota with five co-sponsors, including Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), James McGovern (D-MA), and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). For the outline of these bills, please read the press release of Senator Jack Reed.

03/13/2013: Extension of TPS Designation for Honduras and Nicaragua Submitted for OMB Review Today

• USCIS submitted this notices to the OMB as of today for approval of the OMB for publishing in the federal register.

03/13/2013: USCIS FAQ on Adoptions from Vietnam Which Will Not Resume Without A New Bilateral Agreement

03/12/2013: Approaching FY 2014 H-1B Cap Filing Season on 04/01/2013 and Persisting iCERT Portable Technical Problem to File LCA

• It is not clear whether the technical problem is related to the enormous volume of LCA filing at this time, but employers are currently encountering technical problem in filing LCAs. Another stressful time!

03/12/2013: OFLC Notice on 2013 Allowable Meal Charges and Travel Subsistence for H-2A Proram

• The OFLC has published in the Federal Register a notice establishing the 2013 allowable meal charges and maximum travel subsistence reimbursement amounts. The 2013 allowable charge for providing three meals a day is set at $11.42 per day, although employers may petition the Chicago National Processing Center for a higher charge if justified by documentation of actual costs. Similarly, the 2013 minimum subsistence charge for meals during travel is set at $11.42 a day. The maximum travel subsistence for meals will remain set at $46.00 per day again this year for those workers who submit receipts substantiating a higher expense. Workers may claim up to $34.50 with receipts for travel subsistence when traveling less than a full day. The new 2013 amounts are effective upon publication in the Federal Register. To learn more, please read the Federal Register notice.

03/12/2013: Some DACA Workload Transfer from California Service Center to Texas Service Center

• USCIS issued an alert that on March 8, 2013, USCIS transferred some casework from the California Service Center to the Texas Service Center to balance overall workload with processing capacity at the centers. The affected casework includes the following forms:
  • I-821D, Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
  • I-765, Application for Employment Authorization (when filed concurrently with the I-821D)
  • I-765 Worksheet (PDF) (when filed concurrently with the I-821D)
• Effect on Customers
  As a result of these changes, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) requestors may receive a letter from USCIS letting them know their request for DACA is now pending at the Texas Service Center instead of the California Service Center. Customers do not need to take any action.

03/12/2013: Labor Department Sends 4,700 Furlough Notices as Affected by Sequester

• One wonders how this action will affect the Office of Foreign Labor Certification and processing times and activities of foreign labor certification program hereon. Please stay tuned.

03/12/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Schedules a Hearing 03/18/2013 on “How Comprehensive Immigration Reform Should Address the Needs of Women and Families”

• This hearing will be presided by Senator Mazie Hinoro from Hawaii. We will see what family-based immigration reform this hearing will focus as contrasted to the another family-based immigration issue hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, March 14. It is odd and interesting that both the Senate and the House, at the level of Judiciary Committees, are more focused on the family-based immigration reform issues as opposed to the employment-based immigration reform issues. However, these are more focused on the reform of "legal" immigration systems, the discussion of which have been more or less silent in the media and CIR player legislators that focused on reforms involving legailization of undocumented immigrants and border security and immigration enforcement components.

03/11/2013: CRS Report on Issues of Homeland Security Policy in the 113th Congress

03/11/2013: CRS Report on Brief History of CIR Efforts in the 109th and 110th Congresses to Inform Policy Discussions in the 113th Congress

03/11/2013: April 2013 Visa Bulletin Released - No Single Day Moved for India EB-2

03/11/2013: USCIS Updates and Announced the Handbook for Employers, Guidance for Completing the Form I-9 (M-274)

• The USCIS has updated the Handbook for Employers, Guidance for Completing the Form I-9 (M-274), to include information about the revised Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13)N. The name of the Handbook has also changed slightly. The word “Guidance” has replaced “Instructions.” Helpful new images have been added to illustrate how employees and employers can complete Section 1-3 of the new form. Please also see page 23 for updated guidance on recording changes of name and other identity guidance. Visit the I-9 Central website for updates and guidance about the new Form I-9.
  

03/11/2013: DOL 2013 Allowable Charges for Agricultural Workers' Meals and Travel Subsistence Reimbursement, Including Lodging for H-2A Temporary Worker Labor Certification

• This notice will be published in the federal register tomorrow. For the advance copy, please click here.

03/10/2013: News Update on Progress of Senate Gang of Eight CIR Work

• Read another report which consistently picture a positive perspective ahead.

03/09/2013: H-4 Spouse Employment Authorization Proposed Rule - OMB Review Extended

• OMB rule review site posts this morning that review of this proposed rule of the USCIS is extended. Spouses of H-1Bs, please do not take this news too hard. Why, this is not the only rule they are extending for review. There are a bunch of rules of other federal departments that are also witnessing "Review Extended!" One wonders what is happening with the OMB! Is its excuse sequester budget cut for the office or fear-factor of the House fight to control the Obama Administration's rule-making power? Spouses of some H-1Bs, sorry to throw this cold water over your faces this Saturday morning.

03/08/2013: USCIS Revises Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 and Schedules a Teleconference on the New Form Monday 03/11/2013

• There was an errata in our previous report on E-Verify form changes. It is I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form which the USCIS revised. We stand corrected on this. Here is the USCIS announcement. USCIS will be hosting a stakeholder teleconference on Monday, March 11, 2013, at 2 p.m. (Eastern) to discuss and answer questions about the form revisions.
  
  To Join the Session
  Please use the information below to join the teleconference. Participants are recommended to call in 20 minutes before its start.
  Call-in Number: 1-888-469-1753
  Passcode: I-9

03/08/2013: State Department Has Just Released Demand Data to Determine April 2013 Visa Bulletin.

03/08/2013: House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Schedules a Hearing on Separation of "Nuclear" Families under U.S. Immigration Law on 03/14/2013

• This is a hearing on family unification component issue of reform of immigration system that the House will discuss for the first time in the 113th House Judiciary Committee. It is interesting that the hearing will focus on "nuclear" families and distancing itself from non-nuclear family unification issues. GOP's reform of immigration reform has traditionally focused on the nuclear family unification issues and proposed to limit or totally eliminate non-nuclear families, including elimination of unification with siblings, etc. Bush CIR (point system of immigration) bill represented such concept and during the Reagan administration, a similar CIR (Simpson-Mazzola) was proposed in the CIR bill and failed facing the public outcry that underlying agenda could have been to control immigration of minority population. Interestingly enough, just before the bill was introduced, there was a report and release in the U.S. World News magazine a prediction of demographic changes next several decades, creating xenophoebia at the time. From such historical track of family-based immigration reform proposals, it will be very interesting to see how this component of immigration reform is handled in the forthcoming House and Senate comprehensive immigration reform bills.

03/08/2013: H-4 Spouse Employment Authorization Proposed Rule Yet to be Approved by the OMB

• The OMB has been "reviewing(?)" this proposed rule since 12/10/2012. Since December and January had 31 days a month, by next Monday, it will reach 90 days. It is interesting to see how this proposed rule review will be handled by the OMB. The group of "spouses" can involve both genders, but without doubt, most of the eligible "spouses" could be admittedly "women." The intent of the proposed rule is to retain talented foreign brans in H-1B by giving this incentives, but the rule also involves the issue for women, albeit immigrant women. Without this rule, the immigrant women will be forced to remain a full time house wife without employment authorization. Again, most of these women are young and educated with their own careers in their own rights. Some of them have been sacrifying their lives and careers to support their male spouses' careers because of lack of employment authorization, most of times, in loneliness. Here we go again. A group of women in foreign land in the name of "spouse" of talented foreign professionals need help to seek happiness in the family with the talented foreign professional hubbies and at the same time, their own lives as individuals. Hear, hear, OMB. Please complete the review within the next two or three days!

03/08/2013: President Indeed Signed into Law "VAWA Reauthorization Act" to Protect Women from Abuse Yesterday Afternoon

• This legislation is emotionally charged bill for women, including immigrant women, and that bill was, in that regard, politically sensitive and charged legislative bill. As the women voices had been heard louder and women power has steadily been growing, such legislation was thought a thing of matter of time, unless opponent legislators wanted to commit a political suicide. Obviously, the vote records of this bill will be closely examined and reviewed by women groups to see who worked against their rights for protection. Well, that's the way it goes.

03/07/2013: DOL Prevailing Wage Determination Processing Times as of 02/11/2013

• The update: Everything is within target dates:
  • PERM: January 2013 filing date cases (target date: 60 days)
  • H-1B: January 2013 filing date cases (target date: 60 days)
  • H-2B: January 2013 filing date cases (target date: 30 days)
  • Redeterminations: January 2013 request date cases (Perm & H-1B related cases target: 60 days, and H-2B related cases, 30 days)
  • Center Director Review: January 2013 request date cases (Perm & H-1B related cases target: 60 days, and H-2B related cases, 30 days)
• The foregoing processing times reflect the processing times before sequester hit the agencies. Unlike the USCIS, DOL is not run by customer's filing fees and rather depend on tax funds. Accordingly, it is likely to affect the processing times because of the ongoing government agencies fund cuts. No one knows how steeply the sequester will affect in particularly PERM and H-1B processing times. Since the FY 2014 H-1B cap season opens on April 1, Monday, this will be a very open and unanswered question which will add blood pressure on the cap employers and foreign workers. Please stay tuned.

03/07/2013: President to Sign VAWA Reauthorization Bill at Around 2:00 PM Today

03/07/2013: Helpful Information to Assist Indians with Applying for Visas

• Indians are savvy and very up-to-date on the visa application at American visa posts in India. However, there are other stakeholders, including employers and legal representatives, who need sources of information on the U.S. visa applications in India. As the stream of nonimmigrants and immigrants grows fast, these stakeholders may find the following two sites very help in finding general information on visa applications in India:
  • Visa application in India resource center
  • FAQ on nonimmigrant visa applications in general

03/06/2013: March 5 House Judiciary Hearing on Employment-Based Immigration Issues Reflect Diverse Interests Among Different Business Groups

• Employment-based immigration reform is not monolith issue and itself involves very diverse and different business groups with different interests with some conflicts among themselves when it comes to priority and direction of reform. The hearing reflects it in a small scale. Readers may read the text of oral or written testimonies of witnesses. Please go back to out posting of March 1, 2013 on this hearing to read the texts of the testimonies of these witnesses.

03/06/2013: USCIS Updates Washington Area Office Closing Situation

• If an office is closed, USCIS will reschedule all appointments until a time when it is safe to resume operations.
• Office Closings:
  • Baltimore, MD Application Support Center
  • Washington, DC Field Office
  • Alexandria, VA Application Support Center
  • Baltimore, MD Field Office
  • Wheaton, MD Application Support Center
• Washington, DC area offices are closed due to inclement weather. Check the status of your local office before attending any appointments.

03/06/2013: Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Annonces Washington Area Federal Offices Closing Today Due to the Weather

• Yesterday, the snow storm hit the upper midwest including Minneapolis-St. Paul areas where this reporter reports dumping about one feet of snow. It is heading to the East hitting Washington, D.C. areas today. Members of the Congress are also planning to adjourn early today. The snowstorm will force the Hill remain quiet today.

03/06/2013: Washington DC Area USCIS Field Offices Closed Today as Affected by Weather

• Read on.
• Following the USCIS special announcement:
  • A number of offices in the Washington, DC area are closed due to inclement weather. Please see our Field Office Closings page. If you plan to visit a USCIS office in an area affected by the severe weather or you believe may be affected by severe weather, please call the: National Customer Service Center (NCSC): 1-800-375-5283 to ensure the office is open for business and for further instructions on rescheduling your appointment if the office is closed.

03/06/2013: Bill to Exempt Children of Filipino WWII Veterans from Numerical Limitations on Immigrant Visas in Both House and Senate

• Rep. Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii introduced in the House yesterday H.R.966 to exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii introduced S.461, a companion bill in the Senate yesterday.

03/06/2013: USCIS Webinar on "Immigration & Naturalization 101" for Lay People

USCIS is hosting a free "Immigration and Naturalization 101" webinar for the public next Tuesday, 03/12/2013
This is an introductory overview where USCIS will review the following topics:
" what is a green card
" how to get a green card
" what is a visa
" how to read the Visa Bulletin
" how to check case status
" avoiding immigration fraud
" U.S. citizenship eligibility requirements

This session is not intended for immigration practitioners, or for people who want to earn continuing education credits. It is intended for the average person to learn the basics of immigration law and where to get help.
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Time: 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm (California time)
How to join: click here and follow the prompts. Please plan to join about 10 minutes early.

03/05/2013: Ominous Sign of OMB Extending Completion of Review of Pending Regulations

• OMB revealed irregular pattern last year and during the peak of 2012 election pre-season, massively extending review of pending or final regulations months and months, even a year. Since the Executive Order for OMB review mandates the OMB to complete review of rules of agencies at least within 90 days unless it is extended for good causes, one wonders why the OMB shows such change of course deviating from the traditional pattern of the agency. There is a proposed rule for H-4 employment authorization of the USCIS which is approaching 90 days in a matter of days, but review of the DHS rules under the OMB review reflects that the OMB again shows a pattern of extension of review for the pending rules of the agencies. There is an on-going fight and attack from the House of Represenatives over its attempt to control the rule making process of the federal executive branch and agencies. We hope that the agencies are not affected by such attack. Or they are suffering from sequester. We really hope that this proposed rule review is not extended by the OMB.

03/05/2013: VAWA Reauthorization Bill on the White House for President to Sign

• The Congress delivered the bill yesterday and it is now awaiting the President's signaure. It will take a few days but not too long before the bill is signed into a law.

03/05/2013: USCIS ELIS Maintenance Outage Scheduled on March 10

• The USCIS Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS) will be temporarily off line on Sunday, March 10 from 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST as we update the system.
• We regret any inconvenience and encourage customers to try again later in the day.

03/05/2013: USCIS Alert of St. Paul Offices Closing Today for Weather

• St. Paul, MN Field Office
• Minnesota - St. Paul Application Support Center
• Closed due to inclement weather. Interviews will be rescheduled for the week of 3/18/13.

03/04/2013: H-2A Program: 2013 Allowable Meal Charges and Travel Subsistence

• The Office of Foreign Labor Certification expects to publish within a week a notice in the Federal Register establishing the 2013 allowable meal charges and maximum travel subsistence reimbursement amounts, according to the OFLC announcement. The new 2013 amounts will become effective upon publication in the Federal Register, which the Department will announce on this website. Please stay tuned.

03/03/2013: Reportedly ‘Gang of Eight’ Continue Despite Sequester Battle

• There is a concern with the impact of the Sequester battle on bi-partisan efforts for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Report indicates that the Gang of Eight met on February 28, Thursday and worked over the item by item for the CIR issues. Sen. Flake reportedly said he didn’t think the unrelated bickering over the sequester and other fiscal matters will hurt the chances of the immigration legislation. The immigration bill is on track to be ready by the end of March, he said. Senators McCain, Graham and Flake went to the U.S. House on Thursday to brief U.S. House members working on immigration reform. That meeting also went well, Flake said.
• That is a good news.

03/03/2013: Office of Foreign Labor Certifications Releases FY-2013 1st Quarter (10/01/2012-12/31/2012) Disclosure Data Files

• This disclosure files allow access to the details of all of the following foreign permanent and temporary labor certification applications which were filed during the First Quarter of FY 2013:
  • PERM
  • Prevailing Wage Determination
  • LCA (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)
  • H-2A
  • H-2B
• It is the latest and huge data. The data are also available for all the cases which were filed from FY 2008 to FY 2012 in these files.

03/03/2013: Foreign Labor Certification Fact Sheet for FY-2013 1st Quarter (10/01/2012-12/31/2012)

• The fact sheets include the following:
  • PERM
  • Prevailing Wage Determination
  • H-1B
  • H-2A
  • H-2B
• The same fact sheets for the entire FY 2012 are also available in this data.

03/03/2013: House Began a Fight Against Obama Administrative Fix of Immigration Programs

• Last two weeks, there were a few legislative bills which were introduced in the House to fight against the Obama Administration's use of regulations and other forms of action to fix immigration system administratively and without legislation using his authority and power of Executive under the Constitution of the United States. This is a form of fight to enhance the power of Legislative Branch of the federal government over the Executive Branch using enhanced power and authority to oversight the Executive Branch activities. The House Judiciary Committee Regulatory Subcommittee is quickly taking up this issue scheduling hearings and debates. However, under the party-divided Congress between the Republican House and the Democrat Senate, the ongoing action more or less represents the Republicans' statement to the nation to voice its frustration, and chances for these bills to pass the Congress are very slim. However, in the political process, voices are important and considered sound, and the nation cannot ignore all different voices. Sometimes voices are heard the judicial process through litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court.

03/02/2013: Six Reasons Immigration Reform Has a Good Shot This Year

• Bloomberg Business Report Summary. Agree. Just add one more reason: GOP distancing itself from anti-immigration groups.

03/02/2013: CBP Visa Revalidation Update for Nonimmigrants Traveling Contiguous Countries or Adjacent Islands With Expired Visas in the Passport

• Nonimmigrants who plan to travel to visit contiguous countries or adjacent islands with a valid USCIS approved change of status or extension of status but with expired visa in the passport should check the CBP site to learn any changes of the rules and practices of the CBP not to run into a crisis for not being able to return to the U.S. after the travel. CBP from time to time changes the rules for visa revalidation for nonimmigrant traveling contiguous countries (Mexico or Canada) or adjacent islands (watch out the list of these islands) after their visa stamp in the passport expired. The following are some helpful information:
  • Important Update of Visa Revalidation Fact Sheet: Automatic Revalidation of Visas (nonimmigrant): Please note that there is a distinction between the nonimmigrants who are in either F or J nonimmigrant status and the nonimmigrants who are in all other nonimmigrant status including H-1B and L-1, etc. Automatic visa revalidation is available to all nonimmigrants to travel in "contiguous countires." However, automatic visa revalidation is also available in the case of F or J nonimmigrants to travel in "adjacent islands." For the nonimmigrants other than F or J visa status, automatic visa revalidation is not available for travel to "adjacent islands", according to this update. See also 22 CFR 41.112(d)(2(ii). Readers are also encouraged to review the visa revalidation general information site.
  • For F or J visa nonimmigrants, which adjacent islands they can visit and return? The following is the list of the adjacent islands that are covered for the purpose of visa revalidation:
    • Saint Pierre
    • Miquelon
    • The Dominican Republic
    • Haiti
    • Bermuda
    • The Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Jamaica
    • The Windward and Leeward Islands
    • Trinidad
    • Martinique
    • Other British, French, and Netherlands territory or possessions in or bordering on the Caribbean Se
• The winter season may be over sooner or later and the lands will be filled with colorful flowers and green meadows with sweat smells in the air. Voila, pleasure travel season is coming soon! Enjoy the life. CAVEAT: Make it sure to check with the CBP for the changing visa revalidation policies and rules before you plan on a trip. The foregoing information may not be valid when you travel.

03/01/2013: Sequestration (Federal Budget Cut) in Effect as of 03/01/2013 and DHS Action to Cope with the Federal Funding Cuts

• For the last few days, there have been a wide range of reports across the country that the detained immigrants had been en masse released. Yesterday, The DHS Secrectary, Hon. Napolitano told ABC News that ICE officials made the decision to release the detainees they deemed to be low-risk as a way to guard against the automatic budget cuts expected to kick in on Friday. According to the ICE sources, the decision was made in preparation for the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, widely expected to go into effect on March 1, which would limit the number of detainees ICE could pay to house. According to ICE sources, career detention facility administrators released low-risk illegal immigrants into a less costly supervision program on a nearly daily basis. Administrators make the call based on their budgetary and infrastructure constraints, without the need for sign-off approval from the White House, the official said. Napolitano told ABC News that she was actively trying to figure out why the released illegal immigrants were detained in the first place and not placed in the less-expensive monitoring program. For the details, please read the Hill's report.
• There is no official report from the USCIS as to the impact of the budget cuts, but this component of the DHS structure is likely least affected by the sequestration because the USCIS runs the business almost totally funded by customer filing fee funds.

03/01/2013: House Judiciary Regulatory Subcommittee Hearings on Jobs, Economy, and Global Competitivess

• There was a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law hearing yesterday on``Obama Administration's Regulatory War on Jobs, the Economy, and America's Global Competitiveness''. The following the texts of the witness testimonies:
  • House Judiciary Committee Chairman Statement
  • Robert L. Glicksman, J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law
  • Drew Greenblatt, CEO, Marlin Steel
  • Rob James, Avon Lake City Council
  • Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President, American Action Forum
  • William Kovacs, Senior Vice President, Environment, Technology & Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  • Rob Weissman, President, Public Citizen
• This hearing is followed by another hearing on H.R. 367, the "REINS Act: Promoting Jobs, Growth and American Competitiveness" scheduled on 03/05/2013.

03/01/2013: House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Hearing on Enhancing American Competitiveness through Skilled Immigration on 03/05/2013

• House Judiciary Committee appears to focus on economy issues for immigration reform. Obviously, the subjects discussed at the Judiciary are likely to be reflected in the House version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposal. From the perspective of over comprehensive immigration reform legislation, these activities should be considered very helpful to shape the direction and format of the legal immigration system reform in the area of employment-based immigration system. On economy issue of the immigration reform, Rep. Isaa is anticipated to play a big role from the Republican side in the House. His proposed bill of Jobs Act is currently pending in the House. The only problem is his proposal to eliminate diversity immigration lottery program from the immigration statute.
• The following are written testimonies of witnesses:
  • Statement of Judiciary Chairman
  • Bruce A. Morrison, Chairman, Morrison Public Affairs Group, testifying on behalf of EEE
  • Dean Garfield, President and CEO, Information Technology Industry Council
  • Deepak Kamra, General Partner, Canaan Partner
  • Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director, American Immigration Council

03/01/2013: House Bill to Prohibit DHS Funding for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Rule Referred to the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee

• Yesterday, massive immigration bills were introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, one of which involves, H.R.425 to prohibit the use of funds for "Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives" which is about to be launched by the USCIS coming Monday, 03/04/2013. This bill was introduced by Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri. There is zero chance for this bill to pass the Congress because no matter this bill passes in the House, the bill will definitely face rejection in two ways in the Senate: delay in scheduling of the bill by the Senate Immigration Subcommittee or rejection of the bill on the floor.

03/01/2013: Israeli Visa Waiver Program Country Designation Bill Referred to the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee

• Yesterday the House referred this bill H.R.300 Visa Waiver for Israel Act of 2013 which was introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman of California with 68 co-sponsors to the Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. We will see how quickly this bill will be taken up by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. Please stay tuned.

02/28/2013: Time to Discuss Direction of "Legal" Immigration System Component Reform w/in Comprehensive Immigration Reform

• Thus far, immigration reform debates and talks have focused on the three components: Border Security, Immigration Enforcement, and Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants. Why? Because these are key issues that have divided lawmakers, political leaders, and political parties. As time has gone by, there appears to be a compromise looming up between the right and the left through the left more or less accepting the right's issue of strengthening border security and immigration enforcement and the right agreeing to legalization within the context of keeping the legalized undocumented immigrants at the end of row of immigrant wait lines. So far, so good.
• What about other key component of reforming broken "legal" immigration system? Thus far, some pieces of such reform have been introduced in the form of piecemeal immigration bills. Additionally, both employment-based immigration advocates and family-based/other immigration advocates talked about their points here and there "sporadically." It is tragic that the legal immigration reform advocates have been so narrowly obsessed with reform of their interest only without discussing their issues within the framework of more broad and overall reform of the entire "legal" immigration system. Thus far, no one has come forward to discuss in the media the overall reform of the legal immigration system. The key issue that divides between the right and the left for the legal system reform involves the total immigrant quota the nation should accept. Obviously, the right will focus on keeping the number of immigrants at the current level or less and at a restrictive level, while the left will advocate to accept increase of the total annual numbers. The position of the right has been to reduce family-based immigration or non-employment-based immigration quota and increase the employment-based immigration quota within the level of keeping overall number within the current immigration system. The Bush comprehensive immigration reform represents such concept with the eventual goal of keeping the new total immigrant numbers at bay. Obviously, such proposal is not acceptable to the left that focuses on family unification and traditional concept of diversity in immigration system. For the reasons, the left will not accept reform of immigration reform unless the right is willing to accept increase in total immigrant numbers as the left also recognizes that the nation needs foreign talents and should accept increased number of such talents in one form or another. From the standpoint of the left, the position of the right presents insurmountable complicated power allocation issues as well as serious ethnic and racial implication issues as the reality is that no Europeans or other white races or ethnic group are immigrating to this country for the two reasons, among others: Their countries are well off economically and otherwise. The other reason is that they do not have close relatives in the United States who can sponsor their immigration under the current family-based immigration system. For the reasons, the right's push for reduction of family-based immigration system or diversity immigration naturally leads to implication of controlling immigrants from other ethinic or racial groups, typically so-called third world. The issue gets touchy and complicated under the circumstances that there are plenty of xenophobic sector of population that are concerned with growing imbalance of demographic distribution of the nation's population between the whites and nonwhites. For the foregoing reasons, reform of legal immigration system involves much more complicated and serious issues the nation and national leaders must address and seek a concensus in one way or another. The problem of the right to accept increase of employment-based immigration numbers without reducing the family-based or diversity immigrants may stem from a calculation that eventually such incease of employment-based immigrant numbers as well as keeping the family-based or diversity immigrant numbers will lead to a "reality" that it will lead to explosion of minority population in the sense that most of employment-based immigrants are coming from India and China and most of diversity immigrants are coming from Africa. There are already flood of immigrants coming from Asia and Central or South America based on the family-based immigration system!
• The issue of racial or ethnic balance is obviously very sensitive and nerve-breaking subject which no one wants to talk about. The political leaders are already overwhelmed by border security, immigration enforcement, and undocumented immigrant issues and may not be in a position to open another huge flood gate that involves politically very sensitive ethinic and racial issues. For a while, this legal immigration reform issue has remained a slient business. But it is not going to take too long before this headache issue will creep out of the womb, since the comprehensive immigration reform bill will have to be introduced in the Senate soon that will cover all the immigration issues. Cannot wait how this issue is handled in the forthcoming CIR bill!

02/28/2013: Taiwan Implements a Pre-Adoption Immigration Review Requirement for All Adoptions by U.S. Citizens of Children Residing in Taiwan

• Yesterday, we posted the USCIS memorandum on Taiwanese children adoption matter encourging the U.S. citizen adoptive parents to file I-600 before traveling to the U.S. Today, the USCIS publishes a news that Taiwan itself requires pre-adoption immigration review for all Taiwanese children adoptions. Read on.

02/28/2013: House Passed Senate VAWA Reauthorization Bill, S. 47!

• The U.S. House voted 286-138 today to pass a Senate version of a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act. The measure now heads to President Obama, who is expected to sign it. Eighty-seven Republicans joined all 199 Democrats to pass the bill in the House. Magic and power of women voters worked!

02/28/2013: VAWA Reauthorization Bill, S. 47, Expected to be Voted This Evening

• Yesterday, the House floor passed a procedural hurdle for this bill with the absolute majority Yeas. The House is expected to debate and vote on this bill after 3:00 p.m. or probably later in the evening today. Women right and VAWA advocates may continue contacting their House representatives to vote for this bill. There are some hawks against this bill for some sticky issues in the Senate bill, S. 47, of Senator Patrick Leahy. Should the House pass this bill with amendments removing these sticky issues, this bill may have to go through a cycle of negotiation and compromise including the President, and may end up with the House-Senate joint conference committee process. The fate of this bill is not completely over yet.

02/28/2013: USCIS Work Load Transfer for DACA and Related DACA EAD from Vermont Service Center to Nebraska Service Center

• The USCIS has just announced that on February 13, 2013, USCIS transferred some casework from the Vermont Service Center to the Nebraska Service Center to balance overall workload with processing capacity at the centers. The affected casework includes the following forms:
  • I-821D, Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
  • I-765, Application for Employment Authorization (when filed concurrently with the I-821D)
  • I-765 Worksheet (when filed concurrently with the I-821D) (pdf)
• Effect on DACA Customers: As a result of these changes, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) requestors may receive a letter from USCIS letting them know their request for DACA is now pending at the Nebraska Service Center instead of the Vermont Service Center. Customers do not need to take any action.

02/27/2013: USCIS Policy Memorandum on Taiwan Pre-Adoption Immigration Review – Filing Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, on Behalf of a Child Being Adopted in Taiwan

• Effective immediately, USCIS will accept Form I-600 petitions on behalf of children from, and physically located in, Taiwan. Petitioners intending to adopt children from, and physically located in, Taiwan are encouraged to file the Form I-600 petition and supporting documents with USCIS before traveling to, and adopting or obtaining legal custody of, a child in Taiwan. This new process will allow prospective adoptive parents to make an informed decision regarding the eligibility of a child to immigrate before an adoption takes place or a legal custody order is issued.

02/27/2013: Forthcoming Release of USCIS 2013 Poverty Guidelines, Form I-864P, Financial Ability for Family Immigration Sponsors

• We reported earlier release of new poverty guidelines by HHS. Currently, the USCIS is requiring income for family immigration sponsors which are stipulated in its I-864P form of March 1, 2012 version. The USCIS is expected to release the 2013 version in the near future and the family-based immigrants and their sponsors should check the I-864P form site to make it sure that they comply with the new requirement when the new version is released. It can be a matter of days before this new version is released.

02/27/2013: USCIS Accepting I-601A Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Application Effective 03/04/2013 and National Visa Center Advisory

• Beginning next Monday, the USCIS will start accepting I-601A application for this stateside processing of the waiver in the U.S. The USCIS has released a sufficient information on the specific procedures on its website, but the NVC reminds the potential applicants that immigrant visa applicants with an immigrant visa interview appointment letter from the National Visa Center dated before January 3rd, 2013 are not eligible to file an I-601A. Those who fall under this group should seek legal counsel before they act on the application. Important. The same is true with other potential applicants for this application since the application will result in certain legal consequences which they should be aware of before they act.

02/27/2013: House Floor Expected to Debate S. 47 VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2013 Bill on 02/28/2013, Thursday

• The House floor will take up H.Res. 83 today, a resolution providing for the consideration of S. 47 - Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Special Rule, One Hour of Debate) (Sponsored by Rep. Richard Nugent / Rules Committee), and is expected to debate on 02/28/2013 this important bill to protect immigrant women from violence and abuse, which women voters are closely watching. This bill which was sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy passed in the Senate with a large majority. It is a good news that the House is taking up the Senate bill early on.

02/26/2013: Office of Foreign Labor Certification Releases on 02/25/2016 New Rounds of FAQs Which Were Posted on 02/06/2013

• This new round of PWD is an important update that covers the following issues:
  • Electronic Form ETA 9141 Issues
  • Multiple Worksite Issues
  • Employer Surveys Issues
  • Special Skills Issues
  • Withdrawals Issue
• We have sorted out this New Round of FAQ updates which will help the readers to learn new round FAQ without searching the whole Prevailing Wage FAQ site.

02/26/2013: Result of Today's Meeting of the President with Senate CIR Players Reportedly Positive

• Report indicates that today's meeting was positive and some Senators were upbeat. That is indeed a good news.

02/26/2013: Text of Testimonies of Witnesses at Today's Hearing on Workable H-2A Agricultural Guest Worker Program at House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee

• House Judiciary Chairman Statement
• Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation
• Chalmers Carr, President and CEO, Titan Farms, Ridge Spring, SC
• Michael J. Brown, President, National Chicken Council
• Giev Kashkooli, Political/Legislative Director, 3rd Vice President, United Farm Workers

02/26/2013: USCIS Extends DREAMers DACA Application Form I-821D Revision Comment Period for 30 Days Until 03/29/2013

• The notice indicates that the estimate user of this form is 700,000.

02/26/2013: USCIS Extends DREAMers DACA EAD Application Worksheet I-765WS Form Revision Comment Period for 30 Days Until 03/29/2013

• USCIS is considering revision of the current I-765 WS form for the DACA application based on the experience for the six months. Accordingly, the USCIS is seeking comments from the DACA consumers and stakeholders. The notice reflects that the estimated total users will amount to: 1,420,000 for I-765 form; 1,043,992 for DACA Biometrics; 706,057 for I-765WS form, and 1,420,000 for Passport-Style Photographs.

02/26/2013: USCIS Weather Related Field Offices Closing Today

• Kansas City Application Support Center
• National Benefits Center, Lee's Summit, MO
• Kansas - Wichita Application Support Center
• If an office is closed, USCIS will reschedule all appointments until a time when it is safe to resume operations.

02/25/2013: There is No Perfect Initial Legislative Bill, Proposed Bill Can be Compromised and Amended Along the Way - No 1 Enemy for CIR 2013 will be "Delays"

• In both legislative Chambers of the nation, key CIR players have been working hard behind the scene with the reports that some progress has been made to reach consensus among the key players but they have yet to reach full compromises. This creates uncertainty as to the specific schedule when an "actual" bill will be introduced in the Senate or the House. Remember that the compromise at the level of the key players is just the first step in the legislative process and such bill must go through various challenges after the bill is introduced before the fate of the bill is determined. In the meantime, report indicates that the anti immigration forces are daily adding massive campaigns at the grass root level to oppose any CIR, mobilizing their networks throughout the country. Reportedly, they are also targeting at current legislators who will have to rerun in November 2014 in order to chip off some potential supporters of the immigration reform. All of these tell that running time is the number one enemy for the 2013 CIR. For the reasons, report indicates that the traditional unlikely supporter of CIR - hightech businesses, are currently coming forward and actively organizing and expanding massive campaign to support the ongoing CIR efforts. In the meanwhile, it is very unfornatunate to learn that some of the DREAM groups are going in the other direction advocating a picemeal legislation on a misguided step by step legislation theory, obviously a separate DREAM bill first before the CIR. This raises some concerns within some immigration reform advocates since what they are doing can turn out to a suicidal act. Their simple minded logics appear to flow from the notion that there are no opposition to STEM employment-based immigration reform and DREAM legislation. Dead wrong! Nothing should be taken granted in the legislative process and American politics. IT AIN'T THAT SIMPLE! Such acts will delay the process on and on weaking immigration reform including any chances for piecemeal immigration reforms as the country heads towards another cycle of national election season. They should not be a victim of 'divide and conquor' tactics of anti immigrant forces. The CIR forces will never support piecemeal immigration reform bills! This reporter does not have any preference with one approach over other approach, but cannot ignore the "reality" which the immigrant community can ignore in a blinded obsession with their own interest only. The issue is not right or wrong, but rather "reality" in the political landscape, which is extremely extrapolated landscape with no one party can control anything without compromise. Remember that this is not the first time DREAM bills were introduced in the Congress. Even during the period when the Democratic party controlled both Chambers and the White House, it failed to pass. One wonders what makes some of these piecemeal DREAM advocates think that this time around the situation is differerent. Really!? You are making tons of enemies within your own Hispanic community!

02/25/2013: State Department Schedules a Special "Saturday" Passport Application Day for U.S. Citizens "Without Appointments" on March 9, 2013

• On Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., U.S. citizens may apply for or renew their passport book or passport card at any one of 25 passport agencies/centers that are open to the general public. No appointment is necessary on March 9 – normally, U.S. citizens would have to make an appointment at passport agencies. Convenient Saturday hours ensure most parents don’t have to miss work to apply for their child’s U.S. passport. Parents are encouraged to bring their children to an agency or participating acceptance facility where there will be special activities for children. Keep in mind that passports for children under the age of 16 expire every five years, and to apply for a passport for a child under the age of 16, both parents and the child need to appear in person or bring a notarized “Minor Consent” form signed by the absent parent. Read the announcement.
  

02/23/2013: President Reportedly Scheduled to Meet with Senators at White House Next Tuesday, 02/26/2013, for Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation

• Report indicates that the President has invited some Senators to the White House who have been involved in immigration reform negotiations within the Senate, assumedly to discuss their differences and to coordinate the process. This is the first step for such coordination efforts since the Senate started working on the CIR bill. This meeting can be crucial to learn how fast this legislation will be introduced and how quickly it will be passed in the Senate. Lately, there have been some positive developments in favor of the ongoing CIR move, including reported agreement between hightech industry and labor to work within the ongoing CIR efforts and another agreement between the labor and low skilled foreign worker employers to work with the guest work component of the CIR legislation. These developments obviously help to smooth out the negotiation process among the CIR players in the Senate and the White House. The House has yet to settle with their hardline position on border security and immigration enforcement focused agenda, but the Senate action is considered an important step to activate and stimulate negotiation for differences in the Congress with inputs from the public and constituents. After all, they are all politicians and they go by and play within the political game considering political landscape at a given time and to negotiate and compromise towards the goal of each party gaining a maximum power and laying out of a ground work for future national elections ahead "within a tolerable limit" but "realistic solution." It is a time to move ahead. This is a good news to keep CIR alive during the rest of February when the Congress will be obsessed with the sequester legislation.

02/22/2013: Rest of February 2013 Expected to be Consumed with Sequester and Hot Rod of CIR Will Start Turning Hotter and Hotter Beginning March 2013

• Next one week which is the last day of February is expected to be consumed with the Sequester issue which will have to be resolved before the end of the month. Then will come the next hottest legislative issue of Comprehensive Immigration Reform in March. Additionally, the proposed H-4 spouse employment authorization regulation is scheduled to be decided by the White House OMB as the 90-day period for OMB decision will reach on March 10, 2013, and effective March 4, 2013, the Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver regulation will be implemented. March is thus considered one of the most important months for our readers, either to fix immigration legislatively or administratively. Until then, readers, enjoy the flaky snow storm (Huh?!) and relax.

02/22/2013: When the House Return to the Session, House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Will Have Hearings on Farm Work Forces and E-Verify Issues

• House hearings are more focused on low skilled foreign worker issues and immigration enforcement issues.
  • Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 2:00 pm: Hearing on Agricultural Labor: From H-2A to a Workable Agricultural Guestworker Program
  • Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 02:30 pm: How E-Verify Works and How it Benefits American Employers and Workers
• There is a report that the House Judiciary Chairman opposes comprehensive immigration reform. However, there is a sign that the nation is still supporting the comprehensive immigration reform. Another report indicates that AFL-CIO labor union and U.S. Chamber of Commer reached an agreement to the reform in guest worker program, which is considered a big step forward to tackling lower skilled foreirn worker immigration reform component for the comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Besides, there was already a report that Silicon Valley businesses that are primary constituents for high skilled foreign worker immigration reform also agreed to push for the comprehensive immigration reform. Something does not adde up between the House leaders and the nation's business communities.

02/22/2013: USCIS Field Office Closing Yesterday (02/21/2013) for the Snow Storm in Kansas and Missouri

• The USCIS announced the following offices were closed yesterday 02/21/2013, because of the snow storms and appointments would be rescheduled whether the weather allows the offices to open.
  • St. Louis, MO Field Office Closing at 11 a.m. today due to inclement weather.
  • Kansas City, MO Field Office
  • Kansas - Wichita Application Support Center
  • Wichita, KS Field Office
  • Kansas City Application Support Center
  • Ft. Smith, AR Field Office Opening at 11 a.m. due to inclemnet weather.
  • National Records Center
  • National Benefits Center, Lee's Summit, MO
  • Kansas City and Wichita Field Offices will be closed 02/21/2013 due to inclement weather.
• Please visit the USCIS office closing site for the changes.

02/21/2013: USCIS Updated Naturalization Fact Sheet 02/20/2013

• Every year, the USCIS has produced from 600,000 to over 700,000 new naturalized citizens since 2001, except in 2008 when the number exceeded one million new naturalized citizens. It ain't interesting?

02/21/2013: CRS Report of Visa Waiver Program (VWP)

• The VWP has a broad implication from the national policy standpoint. Concerns have been raised about the ability of terrorists to enter the United States under the VWP, because the VWP bypasses the first step by which foreign visitors are screened for admissibility to enter the United States. Nonetheless, the current economic climate has heightened interest in the VWP as a mechanism to promote tourism and commerce. In addition to increasing tourism, the inclusion of countries in the VWP may help foster positive relations between the United States and those countries, facilitate information sharing, and ease consular office workloads abroad. In FY-2011, there were 18.3 million visitors from 37 VWP countries who entered the United States under this program, constituting 40% of all overseas visitors. Accordingly, the program has significantly reduced the consular workload in program countries since the officers do not have to issue as many B visas, and has facilitated travel to the United States by citizens of program countries, but it has increased the workload of immigration inspectors at ports of entry by shifting the noncitizen’s first encounter with a U.S. official to ports of entry.
• Please read the full text of this update report of this program.

02/20/2013: New iCERT System Enhancement: New Function Allowing Reuse and Edit of Previously Filed LCAs (ETA Form 9035E) to File a New LCA

• Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has announced that on Monday, February 25th, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification will implement an enhancement to its Labor Condition Application (LCA) Electronic Filing Module within the iCERT System allowing employers or their authorized attorneys or agents to reuse previously filed LCAs under the H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visa programs. This new feature is expected to significantly reduce the administrative time and cost of preparing and submitting the ETA Form 9035E.
• To learn more about the new reuse feature, please read the fact sheet. Please carefully follow the steps which are described in this fact sheet.

02/20/2013: USCIS ELIS Site Outage Alert This Sunday, 02/24/2013, From 4 am to 4 pm

02/20/2013: How Do I File Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver That Begins on 03/04/2013?

• Here is the USCIS guide.

02/20/2013: Obama Appears to Push and Pressure Legislators to Act on Immigration Reform Legislation Swiftly With a Threat to Use his Twin-Engines of Power

• Unlike his no-action stance during his first term Presidency, President Obama is indeed committed to keep his election promise to achieve the comprehensive immigration reform. For the purposes, he appears to threaten legislators that he will "act" if the Congress does not act swiftly. Thus far, his threat of action appears to involve potential actions in two ways, should the Congress fail to act. One is to introduce his own bill of CIR to the Congress and the other is initiation and implementation of administrative fixes. Potential of such action to mobilize a twin-engine is in fact nothing new. Readers may recall that President Goerge W. Bush mobilized these twin engines during his second term of his Presidency. One was to introduce his own bill of comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Congress and the other was release of 26 administrative fixes to the broken immigration system. Both of these actions were in a way successful, even though both of such actions failed to achieve the goal the President Bush intended to achieve. His CIR which was introduced in the Senate under the name of Kennedy-McCain CIR was successfully passed in the Senate but failed in the House. His "administrative fixes" of immigration system in 26 different areas produced a few successful. One of the most noticeable administrative fixes was 17-month extension of STEM OPT for U.S. graduated foreign high tech talents. The other was expansion of TN nonimmigrant visa from one year to three years such that increased number of entrepreneurs and talented foreign workers from Canada and Mexico to come and contribute to the U.S. businesses and economy. These two fixes represented more or less GOP agenda within the 26 administrative fix plan. The administrative plan also involved liberal Democrat agenda as well, but none of the administrative fixes to help Democrat agenda was implemented and collapsed when his Presidency ended.
• Report indicates that the President Obama has also been considering use of administrative fixes. Indeed he acted in a few areas. One noticeable success was achieved in the implementation of DACA, administrative relief of deferred action for so-called DREAMers, undocumented youngsters. As of the mid-February 2013, close to half a million of undocumented DREAMers submitted the applications and the USCIS has already approved about 200,000 cases. Additionally, Obama administration has also used very actively two more tools to achieve the liberal Democratic agenda. One was implementation of so-called "Prosecutorial Discretion" of deporation of immigrants by focusing on deportation of criminal and bad illegal immigrants and not to take action of deporttion against other illegal immigrants who did not have such negative records and rather have some favorable factors including their ties to the U.S. citizens. One other administrative fix of liberal agenda is about to be implemented beginning from March 4, 2013. It is called "Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver" that allows the unlawfully present immigrants to keep staying in the U.S. with their U.S. citizen immeidate relatives pending processing of their immigrant visa applications at American consulates in their home countries. This is a huge relief for the families to stay together and rather than forced separation, pending the visa application proceedings.
• One of the liberal-agenda administrative fixes which the President reportedly can and may consider is another action to allow family unification during the long wait of visa wait lines. Currently, there are V and K-3 visas that achieve such family unification purposes "more or less." But these tools have been not too effective because of the restrictions for qualifiction. Administrative fixes can be extended using various forms such that the spouses and children of the U.S. citizens and permanent residents can stay together until visa number becomes available. The report indicates that there are approximately 400,000 family unification cases that can benefit from such administrative fix. The exact nature of administrative fixes for family unification which the President has in mind has yet to be disclosed, but there is a report that such administrative fixes are considered by the President, and the President uses this tool to threaten the lawmakers that he would mobilize this tool, should the Congress fail to pass CIR. The report also indicate that he is considering another tool to allow unskilled farm workers to come and work in the U.S. as guest workers. The administrative fix tool which the report cited is removal of the visa number caps for such guest worker non-immigrant visa categories.
• The foregoing administrative fixes are considered all liberal and Democrat agenda. However, without doubt, the President's administrative fix plan could involve a number of administrative fixes for foreign entrepreneurs and high skilled foreign workers. Details have yet to be disclosed but such fixes which are more or less GOP agenda can work as a huge blow to the GOP for its failure to legislate such reform for the business community. Soon, the USCIS may finalize and implement H-4 spouse employment authorization regulation. This rule is intended to keep foreign brains from departing from the country and attrack foreign brains in H-1B nonimmigrant visa by allowing the spouses to work and continue their own individual careers, whereby they contribute to this country's competitiveness in many differen ways. This regulation also represents a relief for family unification indirectly. The President can have a wealth of power within his vault to fix broken immigration system administratively. The White House has been receiving a number of proposals from employment-based immigrants to fix the broken employment-based immigration system administratively pending enactment of comprehensive immigration reform legislation. He is receiving a lot of ideas and helps from these foreign talents.
• We will see how these twin-engine threat will work for legislators to roll up their sleeves and work hard to pass a comprehensive immigration reform legislation and not embarass themselves.

02/19/2013: Obama Immigration Reform Bill Draft (Full Text)

• Following is the full text of the Obama Draft of Immigration Reform Bill:
  • Title I: Border Interior Enforcement
  • Title I: Worksite Enforcement
  • Title II: Legalization of Undocumented Individuals

02/19/2013: Handy USCIS Contact Information

02/19/2013: USCIS & DOL Invites Stakeholders/Public to Teleconference on Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver That Takes Effect on 03/04/2013

• As this final rule is about to take effect on March 4, 2013, the USCIS and the State Department are scheduling teleconference on February 26, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. to discuss the subject. Please read the invitation.

02/19/2013: Thank You Mr. President for Keeping CIR Alive When the Hill is Dark and Quiet

• Assumedly, to celebrate the Presidents Day, the Congress left the Hill leaving the Hill dark and quiet for 10 days. The roadblock to the CIR legislation has been anti-immigration forces using various tactics including advocate of piecemeal approaches, Caesar's divide-&-conquor strategy to win a political war, and creation of silence and delays. By now, everyone should know that "delay" is number one roadblock to the successful CIR legislation considering upcoming 2014 mid-term national election and expected ignition of internal party politics fire to win nominations. 10-day period including a long weekend could have been a dark spot for the ignited fire and energy for CIR in the nation. Surely enough, leakage of the White House draft of CIR bill has played an important role in keeping the CIR debate and attention alive as the nation's one of the primary and key legislative mandate and agenda. For the last two or three days, there have been a forest fire ignited among some sectors of political players and most importantly, the media's attention to the CIR issues. We also thank those players who exploded in the media with emotional reactions to the leaked draft of the White House bill, for contributing, albeit unintendedly, to keeping the CIR in the center of the nation's attention. Wisemen and women will take the current development positively rather than negatively. After all, debates are a "sound" process of democratic decision making process and the nation should welcome such debates! Let the public, rather than interest groups and politicians, decide which debate to take and which direction the nation should head to. We do not necessarily agree to the President's draft. But we thank him for contributing to keeping the process alive during this critical time and momentum for CIR legislation.

02/18/2013: FY-2012 H-1B Users

• Computerworld has released this data which was allegedly obtained from the USCIS covering 134,000 entries. Readers cannot access the entire list other than individual employer. Besides, readers must download Caspio to get access to the data. Apparently, there are some issues of accuracy in numbers, but this data does not cover H-1B extensions and covers only initial petitions.

02/18/2013: Reported Draft of President's CIR Bill

• Reportedly, the White House drafted and circulated its version of CIR bill within the Administration. The draft is yet to be made available to the public, but the outline of the component of legaliztion of undocumented immigrants and related border security and immigration enforcement plans in the draft has been obtained by the USA Today and published it at its site. Reportedly, the obtained draft does not include the component of reform of "legal" immigration system, but report indicates that this component will include reshaping of the legal immigration system mirroring more or less the previous Kennedy-MacCain CIR bill which was passed in the Senate and failed in the House. It appears that draft of legal immigration system involves different power players of labor unions and their contenders and the White House appears to take cautious approach by taking time for drafting and releasing this component of the proposed bill. The Congress has yet to return to the Hill after one week from now but without doubt, the leak of the White House draft bill will accelerate the Senate Gang of 8's introduction of the bi-partisan bill early March 2013. They will also take into consideration of the White House draft bill in finalization of the Senate bill before it is introduced. Leak of the Obama draft of bill was probably intended to achieve his goal of acceleration of legislative process as well as posturing of his proposal in the legislative process in the Congress. Leak of the draft bill will also add a tremendous pressure on the GOP to come up with its own agenda as quickly as possible.

02/17/2013: Are You Experiencing Technical Difficulty in Using Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) to File I-539?

• USCIS has some helpful information for you. Please click here. You should read two (2) pages and keep rolling down to get to the page 2. Of course, ELIS outage today for maintenance between from 4a.m. and 2 p.m. EST is a completely different matter.

02/16/2013: USCIS Update of DACA Processing Statistics as of 02/15/2013

• The following show total receipts and approvals as of 12/14/2012. This update also shows the applicants by country.
  • Total Received: 423,372
  • Approvals: 199,460
• The following is the trend. Total applications show a slow-down. In one month, the USCIS approved 45,056! In six (6) months, they received almost half a million applications and approved almost 200,000 cases!!!

As Of	Receipts Total	Bio Scheduled	Review Ready	Approvals
02/15/2013	438,372	411,739	-	199,460
01/17/2013	407,899	371,103	394,533	154,404
12/14/2012	367,903	336,464	157,151	102,965
11/15/2012	308,935	273,203	124,572	53,273
10/10/2012	179,794	158,408	6,416	4,591
09/13/2012	82,361	63,717	1,660	29

02/16/2013: USCIS Will Welcome More Than 19,000 New Citizens at 135 Locations in This Presidents Day Week

• USCIS will recognize Presidents Day, welcoming more than 19,000 people as U.S. citizens during 135 naturalization ceremonies across the country Feb. 15 through Feb. 22. Read on.

02/15/2013: Forthcoming FY 2014 H-1B Cap Filing Season and Anticipated Early Exhaustion of the Cap Numbers

• As the nation's economy witnessed recovery process in slow but steady pace, the demand for skilled foreign professional has risen and the H-1B cap growingly reached early. Employers will remember how fast the numbers were exhausted last year. The cap reached on June 11, 2012. We predict that the cap may reach earlier than last year.
• The cap season opens on 04/01/2013, Monday this year. In unlikely scenario of cap reaching on April 1st or 2nd, the employers should know when the final date will be for their H-1B petitions to be counted for computer lottery selection process. The following posting of our site in March 2012 will help the employers to understand the current rule in such scenario:

"03/29/2012: FY-2013 H-1B Cap Petitions and Final Receipt Date in the Event of the Reach of Cap Numbers Within First Seven (7) Days

• Some employers are not well informed of the rule on H-1B cap filing on final receipt date in the event of the USCIS' receipt of massive number of petitions in the first day or first few days of April. For the last few years, the cap did not reach until seven to ten months after the first date of season opening on April 1 of the year. Considering the improvement of economy, it is likely that this period may be much shortened but not likely that the cap number will reach on the first date which is April 2, 2012 or April 3, 2012. However, not knowing the rules some employers that plan on filing H-1B petitions based on their annual needs of new H-1B employees for the entire FY 2013, there are certain employers who are nervous about the rumor that unless the H-1B petition is delivered to the Service Centers on the first date (April 2 this year) or next day (April 3 this year), their cap petitions may not make it for the whole FY-2013.
• Employers, 'It Ain't True and Relax!" In old days, it was true, but the rule has been changed for a number of years. Under the current rule, assuming hypothetically the USCIS receives enough numbers on the first or second day, they are required to keep receiving the H-1B cap petitions for the first five "business" days of April and run the computer random selection process for all those cases to select the cap numbers. The first five business days in this FY-2013 cap season is Friday, April 6, 2012. The unnecessarily nervous H-1B cap employers may file their cases such that their petitions are "delivered" to the appropriate Service Centers before the end of the day of April 6, 2012, should this give them a peace of mind. Why is that so? Because USCIS H-1B rule, 8 CFR Section 214.2(h)(8)(ii)(B), provides that "If the final receipt date is any of the first five business days on which petitions subject to the applicable numerical limit may be received (i.e., if the numerical limit is reached on any one of the first five business days that filings can be made), USCIS will randomly apply all of the numbers among the petitions received on any of those five business days, conducting the random selection among the petitions subject to the exemption under section 214(g)(5)(C) of the Act first."
  • In filing cases, just make it sure that the packages are filed with the designated Service Center with the right address and not wrong Service Center and "physically" delivered to the "physical facility" of the Service Center building before the end of April 6, 2012. Just make it sure that your packages are physically delivered to the Service Center buildings without failure. Delivery to the postal station in the area or posk mark is not enough. Also double check that all the forms are signed and dated properly and there are no flaws with the filing fee checks. These are the primary grounds for rejection of filing under the regulation. Relax and good luck!"
• There is one difference this year. In 2012, April 1st was Sunday, and thus the first business day for determination of final date was April 2. However, April 1st is Monday this year. Therefore, should such unlikely thing happens that the cap reaches in first day or first two days, the final date will be April 5, which is the fifth business day from April 1st. Therefore, in such scenario, the petition must be physically delivered to the buildings of the involved Service Center by Friday and before Saturday. Remember that post mark was not enough and physical delivery to the U.S. Postal Station at the location of the Service Centers was not enough. Unless the USCIS change the rule or practice, the same will apply this year too. The Service Center pick-up crews pick up express mails or mails from their U.S. Postal Stations one or two times a day and unless the file packets are picked up and brought to the Service Center buildings, the cases was not considered timely filed for determination of cap selection. Watch carefully FY 2014 cap season announcement to see whether there will be any change to this U.S. postal service delivery.
• The USCIS also initiated a process to change the filing procedure more than a year ago to bifurcate the filing process. Proposed first step was online registration of the H-1B petition, followed by filing of the full set of H-1B petitions once their cases were selected. However, implementation of this new procedure was postponed and at this time, indefinitely postponed. Accordingly, the FY 2014 H-1B cap filing will go through the same procedure which the employers followed in 2012. Should there be any changes, we will promptly post it at this site.

02/15/2013: Three Important Dates to Remember for USCIS Immigration Program Management Changes

• Effective 03/04/2013, the USCIS will accept and process I-601A application for stateside unlawful presence waiver. There are estimated 90,000 or more potential applicants for this new program.
• Effective 02/28/2013, the end of this month, I-539 applications must be filed either in paper or ELIS online filing. People will no longer be able to file it through the traditional online application system.
• Effective 03/01/2013, USCIS international office in Kingston, Jamaica is permanently closed.

02/15/2013: Senate Adjourned Until 02/25/2013, Monday

• The Senate adjourned other than pro forma sessions and there will be no legislative activities for next 10 days. Obviously, during the recess, the CIR sponsors may keep working behind the scene to introduce the CIR bill in the Senate early March 2013. Since the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has already announced that the bill would be promptly taken up in the Senate Judiciary Committee as soon as the bill is introduced, the heat of CIR debates is likely to burn hotter beginning March 2013. The House leaders have yet to put together their strategies, but the late report that the GOP may distance itself from the anti-immigration forces including NumbersUSA and FAIR may add some pressure on the House leaders to decide a direction which will not slap at the face of the Hispanic community. Thus far, its initial strategy to assert immigration reform on a piecemeal basis has failed. Accordingly, the key issues may be narrowed down to the border secuirty and immigration enforcement agenda. The President and the Democrats have shown some flexibility on these issues, potentially giving some chance to reach a deal and compromise along the way. Accordingly, once the CIR is enacted, the immigrant community is likely to see a much tougher issues of immigration enforcement and border security. Readers, relax for a while.

02/15/2013: Reuniting Families Act Bill (Family-Based Immigration Reform) Introduced in the House, 02/14/2013

• Yesterday, Rep. Michael Honda of California with 61 co-sponsors introduced H.R.717, Reuniting Families Act bill to promote family unity. This bill appears to raise a voice for the family-based immigration community which has recently been assaulted by some interest groups and conservative political leaders. Again, it is obvious that there is no chance that this bill will pass the Congress as a piecemeal legislation under the given environment and should rather be taken as a strategy to solicit and consolidate the family-based immigration advocates so that the family unification political agenda does not suffer in the comprehensive immigration reform legislation process. Details of the bill is yet to be released but the press release of the sponsor gives a peak into the intent of this legislative bill.

02/14/2013: Updated EB-5 Policy Memorandum of 02/14/2013 for Comment

• USCIS has released today the updated EB-5 Policy Memorandum, but this memorandum is for comment only and not in effect at this time.

02/14/2013: USCIS Alert for I-539 Filers

• Effective February 28, 2013, USCIS will disable the alternative legacy online filing channel for Form I-539 and offer I-539 filers the option to:
  • File online with USCIS ELIS, or
  • File a paper application by mail.
• Read the details.

02/14/2013: WOW! You Cannot Miss This News!

02/14/2013: USCIS Hosts Two ELIS Webinars Today, in the Morning and in the Afternoon

• USCIS will host multiple webinars on Thursday, February 14, 2013 to give interested individuals an opportunity to view the different features of USCIS ELIS and ask questions about the system. For the schedule and other details, please click here.
• There is also a notice in place for the ELIS site outage on 02/17/2013, this Sunday.

02/14/2013: Senate 'Gang of 8' Reportedly Making a Stride in Drafting CIR Bill

• Report indicates that during the Judiciary hearing on CIR yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, said the group is "making good progress" on drafting its comprehensive immigration bill. "We have a timetable," he said. "We're looking to get this done." Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he was looking forward to marking up legislation "soon." "Our window of opportunity will not stay open long. If we are going to act on this issue, we must do so without delay," Leahy said during his opening statements. "I hope today’s hearing helps to emphasize the urgency of the situation."
• Senator Durbin's earlier prediction of target date of Senate introduction of CIR bill in March 2013 apppears to be on the mark. Targetting at this bill, a flora of piecemeal immigration reform bills have been in the both Houses and it is likely that this process will continue.

02/14/2013: USCIS Celebrates Presidents' Day with Special Naturalization Ceremonies Across the Country

02/14/2013: House in Precarious Position on VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) Reauthorization Legislation

• As we reported it, this bill failed to make it at the last minute of the 112th Congressional session, and the Democrats in the Senate took up this legislation as a priority agenda and passed the bill on 02/12/2013. Now the fate of this bill is in the hands of the House members to act. Over the years, power of women has steadily risen not only in this country but also across the ocean. Today, people celebrate Valentine's Day and there is a massive campaign and movement in the world and in this country raising this issue as one of the key isssues for women. Come to think of the reality and truth - ENTIRE HALF OF VOTERS ARE WOMEN! When the House returns, it will be in a precarious position in dealing with the VAWA Reauthorization bill as its action can send a certain message to these women voters with the lasting impact on the future political process. Again, political leaders must see changing society, the world for that matter, and changing political environment.

02/14/2013: House Version of VAWA Bill, H.R. 629, Introduced in the House Yesterday

• Yesterday, Rep. Janice Schakowsky of Illinois introduced one of the House versions of VAWA bill, H.R.629 to provide protections against violence against immigrant women.

02/14/2013: Sen. Leahy Introduced S. 296, Same Sex Partner Recognized a Spouse in I-485 Green Card Proceedings

• Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced yesterday S.296 to permit permanent partners of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents and to penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships.
• We remind the readers that all of these piecemeal bills are not intended to pass as a stand-alone legislation but to position such issue as a component of the ongoing comprehensive immigration reform legislation process. Gay community has been a fast growing consituent community with a steadily growing political power.

02/14/2013: Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana Introduced Yesterday Five (5) Immigration Bills to Air Conservative Positions on Immigration

• The Senator appears to raise his voice against the ongoing immigration reform political environment. Here are the five bills he introduced yesterday in the Senate:
  • (1). S.299 : A bill to prohibit appropriated funds from being used in contravention of section 642(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996,so-sponsored by Sen Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Sen Deb Fischer of Nebraska
  • (2). S.300 : A bill to prohibit the implementation of any program that grants temporary legal status to, or adjusts the status of, any individual who is unlawfully present in the United States until the Secretary of Homeland Security certifies that the US-VISIT system has been fully implemented at every land, sea, and air port of entry, co-sponsored by Sen Mike Lee of Utah, Sen Jeff Sessions of Alabama
  • (3). S.301 : A bill to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth, co-sponsored by Sen Mike Lee of Utah, and Sen John Boozman of AR
    Sen Lee, Mike [UT]
  • (4). S.302 : A bill to make voting in a Federal election by an unlawfully present alien an aggravated felony and for other purposes.
  • (5). S.303 : A bill to promote innovation, investment, and research in the United States and to eliminate the diversity immigrant program
• Conservative voices to air.

02/14/2013: Sen. Mike Lee of Utah Introduces S. 293, Companion Bill to H.R. 633

• Indeed, Senator Mike Lee of Utah reintroduced previous Seante version of H.R. 3012 companion bill as S.293, again as a companion bill to Rep. Chaffetz's H.R. 633 to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants and to increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-sponsored immigrants.

02/13/2013: Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah Introduces H.R. 633 to Eliminate Per Country Limit in Employment-Based Immigration

• The Congressman announced that he introduced this bill today. He introduced the similar bill H.R. 3012 in the 112th Congress which was successfully passed in the Republican House but failed in the Democratic Senate. As soon as the text of this bill is made available, we will post it. This bill is co-sponsored by Rep Paul Labrador of Idaho and Rep Zoe Lofgren of California.
• Elimination of per country limit in the employment-based immigration was also introduced by another Senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, as part of the Immigration Innovation bill. According to Rep. Chaffetz, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah will introduce a companion bill in the Senate. The same happened with H.R. 3012 last year.
• Again, the chance for passing as a piecemeal legislation is questionable, but this bill can affect the employment-based immigration component of the CIR.

02/13/2013: Texts of Witness Testimonies at Today's Senate Judiciary Committee "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" Hearing

• The Hon. Janet Napolitano, DHS Secretary
• Jose Vargas
• Jessica Vaughan
• Steve Case
• Chris Crane
• Janet Murguía
• The Honorable Patrick Leahy

02/13/2013: Very Positive News for CIR That Silicon Valley and Immigrant Groups Find Common Cause for CIR Rather Than Piecemeal

• There is a news report in the Business Sectiion of the New York Times today that Silicon Valley and immigrant groups both would support for CIR rather than piecemeal immigration reform approach. This is in a way the most important development for CIR success.

02/13/2013: OFLC Releases Round 8 Frequently Asked Questions on H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Foreign Labor Certification Program

02/13/2013: USCIS Alert of Current Version of Form N-470 Not Acceptable Effective 04/12/2013

• The USCIS advises that on February 11, 2013, USCIS published a revised Form N-470, Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes, with an edition date of 1/03/2013. USCIS will accept older editions for 60 days. Beginning April 12, 2013, USCIS will only accept the 1/03/2013 edition. There is now a single filing address for this form. Customers filing Form N-470 must now mail them to the Dallas Lockbox facility. The new centralized filing location will streamline intake functions, enhancing customer service and improving operational efficiency.
• The readers are advised to visit the new USCIS Form Improvements Initiative Web page to learn more about the USCIS continued efforts to centralize filing locations at the USCIS Lockbox facilities, other form improvements, and recently published and upcoming forms.

02/13/2013: Lack of Specifics on Bottleneck Issues for CIR in Obama and Rubio Speeches

• Yesterday's State of the Union address of the President and Senator Marco Rubio's response were disappointing when it comes to the immigration reform. Even though no one could expect any details of CIR for the two parties in the event, we somehow looked forward to their address to the CIR bottleneck issues. However, there were some hopeful signs we could detect on the floor when it came to the Senators in that the Democrat and Republican leaders of CIR named Gang of 8 hang around together on the floor and some Republican members of the Gang of 8 stood up to applaud when the President addressed to the CIR issue and we could even see some of these Republican members had a Green Ribbon on their jacket. Considering the fact that reportedly anti-immigration forces started a massive campaign to oppose and block immigration reform labelling it as 'amnesty' pumping in a lot of money, the CIR players should move fast not to lose the momentum of the day. At this point of time, the nation is on the side of CIR and not on the side of anti-immigration forces.

02/13/2013: USCIS Naturalization Applications Statistics as of 12/31/2012

02/13/2013: USCIS Immigration Applications/Petitions Statistics as of 12/31/2012

02/12/2013: Senate Passed VAWA Reauthorization Bill, S. 47, Today

• By 78:22.

02/12/2013: Watch President State of the Union Speech at 8:45 p.m. Est Tonight to Hear President's Immigration Proposal and Sen. Marco Rubio's Sort of Rebuttal

• The moment has come to hear more clearly the positions of the Democratic party as reflected in the President's State of the Union and the position of the Republican party as reflected in Senator Marco Rubio's response to the State of the Union tonight. The Democrat's proposal has been made clear, more or less, but the Republican's offical position on the immigration reform has yet to be made clear. Currently, a few proposals have been floating around reflecting (1) piecemeal legislation approach as opposed to comprehensive legislation approach; (2) split of legalization of undocumented immigrants between piecemeal DREAMers legalization and comprehensive legalization of undocumented immigrants accross the board in one packet with different benefits for DREAMers; (3) legalization of undocumented immigrants conditioned upon border security assurance and unconditional legalization of undocumented immigrants. The piecemeal approach is not well received at this time as it will prevent any immigration reform at all this year. The DREAMer piecemeal legislation will be taken as a poison for the Democrats since it will result in the split of the Hispanic community between the potential new young Hispanic voters and other Hispanic voters. Currently, we see the split of Hispanic voters between more or less pro-Republican Cuban voters and pro-Democratic voters of Mexican and other Hispanic voters. Because of such implication, this piecemeal proposal for DREAMers may turn out to be a proposal which will be a poison for the Democrats to hardly swallow. There is a consensus of need for border security but ambivalent notion of condition of the border security will practically make the comprehensive immigration reform legislation meaningless for the undocumented immigrants. Accordingly, the foregoing three components should be negotiated and compromised between the two parties to resolve the comprehensive reform of the immigration system for undocumented immigrants. There are plenty of other issues involving the "legal" immigration system reform including family-based, employment-based, and other components, but inasmuch as the legalization of undocumented immigrants is somehow resolved successfully, other issues involving reform of the legal immigration systems may be less contentious and resolved in much less painful manner, even though there are issues which involves severe ideological difference between the parties and some racial and ethnic conflicts and difference implication for the legal immigration system. The Bush's failed point-system legal immigration reform system proposal vividly reminds the nation of complexity of reform of legal immigration system on its own because of such ideological difference, critical racial and ethnic implication, and power distribution implications involved. Readers should always look for hidden agenda underlying each proposal whenever any proposals come up! Let's watch how these issues are handled from hereon.

02/12/2013: VAWA Expected to Vote and Pass Today in the Senate at 11:00 a.m.

• S. 47, VAWA Reauthorization bill has been dragged because of the amendments introduced on the floor even if the bill is co-sponsored by 61 Senators. Despite the busy schedule of Joint Session today to hear the President's State of the Union before the full Congress, Senate is scheduling to vote for this bill before 11:00 a.m. Please stay tuned.

02/12/2013: Reminder of New Orleans Field Office Closing Today

• Reminder: The New Orleans Filed Office will be closed today Tuesday, February 12 due to Mardi Gras.
  

02/11/2013: PERM Fact Sheet Update as of 12/31/2012 (1st Quarter of FY 2013)

• Audit=37%
• Appeals=14%
• Analyst Review(cleancut cases)=48%
• Sponsorship/BE=1%
• Total=100%

02/11/2013: Prevailing Wage Determination Processing Fact Sheet as of 12/31/2012 (1st Quarter of FY 2013)

02/11/2013: Office March 2013 Visa Bulletin

• Not much movement.
• State Department Prediction for Movement between April and June 2013:
  • FB-Based (potential monthly movement)
    • Worldwide dates:
      F1: Three or four weeks
      F2A: Three to five weeks
      F2B: Three to five weeks
      F3: One or two weeks
      F4: Up to two weeks
  • EB-Based(potential monthly movement)
    • EB-1: Current
    • EB-2:
      • Worldwide: Current
      • China: Three to six weeks
      • India: No movement. Despite the established cut-off date having been held for the past five months in an effort to keep demand within the average monthly usage targets, the amount of demand being received from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Offices for adjustment of status cases remains extremely high. Should the current rate of demand continue, it is likely that at some point the cut-off date will need to be retrogressed in an effort to hold demand within the FY-2013 annual limit.
    • EB-3:
      • Worldwide: Four to six weeks
        China: Two to three months
        India: Up to two weeks
        Mexico: Four to six weeks
        Philippines: Up to one week
    • EB-4: Current
    • EB-5: Current
  • Item D of the December 2012 Visa Bulletin alerted readers that a China cut-off date might be imposed at some point during the second half of the fiscal year. Currently there is no reason to believe that it will be necessary to establish a China Employment Fifth preference category cut-off date during FY-2013, since demand over first six months of FY-2013 has now averaged out to a manageable level.
  • The above projections for the Family and Employment categories are for what is likely to happen during each of the next few months based on current applicant demand patterns. Readers should never assume that recent trends in cut-off date movements are guaranteed for the future. The determination of the actual monthly cut-off dates is subject to fluctuations in applicant demand and a number of other variables which can change at any time. Those categories with a “Current” projection will remain so for the foreseeable future.

02/11/2013: USCIS Weather Related Field Offices Closing Notice Update 02/11/2013

• Fargo, North Dakota Application Support Center will be closed today Monday, February 11 due to inclement weather.
• The New Orleans Filed Office will close on Tuesday, February 12 due to Mardi Gras.

02/10/2013: CIR Players Should Come up With "Objective" Yardstick to Measure Border Security Quickly

• We reported earlier that the Republican's demand for border security before implementation of legalization of undocumented immigration in CIR needed articulation of the standards and yardstick to measure "border security." Advance of vague and subjective yardstick to measure will not play well and be taken as a rhetoric and a simple scheme to oppose the legalization. Report indicates that the Homeland Security Secretary reported that the border security has been improved and assured. Even though the Republicans agree that some improvement in the border security by the Obama Administration's massive immigration enforcement, they still disagree that it is enough. Under the circumstances, rhetoric continues in both parties. Reportedly, Senator Marco Rubio discussed his proposal to form a Commission and Southern border state governors to decide when the border has been secured. This is a classic "subjective" yardstick which will lead to nowhere. His proposal to require the legalized immigrants to stay at the end of immigration waiting line was taken as a compromise which the Democrats apparently more or less conceded, and from the standpoint of assurance of balance of power between the two parties, it should give a substantial edge and protection between the two parties as the immigration lines can take even a decade or longer. His reported proposal to leave the decision to the governors of the border states sounds a way out of line without even any standards and objective yardsticks. Any tactic to delay or kill CIR may not be perceived well in the current environment, particularly in the Hispanic community. We urge the CIR players to come up with objective standards to measure security of the border as soon as possible. It appears this is the primary hurdle and roadblock for the CIR to move on at this time.

02/09/2013: Piecemeal and Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bills with the Confused Public

• The public, including immigrants, could be confused with the media reports of all different types of immigration bills which are discussed and even introduced in the Congress in piecemeal fashions. When the comprehensive immigration reform legislation process is in place as the nation's focal point, these piecemeal immigration bills are usually introduced not for the purpose of being enacted as a separate legislation but for the purpose of calling attention as well as addressing direction of that component of the reform for compromise in the comprehensive immigration reform legislation process. Accordingly, the public and our readers should pay close attention to these piecemeal proposals but should not read too much into such proposals with unrealistic high hope for a separate legislation, causing eventual emotional frustration, disappointment, and confusion at the end of the day when such piecemeal legislation is failed to pass in the Congress. For instance, there is a report that Rep. Luis Gutierrez who is one of the strongest advocate of the CIR would introduce a DREAM bill in the House next week or shortly, but the DREAMers should not expect that a separate DREAM bill will be enacted soon. The same goes true with the STEM bill(s). Readers should understand the dynamics of American legislative and political process before they go too far exhausting their emotional energy.

02/09/2013: Full List of Witnesses to Testify at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on CIR 02/13/2013, Wednesday

• The list of witneeses reflects the issues which the CIR will focus on. Other than the DHS Secretary, the following witnesses will testify at the hearing:
  • Jose Antonio Vargas, Founder, Define American, New York, NY
  • Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC
  • Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution, Washington, DC
  • Chris Crane, President, National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council 118 of the American Federation of Government Employees, Washington, DC
  • Janet Murguía, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza, Washington, DC
• Quite contrasted to the list of the witnesses who testified at the House Judiciary Committee the other day, isn't it? In a way, though, it is sound and positive in that those separate issues will eventually have to be negotiated, compromised, and merged into the final product of a comprehensive immigration reform package. Time is a critical factor. No matter what different and conflicting proposals they may be, those proposals must come up as quickly as possible so that the political machine of negotiation and compromise process could start as swiftly as possible not to lose the momentum before the fall. Let all the voices be heard, not only through and among interest groups and lobbyists alone but also through the key government power houses so that the people and not interest groups and lobbyists decide in open arena. Recently, there was a media report that a lot of foreign country money and influence are pouring into this early stage of CIR process.

02/08/2013: VAWA Reauthorization Bill Scheduled to be Voted Monday, 02/11/2013

• This bill was initially target to be voted yesterday, but because of the amendments, the Senate is scheduling to vote for this Monday evening. Please stay tuned for this website.

02/08/2013: EB Visa Demand Data to Determine March 2013 Visa Bulletin

02/08/2013: USCIS Certain Offices Closing Alert Related to Weather

The following offices will be closing at 11:30 am (Eastern Time):

Massachusetts

Boston, MA District Office & Field Office
JFK Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street
Government Center, Room E-170
Boston, MA 02203-0701

Boston Application Support Center
170 Portland Street
Boston MA 02114

Lawrence, MA Field Office & Application Support Center
2 Mill Street
Lawrence, MA 01840

New Hampshire

Manchester, NH Field Office & Application Support Center
9 Ridgewood Road
Bedford, NH 03110

Rhode Island

Providence, RI Field Office & Application Support Center
1543 Atwood Avenue
Johnston, RI 02919

Providence Application Support Center
105 Sockanosset Cross Road, Suite 210
Cranston, RI 02910

Maine

Portland Field Office & Application Support Center
176 Gannett Drive
So. Portland ME 04106-6909

The following USCIS Offices and Service Centers in New York will be closing at 3:00 pm (Eastern Time):

New York

New York Field Office
26 Federal Plaza
New York NY 10278-0127

Bronx Applications Support Center
1827 Westchester Ave
Bronx NY 10473

Brooklyn Application Support Center
1260-78 60th St
Brooklyn NY 11219

Hicksville Application Support Center
87 Bethpage Rd
Hicksville NY 11801

Manhattan Application Support Center
201 Varick St., 10th Floor, Room 103
New York NY 10014

Port Chester Application Support Center
40 South Main Street
Port Chester NY 10573

Queens/Jamaica Application Support Center
153-01 Jamaica Avenue
Jamaica NY 11432

Woodside Application Support Center
63-05 Roosevelt Avenue
Woodside NY 11377

Queens Field Office & ASC
2735 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City NY 11101-2917

Long Island Field Office
30 Barretts Avenue
Holtsville NY 11742

02/08/2013: USCIS Case Status Check Site Notice of Delays in Posting of Case Status

• The USCIS case status site issued a notice to "expect a 30-45-day delay between when the application or petition is filed and when the information is available in Case Status Online, depending on the volume of applications USCIS receives. Hmm................. That is not an exciting news. Lately, customers have been reporting erroneous reports of case specific processing information on case status sites. Hope this is corrected as soon as possible.

02/08/2013: Israel Visa Waiver Program (VWP) Bill Introduced in the Senate Without Filibuster Threat

• Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced S.266 yesterday to provide for the inclusion of Israel in the visa waiver program, which was read twice with objection and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill is co-sponsored by a senior Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. Another bill to the same effect has been also introduced in the House earlier and pending action. Once the Visa Waiver Program is legislated, the nationals of Israeli will be able to visit the U.S. for upto 90 days as a visitor without a visa. A companion bill was also introduced in the House and is pending action.

02/07/2013: USCIS New Orleans Field Office Closed 02/12/2013 Due to Mardi Gras

• The New Orleans Filed Office of USCIS will close on Tuesday, February 12 due to Mardi Gras.

02/07/2013: Employment-Based Immigration Reform Without Critical Opposition for CIR

• There are a growing number of employment-based immigration reform proposals which are presented or which are being worked on in both Chambers. The employment-based immigration reform is in itself not too controversial but other issues that are linked to it make such proposal controversial. When CIR is national focus, it is extremely difficult to pass any stand-alone piecemeal employment-based immigration reform bill. Once the CIR eventually somehow fails, then the chance of such piecemeal legislation becomes very promising inasmuch as such piecemeal employment-based immigration reform is not presented as a hostage to very controvertial reform of other programs. This site does not discuss too much on the employment-based immigration reform because there will be no serious contention to such reform. Thus this site will have to focus more on other issues that can make such employment-based immigration reform a hostage. The areas of reform for employment-based immigration reform have been numerously presented in the Congress upto now and game-players are very well aware of the areas and direction of needed reform to achieve attracting or keeping foreign talens in this country.
• It is thus in the interest of the employment-based immigration reform advocates not to unnecessarily associate emplyment-based immigration reform issue with other programs and unnecessarily use inflammatory languages flying around in the air. It will not only create enemies in the immigrant community itself but also unintendedly help to reduce the chances for immigration reforms, no matter what forms of reforms they may be. The employment-based immigration reform should totally focus on and advocate the areas that need reform in the employment-based immigration system itself and leave other controversial or contentious issues not directly related to the employment-based immigration reform to the political players in the government and in the political parties. In this regard, those witnesses who represented immigrant community and testified before the House Judicary Committee yesterday did a good job addressing the areas of reform in the employment-based immigration system. Members of employment-based immigrant comumuty are intelligent and have a sufficient wisdom to understand that they themselves can be a victim of "divide and conquor" tactics of the anti-immigration forces.

02/07/2013: Yardstick for Border Security as Precondition for Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants in Senate CIR Proposal: Objective vs. Subjective Measure

• We discussed this sticky issue a few days ago and concluded that finding a yardstick to measure the level of border security as precondition for implementation of legalization of undocumented immigrants in the Senate proposal will be an ice-breaker and a point of compromise between the Republican and Democratic parties. It is interesting that the NBC online news site carried an opinion of a leading immigration law professor discussing two yardsticks: Objective vs. Subjective measure yardsticks. Obviously, the bargainers should use and find objective yardsticks to thaw the ice.
• The opinion is so interesting that we have decided to cite the relevant portion of the report in full as follows:
  • Cornell University Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert, said one possible compromise between the two sides would be an enforcement mechanism based on objective criteria, like a certain number of Border Patrol agents along the border or amount of money spent on security. But he said that if Republicans insist on a subjective measure, such as whether a poll finds the majority of Americans think the border is secure, or whether Republican governors of border states agree the border is secure, common ground will be much more difficult to find. Asked about the political feasibility of objective measures in a final immigration bill, Yale-Loehr said, “I would hope that an objective one would satisfy the conservatives enough that they could live with it while not antagonizing the other side too much.”
• What a brilliant and excellent analysis! Hats off to you, Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr! Your analysis should give at least a starting point and guidance for CIR power players of the White House, the Senate, and the House!

02/06/2013: Another USCIS ELIS Maintenance Outage on February 10 from 4 a.m to 2 p.m.

• The USCIS Electronic Immigration System will be temporarily offline on Sunday, February 10, from 4 a.m. – 2 p.m. eastern time as we perform scheduled maintenance. Wow, a lot of outages for maintenance.

02/06/2013: Sen. Grassley Senate Floor Speech of 02/04/2013 Echoing Senate Version over President's Version for Condition of Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants

• Senator Grassley of Iowa released his Senate floor speech on the Senate floor on 02/04/2013. It is a long speech, but it can be summarize in two points. (1) Reagan immigration reform (IRCA) in the 1980s was a failure because the legalization program failed to ensure border security and block of flood of undocumented immigrants from the Southern border before legalization of undocumented immigrants was implemented. (2) This time around, the border security must be achieved and assured before implementation of legalization of undocumented immigrants.
• Sounds familiar? That was Senate Gang of 8 proposal making precondition of border security for legalization of undocumented immigrants. This is also the point of key conflict with the President's immigration reform framework. In fact, this is the key difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party on the legalization portion of CIR. It will be very tough to negotiate and compromise, but we will see how the key players will use their wisdom of skillful political negotiation to reach a "verdict." The key point of compromise is how to determine the border security has been achieved. Without such yardstick, the Senate version of legalization of undocumented immigrants can be misunderstood as a sugar-coating of opposition of legalization of undocumented immigrants. It Ain't Something?

02/06/2013: USCIS Online Customer Service Tools Unavailable Again Feb. 7 (Thursday), 11 p.m. to Feb. 8 (Friday), 5 a.m. EST

• What is cooking?

02/06/2013: Certain USCIS Online Customer Service Tools Unavailable for Maintenance Feb. 6 (Wednesday), 9 p.m. to Feb 7 (Thursday), 5 a.m.

• Case Status and Other Customer Relationship Information System Sites Unavailable Wednesday, Feb. 6, 9 p.m. to Thursday, Feb. 7, 5 a.m. EST. During this time, the following on-line tools will be unavailable:
  • Check My Case Status
  • Sign-Up for Case Status
  • Check Processing Times
  • Change of Address Online
  • Civil Surgeon Locator
  • e-Request
  • Office Locator
• See alert.

02/06/2013: Culprit of Gridlock and Polarization of Congress: Why Reforming the Primary Process Would Produce a More Productive Congress

• Readers must have noticed that in the American party politics, the primary process for elected legislators more or less force them to be slaves of the party rather than consitutiens whom they serve because for these elected officials, they must first be nominated within the party through the current primary process of election system. Good lessons are learned from Governor Romni in the last Presidential election. For the reasons, the country has been undergoing gridlocks and polarization between the two parties. There is an interesting article posted in the National Journal on this issue relating to the role of primary in American party election process. Some readers must have been wondering why the elected officials are so polarized in immigration reform legislation between the House and the Senate. This report will be able to give glimps of American politics and help them to understand the flood of news flowing out in the media day in and day out.

02/06/2013: Office of Foreign Labor Certifications Release H-2A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Round 7

• This new FAQ adds a wide range of new questions and answers for the H-2A employers and H-2A workers filing temporary labor certification application for H-2A agricultural worker petitions. They cannot miss this new round of FAQ. Please click here for Round 7.

02/06/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Schedules Comprehensive Immigration Reform Hearing 02/13/2013 Wednesday

• Senate Judiciary Committee will have this hearing the next day of the President's State of Union speeach on 02/12/2013 09:00 a.m. One of the witnesses to testify at this hearing is the Secretary of Homeland Security. Unlike yesterday's hearning of the House Judiciary Committee on the same subject that heavily focused on the high skilled immigrant worker immigration reform, the Senate Judiciary hearing is likely to focus on a broader and wide range of issues based on the Senate Gange of 8's immigration reform proposal and addressing heavily to the issues for Democrat's constituents. Please stay tuned.

02/06/2013: UAFA for Gay/Lesbian Family Unity Immigration Bill Reintroduced in the House

• Yesterday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York reintroduced H.R.519 Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) to promote LGBT family unity immigration, cosponsored by 16 other Representatives including the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Again this bill is intended to get this part of immigration reform in the ongoing Comprehensive Immigration Reform activities in both the Senate and the House. The LGBT community was happy with the Senate immigration reform proposals because LGBT immigrant family unification part was not visibly included. This bill appears to be intended to remind the legislative leaders who are working on the CIR to address this component in the final CIR legislative bill. For the sponsor's news release, please click here.

02/06/2013: A Movement for Immigration Reform to Permit Family Unification for Legal Permanent Residents with Spouses and Children Pending Immigrant Visas

• One of the fundament principles underlying the U.S. immigration system is family unification between the U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents in the U.S. and their immediate relatives (spouses and minor children) pending the immigrant visa proceedings. Such unification of family for U.S. citizens is achieved for the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens through K nonimmigrant visas if the relatives are located outside of the U.S., and adjustment of status proceedings if the relatives are located in the U.S. Additionally, even unlawfully present immediate relatives (spouse) of a U.S. citizen are allowed to remain in the country pending immigrant visa interview scheduled at the visa posts to minimize separation of family members from the U.S. citizen sponsor under the USCIS Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver regulation that will go into effect on 03/04/2013.
• Currently, there is a nonimmigrant visa, V nonimmigrant visa, to achieve such family unification between the lawful permanent residents and their immediate relatives pending visa number regression. However, the qualification requirement for such visa is so restrictive that only an "extremely" limited small number of family unification has thus far beens achieved through this nonimmigrant visa upto now pending the visa number availability. See the report of the U.S. Department of State. The current requirement for V nonimmigrant visa include:
  • The U.S. LPR spouse and/or parent MUST have filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of his or her spouse/child(ren) on or before December 21, 2000;
  • The petition’s priority date must be at least three years old;
  • The priority date must not be current;
  • The applicant must not have already had an immigrant visa interview or be scheduled for an interview;
  • The petition must not already be at a U.S. embassy or consulate for immigrant visa processing; and
  • The applicant must be otherwise eligible as an immigrant.
• As part of the comprehensive immigration reform proposals, the community of lawful permanent residents in this country is petitioning the White House and Congress advocating that such family unification be extended to the spoouses and children of lawful permanent residents either by liberalizing the V visa qualification requirement or otherwise. There is some humanitarian element involved in this issue and it will be interesting to see how much this movement of the advocates will be reflected in the final comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

02/05/2013: USCIS Updates Processing Time Today

• See our home page for the link.

02/05/2013: Certain USCIS Web Sites Outage for Maintenance Tomorrow Night

• Case Status and Other Customer Relationship Information System Sites Unavailable Wednesday, Feb. 6, 9 p.m. to Thursday, Feb. 7, 5 a.m. EST. During this time, the following on-line tools will be unavailable:
  • Check My Case Status
  • Sign-Up for Case Status
  • Check Processing Times
  • Change of Address Online
  • Civil Surgeon Locator
  • e-Request
  • Office Locator
• See alert.

02/05/2013: In Parallel with House Judiciary Immigration Reform Hearing, the President Meets Today a List of Labor/Progressive Leaders and Business Leaders

• Please read the list. Heat of steam rises between the two parties. See how the lists are selected differently between the House Judiciary hearing and Obama's meeting!

02/05/2013: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Updates Processing Times as of February 1, 2013

02/05/2013: USCIS Advisory on Access Problem Today for Baltimore District Office Because of the Super Bowl Winner Parade

• The Baltimore District Office is open for business as usual but will be affected by the Ravens Super Bowl Parade scheduled to take place today. Very few interviews are scheduled for today and the Baltimore District will reschedule anyone who cannot appear for their interview appointment. For customers with InfoPass appointments, if you choose to reschedule your appointment, please do so on our website at www.uscis.gov. Our Application Support Center at 100 S. Charles Street, Suite 200, Baltimore, Maryland 21201 will be affected as well. The parade will affect access to our office for those traveling in from I-395, I295, I83 and Pratt St. Many roads will be closed and major delays should be expected between 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m.

02/05/2013: USCIS Form Improvement Initiatives Announcement

• Easy-to-Use Formats: We are publishing many of our forms in a 2-column, Adobe fillable format. When completed electronically, this format restricts incorrect entries and provides informational pop-up boxes to assist customers. User-Friendly Look and Feel: We have improved several of our naturalization forms to include clear and comprehensive instructions in plain language. Centralized Processing: We will continue to centralize filing locations at the USCIS Lockbox facilities. Our Lockbox facilities provide fast, secure and standard intake services for over 5 million forms filed annually. Beginning in February 2013, customers filing Form N-470, Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes, will mail them to the Dallas Lockbox facility. New Data Collection Technologies: Beginning with Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card, we will publish our high-volume forms with 2D barcode technology. When you complete these forms using a computer, the barcode at the bottom of the page will store the data entered on the form. We will be able to scan the information from the barcode and upload it directly to USCIS systems, allowing us to improve data quality and operational efficiency. Please do not attach anything to or damage the barcode.
• It sounds they push ahead lockbox centralization filing and further electronize the process. Read on what forms have and will have this transition.

02/05/2013: VAWA Reauthorization Bill, S. 47, Overcome Yesterday Potential Hurdle of Filibuster and Likely to be Voted in the Senate 02/07/2013, Thursday

02/05/2013: Bill Introduced in the House to Reform Family-Based Immigration Program and Reduce the Number of Family-Based Immigrants

• Here we go again. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia introduced yesterday in the House H.R.477 to make changes related to family-sponsored immigrants and to reduce the number of such immigrants. This proves again the Republican party's stance and bottomline for immigration reform not to increase a single visa number from the current quota system and rather slice off some immigrant visa numbers from immigration program of one sector, particularly pro-Democrat programs in order to increase the visa numbers for certain other immigrant programs, particularly pro-Republican programs. Unless they are willing to compropose and change their current bottomline, the two Chambers of the Congress will be destined to collide head-on down the road in immigration reform legislation.

02/05/2013: Congressman Issa Reintroduced a Bill to Promote High Skilled Worker/Investor Program and Eliminate Diversity Immigration Lottery Program

• Representative Darreell Issa of California reintroduces a bill H.R.459 in the House yesterday to promote innovation, investment, and research in the United States and to eliminate the diversity immigrant lottery program. This bill was introduced in the 112th Congress and failed to make it. Just as the Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas STEM bill which was introduced at the end of the 112th Congress and failed because of his proposal to eliminate diversity immigration lottery program to give a room for employment-based and investment-based immigration programs, this bill is likely to face same challenges in the House and definitely in the Senate. The Congressman must have reintroduced this bill poised to bite his teeth in shaping the House version of comprehensive immigration bill. This issue may show up in the today's scheduled hearing in the House Judiciary Committee to discuss the issues of interest for the House version of immigration reform proposal. Democrates would have hoped that the Congressman had introduced a bill giving more employment-based immigrant visa numbers to attract and retain entrepreneurs and highly skilled and tallented foreign workers without proposing to remove the diversity immigration program. Again, the fundamental problem which some of the Republican legislators introduced and will introduce is that they will not promote entrepreneurs and talented immigrant worker programs unless they can achieve the purpose within the limit of current immigrant quota, demanding sacrifice of other immigration programs within the current immigration quota system. One of the options to achieve their goal within such bottom could have to been to propose the recapture of unused immigrant visas just as a past proposal by Republican Senator Cornyn of Texas in the past. Congressman Isaa is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Read Rep. Isaa's press release.

02/04/2013: Full Text of Testimonies of Expert Witnesses Before House Judiciary Committee Scheduled Tomorrow on America's Immigration System

• As we reported on 01/31/2013, the full House Judiciary Committee will have a hearing immigration reform issues. The following are texts of expert witnesses who will testify tomorrow:
  • Vivek Wadhwa, Director of Research, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University
  • Michael Teitelbaum, Senior Advisor, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Wertheim Fellow, Harvard Law School
  • Dr. Puneet S. Arora, Vice President, Immigration Voice
  • The Honorable Julian Castro, Mayor, San Antonio, Texas
  • Julie Myers Wood, President, Guidepost Solutions LLC
  • Chris Crane, President, National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council 118, of the American Federation of Government Employees
  • Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies
  • Muzaffar Chishti, Director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University Law School
• Statements of Judiciary Committee Chairman and Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Chairman on opening this hearing:
  • Chairman Goodlatte: “This year, Congress will engage in a momentous debate on immigration. We all agree that our nation’s immigration system is in desperate need of repair and it is not working as efficiently and fairly as it should be. But before we rush to judgment, we need to carefully look at the current laws on the books to see what is and isn’t working. Reforming our nation’s immigration laws is a massive undertaking and is too important to not examine each piece in detail.”
  • Chairman Gowdy: “I am looking forward to the hearing so I might better answer a question I consistently get from my constituents which is: ‘In 1986 we were told immigration has been settled for time immemorial. We were told that in exchange for secure borders and employment verification, those who entered the country illegally would not suffer the full panoply of legal consequences. In the minds of many, the country got the amnesty but is still waiting on the border security and employment verification. Why should we believe you now?’”

02/03/2013: Odds for Passage of CIR in the Senate Not Too Bad

• Even in the Democrat majority Senate, nothing should be granted and taken as done-deal. However, report indicates the odds look good.

02/02/2013: CIR Proposals of Three Key CIR Players of President, Senate, and House Approach Overall Similar Framework for Legalization Issues

• Various reports indicate that the three players are proposing a conceptual framework for the issue of legalization of undocumented immigrants which is very similar to those which we outlined: Legalization that assures party power balance by asking the legalized undocumented immigrants to seek green card sponsorship and stay at the end of the immigration waiting queue. Again, this proposal is widely accepted at this time as it assures the balance of power between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in the long term, and at the same time assures fairness between legal immigrants and undocumented/legalized immigrants.
• Under the cirucmstances, it is upto the Republican leaders and labor unions to accept a proposal to increase the badly needed highly skilled foreign workers immigrant quota without affecting the family-based immigration system. Part of this concept is already presented in the Senate Immigration Innovation bill, but this will present a point of severe fight from the ultra-right wing concervative Republicans as well as ultra left wing labor unions. Accordingly, the forementioned three key CIR players should work hard to negotiate and reach a compromise with two far-right and far-left sectors such that CIR bill be enacted this year. Should the Congress fail to pass the CIR, all the blames are likely to be directted to these far-right and far-left political forces that should pay political liability in the future because reportedly such failure will result in no-CIR until 2016! Will see how it will play out.

02/02/2013: Questions & Answers on National Benefit Center (NBC) Processing of Family-Based or Applications Other Than Employment-Based Application

• Most cases that are handled by the NBC of the USCIS are non-employment-based proceedings, particularly family-based immigration proceedings and cases which are adjudicated by USCIS local field offices. The practice of the NBC has gone through a lot of changes, inclucing transfer back and forth of workloads between the NBC and other Service Centers. This Questions & Answers between the USCIS and AILA of November 30, 2012 will be able to update those in these types of proceedings with current practice of the NBC, particularly those who filed or will file family-based I-130 petitions and family-based I-485 applications.

02/01/2013: USCIS Releases E-Verify Online Newsletter 11th Edition

• Employers, you cannot miss this online newsletter to update your knowledge of current state of E-Verify program. It is free and you do not need continuing education classes(!?)

02/01/2013: GOP Struggling Within the Party to Find a Direction and Political Strategy to Tackle Immigration Reform Challenges

• It appears the GOP needs to find a strong political leader to pull together various sectors within the party and to help the party to shape the party's platform and direction. Current probelm appears to stem from lack of a strong leader for the party. People are confused with the Party at this time not knowing who the leader of the party is and who leads the party. A leader of the party is missing. This is unfortunate not only for the party but also for the country. The two parties have led this nation as two pillars to support the nation and lead the people in good times or bad times and there have been a few incidents when party leaders were missing in the history of this country. It appears the current GOP is one of them. To the lay people on the street, they do not know who represents the GOP party at this time. There must be a symbolic leader for a party.
• Under the circumstances, the GOP is all over at this time with all different directions from the viewpoint of the public. Its struggle with the immigration reform issue as reported in the today's Hill vividly tells a serious problem for the party. A party needs a leader that symbolizes the party. One may go out the street and ask the people whether they know who the leader of the GOP is. The GOP should wake up and pull themselves together quick taking the immigration reform debate as one of the momentums to shape up the party.

02/01/2013: Sen. Chuck Schumer Renominated as Chair to Lead Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee

• Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee assigned the following Senates as the members of Immigration Subcommittee:
  • Schumer (Chair)
  • Leahy, Feinstein
  • Durbin
  • Klobuchar
  • Blumenthal
  • Hirono
  • Cornyn
  • Grassley
  • Hatch
  • Sessions
  • Flake
  • Cruz.
• These Senators will continue to lead the nation's immigration policy in the Upper Chamber of Congress for the next two years.
  

02/01/2013: Sen. Lee of Utah and Senator Gillibrand of New York Joined as Co-Sponsors for Sen. Hatch's Immigration Innovation Act

• Under the pressures of the business giants, growing number of Republican Senators are coming forward to support this bill. However, again, the chance for this bill being passed as a piecemeal legislation is not too promising under the current environment. This bill, however, is likely considered seriously as part of employment-based immigration reform component of the ongoing CIR. Senator Dick Durban of Illinois has already declared that he would work with Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to challenge and amend this proposal. This bill is too good to believe for the business community.

02/01/2013: Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa Wants E-Verify Expanced and Permanent Program

• Senator Chuck Grassley introduced in the Senate yesterday S.202 to expand the use of E-Verify and to hold employers accountable. Ten other Senators joined the Senate as co-sponsors including Senators John Boozman, Bob Corker, Mike Johanns, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions, David Vitter, Roger Wicker, Deb Fischer, Orrin Hatch and Mike Enzi. The bill is named "Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act of 2013." The bill proposes the following:
  • Permanently reauthorizes the E-Verify program that was created in 1996.
  • Makes the program mandatory for all employers within one year of date of enactment, requires federal contractors and agencies to use the program immediately, and directs “critical employers,” as identified by the Secretary of Homeland Security, to use the system immediately upon designation.
  • Increases penalties for employers who illegally hire undocumented workers.
  • Reduces the liability that employers face if they participate in E-Verify when it involves the wrongful termination of an individual.
  • Allows employers to use E-Verify before a person is hired, and requires them to check the status of all current employees within 3 years.
  • Requires employers to terminate the employment of those found unauthorized to work due to a check through E-Verify.
  • Helps ensure that the Social Security Administration catches multiple uses of Social Security numbers by requiring them to develop algorithms to detect anomalies.
  • Establishes a demonstration project in a rural area or area without internet capabilities to assist small businesses in complying with the participation requirement.
  • Amends the criminal code to make clear that defendants who possess or otherwise use identity information not their own without lawful authority and in the commission of another felony is still punishable for aggravated identity fraud, regardless of the defendant’s “knowledge” of the victim.
  • Requires employers to re-verify an employee’s immigration status if the employment authorization is due to expire.
• Interesting.

02/01/2013: VAWA Legislative Bill Moves Ahead on Senate Floor

• Beginning yesterday, the Senate floor began consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 47, the bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. The Senate Judiciary earlier passed this bill. The Senate floor is scheduled to vote for this bill next Monday, February 4, 2013. This bill is moving ahead very swiftly in the Decramic majority Senate.

01/31/2013: House Judiciary Committee Hearing 02/05/2013 on "America's Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration"

• Gradually, the House is catching up.

01/31/2013: Effective Tomorrow (02/01/2013), USCIS Implements New Immigration Fee

• USCIS has announced that Starting Feb. 1, 2013, foreign nationals seeking permanent residence in the United States will need to pay a new $165 USCIS Immigrant Fee. This new fee is in addition to fees charged by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) associated with an individual’s immigrant visa application. Applicants will pay the new fee online at www.uscis.gov/immigrantfee, after they receive their visa package from DOS and before they depart for the United States. When they attend their consular interview, applicants will receive specific information from DOS on how to submit payment. Children who enter the United States under either the Orphan or Hague adoption programs, Iraqi and Afghan special immigrants, returning residents (SB-1s), and those issued K visas are the only immigrant visa cases exempt from paying the new fee. The fee allows USCIS to recover money spent processing permanent resident cards in the United States after the immigrant visa holders receive their packages from DOS. More details about its implementation are available in the Federal Register.

01/31/2013: ICERT System Outage Alert Tomorrow from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. (ETA)

01/31/2013: House Bi-Partisan CIR Scheduled to be Unveiled Around President's State of Union Speech on 02/12/2013

• Report indicates that a bi-partisan group of House members have been working on CIR proposal similar to the Senate CIR proposal behind the scene and they intend to unveil it around the President's State of Union speech. The members of the group include: Diaz-Balart (R), Sam Johnson (R), John Carter (R), Luis Gutierrez (D), Zoe Loftren (D), and Xavier Becerra (D). There we go!

01/31/2013: Two-Hour Delay of Opening of USCIS Omaha Field Office and Application Support Center

• Here is the alert.

01/31/2013: Likely Schedule of Release of Proposed Rule of H-4 Spouse EAD in March 2013

• Under the rule-making Executive Order, the OMB of the White House has from 30 days to 90 days to complete their review. There are some exceptions including any rules that involve emergency or serious economic impact, which can be compled within 30 days. Another rule is the OMB's authority to extend the maximum 90-day review mandate. In 2012, for obvious reasons, a host of visa and immigration related rules of the DHS, DOS, and DOL kept extended over and over beyond 90 days and some beyond 180 days.
• The reason why this proposed rule review may be completed in March 2013 is the bi-annual rule making agenda that set the target date at March 2013, implying that this proposed rule review schedule may follow the 90-day review schedule of the OMB and USCIS. The proposed rule was submitted by the USCIS to the OMB on 12/10/2012. We will see whether there will be any chance that the proposed rule review will be completed rather earlier under the 60-day review schedule. We will wait and see.
• As we reported earlier, this does not mean that the H-4 EAD rule can be implemented in March 2013. Once the proposed rule is published in the federal register with a period of comment, it will have to go through another cycle of the OMB review before the binding Interim Final or Final Rule can be published in the federal register. Proposed rule is not binding. Besides, depending on the USCIS policy, there will be an extended period of time for the agency to review the comments which they received from the public before they draft and submit the Interim Final or Final to the OMB for review. The proposed rule will also provide from 30 days to 60 days comment period. Our smart visitors will be able to figure out the rough timeline, from the foregoing information, when the H-4 spouse EAD program mayl be in place and implemented!

01/31/2013: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman to Schedule First Immigration Reform Hearing on 02/13/2013

• Sources of information indicates that the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, intends to hold a hearing on immigration reform the day after the President’s State of the Union address. Please stay tuned to this website for the upcoming first hearing on immigration reform.
• President Obama wants Congress enact CIR bill as early as June 2013. Read on.

01/31/2013: Start Up Visa Act of 2013, S. 189, Entrepreneur Immigration Bill Reintroduced in the Senate

• Republican Senator Mark Udall of Colorado reintroduced S.189 yesterday, co-sponsored by Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, to establish an employment-based immigrant visa for alien entrepreneurs who have received significant capital from investors to establish a business in the United States. Sen. Jeff Flake is also playing a role in the Senate for CIR. This piecemeal immigration bill is likely considered in the CIR. As we reported earlier, Republicans may introduce a number of piecemeal immigration reform bills in both the Senate and the House. These piecemeal bills have slim or no chance to be passed in both Houses unless it is considered within the context of the CIR until the CIR legislation is resolved this year.
• According to the sponsor, this bill will allow immigrant entrepreneurs and foreign graduates of U.S. universities to appeal for a two-year visa on the condition that they secure financing from a qualified U.S. investor and can demonstrate the ability to create jobs in America. If they are successful in developing their company and hiring American workers, they would be eligible for legal permanent residency and would be free to continue building their companies, creating more home-grown jobs and continuing our legacy of unmatched innovation and entrepreneurship. According to him, while we try to work out a solution to our broken immigration laws, our foreign competitors are catching up and, in some cases, passing us by in many of the fields we once dominated. In 2009, for the first time in recent memory, foreign innovators were awarded more patents than Americans pioneers. Only a decade earlier, U.S.-based entrepreneurs were awarded almost 57 percent of all patents worldwide. The Startup Visa Act of 2013 is allegedly a strong and simple step that will reward foreign innovators, pioneers and entrepreneurs for creating jobs in America.

01/31/2013: Watch for CIR Opponents Growingly Spreading Pessimistic CIR Prediction in the Media

• It is unfortunate that the media starts carrying some pessimistic views of some so-called stakeholders about the chances of enactment of CIR this year. Readers of such opinions should look at their ties and motives of spreading such opinion carefully to figure out why they are spinning such pessimistic wheel. No matter what they say and spin, fact of the matter is that there is a new political landscape in this country and the political party that ignores such reality will have to pay a hefty price in November 2014. For the reason, most of the leaders consider this year the best year ever for comprehensive immigration reform. As the details of CIR proposals emerge, naturally and for a sound purpose, there will be debates and oppositions along the way, but that is a healthy and sound process of a legislation that demands negotiations and compromises. It is premature to form an opinion as to whether the CIR will succeed or fail at this juncture when there has yet to emerge details of the proposals. Admittedly, the House is quiet at this time, but they are not necessarily quiet because they are predetermined to oppose the CIR. They may remain quiet to see and assess the development. Let the process unfold.

01/30/2013: USCIS Field Offices Closed or Delayed Opening Alert

• The notice alerts: Delayed Opening Today for weather:
  • Nebraska - Omaha Application Support Center
  • Omaha, NE Field Office
  • Due to inclement weather, Omaha Field Office and Application Support Center will open with two hours delay.
• Read the notice. The message is somewhat confusing. Those who have appointments may call and confirm this notice.

01/30/2013: Welcome Message to New Secretary of State, The Honorable John Kerry, and Salute to the Departing Secretary of State Mrs. Hillary Clinton

• The new Secretary of State has been deeply involved in the foreign relations and international security issues, but he has also been supporting immigration and visa programs at the legislative level through out his legislative career. We look forward to Mr. Kerry's continuing support for visa programs at the international level. At the same time, we cannot miss this golden opportunity to recognize and thank Mrs Hillary Clienton for her superb and "literally" dedicated services for the past four years. We wish her well and the best.

01/30/2013: Immigration Innovation Act of 2013, S.169, and List of the Sponsor and Eleven Co-Sponsors

• As we reported yesterday, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah officially introduced this bill in the Senate to authorize additional visas for well-educated aliens to live and work in the United States. This piecemeal bill covers nonimmigrant as well as immigrant visa reforms to attract and retain foreign brans. There are eleven (11) co-sponsors for this bill as follows:
  
  • Sen Blumenthal, Richard [CT]
  • Sen Coons, Christopher A. [DE]
  • Sen. Flake, Jeff [AZ]
  • Sen Heller, Dean [NV]
  • Sen Hoeven, John [ND]
  • Sen Klobuchar, Amy [MN]
  • Sen Nelson, Bill [FL]
  • Sen Rubio, Marco [FL]
  • Sen Schatz, Brian [HI]
  • Sen Shaheen, Jeanne [NH]
  • Sen Warner, Mark R. [VA]
• Full text of the bill
• It is anticipated that the number of co-sponsors may grow considering the powerful business and academic institution stakeholders' pressure involved, even though the chance for passing this bill as a piecemeal legislation apart from the Comprehensive Immigration Reform is uncertain. Despite such uncertainty, this bill will play an important role for the legislators to shape the employment-based immigration component in the CIR. This bill shows a very aggressive reform of EB immigration reform. For the reasons, it may face steep challeges from labor unions and their political backers on the left and ultra-conservative Republicans on the right who have been strongly opposing increase of visa quotas by all means. You guessed it. Sen. Durbin of Illinois has reportedly expressed his intent to work with Sen. Chuck Grassley of Illinois to amend the H-1B reform portion of this bill. Read on.

01/30/2013: USCIS I-140 Processing Statistics as at 11/30/2012

01/30/2013: USCIS EB-I-485 Processing Statistics as at 11/30/2012

01/30/2013: Senate CIR Framework and President's CIR Factsheet

• Good review by a media.

01/29/2013: Positive News for Employment-based Immigration Reform as Reflected in Senate CIR Framework, Obama CIR Proposal, and I-Squared Act of 2013

• The common thread throughout these reform proposals includes positive reform of the current employment-based immigration system. Both President proposal and Senate framework indicate that the new legislation will provide the recapture of unsued employment-based immigration numbers, increase of immigrant quotas, STEM exemption from visa quota system, quota exemption for the spouses and children of employment-based immigrants. These changes themselves can create a substantial number of employment-based visas even under the current employment-based immigrant quota system. On top of the legislative reform, within this year, H-4 spouses of certain H-1B foreign workers will be able to work with employment authorization. Believe it or not, the President's proposal even proposes to exempt from quota system for employment-based immigrants. Peak of bright sun light through the window!

01/29/2013: White House Releases Today the President Obama's CIR Fact Sheet & Schedules Fireside Hangout Discussion of the Proposal by Cecilia Munoz, Director of White House Domestic Policy Counseil

• Some of our readers must have been disappointed with his speeach in Las Vegas today from reading the transcript. Obviously, he did not spend enough time to go into the details, causing such disappointment. It just sounded a rhetoric. However, the White House released the CIR Fact Sheet of the President Obama's proposals with details. Our readers will be happy to read this fact sheet.
• Starting at 1:00 p.m. ET on January 31, this Thursday, Cecilia Muñoz, the Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, will join the latest "Fireside Hangout"– a 21st century take on FDR’s famous radio addresses – to talk about immigration reform. The conversation will be moderated by Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and founder of Define American, and Ms. Muñoz will discuss the President’s proposal for comprehensive immigration reform with participants, which will include America Ferrera, Co-chair of Voto Latino's I'm Ready for Immigration Reform campaign and Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners. You can watch the hangout live on WhiteHouse.gov, or tune in to the White House’s Google+ page on Thursday, January 31 at 1:00 p.m. ET.

01/29/2013: Summary of Senate Bi-Partisan Bill of "Immigration Innovation Act of 2013" with Nick Name of "I-Squared Act of 2013"

• The bill which is introduced in the Senate today will be made available soon but here is the sponsor's summary of the bill:
  • Employment-Based Nonimmigrant H-1B Visas
    • Increase H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000
    • Establish a market-based H-1B escalator, so that the cap can adjust ¡V up or down ¡V to the demands of the economy (includes a 300,000 ceiling on the ability of the escalator to move)
      o If the cap is hit in the first 45 days when petitions may be filed, an additional 20,000 H-1B visas will be made available immediately.
      o If the cap is hit in the first 60 days when petitions may be filed, an additional 15,000 H-1B visas will be made available immediately.
      o If the cap is hit in the first 90 days when petitions may be filed, an additional 10,000 H-1B visas will be made available immediately.
      o If the cap is hit during the 185-day period ending on the 275th day on which petitions may be filed, and additional 5,000 H-1B will be made available immediately.
    • Uncap the existing U.S. advanced degree exemption (currently limited to 20,000 per year)
    • Authorize employment for dependent spouses of H-1B visa holder
    • Increase portability of high skilled foreign workers by:
      o Removing impediments and costs of changing employers;
      o Establishing a clear transition period for foreign workers as they change jobs; and,
      o Restoring visa revalidation for E, H, L, O, and P nonimmigrant visa categories
  • Student Visas
    • Allow dual intent for foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities to provide the certainty they need to ensure their future in the United States
  • Immigrant Visas and Green Cards
    • Enable the recapture of green card numbers that were approved by Congress in previous years but were not used
    • Exempt certain categories of persons from the employment-based green card cap:
      o Dependents of employment-based immigrant visa recipients
      o U.S. STEM advance degree holders
      o Persons with extraordinary ability
      o Outstanding professors and researchers
    • Provide for the roll-over of unused employment-based immigrant visa numbers to the following fiscal year so future visas are not lost due to bureaucratic delays
    • Eliminate annual per-country limits for employment based visa petitioners
  • U.S. STEM Education & Worker Retraining Initiative
    • Reform fees on H-1B visas and employment-based green cards; use money from these fees to fund a grant program to promote STEM education and worker retraining to be administered by the states
• Please stay tuned for the full text of the bill.

01/29/2013: ICERT Portal System Outage Tomorrow Morning from 8:00 O'Clock to 10:00 O'Clock

• Office of Foreign Labor Certification issued an alert that iCERT system will not be available from 08:00 am to 10:00 am (EST) tomorrow morning, 01/30/2013.

01/29/2013: President's Immigration Reform Speech Transcripts - What a Surprise......................

• Readers, you be the judge of it.

01/29/2013: Wow, That is Fast! McCain Already Talks About Taking I-Squared Act of 2013 into CIR

• Read on.

01/29/2013: Clearer Picture Looming Up for the Steps of Senate CIR Legislative Process

• One question that came up at the very early stage of CIR move was who should draft and instroduce the CIR bill, House or Senate or the President. There were some opinions that this time around, the President should be the one who should draft and introduce the bill. The answer to this question has been clarified by the White House. Even though the White House has been working on the reform bill, the President wants the Senate to initiate and introduce the bill in the Senate with the help of the Senate CIR 8 Gang members. It is likely that the President will make this clear in today's immigration reform speech in Las Vegas. When it comes to the specific procedure within the Senate, it appears that the Democrats may want to speed up the process very quickly, while the Republicans want to go slow and take normal legislative process. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has an option of taking up the CIR bill straightly on the Senate floor or refer the bill to the Judiciary Committee which will delay the process. Report indicates that the Republican minority leader asked that the bill be referred to the Judiciary Committee rather than being taken up on the floor bypassing the Judiciary Committee. Again it will take time to draft the bill and as we reported earlier, the bill may not be introduced until around March this year. It will be interesting to watch what specific procedure the bill will go through once it is introduced.

01/29/2013: State Department to Increase J-1 Sponsor Desination/Redesignation Fee and J-1 Visa Holder Administration Fee

• The State Department proposes to increase J-1 Sponsor Designation or Redesignation Fee from current $2,700 to $3,982 and J-1 Visa Holder Administation Fee from current $233 to $367. This notice will be published tomorrow. The increased fee will not take effect until the final rule is published after completing the proposed rule clearance process. See the advance copy of the notice.

01/28/2013: Full Text of Senate Bi-Partisan CIR "Proposal" Just Released

• Full Text. Please pay special attention to the following points: For legalization of undocumented immigrants, they propose that their status be legalized with employment authorization, but in order to obtain a permanent status, they will have to follow FIFO immigration quieu. They, however, will treat DACA DREAMs differently opening opportunity for gaining permanent resident status unlike other undocumented immigration. As for employment-based immigrants, US earned STEM Master or Ph.D. degree holders will be granted permanent resident status outside of the quota system.
• Overall, this framework of CIR closely reflects our analysis on "reality and realistic solutions" of Republicans recognizing demographic changes and reality of their intererst and acceptance of realistic reform solutions on the one hand and Democrats also recognizing and accepting the need for party power balance in the long terms as compromise. It is likely that the details of reform of the "legal" family-based and employment-based immigration systems will also be reformed with such reality checks in mind.

01/28/2013: Federal Agencies in Washington, DC Areas Will Not Open Until 12:00 Noon Today

• Read USCIS alert.

01/26/2013: Bi-Partisan Senators Scheduled to Introduce Next Tuesday H-1B Program Reform and Other Piecemeal Reform Bill

• This bill is reportedly to increase the cap for H-1B visas to 115,000 from the current cap of 65,000. It would also create a "market-based H-1B escalator" that would allow for additional visas to be made available to foreign workers if the cap is hit early during a particular year—though it can only hit a ceiling of 300,000 visas. The escalator would adjust up or down, depending on the demands of the market. The list of sponsors include Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The bill is scheduled to be introduced in the Senate next Tuesday. Obviously, this H-1B reform bill is backed by the business and higher learning institutions, but it will have to confront Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Dick Durbin, who have been staunch guards against such legislation in favor of the labor union. It may turn out to be the test of first Senate filibuster rule. Under the new rule, filibustering Senators must be present on the floor and keep talking to prevent the debates of the bill. It is going to be an interesting drama, should it happen. This bill is likely somewhat distract the CIR move as well.
• Another report indicates that the bill will also include the following:
  • Eliminate per country numberial limit in employment-based immigration
  • H-1B cap exempt for advanced degree STEM graduates of U.S. universities
  • Employment-based immigrant quota exempt for foreign students earning a master's or doctorate in STEM fields at a U.S. university
  • EB quota exempt for the spouses and minor children
• The bill will be named:Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 or "I-Squared Act of 2013. For the employment-based immigrant community, it is like a dream. But this bill will be very controversial and will have to confront with labor union backers, proponents of CIR and opponents of former H.R. 3012. Thus its future as a piecemeal legislation is uncertain, but according to the New York Times, one of the sponsors of this bill had admitted that it is intended to be a part of CIR for the employment-based immigration reform component. EB immigrants, don't hold your breath yet. There will be several piecemeal immigration bills introduced in both Houses which are intended to be a part of the eventual CIR legislation. As for Sen. Marco Rubio, it gives an impression of double play between conflicting piecemeal and comprehensive immigration reform approaches by joining and agreeing to the Senate CIR "gangs" proposal which is scheduled to be released shortly meanwhile joining this piecemeal bill as a co-sponsor, but under the circumstances of him being attacked by former Governor Jeb Bush who opposes piecemeal approach and supports comprehensive approach and appears to use this as a wedge in the 2016 Republican Presidential candidacy against Rubio on the one hand and right-wing conservatives supporting piecemeal approaches on the other hand, it is more or less understandable. We will monitor this bill closely.

01/26/2013: Bi-Partisan Senators Have Reached an Agreement on CIR Outline/Proposal as Well as Timelines of Legislation

• Next week will be marked as a turning point for comprehensive immigration reform. We have already reported yesterday that the President will be in Las Vegas, the city of Nevada which is the state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and announce next Tuesday his CIR proposal. Now, report indicates that the bi-partisan "CIR" group that has been working on a bi-partsan CIR has reached the agreement, which will also be released next week. The bi-partisan group reportedly includes Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey; and Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida. Reportedly, there are other Senators involved in the behind ,including Democrat Michael Bennet of Colorado and Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Mike Lee of Utah. The timeline of CIR legislation which this group is targeting at is reportedly as follows: Draft an immigration bill by March and pass legislation in the Senate by August. The target date of passage of the Senate version is somewhat disappointing, considering the fact that the House action will have to follow it. We were hoping that the Senate passes its version by May 2013 such that the bill passes both Houses before November 2013. Please stay tuned to this website for the development of this news next week.

01/26/2013: Bill Introduced in the House Not to Fund the USCIS Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver Program Implementation

• Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri introduced H.R.425 in the House on 01/25/2013 to prohibit the use of funds for "Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives" rule published by the Department of Homeland Security on January 3, 2013. Hmm.................. A good political gesture for the sponsor's constituents but suspectful reality for passage in both Houses.

01/25/2013: OBAMA May Stay Close to his Immigration Reform Outline of 2011

• We posted on 01/23/2013 a copy of the White House Immigration Reform Outline. Judging from the late information from White House Press Secretary and other sources, it appears that the Obama's action may be heading into two directions: One is that he may not draft and introduce his own bill and rather wants the Congress to introduce the bill, which may turn out to be a mistake. Secondly, he may stay close to the immigration reform outline which has been there in the White House since May 2011. The S. 1 bill, which the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid introduced in the Senate on 01/22/2013 as the Senate's first legislative bill for 113th Congress, may very much mirror the Obama's anticipated proposal, even though S.1. adds the DACA DREAMers legalization and citizenship path as a separate path from the legalization of other undocumented immigrants. Obama is scheduled to release his proposal next week in Las Vegas.
• Republicans are still divided between the piece-meal reform group that consists of opponents of comprehensive immigration reform and ultra-right-wing conservatives and the comprehensive immigration reform proponents that include Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida and the brother of former President George W. Bush. Governor Bush is married to a Hispanic spouse. Because of the division on immigration reform, there is a growing concern within the GOP for its long-term impact on the party's future. It is not a coincidence that the potential GOP Presidential candidates in 2016 belong to CIR group, which includes Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush, leaning towards the CIR. Obviously, the traditional anti-immigration forces indirectly promote piecemeal reform agenda as a way to block any immigration reforms.

01/25/2013: OFLC Official Announcement of Open Government Initiative: iCERT Labor Certification Registry

• We reported earlier, 01/23/2013, this initiative of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification in permanent and temporary labor certification programs. The OFLC official announcement states that the DOL will implement on July 1, 2013 the latest component of the Department's Open Government Initiative - the iCERT Labor Certification Registry (LCR). The LCR is intended to enhance transparency of the labor certification process by making generally available appropriately redacted copies of labor certification documents issued by the Department's Office of Foreign Labor Certification in the H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, H-2A, H-2B and the Permanent labor certification programs.
• Another sources of information indicates that the OFLC is reinforcing "integrity" of foregin labor ceritfication with the estimated "audit" and "supervised recruitment" cases at about 30% of the toal applications.

01/25/2013: Senate Passed Only Watered Down Filibuster Reform and Republicans Still Retain Talking Filibuster Power

• The Democrats failed to achieve its filibuster reform package as intended in that they could not eliminate so-called talking filibuster. They could achieve some watered down level of changes to the filibuster rule yesterday. Read on.

01/25/2013: Composition of New House Immigration Subcommittee Republican Leadership Signals Republican Party's Willingness to Work with CIR

• In the 112th Congress House, the strongest roadblock to the compromise for immigration reform legislation on the part of Republican party was posed by the two ultra-conservative Republican leaders in the immigration subcommitee, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas and Rep. Steve King of Iowa. However, these two Congressmen have lost the leadership roles in the new House Immigration Subcommittee and its leadership has been taken over by the Republicans who can be more or less flexible on the talks and compromise of the CIR legislation. Report indicates that this is a positive development in the Republican party in the House of Representatives and could potentially open the door to debate, at the minimum, immigration reform proposals.

01/24/2013: Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) Processing Times Update as of 01/03/2013

• The dates represent priority dates. Readers may notice that PERM takes a little bit longer.
  • Analyst Review (Clean Case): 10/10/2012
  • Audit Cases: 05/31/2012
  • Reconsideration Request Cases: 01/07/2013* (**The Reconsideration Request to the CO dates posted on iCERT above reflect the month and year in which cases that are now being reviewed at the Atlanta National Processing Center were appealed. For various reasons, they may be completing the processing of applications filed prior to the month posted on iCERT. )
  • Government Error Reconsideration Cases: Current

01/24/2013: DOL Prevailing Wage Determination Processing Times for Different Types of Labor Certification Applications as of 12/27/2012

Processing Queue	Request Date	Status
H-1B	Nov 2012	60 day Current
H-2B	Dec 2012	30 day Current
PERM	Nov 2012	60 day Current
	Submission Date
Redetermination	Nov 2012	Same Above
Center Director Rev	Nov 2012	Same Above

01/24/2013: Who Should Draft CIR Bill?

• We urged that this time around the White House should be the party to draft the CIR bill. The President cannot just sit in the White House as a concilliator. Report indicates that the powerful Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Sen. Leahy, asked the President to draft and send it to the Congress. Engine motor needs a spark plug. Hear, hear, Mr. President!
• Press Secretary press statements disappoints people out there.

01/24/2013: HHS Poverty Guidelines for 2013

• This Poverty Guidelines takes effect on 01/24/2013. However, it does not affect the immigration proceeding of the DHS and immigrant visa proceedings at visa posts outside the U.S. until the USCIS revises and releases new I-864P form based on the HHS Poverty Guidelines. The USCIS has been revising I-864P usually towards the end of February or March each year. The HHH new Poverty Guidelines, which will eventually affect the USCIS Poverty Guidelines soon, are as follows. In the USCIS Poverty Guidelines, 125% of the HHS Poverty Guidelines is set as the minimum income to sponsor immigrant petitions or immigrant visas.

2013 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persons in family/household Income
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1....................................................... $11,490
2....................................................... 15,510
3....................................................... 19,530
4....................................................... 23,550
5....................................................... 27,570
6....................................................... 31,590
7....................................................... 35,610
8....................................................... 39,630
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,020 for each additional person

 

2013 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persons in family/household Income
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1....................................................... $14,350
2....................................................... 19,380
3....................................................... 24,410
4....................................................... 29,440
5....................................................... 34,470
6....................................................... 39,500
7....................................................... 44,530
8....................................................... 49,560
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $5,030 for each additional person

 

2013 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persons in family/household Income
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1....................................................... $13,230
2....................................................... 17,850
3....................................................... 22,470
4....................................................... 27,090
5....................................................... 31,710
6....................................................... 36,330
7....................................................... 40,950
8....................................................... 45,570
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,620 for each additional person

01/24/2013: Revised Forms I-90 and I-601 Advisory

• The revised Form I-90 is labeled with a Dec. 17, 2012, edition date. The revised Form I-601 is labeled with a Dec. 16, 2012, edition date. Both forms are now available for use and can be downloaded from the USCIS forms website. Previous editions of Forms I-90 and I-601 dated before Dec. 17, 2012, and Dec. 16, 2012, respectively, will only be accepted until April 16, 2013 – 90 calendar days after publication of the revised forms. After April 16, 2013, USCIS will only accept the Dec. 17, 2012, edition for Form I-90 and the Dec. 16, 2012, edition for Form I-601. Please visit the form site.

01/23/2013: USCIS Releases 01/03/2013 EB-485 Inventory Data on 01/15/2013

• EB-485 data provides employment-based I-485 waiters with the data to figure out the number of EB-485 applications in the queue ahead of his or her case since the data is compiled on the basis of priority date rather than the date of filing. Accordingly, this data is more relevant to the Visa Bulletin rather than the USCIS monthly processing times which are compiled and reported in the order of filing dates of EB-485 applications. Fresh enough for ya?

01/23/2013: Text of President's May 2011 Immigration Reform Outline and New Outline Antitipated to be Released During the States of Union Speech in February

• Readers, you are supposed to review this outline based on this reporter's "Realistic" standpoint. This was a Democrat proposal. Can you analize and tell what party strategy and inteest are underlined in this outline and how and in what way it has to be compromised to make it realistic?

01/23/2013: First Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act Introduced in the Senate by Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Harry Reid.

• Yesterday, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada introduced S.1 to reform America's broken immigration system with 15 co-sponsors including Sen Richard Blumenthal [CT] , Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA] - 1/22/2013 Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH] - 1/22/2013 Sen Coons, Christopher A. [DE] - 1/22/2013 Sen Durbin, Richard [IL] - 1/22/2013 Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] - 1/22/2013 Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [NY] - 1/22/2013 Sen Heinrich, Martin [NM] - 1/22/2013 Sen Hirono, Mazie K. [HI] - 1/22/2013 Sen Klobuchar, Amy [MN] - 1/22/2013 Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT] - 1/22/2013 Sen Levin, Carl [MI] - 1/22/2013 Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ] - 1/22/2013 Sen Schatz, Brian [HI] - 1/22/2013 Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY] - 1/22/2013.
• Text is as follows:
  • S. 1
  • Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
  • SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.: This Act may be cited as the ``Immigration Reform that Works for America's Future Act''.
  • SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE SENATE: It is the sense of the Senate that Congress should--
  • (1) create a roadmap for immigrants who are here without legal status to earn citizenship, provided they pay taxes, complete a background check, learn English, and show a commitment to America;
  • (2) allow students who came to America as children to earn citizenship by attending college or joining the Armed Forces;
  • (3) protect the sustainability of the American agricultural industry, including the dairy industry, with a stable and legal agricultural workforce;
  • (4) encourage those who seek to invest in the United States and create American jobs;
  • (5) permit and encourage individuals who earn an advanced degree from one of our world-class universities to remain in the United States, rather than using that education to work for our international competitors;
  • (6) fulfill and strengthen our Nation's commitments regarding security along our borders and at our ports of entry;
  • (7) strengthen our Nation's historic humanitarian tradition of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees and improve existing policies that support immigrant victims of crime and domestic violence;
  • (8) create an effective electronic verification system and strengthen enforcement to prevent employers from hiring people here illegally;
  • (9) implement a rational legal immigration system that promotes job creation by converting the current flow of illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable, controlled, and legal process for admitting immigrants while, at the same time, safeguarding the jobs, rights, and wages of American workers; and
  • (10) adopt practical and fair immigration reforms to help ensure that all families are able to be together.
• It just lays out the guidance at this point and the bill will go through various amendment process additing or removing the text. Readers, you are supposed to review this bill based on this reporter's "Realistic" standpoint. This is a Democrat bill. Can you analize and tell what party strategy and inteest are underlined in this bill and how and in what way this bill has to be compromised to make it realistic?
• Senate Judiciary Chairman is committed to swift scheduling of immigration reform early February. See his release of priority agenda.

01/23/2013: Bill to Repeal Legal Services Corporation Act Introduced in the House

• Legal Services Corporation provides free legal services for those who cannot afford private legal servides. The familiar term is legal aids. Yesterday, Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia introduced H.R.350 to repeal the Legal Services Corporation Act. Feel freezing in the temporature.

01/23/2013: VAWA Reauthorization Bills Reintroduced in the House and the Senate Yesterday

• This bill failed to made it at the end of the last 112th Congress. Yesterday, Rep. Gwen Moore reintroduced this bill H.R.11 proposting to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 in the House, and Sen. Harry Reid introduced the Senate version of VAWA reauthorization bill, S.5, in the Senate with 15 co-sponsors.

01/23/2013: DOL New Open Government Initiative Implementing the iCERT Labor Certification Registry

• DOL/ETA is announcing a new initiative to make available to the general public appropriately redacted copies of H-1B, H-1B1, E-3, H-2A, H-2B and permanent labor certification documents through its iCERT Visa Portal System. This new online tool, formally called the iCERT Labor Certification Registry (LCR), is a component of the Department of Labor’s Open Government initiative and provides an additional level of transparency for the labor certification decisions issued by the ETA Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC). The iCERT LCR provides searchable access to copies of labor certification documents and labor condition application documents as well as the latest quarterly and annual case file datasets through a single location. Public access to the iCERT LCR will be available at http://icert.doleta.gov beginning July 1, 2013. Read full details.

01/23/2013: USCIS ELIS Outage Scheduled on 01/27/2013

01/22/2013: USCIS Releases Today Citizenship & Naturalization Summary of New and Updated Policies in the New Policy Manual

• This release identifies new policies and clarifications on existing policies incorporated into specific parts of Volume 12 of the USCIS Policy Manual. For the full text, please click here.

01/22/2013: USCIS Releases Today a Series of Draft RFE Templates for Comments for I-129 "O" Visa Petitions

• The series of RFE Templates include O-1A (SEBA), O-1B (Arts), O-1B (Motion Picture, O-2 (Artistists or Athlete), O-2 (Motion Picture or TV Industry). For each of these series of RFE Templates, please click here.

01/21/2013: Points to Watch for Our Readers and Public When Reviewing Forthcoming Immigration Reform Proposals

• Currently both parties are heavily pressured to work on the immigration reforms as related to their political strategies for 2014 mid-term national elections as well as the 2016 Presidential election. This pressure is more compelling for the Republicans not to lose the House majority in 2014 election as well as in 2016 Presidential election. Such pressure, however, will not dictate that any party will accept "unrealistic" immigration proposals. For a successful comprehensive immigration reform this year, readers may want to watch the mouth and writings of political leaders and political interest groups carefully from the following few points:
  • Comprehensive immigration reform must be completed before the fall of 2013. If it fails to pass such legislation within that time frame, the chance for CIR will be bleak or nil both in 2013 and 2014. Why? Because the 2014 election process will begin within each party before the end of this year and because of primary process in each party, two parties will move either farther to right or to left for the candidates to win the party nominations. Such environment will make compromises extremely difficult. Look what happened with Romnie. The dragging Republican primary nomination process forced him to move farther and farther right, and by the time it reached a point when he should have moved somewwhat back to the center, it was too late and he lost in the election. Readers should not fail to see this "reality" in party politics and must make it sure that they see that leaders work fast and hard early with the CIR process.
  • When the country has moved into a direction demanding comprehensive immigration reform, peacemeal immigration proposals will have slim chances and will be considered either unrealistic or taken as obsructionist scheme to prevent immigration reform. The reality for comprehensive immigration is that once juicy parts of immigration reform are piece by piece taken out and legislated, the chance for comprehensive immigration reform turns close to ZERO, and for the reasons, the CIR proponents will do everything possible within their power to block such piecemeal immigration reform legislations. Accordingly, readers should watch carefully the motives of piecemeal immigration reform bills from the point of political reality. Such piecemeal proposals may be considered "not realistic" in this regard.
  • When it comes to the details of any CIR proposals, readers may have to read and review it carefully, again from the point of whether such bills are "realistic." What is the barometer to judge "realistic?" How each component of the proposal will affect the balance of the political powers between the two political parties in short or long terms. It will be foolish or naive for anyone to believe that in the cold reality of the party politics, one party will voluntarily concede to other party the polical power inviting tipping of scale "heavily" in favor of other party. Accordingly, the reality and "realistic" CIR proposals must, more or less, assure a fair balance of political powers. How can that be achieved? Give-and-take, compromise, compromise, and painstaking negotiation process between the parties. Readers will see that both Republican and Democratic parties will work hard to propose CIR options in favor of the Hispanic community from here on. However, it does not mean that each of these proposals will be politically realistic! For instance, there is no way that the Republicans will accept a proposal to grant green cards to the undocumented immigrants immediately, which was the model of Reagan amnesty legislation in the 1980s. That model will not work and not considered realistics in the current environment. Why? Because the undocumented immigrants who were potentially eligible under the Reagan proposal were fairly small in number, and could not affect power balance between the two parties. However, current situation is different in that there are estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants at this time! One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how the new 11 million green card holders will affect the political scales after six or seven years in the future. For the reaons, the Hispanic community must see the "reality" and be "realistic" to achieve legalization for the sake of enactment of CIR this year. Remember that "hope" is one thing and "reality" is another. Wise men and women may see the reality rather than empty hopes.
  • The same goes true with the employment-based immigration reform component which tend to be pro-business and pro-Republican constituents. It will be considered unrealistic if employment-based immigration reform component in CIR deamnds a heavy sacrifice from the pro-Democrat components by reducing family reunification immigration. Readers should understand that there are very delicate and complex racial and ethnic issues involved in that the current family-based immigration system, unlike the family-based immigration system when the country was born, are minority focused immigration system in that the white majority in this country do not have relatives in other parts of the world to bring in for family reunification. Thus, even though family-based immigration system needs a reform as the current system is archaic considering the changes in society and values, the reform of family based system should be handled cautiously because it can touch politically and ethinically very complex and sensitive issues inviting sensitive ethnic and racial conflicts. Besides it does not translate to a conclusion that the family-based immigration reform must be redesigned to give a more room for the employment-based immigration. The rather realistic employment-based immigration reform must stand alone and reassessed on its own. Should the country need more highly skilled foreign workers, not necessarily for the interest of immigrants, but for the interest of the country itself, the proposal should determine the number of such highly skilled foreign workers the country needs to sustain the country's economy and offer them immigration opportunity with no restrictions. By separating the two reforms, such proposal will be taken more politically realistic and have a better chance to reach a compromise between the two parties. We want to remind the readers that the Bush CIR that focused on so-called "point-system" failed exactly because of this issue touching the nerve of very sensitive ethnic and racial issues and errorneously placeing human values sorely on work force concept. It should not be taken as truth in that even under the current economic circumstances, the immigration-reform that should last and affect the country's future for decades or century to come cannot be determined "totally and solely" on economic value alone. There are other fundamental values that form the foundation of a civilized society and this nation.
• The Senate will return to the session tomorrow. Soon, readers may hear and see a lot of news about the immigration reform talks and proposals. We hope that the foregoing discussions give some points to check out in reviewing such proposals.

01/20/2013: Kingston, Jamaica International Field Office of USCIS Scheduled Permanently Closed Effective 03/01/2013

• USCIS has announced that effective March 1, 2013, USCIS will permanently close its field office in Kingston, Jamaica and the USCIS Field Office in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic will assume Kingston’s former jurisdiction. The Kingston Field Office had jurisdiction over Jamaica, Anguilla, Aruba, The Bahamas, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. After March 1, 2013, applications or petitions previously accepted at the Kingston Field Office should be filed as directed in the announcement.

01/20/2013: Unreal, a Positive Talking Point in Media (New York Times Sunday Editorial) on the Developing CIR Consensus and Direction!

• Read "Saga Continues" of today's Editorial in Sunday Review section of the New York Times. We heard and understood you, New York Times. Still we love your positive thought in the end. That's the way the nation should move on! No pessimism! No wable bable without an action! Salute to President Obama and Senator Marco Rubio for their anticipated positive moves.

01/19/2013: CIR and Time to Ponder the Meaning of Nation of Immigrants

• This is a nation of immigrants. What does it mean? Without continuing supply of new fresh bloods from four corners of the world, there would not have been the nation of the United States of America as we see it now, "the leader of the world." When the country is about to engage in reform of the immigration system, the country, including the leaders, may want to take a moment and think about what immigrants mean to them and the nation. This reporter wants to bring up this subject because over the years, for a miysterious (?) reason, there has been developed, intendedly or unintendedly, a negative connotation for the term of "immigrant." This is a time to straighten this out. Obviously, the benefits of immigration will have to be looked at from the perspectives of both the country and the immigrants. As stated at the beginning of this posting, it is the country that has benefitted from fresh new bloods from all over the world tremendously over the two centuries, mostly takiing away talents from other countries who have contributed to build and enrich this nation in every sense of the way. From this perspective, the people and the country should take a moment and think about their perceptions of the immigrants, not necessarily a party that "hands-out" charitable hands to "poor" souls from other countries. They should rather think about "for a moment" how privileged and blessed they have been to get these resourceful new bloods from other countries and have benefitted from these new immigrants to enrich this nation into a world leader. This reporter wonders how many have even thought about the meaning of immigration from such positive angle and find themselves thankful, blessed, and privileged. Obviously, the new immigrants who leave everything behind in their mother lands and come to this nation are also benefitted tremendously from immigration to build a new life at the individual level as well as their newly adopted nation. From this perspective, the new immigrants should find themselves privileged, blessed, and thankful.
• When the meaning of immigration is looked at such level, benefitting both the country and the new immigrants mutually, the leaders may be able to find better answers to determine the framework for direction of immigration reform. They are not "generounsly" handing out foods to beggars. The same applies to news media and interest groups. We all should take a moment to think about this subject, even for our emotional peace of mind for the subject of immigration reform. Inasmuch as the meaning of immigration and immigrants are viewed negatively, erroneously, in a twisted way, and far from the "facts," they will not be able to find a right answer for the direction to reform the immigration system to continuously help this nation to sustain its leadership in the world. This message should be helpful partcularly to those leaders who are frozen with the concept of immigrant quota as the bottom line for immigration reform.

01/18/2013: Wow, Senator Marco Rubio Coming Closer to Our Suggestions!

• Reportedly, his proposal can include (1) legalization of undocument immigrants with the requirement of staying in FIFO immigration waiting lines; (2) adding additional employment-based immigrant quota numbers for highly skilled foreign brains, STEM, and talented enterpreneurs rather than reducing the family unification immigration! Readers, do your hear?!?!
• Run, run, and run fast, Rubio! This time around, please do not miss the momentum and "timely act." Before the election, he had a terrific idea for the DREAMers to legalize as nonimmigrants with work permits, hear(?), not just temporary relief and no legal nonimmigrant status, but Lord Mercy, he delayed introducing the bill and then all of sudden was stricken by "lightening rod" from the then-Presidential Candidate, Mr. Obama, releasing DACA relief for DREAMers on 06/15/2012!! It was so painful to witness the turn of the event at the time, not to mention the devastated candidate Romnie in the election. There is no reason why there should be only one bill introduced in the Congress. Many and many bills should be introduced stimulating the process of negotiation and compromise, rather than sitting and waiting and talking and talking and waiting and waiting in that theatre named Congress. Seize the moment, Senator Rubio!! Love ya!!

01/18/2013: USCIS DACA Frequently Asked Questions Update of 01/18/2013

01/18/2013: USCIS Update of DACA Processing Statistics as of 01/17/2013

• The following show total receipts and approvals as of 12/14/2012. This update also shows the applicants by country.
  • Total Received: 407,899
  • Approvals: 154,404
• The following is the trend. Total applications show a slow-down.

As Of	Receipts Total	Bio Scheduled	Review Ready	Approvals
01/17/2013	407,899	371,103	394,533	154,404
12/14/2012	367,903	336,464	157,151	102,965
11/15/2012	308,935	273,203	124,572	53,273
10/10/2012	179,794	158,408	6,416	4,591
09/13/2012	82,361	63,717	1,660	29

01/17/2013: Who Should Propose Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill?

• Apparently, there have been talks and some progress have been made among legislative leaders at bi-partisan levels in both the House and the Senate behind the scene, and reportedly there was a meeting at the White House this week and one of the discussions involved decision of who should introduce the bill: Senate or House or White House. We wnat to reiterate our point on this issue which was addressed last year before the Presidential election that this time around, the President should more actively take leadership not only in initiating and negotiating the process but also drafting a bill. It sounds, judging from the late news reports, that the President has grips on workable proposal at bi-partisan level rather than unworkable Democratic partisan proposal. The key is "compromise," "compromise," and "compromise." Unless he proposes a bill with a serious effort for "give and take" compromise that can reasonably be accepted among middle of the ground in both political parties, the country may not be able to see the mandated comprehensive immigration reform legislation this year. We also want to remind the leaders that the President should accept that the bottom line of the negotiation and compromise should be found in a "fair" sharing of powers between the two parties for the years and decades to come rather than a greedy partisan proposal. This needs a true leadership on the part of the President who can leave a legacy as the second-term President by demonstrating a "strong" leadership for the people and the nation. He is a second-term President, and this he can do. We wish him all the luck!

01/17/2013: USCIS Expands New Policy Manual Webinars to Three More Days (22nd, 29th, and 30th of January)

• According to the USCIS announcement, the webinars which were scheduled on January 16 and January 1y, 2013 were too full. Considering the significance of this new initiative, the USCIS is adding another three webinars in January 2013. Readers, it is not too late to learn about this new initiative of the USCIS.

01/17/2013: Grenada Added to the List of Countries Eligible for H-2A and H-2B Temporary Immigrant Worker Petitions in CY 2013

• The USCIS will publish tomorrow, 01/18/2013 that identifying 59 countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B programs for the coming year. The list includes one new addition: Grenada. This notice will take effect on January 18, 2013, and shall be without effect at the end of one year after January 18, 2013, which will be January 18, 2014. Read the notice.

01/17/2013: Line-Up & Faces of House Judiciary Committee Members for 113th Congress

• The Committee of the House that controls immigration-related legislations for the new Congress

01/17/2013: Line-Up & Faces of Senate Judiciary Committee Members

01/16/2013: Six Potential Roadblocks to Immigration Reform

01/16/2013: USCIS ELIS Maintenance Outage Scheduled on 01/20/2013, Sunday

• The USCIS Electronic Immigration System will be temporarily off line on Sunday, January 20, from 5 a.m. – 10 p.m. eastern time as for scheduled maintenance.

01/16/2013: Bill Introduced in the House to Add Israel as Member of Visa Waiver Program Countries

• Yesterday, Rep. Brad Sherman of California introduced H.R.300 to provide for the inclusion of Israel in the visa waiver program. This bill is co-sponsored by 50 other members of the House.

01/16/2013: Leaders, Do You "Really" Want Foreign Talents and STEM Immigrants?

• The business community is desperate on this issue and there appears to be consensus across the party line that the employment-based immigration system must be reformed quickly to attract or retain these immigrants. Why could it not be enacted into law and just remains a soccer ball for political spinning and rhetoric? The real issue underlying this reform is a fixed bottom line of GOP leaders not to give them immigration benefits unless they keep the current immigrant quota or even reduce the numbers of immigrants. Because of this bottom line, they demand sacrifice of one sector of immigrants for other sector of immigrants, creating a conflict within the immigrant community and fierce fights within immigrant community. The question then remains: If the country really needs these foreign brains, why not just pass a law to invite or retain these talents as immigrants without chipping off the number of immigrants from other part of the immigrant community? In the 112th Congress, STEM legislation failed because the legislators did not want to increase immigrant numbers. Why not if the country really needs them? Why do they demand either to kill one sector of immigrant community and sacrifice of one sector of immigrant community for another sector of immigrant community? Such proposal can be taken as an assault by other immigrant community and even a humiliation as "unwanted" human beings. It creates emotional scars to the level of rage.
• The diseases of this unfortunate bottom line appear to have infestitated some political leaders. There was a recent report that Senator Marco Rubio wants a comprehensive immigration reform that slices off immigrtion quota from the family-based immigration to increase employment-based immigrants. Why? Again, the real reason for such proposal is the bottom line not to increase immigrant numbers. Inasmuch as there is no compromise with this bottom line which is hidden behind legislative proposals, there will be no smooth road to the immigration reform, no matter whether it is a piecemeal or comprehsnsive. Why? There are almost insurmountable party political stakes involved and it will stir for sure fierce fights among different sectors of immigrant community. Who will turn out to be the victims? Immigrants. Why? No immigration reform legislations can be enacted into law.
• One keeps wondering why political leaders cannot handle STEM immigration or highly skilled foreign worker immigration at diffeent level. It is the country's interest and benefits which these talents can bring with them to sustain the country's leadership in the world in all sectors including economy. Why can't the political leaders just invite them as new members of this society regardless of the immigrant quota. For sure, it will increase the total number of immigrants, but the increase may be "small" in numbers considering the huge benefits which this country can attain from these new immigrants. Additionally, such political leadership will not assault nor humiliate other immigrants. The country's wealth and welfare in culture, economy, and prosperity should be looked at diffeent level in today's changing world.
• Businesses should understand the "real" issue to determine the strategies and targets for their lobby in support of highly skilled foreign workers or STEM immigration

01/16/2013: Russian Children Adoption Ban by American Families Creates a Continuing Struggle for the Families Already in Legal Process

• On December 28, President Vladimir Putin signed into law Russian Federal Law No. 186614-6, which prohibits the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens. This law went into effect on January 1, 2013. The law bans adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens, bars adoption service providers from assisting U.S. citizens to adopt Russian children, and requires termination of the U.S.- Russia Adoption Agreement. However, there is an Agreement entered into force on November 1, 2012 between Russia and the United States to promote stronger safeguards for children and all parties involved in the intercountry adoption process. Under the termination clause of the international Agreement, it will remain in force for one year, until January 1, 2014. The conflict between the new Russian law and the international Agreement created uncertainty as to whether the Russian government will ignore the international agreement and ban even the adoption which has been in legal process at the time of the enactment of the law. And then recently there were public comments by the Kremlin spokesman and the Children's Rights Ombudsman that cases in which a court ruling exists will be permitted to move pursuant to the international Agreement, probably at least until January 1, 2014. However, they were just "comments" and no official notification has been offered to the U.S. government to clarify the confusion.
• Adding to the confusion are reports which the Department of State and USCIS have received from families and adoption agencies that they encountered difficulties in Russia during the final stages of the adoption process since the Russian law was enacted on January 1, 2013. The difficulties included the postponement of court dates, delays in the issuance of adoption decrees, birth certificates, and Russian passports for adoptees, and confusion on the part of the Russian authorities over the release of children into the physical custody of adoptive parents. In addition, Russian authorities in some regions have told families and agencies that they are waiting to receive guidance on implementing the new law from the Ministry of Justice and Russian Supreme Court and officials in those regions have said they expect the Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court to issue instructions within 30 days. It thus appears that unlike recent media reports, the families that are in the process of Russian children adoption are continuously experiencing nightmares at this time, which may last for a while until the official decision is made clear by the Russian government including the Russian Supreme Court. For the progress of this issue, please keep following news at the State Department site.

01/15/2013: Comprehensive Immigration Reform No. 1 (Numero Uno) Priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

• Report indicates that Senate majority leader Reid stated that immigration' is the Senate number one item and "It's going to be the first thing on Senate agenda." Reportedly a bipartisan group of senators, led by Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin and Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have been crafting a package and the Senate may be able to come up with a bipartisan bill quicker than one thinks. He reportedly stated that "Yes, we're going to get something significant," with a smile.
• It sounds that the Senate "4 gang group" of the CIR has already crafted out a bi-partisan CIR proposal.

01/15/2013: USCIS Updates on 01/14/2013 Field Office I-485 Receipts, Completions, and Pending Statistics Thru 10/31/2012 for Each Field Office

• This statistics cover USCIS local field offices, excluding Service Centers. Readers may see some EB-485 data in this report, but those are the ones which were transferred to the local field offices for investigation or interviews.

01/15/2013: USCIS Updates on 01/14/2013 Naturalization N-400 (Civilian & Military) Processing Cycles Data Thru 10/31/2012

01/15/2013: USCIS Updates on 01/14/2013 T & U Visa Processsing Statistics Thru 10/31/2012

01/14/2013: Potential Republican Proposal for Undocumented Immigrants in CIR

• Report indicates that the President may lay out rough outline of the CIR proposal in the Inaugural Speech and not before. Under the circumstances, the Republicans are currently pressured to fix their strategies in hurry. Unconfirmed media report indicates that Senator Marco Rubio indicated that he would agree to legalization with a condition that the legalized immigrants should stay in the existing immigration waiting line and not ahead of other immigrants waiting in the line. It is not certain whether he was referring to the currently relieved DACA Dreamers only or the entire 11 million undocumented immigrants, but assuming that he is leaning toward the direction of legalization of all the undocumented immigrants, there is a good chance that the GOP, other than the extreme hardline right-wingers, may come around him to adopt this strategy to turn themselves from a defensive position to an offensive position in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Please watch carefully how the GOP strategy will be shaped in the next one or two months on the CIR. See reported Rubio CIR outline. It is inteesting to learn that former Republican Vice President candidate Paul Ryan supports Rubio proporal, and the White House also likes Rubio's plan, even though there will be a lot of disagreements when it comes to the details. Very interesting development.
• See our earlier analysis on the required political breakthough for CIR which is reposted below:

"12/08/2012: Republicans and Democrats Need a Give & Take in Both Fiscal Cliff and Immigration Reform

• Unlike a majority totalitarin "democracy(?)" model in countries in the world including former East European countries and other continents, the foundation of American democracy stands on due respect for the views and opinions of minority political forces, and "compromise" constitutes an essential component of political and legislative process in this country. This principle is embedded in the Constitution of the United States in various formats. This principle is also supported by the process of political decision including election process that rises from the grass-roots of the population in the neighborhoods rather than "institutions" that dictates "from up to down" process of political and decision makings. Most of the totalitarin nations are footed on the latter model.
• Currently, there is a compromise process going on between the two party leaders in the fiscal cliff issue to reach a compromise through a give-and-take bargain process. An idential process must be initiated between the two party leaders in the immigration reform issues putting everything on the table "honestly" without hanky panky hidden agenda. Bush comprehensive immigration reform which was pushed and backed by right wing conservatives which eventually failed because the Bush Administration underestimated intelligence of the people on the other side of the spectrum and the population in general. The model it presented was so-called "point system" reform of entire immigration system that was intended to reduce the number of immigrants in the long run through cut in the family immigration system and manipulation of the employment-based immigration system. The apparent hidden agenda was to control the overall flow of immigrants in the long run, particularly the immigrants that are favorable to the Democratic power base. Initially, general populace did not detect such apparent agenda but eventually were able to detect this critical issue underlying the proposed comprehensive immigration reform. The bill failed. The hearing record of the failed STEM Jobs Act of 2012 reflects that the problem involved more than the issue of elimination of diversity immigration program. Apparently, there was a flaw in suggested model of STEM immigration program which will lead to reduction of employment-based immigration itself in the long run. Interested readers may go back to the hearing record of this bill. Currently, most of the immigration proposals, including piecemeal reform, have drawn a upper limit of immigration numbers at the current level or a lower level. Because of this bottomline agenda of the Republican immigration reform, no immigration reform will be available unless the Republicans bend their bottomline limit in immigration flow. That should be the starting point for compromise from the end of the Republicans. On the other hand, the agenda of the Democrats' immigration reform is based on proposals to expand their power base through legalization of undocumented immigrants. As this reporter wrote earlier, should the Democrats retain their bottomline for immigration at immediate grant of over 11 million new immigrants in a short period of time that add to their power base, such immigration reform bill will obviously go nowhere. The art of negotation should start from the point that the Republicans must accept legalization of the undocumented immigrants and adjustment of the current immigration quota system to accomodate the needs of new immigrants under the changed economic and political environment, meanwhile the Democrats must accept that the legalized undocumented immigrants are given opportunity for permanent resident status and eventually U.S. citizenship under the current immigration system of first-in and first-out-basis immigrant visas to any immigrants. Once the two parties agree to these two bottomlines for compromise, negotiation for rest of the reform in other details and other items should not take too long to reach a compromise. It is hoped that the two party leaders intiate an honest negotiation process as soon as possible based on the foregoing two basic premises, and stop spinning of rhetorics in the media."

01/14/2013: Reminder of USCIS Director Teleconference Schedule of 01/15/2013 to Discuss Recent Development of Programs of the USCIS

• At 1:00 p.m. (EST) of tomorrow, the USCIS will host a teleconference with the USCIS Director to discuss various programs which have recently been released, including the centralized online policy manual program, Dreamers' DACA program development, provisional waiver of unlawful presence program, and other. For the details, please click here.

01/11/2013: State Department Expands Business Facilitation Program (BFP) for U.S. Business Visa Expedited Services Throughout Visa Posts in Mexico

• U.S. Embassity in Mexico has announced the expansion of its Business Facilitation Program (BFP) that allows access to expedited visa processing for employees of qualifying firms traveling to the U.S. on company business. The BFP will provide time-saving benefits for businesses whose employees need to travel to the U.S., and highlights the United States’ commitment to deepening trade and economic engagement with Mexico.
• All U.S. companies with a Mexican branch/affiliate/subsidiary may participate in the BFP. Mexican and non-U.S. companies with at least 100 employees are eligible to participate, as well as those with less than 100 employees, who obtain a recommendation from either the American Chamber of Commerce ("AmCham"), Camara de Comercio de Mexico ("CANACO"), or Asociación Nacional de Importadores y Exportadores de la República Mexicana ("ANIERM") certifying that the company has been a dues-paying member of the respective organization for at least three years. For details, please click here.

01/11/2013: State Department's Exclusive J-1 Exchange Visitor Program Website

• The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program's new website dedicated solely to the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program to make the online experience easier and more efficient for the more than 350,000 J-1 visitors who come to the United States each year, including information for J-1 waiver details and procedures.

01/11/2013: Former Commerce Secretary of Bush Administration Comes Forward Warning Republicans That GOP Needs Immigration Reform to Survive