When Immigration Matters

AILA advises that the federal government has begun advanced preparations for a possible shutdown as Democrats and Republicans continue negotiating over a spending package to fund the government after Friday night.  EOIR Houston informs that if no deal is reached Friday evening, the downtown immigration court personnel will not show up to work.   While the building will open, the court personnel will not show up to work until an agreement is reached.  In such event, all cases will be rescheduled.  Please note, the Courts handling detained cases WILL NOT CLOSE.

WHAT OTHER VISA OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE?

On April 1, 2011, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) began accepting H-1B visa applications for the 2012 fiscal year (which starts on October 1, 2011).  In 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received approximately 163,000 petitions during the five-day filing period and conducted a random lottery to select the 65,000 petitions that would be eligible for processing.  In 2007, the USCIS reached its H1-B visa quota in one day.  Due to the slump in the economy, last year was the first year where all H-1B visas were not taken until the end of January 2011.

The May 2011 Visa Bulletin, which should be released in mid-April 2011, should reflect this news."Immigration guru Chris Musillo posted this news flash on ILW.  All those with approved I-140s but no current priority date should take out their  old files  and start preparing their adjustment applications because there will be a mad rush to the Texas and Nebraska Service Centers.  The backlog of EB-2 applications from Indian nationals dates back to May 8, 2006.  It is great news that EB2 applicants from India may be able to move to the head of the line and finally apply for adjustment of status. 

Following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the country has faced growing concerns about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and a rising death toll that has now surpassed 10,000.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Such workers include scientists, engineers, and computer programmers, among others.

Self Check gives workers fast and secure access to their employment eligibility information before they apply for jobs.  In this way, workers are able to identify whether there are any inaccuracies in their Social Security Administration or DHS records before they seek employment, and submit corrections for any inaccuracies ahead of time. Self Check also assists employers by reducing the number of tentative mismatches that could otherwise result when a worker’s government records are not updated. 

A. STATUTORY NUMBERS

USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas today announced the opening of a 60-day comment period that will allow businesses and the general public to provide input on the proposed system in order to ensure it best meets the needs of employers that rely on H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers for specialty occupations. 

Now that our readers have been educated on the recent wave of DV lottery scams, we are getting many questions about DV-2013 DV Lottery.