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IMMIGRATION LAW UPDATE
Clark Hill to
Host J-1 Physician Conference
On Saturday, November 14, 2009, Clark
Hill will be hosting "Life After Training," a free
program designed for Physicians in the United States completing
Residency or Fellowship training on a J-1 or H-1B visa.
This comprehensive seminar provides a complete review of the visa and
permanent residence process. Please join us for this seminar
which explores your options after you have completed your
training. The conference will be held from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at
the Troy Marriott in Troy, Michigan. Materials and refreshments will
be provided. All presenters will be available for a Q and A
immediately following the presentation. RSVP by November 6,
2009 to Shayna John (sjohn@clarkhill.com).
Immigration Site Visits
The United
States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has begun to
engage its employees, and in some cases outside contractors, to
conduct site visits of companies who have submitted petitions for
non-immigrant work categories including H-1Bs and L-1s. Other
immigration agencies such as ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement), CBP (Customs and Border
Patrol), and the DOL (US Department of Labor), may also conduct site
visits for immigration related matters, issues regarding employment
authorization, and public access folder for certain types of non-immigrant
categories such as H-1B. These site visits may occur before or
after the approval of the petition. We believe the visits may
occur to confirm the details of the employment listed in the petition
and to determine if any fraud has occurred. Please contact Mike
Nowlan (mnowlan@clarkhill.com)
or Roberta Freedman (rfreedman@clarkhill.com)
if you have any questions regarding preparing for or responding to
these site visits.
Obama Extends Four Immigration Related Programs Through
October 31, 2009
On October 1,
2009, President Obama signed a continuing resolution to fund four
immigration related programs through October 31, 2009 to give
lawmakers the opportunity to extend those programs further as part of
the FY2010 Homeland Securities Appropriations Bill. The
following programs were extended through October 31, 2009:
E-Verify (employment authorization), Religious Worker (immigrant petitions
for non-ministers), Conrad 30 (providing states with J-1 visa waivers
for physicians), and the EB-5 program (green cards for individuals
who own or invest in a business and create US jobs).
DOL PERM Update
At a recent
conference for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA),
the AILA liaison to the US Department of Labor (DOL) gave a report
stating that there are 65,000 pending PERM (labor certification)
cases with 24,000 of those cases under audit. The DOL is
currently working on audited cases that were filed in December
2008. Current processing time for cases that are not audited is
approximately ten months. For more information on the PERM
process, visit the Clark Hill website.
USCIS Announces Extension of I-9 Form
On August 27,
2009, USCIS announced that the validity period for
the current Form I-9 for employment authorization had
been extended to August 31, 2012. To reflect the extension,
USCIS has changed the revision date on the Form to August 7,
2009. Employers may use the Form I-9 with a revision date of
either February 2, 2009 or August 7, 2009.
Change in Policy for Legal Permanent Residents With
Criminal Convictions
The US Customs
and Border Patrol National Headquarters has announced a change in
policy for Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs)
with criminal convictions. Beginning October 1, 2009, there is
a greater likelihood that returning LPRs
with criminal convictions will be issued a Notice to Appear (NTA) before an immigration judge at the time of
entry instead of being granted a deferred inspection to discuss the
issue at a later date with an immigration officer. A Notice to
Appear is a document use to initiate removal proceedings, and advises
the foreign national of the nature of the proceedings, the alleged
immigration law violations, the opportunity to be represented by an
attorney, and the consequences of failing to appear at the hearing.
H-1B Cap Not Yet Reached
On September
25, 2009, USCIS announced that it has received approximately 46,700
H-1B petitions toward the 65,000 available per fiscal year under the
general cap. USCIS continues to accept petitions toward the
general cap. In addition, the agency continues to accept
petitions toward the 20,000 US Master's cap. The H-1B is a
frequently utilized temporary work visa for professional
positions. For more information on the H-1B visa, see the Clark Hill website.
Visa Lottery Opens October 2nd
Every
year Congress issues 50,000 permanent resident visas (green cards) to
randomly selected applicants who complete entries, meet eligibility
requirements and are from countries with low rates of immigration to
the United States.
Entries for the 2010 Diversity Lottery must be
submitted electronically between
October 2, 2009 and November 20, 2009. There is no fee to enter
and applicants must only enter once. Our office encourages foreign
nationals NOT to pay a fee for assistance with this process, as it
does not increase the chances of success. Photographs of the
applicant, spouse, and his/her children under age 21 must also be
submitted electronically (for specifications, see the instructions).
To prevent delays due to heavy demand, it is best not to wait until
the last few days to apply. An applicant must be from a qualifying
country (see below), and have either a high school education or two
years of experience within the past five years in an occupation
requiring at least two years of training to perform. Persons must
maintain US status in order to obtain their green card in the United
States (Adjustment of Status).
Natives of the
following countries are ineligible to enter the 2010 Diversity
Lottery: Brazil, Canada, P.R. China
(mainland born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines,
Peru, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong
SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible. If a person is a
native of one of these ineligible countries but their spouse is from
a country that is eligible, he/she may be eligible under the spouse's
country of birth.
Those who are
chosen in the lottery will be notified by mail between May and July
2010. Green cards will be issued between October 1, 2010 and
September 30, 2011. If processing is not complete by September 30,
2011, an applicant, even though selected in the lottery, will not
receive a green card. If selected, spouses and unmarried children
under age 21 may also apply for a green card.
USCIS Considers Increasing Fees
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of USCIS, stated in a speech on September 23, 2009, that the
federal government is considering increasing filing fees for
immigration related application within the next two years to offset
revenue shortages. Director Mayorkas
did not state which applications would be affected or the amount of
the increase.
DOL Advises On H-2B Employees
On August 21,
2009, the Department of Labor issued a memorandum clarifying that
employees are responsible for paying the transportation costs and
visa fees for H-2B workers, where shifting those costs to the
employee would bring the employee's wage below the Fair Labor
Standards Act or prevailing wage in the first week of work.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Updates
Below are
summaries of recent efforts by the US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) as they enforce laws related to employment of
persons not authorized to work in the US.
Leader of
Counterfeit Document Ring Sentenced
On September 17, 2009, ICE announced that a man
convicted of a nationwide fraudulent document ring had been sentenced
to 57 months in prison for manufacturing and distributing various
fraudulent immigration documents such as alien registration cards and
social security cards.
Roofing Company
Owner Pleads Guilty to Hiring Unauthorized Workers
that the owner of a southwest
Missouri roofing company had pled guilty to hiring unauthorized
workers. The owner agreed to five years of probation and repayment of
the $185,363 that represented the amount of proceeds from the
offense.
Poultry
Processing Plant Pays $450,000 in Fines
On September 15, 2009, ICE announced
that a southwest Missouri poultry processing plant paid $450,000 in
administrative fines following a 2007 raid where 137 unauthorized workers
were arrested.
Visa Priority Dates - November Visa Bulletin
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