By Myriam Jaidi U.S. companies employing foreign workers in H or L nonimmigrant status are increasingly subjected to random, surprise site visits by the USCIS. This article provides an overview of such visits. The site visits occur under the Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) conducted by the Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) […]
U.S. companies employing foreign workers in H or L nonimmigrant status are increasingly subjected to random, surprise site visits by the USCIS. This article provides an overview of such visits. The site visits occur under the Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program (ASVVP) conducted by the Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) Directorate. The purpose […]
H.R. 3012, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, was passed in the House on November 29, 2011 by a landslide 389-15 vote. Introduced by Rep. Chaffetz (R-UT), it eliminates the employment-based per country cap entirely by 2015 and raises the family-sponsored per-country cap from 7% to 15%. If H.R. 3012 does become law, it […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta The USCIS announced that November 22, 2011 was the final receipt date for accepting H-1B petitions under the 65,000 cap of FY2012. The 20,000 advanced degree cap was reached even earlier on October 19, 2011. Any H-1B petitions filed after that date will get rejected. The new fiscal year started only […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta Alabama’s immigration law, HB 56, is aimed at making life miserable for unlawfully present immigrants, and is intended to drive them out of the state. The law criminalizes a person’s very existence in Alabama. Many portions of the law have been enjoined pending appeal by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta On paper, there are many attractive options for foreign entrepreneurs to live and work in the US temporarily without investing large sums of money. This blog takes the reader through these options, but will also make one aware about the many traps that may befall him or her on the way […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta If you were born in India and are being sponsored for a green card through your employer under the employment-based third preference (EB-3), the wait is likely to be 70 years. If your employer filed the first step towards the green card, the labor certification, sometime in 2006, and you managed […]
The June 17, 2011 Memo calling for prosecutorial discretion by ICE Director John Morton is being applied in favor of low priority non-citizens who are threatened with removal. For instance, some who were brought to the US at an early age have been given a temporary reprieve, especially those who would qualify under proposed DREAM […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta The DHS has commendably issued policies urging prosecutorial discretion in recent months recognizing its inability to deport all undocumented immigrants, and designating certain deportable deserving discretion immigrants under a low priority status. Especially noteworthy is the June 17 Morton Memo on prosecutorial discretion, which urges against enforcement of individuals who came […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta In the spring and summer of 2001, and the days just prior to September 11, 2001, things were not going so badly for immigrants. Although the Section 245(i) deadline of April 30, 2001 had expired, hundreds of thousands of people had managed to file their applications before the deadline to hopefully […]
