Month: December 2015

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Updates

3 million US work permits, work visas and green cards issued

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Over 3 million foreign nationals were issued with US work permits, working visas [including L-1A and L-1B visas and H-1B visas] and green cards [including EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3] according to the most recent data available, published by the Congressional Research Service for 2013.

In 2013, Mexican, Chinese and Indian nationals were granted most of the 3 million work permits, working visas and green cards issued that year. 2014 numbers are yet to be disclosed, but the 2013 statistics highlight that US work permits and visas continued to be granted in record numbers according to congressional sources and figures provided to the Washington Free Beacon – a right wing online newspaper.

Numbers are inclusive of 1 million green cards which allows you to stay in the US permanently and work, 1 million employment based non-immigrant visas for foreign workers [such as the L-1 visa, and E-1 and E-2], plus 1.2 million work permit authorizations for foreign nationals. Tightening immigration restrictions.

The emergence of figures showing a continuous increase in the number of L-1, E-1 and E-2 visas and green cards being granted comes at a time when a debate is taking place within Congress about tightening immigration laws due to security concerns. In the aftermath of recent terror attacks the debate has intensified.

As of 2014, figures published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that the overall number of foreign workers in the US reached 26 million.

All Green Card Holders can work

An excerpt from a Congressional Research memo states: “All foreign nationals who gain lawful permanent resident status in the United States are eligible to work, regardless of what preference category or class they entered through.”

Obama Immigration Reforms and Refugees

The Obama administration wishes to make reforms to work permits and visas, as well as allowing approximately 10,000 Syrian refugees to relocate to the US.

US Senator Jeff Sessions, who is opposed to the resettling of refugees in the US, says that ‘the costs associated with resettling refugees and granting them welfare benefits have not been offset.’ However this may actually be wrong. Studies in Denmark and in a number of other Countries suggest that in the long term refugees are frequently beneficial to the economy of a Country. In many cases they create jobs and have a positive effect on local wage rates. The US has benefitted greatly in the past by accepting refugees.

Half of Americans want reduction in US immigrant population

Studies carried out by the Pew Research Center – an impartial US think-tank based in Washington – revealed that about half of Americans want a reduction in immigration.

We note that some “right wing” publications may have exaggerated the percentage of Americans who are anti-immigration. We have tried to be accurate. We hope we do a better job at reporting immigration related news stories than many of the other news sites.

Most immigrant workers are Hispanics or Asians

According to the most recent labor statistics, US work permits are mostly granted to Hispanics and Asians who account for the largest percentage of foreign nationals in the US workforce. 48.3 per cent of the foreign-born labor force in 2014 consisted of Hispanics, while 24.1% was made up by Asians.

Get help with US work visas

If you would like to apply for a US work visa – including L-1 visas, E-1 and E-2 visas, and H-1B visas – WorkPermit.com can help. WorkPermit.com is a specialist visa consultancy with over twenty-seven years of experience dealing with visa applications. We can help with a wide range of visa applications to your country of choice. Please feel free to contact us for further details.

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Global Pinoy

Petitioning private caregivers not a good option for senior immigrants

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Jane became a naturalized US citizen in 2012 and immediately petitioned her elderly parents to live in the States.

In 2013, Jane’s parents arrived in the US and resided with her. The first year of their residence in the US with Jane was pleasant as the family traveled together to various places in California.

However, in 2014, Jane’s mother suffered a stroke and needed full-time care. She was not able to get medical insurance for her mother so she paid all the medical expenses.

Jane has a full-time job and has minor children. Since she barely had the time to attend to her mother, her father took care of her ailing mother.

Jane’s father began to noticeably lose weight and was not getting enough sleep from taking care of her mother. To relieve her father’s stress, Jane moved her mother into a senior health-care facility to have a full-time caretaker. Two weeks after her mother moved to the facility, her father suffered a heart attack and passed away.

Jane wants her mother moved back into her home. Instead of having a nonrelative take care of her mother, Jane prefers to have a relative be her mother’s caregiver.

Petitioning for caregivers

Jane wants to petition her relative in the Philippines who graduated from a nursing school. How long will this take?

Under the present US immigration system, caregivers fall under the third preference employment-based category “other workers.”

As of December 2015, only petitions filed on or before Aug. 1, 2007 in this category are being processed. Thus, if a petition for a caregiver is filed in 2015, there will be an approximate wait of seven to eight years before the caregiver will be processed for a visa.

By that time, the elderly immigrant may no longer be around to benefit from the presence of a caregiver. This lengthy process is a result of the severe backlog in the employment based petitions for nonprofessional workers.

This situation is analogous to family-based petitions where an elderly parent who is a green-card holder files a petition for an adult child. The petition falls under the second preference family-based category, and to date, only petitions that were filed in December 2004 are being processed. For a recently filed petition, the wait could be nine to 10 years for it to be current. As in most cases, the elderly petitioner passes away before the visa is available.

Filipino immigrant families usually prefer to care for their elderly in their homes. Also, most seniors would prefer to have their child or a relative take care of them. Unfortunately, the reality is that the US immigration system is broken and the matter of giving priority to caregivers of senior citizens is yet to be addressed. Until then, elderly immigrants will need to rely on alternative system of care such as social services groups or nonprofit organizations among others.

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Updates

Deadline to Request TPS for Nepal is December 21

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USCIS notes that the deadline for eligible nationals of Nepal (and people without nationality who last habitually resided in Nepal) to register for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is Monday, Dec. 21, 2015. This deadline date is the end of the 180-day initial registration period. TPS designation for Nepal runs from June 24, 2015, through Dec. 24, 2016.

You must demonstrate that you meet all eligibility criteria, including that you have been both “continuously physically present” and “continuously residing” in the U.S. since June 24, 2015, to be eligible for TPS. You will also be required to undergo thorough security checks.

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Updates

CBP to Begin Biometric Entry/Exit Testing at Otay Mesa Port of Entry

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to start testing new biometric technology at the Otay Mesa pedestrian crossing to enhance the identification of certain non-U.S. citizens entering and exiting the United States. CBP uses these biometric data to accurately verify who arrives in the U.S. and who leaves. This new technology is being tested to see if CBP can better match entry and exit records along the land border using it and to help protect travelers’ identities against theft.

“CBP is committed to developing a system that provides biometric exit data on non-U.S. citizens in a way that does not disrupt air, sea, or land port operations, but, rather secures and facilitates travel and trade,” said Pete Flores, San Diego Field Operations Director. “This test will help inform on next steps to developing and implementing biometric exit in the land pedestrian environment.”

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Global Pinoy

Widows can get visas despite death of petitioners

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THE GENERAL rule that the “petition dies with the petitioner” is subject to certain exceptions.

One way to avoid the automatic revocation is to file a humanitarian revalidation. The other is the conversion of the spouse petition to a widow petition despite the death of the US citizen spouse.

What happens in cases where the surviving spouse remarries after the death of the petitioner?

Michelle married Douglas, a US citizen in 2003. Douglas filed a spouse petition in 2004 but unfortunately died before his petition was approved.

Michelle was not able to file a widow’s self-petition because back in 2004, the marriage should have been in existence for two years before a widow petition is allowed.

In 2007, Michelle married her second husband Noel but this marriage ended in a divorce. In 2010, Michelle filed a widow’s self-petition because immigration law changed by then, now allowing marriages of less than two years to file for self-petition.

This widow’s petition was denied because Michelle married her second husband Noel after the death of Douglas. Is this second-marriage bar an absolute rule for widow petitions?

If Michelle did not marry the second time, will she be able to get the immigrant visa based on her first marriage to Douglas?

Widow petitions

Certain widows and widowers may be able to obtain permanent residence after their US citizen spouse passes away. The following requirements must be met:

  • Self-petitioner was married to a US citizen;
  • The deceased spouse was a US citizen at the time of his or her death;
  • The spouses were not legally separated at the time of the death;
  • They file a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) form I-360 within two years of the death; and
  • They are not inadmissible.

A 2009 law eliminated the prior requirement that the couple should have been married for at least two years.

Widows or widowers whose US citizen spouse died before the new law went into effect on Oct. 28, 2009, had two years from that date to seek relief.

The US Immigration law provision on self-petitioning widow or widower clearly provides a bar to receiving immigrant visa if there was a remarriage after the death of the original US citizen spouse.

Effect of remarriages

This is the case of Michelle who can no longer avail of a petition filed on behalf of her first husband.

But if Michelle was already residing in the United States at the time of the death of her first husband, the case will be different.

There is a very recent exception for widows who have remarried and are currently residing in the United States. The USCIS released in November 2015 a policy memorandum where the widow who remarried may still avail of the first petition by the US citizen spouse under Section 204(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The main requirement is that the beneficiary must have been residing in the United States at the time of the petitioner’s death and continuing to be residing in the United States.

The other requirement is a substitute sponsor who can file an affidavit of support on her behalf.

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Updates

USCIS Publishes Updated H-2B Visa Numbers – November 30, 2015

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On November 30, 2015, USCIS provided an update of the amount of cap-subject H-2B visas received and approved by the federal agency for first half of fiscal year 2016. According to USCIS, a total of 11,520 beneficiaries have been approved for the first half of fiscal year 2016, with an additional 1,952 petitions pending. USCIS has not yet received applications for the second half of Fiscal Year 2016.

Congressionally-based legislation limits the amount of H-2B visas provided per fiscal year to a total of 66,000, with 33,000 allocated for employment for the first half of the fiscal year and 33,000 allocated for employment for the second half of the fiscal year. Unused numbers from the first half of the fiscal year are made available for use by employers seeking H-2B workers during the second half of the year.

Categories
Updates

USCIS Launches New Virtual Assistant to Aid in Customer Service

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USCIS this week launched a new virtual assistant named “Emma” at its www.uscis.gov website. This new virtual assistant will assist consumers in finding accurate information. She answers questions in plain English and navigates users to relevant USCIS website pages.

The virtual assistant “Emma” is named after Emma Lazarus, whose famous words make up the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Emma was created in response to interest in self-help and greater customer service tools. Access Emma on a desktop or laptop; she will soon be available on mobile devices and early next year will speak Spanish as well as English.