Author: tancincowp

In response to a study conducted last year that found cases of fraud
and other infringements in one out of every five H-1B applications,
USCIS is stepping up its enforcement of the skilled worker program.
This fiscal year, federal inspectors plan to conduct 25,000 on-site
inspections of U.S. companies that have hired foreign workers under the
H-1B program. This is five times as many inspections as there were last
fiscal year.

In a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa),
USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas commented that the inspections of
companies began in July of this year. The program, according to
Mayorkas, determines “whether the location of employment actually
exists and if a beneficiary is employed at the location specified,
performing the duties as described, and paid the salary as identified
in the petition.”

This new enforcement initiative has been implemented in tandem with an
increase in demands for detailed documentation for foreign worker
applications from USCIS.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last week
that they are implementing a 120-day period in which they will accept
H-1B petitions filed without Labor Condition Applications (LCAs)
certified by the Department of Labor (DOL).

USCIS has made this amendment to their regulations after receiving
requests from members of the public asking them to allow acceptance of
H-1B petition filings that include LCAs that have been filed with, but
not yet certified by DOL. DOL’s implementation of the iCERT system has
resulted in an increase in processing delays for certain LCA
certifications. Certain employers and beneficiaries have been
negatively affected by these increased processing times, limiting their
ability to file H-1B petitions with USCIS in a timely fashion.

In order to accommodate those affected by processing delays of LCAs,
USCIS began accepting H-1B petitions with uncertified LCAs on November
5, 2009 and will continue to accept these until March 4, 2010. However,
USCIS will only accept such H-1B petitions if they are filed at least
seven calendar days after the LCAs were filed with DOL and only if the
petitioner provides evidence of this filing.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is finishing up its
proposal to collect either fingerprints or eye scans from all
international travelers at U.S. airports as the travelers leave the
U.S. This new plan, which would be in effect in two years, would enable
the U.S. government to track the 35 million international visitors that
leave the country each year, including visitors who may have overstayed
their visas. DHS expects the proposal will be submitted to the White
House for review and approval by next month.

The proposal has caused concern, especially from those in the airline
industry. Originally, the program would have required airlines to pay
for the majority of the costs of the program; however, DHS now says it
may remove that requirement. The program is expected to cost between $1
and $2 billion over a ten year period; a large portion of the costs
will most likely now be paid by taxpayers and international travelers.
Additionally, the program would not track international visitors
leaving the U.S. at land borders, because of additional costs and
associated delays in commerce and transactions. Eighty percent of
international travelers depart the U.S. from land borders.

USCIS recently posted an update of the amount of H-1B petitions the
federal agency has received. As of October 25, 2009, roughly 52,800
H-1B cap-subject petitions and 20,000 H-1B petitions that qualify for
the advanced degree cap exemption have been filed with USCIS. A total
of 65,000 H-1B visas are available for this fiscal year under the
current annual cap limitations. USCIS comments that it will continue to
accept cap-subject and advanced degree petitions until it has received
enough H-1B petitions to fulfill the limits posed by regulations.

In previous years, USCIS received large amounts of H-1B petitions. In
many cases the agency stopped accepting these petitions days or weeks
after the initial acceptance date. This year, however, due to the
economic recession, the amount of filed petitions is much lower. On
April 17, 2009, in their first public notification about this year’s
H-1B program, USCIS announced they had received roughly 43,000 H-1B
petitions and 20,000 that qualified for the advanced degree cap
exemption.

USCIS launched a new video on its Web site this week that provides a
review of the federal agency’s Systematic Alien Verification for
Entitlements (SAVE) program. The new video, available online at
www.uscis.gov/SAVE, describes the process of immigration status
verification and, additionally, provides information about how federal,
state and local agencies (that provide benefits) can apply for
participation in the SAVE program.

SAVE is a program that helps benefit-granting agencies determine an
applicant’s immigration status. SAVE ensures that only applicants with
a verifiable immigration status receive federal, state, or local public
benefits and licenses. SAVE checks applicants’ immigration status
against millions of recorded federal database records. Over 300
agencies have enrolled in the SAVE program, to date.

The USCIS form G-28, the Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or
Accredited Representative, was updated by USCIS on April 22, 2009. At
that time, the form contained an ‘N’ designation; this means that no
previous editions of the form will be accepted. However, USCIS has
decided to extend the grace period for accepting previous versions of
Form G-28, while it continues to refine the current version of the
form.

USCIS expects to complete the revision of its current form shortly.
Until that time, the federal agency will not reject filings submitted
with older versions of the form.

The April 22 version of Form G-28 is available for download at the following URL:

http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/New%20Structure/2nd%20Level%20(Left%20Nav%20Parents)/Forms%20-%202nd%20Level/Forms%20Static%20Files/g-28.pdf

In the Federal Register, dated Monday, November 2, 2009, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will officially remove HIV
infection from the definition of “communicable disease of public health
significance” and will additionally remove any reference to HIV from
the scope of examinations for aliens wishing to enter the U.S.

Prior to this final rule, HIV infection was considered a communicable
disease of public health significance by CDC; individuals that tested
positive for the infection during the required medical examination for
U.S. immigration were inadmissible to the United States. However,
effective January 4, 2010, as stated in this final rule, such
individuals will no longer be inadmissible to the United States solely
on the ground that they are infected.