Author: tancincowp

Earlier this week, USCIS announced a final rule that adopted without
any changes an interim rule to improve the I-9 Form process. The
federal agency had received 75 public comments in response to this
interim rule, which had been in effect since April 2009. All employers,
agricultural recruiters and referrers who work for fees are required to
verify the identity and employment authorization of each person they
hire for employment in the U.S. Key changes made to the process by
which eligibility is verified that were introduced in the interim rule
and adopted in the final rule include prohibiting the acceptance of
expired documents as proof of eligibility and the additional and
modification of a number of acceptable documents of proof.

This final rule takes effect May 16, 2011. View an FAQ published by USCIS at: http://1.usa.gov/ijBf96.

The first information about petitions submitted for the Fiscal Year
2012 H-1B program has just been posted by USCIS and, as expected, the
amount of petitions received by the federal agency are low. As was seen
last year, only a small handful of companies have submitted requests
for highly skilled workers under the H-1B program. As of April 7, 2011,
a total of 5,900 petitions have been received for the regular cap
program and 4,500 petitions have been received for the H-1B Master’s
Exemption category.

A total of 65,000 H-1B visas are available each year, according to
current federal regulations. USCIS has also receipted 20,000 H-1B
petitions for foreign workers with advanced degrees, leaving no
additional available visa under that exemption.

Earlier this week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted a
new policy that may lead to additional deportations to Haiti. Just
after the January 2010 earthquake that gravely affected Haiti, ICE
halted all deportations to Haiti out of concern for people that would
have been deported. In late January, however, ICE shifted its policy
and deported 27 people to Haiti. One of those people died within days
of arriving in Haiti, potentially of cholera, and another became very
sick soon after arriving.

Many immigration and human rights organizations have voiced their
concerns with ICE’s reversal of policy and are asking that the federal
agency return to a halt of deportations.

“One year after the earthquake, Haiti remains in ruins and is now
confronting a cholera epidemic. Our government is sending people back
to horrific circumstances, possibly even death,” said David Leopold,
president of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. “AILA urges
the Obama Administration to immediately suspend deportations while
life-threatening conditions in Haiti persist.”

On April 1, 2011, all USCIS Change of Address and Alien’s Change of
Address forms (Forms AR-11 and AR-11 SR) changed filing locations. The
new address to file these forms is as follows:

U.S Department of Homeland Security
Citizenship and Immigration Services
Attn: Change of Address
1344 Pleasants Drive
Harrisonburg, VA 22801

USCIS notes that any change of address forms mailed to the old location
will be forwarded to the new Harrisonburg address until May 16. The
option of notifying USCIS of a change of address online is also
available at uscis.gov, but only for Form AR-11.

Last week, a number of high-tech companies were given the opportunity
to speak to Congress about the H-1B visa program. In the meeting,
representatives from various companies spoke about the importance of
the H-1B program to technological companies in the U.S. and a few
additionally made the case for easing the process to obtain green cards
as opposed to changing H-1B regulations.

“These two groups don’t agree on everything…. They see the IT benefit
of permanent residents as key,” said former Rep. Bruce Morrison (D-CT),
who testified on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers.

The American Council on International Personnel also shared its
perspective in a statement that said: “American employers need an
immigration system that includes both temporary and permanent visas as
well as a timely, consistent and predictable process.”

In an attempt to maintain support from Hispanic Americans concerned
about U.S. policies toward immigration, President Obama recently
commented at a town hall meeting that he has not abandoned his efforts
to overhaul U.S. immigration policies. Last year, Congress failed to
pass the Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for
many illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as young children.

Obama publicly supported the Act at an event at a school in Washington,
DC earlier this month. “We have to have a pathway for citizenship for
those who are just looking for a better life and contributing to our
country,” he said, “and I’ll continue to fight for that.”

The town hall event, which was held in English and translated into
Spanish was sponsored by a Spanish-language TV station and is part of a
larger initiative to support the importance of education funding.

U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) controversial Secure
Communities program is now active in all 100 counties in North
Carolina, the program reported this week. North Carolina is now the
tenth state to implement the program; the Obama administration hopes to
have all 50 states enrolled in the Secure Communities program within
the next two years.

The Secure Communities program has been the source of much debate and
controversy. Supporters of the program believe it is necessary to
indentify and target criminal illegal aliens; immigration rights
advocates, however, believe that the program creates a deep level of
distrust between immigration communities and law enforcement.

The Secure Communities program enables local law enforcement to check
fingerprints of arrested individuals against the FBI criminal database
and ICE’s IDENT database to find out if the person is in the U.S.
legally or illegally. Undocumented persons are taken into custody by
ICE, who then works to deport those persons.

According to ICE, the Secure Communities program “improves and
modernizes the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the
United States.”

On April 1, 2011, USCIS will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to
the annual cap for Fiscal Year 2012. All cases will be considered
accepted on the date that USCIS receives a properly filed petition with
the correct fee. The postmark date will not be considered the accepted
date.

U.S. businesses that employ foreign workers engaged in specialty
occupations that require technical or theoretical expertise, such as
scientists, engineers and computer programmers, may use the H-1B
program.

The cap for 2012 is 65,000; the first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf
of people with U.S. master’s degrees or higher will be exempt from this
65,000 cap.

Please note that petitions filed on behalf of a current H-1B worker who
has previously been counted against an annual cap will not count toward
the 2012 annual cap. USCIS states that it will continue to process
petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may
remain in the U.S., change the terms of employment for an H-1B worker;
allow a current H-1B worker to change employers or allow a current H-1B
worker to work concurrently in a second H-1B position in the U.S.