The Department of Labor announced last week that it will be suspending the processing of prevailing wage determinations (PWDs) for most case types,  including PERM labor certifications and H-1B cases – while it complies with a federal court order that requires them to reissue some 4,000 PWDs for the H-2B temporary non-agricultural visa program. The suspension will mean that some employers may be delayed in their ability to commence recruitment on or file PERM labor certification applications.  DOL has not indicated when it will resume issuing non-H-2B PWDs, but because its H-2B workload is considerable, it may not return to full-scale PWD processing for several months.

Though the suspension involves several immigration case types, PERM applications, by far, are the most severely affected due to the time-sensitivity given that the results of an employer’s labor certification recruitment are valid for just 180 days. If a request for a prevailing wage determination is delayed and an employer has commenced the recruitment phase prior to receiving the PWD, an employer’s recruitment could expire, meaning that the entire recruitment process would have to be redone before a PERM application could be filed. The effect on H-1B petitions is far less because employers can use the OFLC Wage Data Center or other independent surveys to determine the prevailing wage for an H-1B position.

DOL’s official timeframe for processing prevailing wage requests had been 60 days, but they had been turning them around in about 30 days.   It appears that the suspension is affecting PWRs filed as early as the beginning of June 2011.

Action Item for Employers: If you require a PERM Labor Certification Application be filed in order to continue employment for your H-1B visa holders who are approaching the 6-year maximum period of stay, you cannot start these cases early enough.  Please discuss strategy and planning with your immigration professional right away, or give our office a call to discuss your case concerns.  We will keep you updated as developments occur.

Our August 2011 InFOCUS immigration newsletter is now available.  We encourage you to sign up to receive our monthly news and Blog posts that report on immigration issues, employer compliance, policy and legislative issues, as well as Department of State and visa updates.

We invite you to continue to visit our website and our Employer Compliance Resource Center for the latest developments on key issues.

In our June Newsletter we cover what’s new in employer compliance:  New I-9 Employer Handbook, new Q&A for I-9 and E-Verify, the new E-Verify RIDE interface and other information to assist you with staying current and developing a compliant workforce.

For more information regarding our services, please contact our office, 562 612.3996 or via email at info@immigrationsolution.net.

It is not a surprise to see where the priorities are in the spending bill making its way through the House of Representatives.  The House Appropriations Committee passed a Bill this week that will go to the floor of the House possibly next week.  We highlight the money trail here:

USCIS:  Approximately 1/3 of the requested funding was approved

1. Fee Reform: The Administration’s fee reform effort would receive no funding.  The Administration requested $207 million for the processing of refugee and asylum applications, for which there is no charge.
2. Immigrant Integration: The Administration requested $19.75 million for immigrant integration programs and for the operations of the Office of Citizenship.  The Committee rejected the request.  In its report on the bill, the Committee noted that it “supports the efforts of the Office of Citizenship to promote civic education through the naturalization process.”  Not, apparently, enough to provide funding for this purpose.

Enforcement

While the Committee couldn’t find any money for immigrant integration, costs concerns were not a factor in enforcement budgets.  Customs and Border Protection got $8.77 billion—$44 million more than the President asked for in his budget, and more than half a billion dollars more than allocated in FY 2011.  Within that amount, border security between ports of entry gets $3.62 billion, $191 million more than last year—enough to bring the Border Patrol up to 21,370 agents.

ICE was allocated $5.5 billion, $25.6 million more than the President requested and $84.8 million more than in 2011.  Secure Communities got $194 million, $10 million more than the President requested.  ICE Detention and Removal operations were awarded $2.75 billion, $26.7 million more than the President asked for, to raise the minimum number of detention bed spaces that ICE must maintain on a daily basis from 33,400 bed spaces to 34,000—and the Committee directs ICE “to intensify its enforcement efforts and fully utilize these resources.”

As part of his enforcement-only agenda, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is expected to introduce a bill that would make the use of the E-Verify electronic work authorization verification system mandatory for all businesses in the U.S.

There is still no sign that Republicans who now control the Judiciary Committee (having jurisdiction over immigration) will attempt to seriously address any legal or illegal immigration reform to fix the broken system.  Despite billions of dollars being spent on immigration enforcement, and enforcement “benchmarks” set in the last round of immigration reform, legislative efforts having been largely met and the  Republicans continue to call for yet more enforcement.  They continue to move the goalpost.

For more information on this subject, we link to, “E-Verify Without Reform Cannot Succeed,” and listen to a recording of a National Immigration Forum briefing for reporters on the E-Verify program.

For more on this as well as the mandatory E-Verify Bill expected in June, we link to the National Immigration Forum’s Policy Update

Foreign students studying at U.S. universities have traditionally had a year after graduation in which to find a job, allowing them to live and work in the United States. Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) changed immigration rules to stretch this window of time from 12 to 29 months for students graduating in certain areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

On May 12, 2011, DHS announced that it was expanding the list of disciplines eligible for the extension. The revised list adds fields such as neuroscience, marine science, environmental science, pharmaceutics and drug design, and education research. It also greatly expands its listings within the agricultural sciences and psychology. The decision follows a yearlong review of requests from businesses and academia to add new fields, says Gillian Christensen, a spokesperson for DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The announcement follows President Obama’s recent remarks in El Paso, Texas, where he reiterated his strong support for new policies that embrace talented students from other countries, who enrich the nation by working in science and technology jobs and fueling innovation in their chosen fields here in the United States, as a part of comprehensive reform.

By expanding the list of STEM degrees to include such fields as Neuroscience, Medical Informatics, Pharmaceutics and Drug Design, Mathematics and Computer Science, the Obama administration is helping to address shortages in certain high tech sectors of talented scientists and technology experts-permitting highly skilled foreign graduates who wish to work in their field of study upon graduation and remain in the USA, to extend their post-graduate work authorization.

Under the OPT program, foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities are able to remain in the U.S. and receive training through work experience for up to 12 months. Students who graduate with one of the newly-expanded STEM degrees can remain for an additional 17 months on an OPT STEM extension.

We’ve all been waiting to see this and we’re impressed.  It’s easy to understand and navigate with excellent graphics and charts.  I-9 Central includes sections about employer and employee rights and responsibilities, step-by-step instructions for completing the form, and information on acceptable documents for establishing identity and employment authorization. I-9 Central also includes a discussion of common mistakes to avoid when completing the form, guidance on how to correct errors, and answers to employers’ recent questions about the Form I-9 process.

“I-9 Central is the latest in our ongoing efforts to better serve the 7.5 million employers who use Form I-9 every time they hire an employee,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “It provides critical information for all employers – whether they hire a single employee or hundreds – in an accessible, intuitive and comprehensive online format.”

We link to I-9 form Customer Support

Take a look around and let us know what you think.

Yesterday, USCIS made the announcement that  a final rule was released that reflects changes made to the I-9 Form process over 2 years ago by DHS.  The changes were rolled out in April 2009 which included, amongst other changes, no longer accepting expired documents for identity and employment authorization.

Two years out from this ruling, there is still much confusion concerning the world’s most complicated 1-page form!  We hope that when USCIS does finally release the new website “I-9 Central,” that is will truly do what they are claiming it will – and that it to provide employers with additional clear & concise guidance and tools to become I-9 compliant.  In the meantime, we link to the FAQs regarding the final rule here, and link to additional I-9 employer resources here.

On Thursday,  3/31/11, a House Immigration Subcommittee hearing underscored the U.S. economy’s reliance on scientists and engineers from abroad. The hearing, entitled “H-1B Visas: Designing a Program to Meet the Needs of the U.S. Economy and U.S. Workers,” was characterized by considerable disagreement among witnesses and subcommittee members as to how the H-1B program for highly skilled foreign professionals should best be structured in terms of wage protections and job portability. But virtually everyone, including Subcommittee Chairman Elton Gallegly (R-24th/CA) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-21st/TX), agreed that foreign-born scientists and engineers, including many who come to the United States on H-1B visas, make critical contributions to the U.S. economy.

CEO’s and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a professional association, had a rare opportunity to make their case on the H-1B program  and up, wrote the House Judiciary Committee to emphasize the value of green cards.

For Tom Brokaw’s report on entrepreneurs leaving Silicon Valley, we link here.

…and for your listening pleasure, here is an animated version of an attorney explaining the PERM Labor Certification program (the 1st step in the green-card process) to a client, entitled When will Kumar get his Greencard? – Enjoy!

USCIS announced today it will start accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2012 cap on April 1, 2011. Cases will be considered accepted on the date USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked.

The H-1B program is used to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Such workers include scientists, engineers, and computer programmers, among others.

The cap (the numerical limit on H-1B petitions) for FY 2012 is 65,000. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with U.S. master’s degrees or higher are exempt.

USCIS will monitor the number of H-1B petitions received and will notify the public of the date when the numerical limit of the H-1B cap has been met. This date is known as the final receipt date. If USCIS receives more petitions than it can accept, it may on the final receipt date randomly select the number of petitions that will be considered for final inclusion within the cap. USCIS will reject petitions that are subject to the cap and are not selected, as well as petitions received after it has the necessary number of petitions needed to meet the cap.

In addition to petitions filed on behalf of people with U.S. master’s degrees or higher, certain other petitions are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap.

Petitions for new H-1B employment are exempt from the annual cap if the beneficiaries will work at:

• Institutions of higher education or related or affiliated nonprofit entities;
• Nonprofit research organizations; or
• Governmental research organizations.

Petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries who will work only in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands are exempt from the cap until Dec. 31, 2014. Employers may continue to file petitions for these cap-exempt H-1B categories for beneficiaries who will start work during FY 2011 or 2012.

Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap do not count towards the H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:

• Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
• Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
• Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

H-1B petitioners should follow all statutory and regulatory requirements as they prepare petitions, to avoid delays in processing and possible requests for evidence. USCIS has posted on its website detailed information, including a processing worksheet, to assist in the completion and submission of a FY2012 H-1B petition.

Should you wish to discuss your case or become a client of our firm, please contact us at info@immigrationsolution.net or call 562 612.3996.

The USCIS Verification Division and the Office of Public Engagement invite any interested parties to participate in a webinar either tomorrow or Thursday on E-Verify Self Check. E-Verify Self Check, the first service offered directly to individuals by E-Verify, is a simple online service that allows an individual to check his or her own employment eligibility in the United States.   If you missed our previous article on E-Verify and how it functions, you can access it here.

E-Verify Self Check will initially be available in the following locations as of March 21, 2011: Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Arizona, Virginia and the District of Columbia. USCIS will be hosting webinars to provide an overview of E-Verify Self Check on the following dates:

• Wednesday, March 16, 2011 @ 1:00pm (EDT): Click here to Register

• Thursday, March 17, 2011 @ 3:30pm (EDT): Click here to Register

Once your registration has been confirmed, you will receive an email with instructions on how to join the webinar.

On the day of the webinar: Please note that on the day of the webinar, you will need to take the following steps:

1. Login to the webinar using the instructions provided to you in the registration email

2. Call the toll-free number provided to you in the registration email

** Please note that space is limited to accommodate 100 participants per session. **