As of 6/19/09, 44,500 H-1B cap-subject petitions have beenr received by USCIS for FY 2010 and 20,000 petitions seeking the advanced degree exemption. As of this writing, USCIS will continue to receive cap subject and advanced degree petitions until the cap is met.
Reviews: The inspection process, what does the law say, what can I expect to happen at a US port of entry and more….
http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2009,0624-admission.shtm
BusinessWeek‘s 4th article in its Immigration in the Recession series concerns the extreme shortage of nurses in the USA. The article addresses that proponents of foreign nurse recruiting feel that the nurse shortage is negatively affecting patient health; that expanding into government-funded healthcare will escalate the situation. Other points of view assert that domestic nurses should be utilized and trained to put US workers back on the job; however, there is no such system in place for educating and training nurses on a mass scale in the USA to make a dent in the shortage that will only continue to increase with time. This debate must culminate in nurse legislation being passed by Congress.
Notes address Premium Processing, changes to the H-1B program, changes in how to contact USCIS by telephone, amongst other matters.
USCIS through its International Division recently opened up an adjudications office in Anaheim, CA for paper-based applicaton processing received from its international offices referred to as the International Adjudication Support Branch (IASB). The branch office will provide USCIS with greater flexibility in handling to seasonal and periodic fluctuations in the worklod of the international office throughout the year.
Initially the office will focus on processing I-601 non-health related waivers of inadmissibility for USCIS’ office in Ciudad Juarez. We link to Q&A
Senators Menendez (D-NJ), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), introduced legislation to re-emphasize family unity in the US immigration system so that legal immigrants might reunite with their families and end decade long waiting times for legal immigrant visas.
The legislation would reinforce the historical emphasis on current wait times in the family immigration system by:
This summary was prepared by the White House and sets forth proposed changes in the 2010 budget for immigration related funding.
92% of the requested budget is within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Transportation and Security Administration (TSA), and the U.S. Coast Guard. We link above to the specifics.
WASHINGTON – April 8, 2009, USCIS announced it continues to accept H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010) cap. USCIS will continue to monitor the number of H-1B petitions received for both the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 U.S. master’s degree or higher educational exemption cap.
Should USCIS receive the necessary number of petitions to meet the respective caps, it will issue an update to advise the public that, as of a certain date (the “final receipt date”), the respective FY 2010 H-1B caps have been met. The final receipt date will be based on the date USCIS physically receives the petition, not the date that the petition is postmarked. The date or dates USCIS informs the public that the respective caps have been reached may differ from the actual final receipt date.
For more information on this story:
Read this article from USCIS.gov
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a reminder that the revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Rev. 02/02/09), goes into effect today for all U.S. employers. The revision date is printed on the lower right-hand corner of the form.
The interim final rule, published Dec.17, 2008 in the Federal Register, revised the list of documents acceptable for the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process. Employers may no longer use previous versions of the Form I-9.
The revised list improves the security and effectiveness of the Form I-9 process. The list specifies that expired documents are no longer acceptable forms of identification or employment authorization. Allowing for expired documents makes it more difficult for employers to verify an employee’s identity and employment authorization and compromises the Form I-9 process.
Read more information on the new I-9 Form here
Posted on Immigration Daily 3/13/09
The Federal Times reports that USCIS is spending over half a billion dollars to digitize its paper files so that it can process immigration applications over the internet instead of through US postal service. “The agency signed a five-year contract with IBM in November; the company will be the lead systems integrator on the project. It’s tasked with digitizing the agency’s processing system, which currently relies on some 70 million paper files scattered at hundreds of locations across the country.” The IBM contract – the latest in a series of modernization projects at the agency – could eventually shave months off processing times.
Read more about this story at FederalTimes.com
