It is difficult to imagine an activity that involves disclosing more personal information to more people than applying for a visa.  Your recent addresses, employment history, financial compensation, social security number and dependent names are just some examples of information certain visas require.  While the visa application process requires this information, corporations and individuals are becoming increasingly sensitive to employee’s privacy concerns and liability from breaches of data security.

What can you do to protect your employee’s personal data?  Most importantly, understand what information is being requested and why.  Then only provide that information.  Too often immigration service providers request more information than needed.  By understanding what and why something is needed, you reduce the risk of providing and entrusting the information unnecessarily.  Avoid communicating sensitive data and documents insecurely through methods like e-mail and ensure that data and documents are transmitted securely.  Most importantly, work with immigration service providers who are committed to securing your physical documents and electronic information in accordance with best practices in data security.  Verify their claims by asking who has access to your information, how that information is restricted and how long it is retained. 

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On September 23, 2010, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they will increase non-immigrant visa fees, excluding those for the naturalization process.  The USCIS first proposed this in the Federal Register on June 11, 2010, and is in addition to the fee increase for non-immigrant consular processing services back in July. The fee increases are due to the current fee structure not fully covering the cost of the immigration services provided. This rule will increase overall fees by 10% on average, and will go into effect on November 23, 2010.

We believe that the proposed fee increases will not negatively impact the number of applications filed.  The increased cost is marginal compared to the benefit of recruiting exceptional international talent. View the new fee schedule for nonimmigrant visas.

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released H-1B cap numbers as of 9/24, receiving 39,600 toward the 65,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions and 14,400 towards the 20,000 H-1B Master's category.

Thus, H-1B cap numbers remain available, and there is still time to submit your FY2011 H-1B visa application for foreign national applicants beginning employment on October 1, 2010 or later.

Contact your immigration services provider to see if this is an option for you/your foreign national or learn more about best practices for preparing your FY2011 H-1B application.

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8042373@N03/

On Tuesday, the Senate voted on whether to debate the 2011 defense authorization bill, which included the DREAM Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal amendments. The defense bill did not receive the 60 votes needed to debate the bill (final vote was 56 to 43).  The Senate Republicans unanimously voted to block the bill, along with Senate Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor from Arkansas. Sen. John McCain, who led the GOP filibuster, blamed Sen. Harry Reid for the rejection of the defense bill by tacking on the additional amendments, which was a “blatant and cynical attempt to galvanize the Hispanic vote” and to “energize the gay and lesbian vote, in the case of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ” Conversely, Sen. Reid accused Republicans of “putting partisan politics ahead of the best interests of the men and women who courageously...

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released H-1B cap numbers as of 9/17, receiving 38,300 toward the 65,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions and 14,000 towards the 20,000 H-1B Master's category.

Thus, H-1B cap numbers remain available, and there is still time to submit your FY2011 H-1B visa application for foreign national applicants beginning employment on October 1, 2010 or later.

Contact your immigration services provider to see if this is an option for you/your foreign national or learn more about best practices for preparing your FY2011 H-1B application.

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8042373@N03/

As indicated last month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will push the DREAM Act, separately from CIR. Reid has attached the DREAM Act as an amendment to the broader defense bill up for debate in the senate this week.  This will be the second time the DREAM Act has been voted upon (it fell 8 votes short of approval in an October 2007.)  The current defense bill also includes a repeal of the controversial “Don’t ask, don’t tell” provision.  Whether the bill has enough support to be approved remains uncertain. 

Though not a replacement for comprehensive immigration reform, if approved, the DREAM Act would allow talented and educated young people an opportunity to obtain legal immigration status in a country that they grew up in—a country that, often, feels more like home than their country of origin.  This would mean a strengthening...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that Border Patrol Agents will be able to operate an additional Predator-B aircraft out of the Corpus Christi base. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urged, “With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground.” This is all part of DHS’ effort to increase and improve security along the Mexican border. In addition, the emergency funding bill was signed last month by President Obama deploying additional National Guard troops to the Southwest Border as well.

Currently, DHS has three operational unmanned aircrafts monitoring the border and three more are expected to be deployed in early 2011. These predator drones can remain...

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released a study entitled “The Effects of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity” this week, showing that immigration boosts the U.S. economy. Published by Giovanni Peri, an associate professor at the University of California-Davis and a visiting scholar at the San Francisco Fed, the study shows that immigration does not significantly impact the amount of jobs available to U.S.–born workers. Peri concludes that “there is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run.” More importantly, immigrants help boost salaries and productivity over time. Peri’s study shows that an inflow of immigrants equal to 1% of the increase in employment helps boost overall...

The September Visa Bulletin is the last one in the immigration fiscal year, and this year ends on a strong note: the EB second preference category for China and India progressed to almost mid-2006, the EB third preference categories for all countries except China, India, and Mexico leapt ahead by 6½ months, and the Other Workers category for all nations except India and Mexico saw a big jump ahead of almost 10 months after stagnating almost the entire fiscal year.

In prior years, the September Visa Bulletin has sometimes been the harbinger of bad news, often showing that the government had run out of immigrant visa numbers due to unpredicted demands.  This year, almost all categories show continued momentum from the prior months:

The EB-2 preference category for China and India moved forward more than 2 months, to 05/08/2006, evidence of the government...

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released H-1B cap numbers as of 8/27, receiving 34,900 toward the 65,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions and 13,000 towards the 20,000 H-1B Master's category.

Thus, H-1B cap numbers remain available, and there is still time to submit your FY2011 H-1B visa application for foreign national applicants beginning employment on October 1, 2010 or later.

Contact your immigration services provider to see if this is an option for you/your foreign national or learn more about best practices for preparing your FY2011 H-1B application.

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8042373@N03/