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10 Steps Guaranteed to
Streamline your Immigration Process and Increase ROI Webcast
VISANOW partnered with HR.com
on July 29 to present ten best practices in immigration
services to help streamline your current process, and
ultimately increase ROI and employee satisfaction. Based
upon industry experience, VISANOW challenged immigration
service traditions and provided actionable tactics on how to
effectively streamline the immigration process.
Why is streamlining your immigration process so important?
Ensuring the right human resources are in place with a
highly mobile workforce is a critical success factor for
companies competing in today’s globally competitive markets.
Effectively handling immigration is they key to productive
workforce mobility. Thus, to help you successfully navigate
the immigration process, VISANOW developed ten best
practices based on serving thousands of organizations, from
start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
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U.S. Immigration News
Premium Processing Service for I-140 Resumes
Effective June 29, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) will resume Premium Processing Service for
Form I-140, the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker for
select E-B1, EB-2 and EB-3 cases. Under Premium Processing
Service, the USCIS guarantees petitioners that within 15
calendar days of receipt it will issue: an approval notice,
or when appropriate, a request for evidence, a notice of
intent to deny, or open an investigation for fraud or
misrepresentation. The restart of the service is great news
as it can potentially shorten the processing time of green
card cases with the premium service saving some time within
the I-140 step.
The USCIS will accept Premium Processing requests for Form
I-140 involving EB-1 (aliens with extraordinary ability and
outstanding professors and researchers), EB-2 (members of
professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability not
seeking a National Interest Waiver), EB-3 (professionals,
skilled workers, and other workers). However, Premium
Processing is still not available for Form I-140 involving
EB-1 (multinational executives and managers) and EB-2
(members of professions with advanced degrees seeking a
National Interest Waiver). Nevertheless, if the petition is
not processed within 15 calendar days, the USCIS will refund
the $1,000 fee and continue to process the request as a
Premium case.
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USCIS to Reopen Denied H-1B Petitions for Health Care
Workers
The denial of H-1B petitions for health care professionals
(physical and occupational therapists) was addressed by the
USCIS on July 17. Many U.S. employers who filed H-1B cases
before May 20, 2009, received erroneous case denials based
on the USCIS’ assertion that the H-1B classification in a
health care profession minimally required a Master’s degree.
The USCIS announced that it will allow these employers to
request the reopening of the case, effective immediately. We
strongly encourage parties affected by such denials to
contact their immigration services provider to determine
whether case reopening would be an option for any denied
health care worker H-1B petitions.
Before May 20, the USCIS relied extensively upon the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook
(OOH) to establish the requirements for a position’s
classification as a specialty occupation with regard to H-1B
cases filed on behalf of health care workers. Accordingly,
the USCIS frequently denied H-1B classification to physical
and occupational therapists who did not possess at least a
Master’s degree in the field as stated in the OOH. Further,
these denials were frequently issued to prospective H-1Bs
who had licenses in states that require only a Bachelor’s
degree for licensure and legally eligible to practice.
Under strong pressure from U.S. employers, health care
educators and credentialing agencies, the USCIS issued a
memorandum in which it announced that “in certain instances,
other authoritative sources exist that indicate whether the
position in question qualifies as a specialty occupation.”
The USCIS specifically cited state licensure as an example,
thus opening the door for practicing physical and
occupational therapists to obtain H-1B classification, even
if they only have a Bachelor’s degree in the field. This
announcement was regarded as a victory by many U.S.
employers in states with shortages of qualified physical and
occupational therapists.
The USCIS’ July 17 update to that memo now serves to extend
this policy change regarding H-1B petitions for physical and
occupational therapists filed before May 20, 2009, and
subsequently denied. In such cases, if the H-1B petition was
denied solely on the basis that the beneficiary did not
possess a Master’s or a higher degree in the field, the
petition may be reopened. To initiate the reopening of a
case, the H-1B sponsor employer or their representative must
submit a written request to the USCIS. An email should be
submitted to the USCIS by August 14, 2009, and be titled
“PT/OT Service Motion Request.” Emails need to be sent to
the Service Center with jurisdiction over the denied case,
either the
California Service Center or the
Vermont
Service Center.
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P-1S Personnel
Guidance Announced
The USCIS announced new guidelines for P-1S visa holders
(the essential support personnel of P-1 holder such as
trainers or coaches) on July 14 stipulating the period of
stay as 10 years with an option to initially extend for
another year. While there has been guidance on P-1 visas,
P-1S guidelines have not been previously addressed. These
stipulations will be vital to remember when filing for P-1S
personnel visas as they provide essential guidance on how
long the visas are issued for and the extension terms.
Previously, on March 6, 2009, the USCIS issued period of
authorized stay guidelines for P-1 athletes (individual
athletes, members of entertainment groups, and members of
athletic teams). The July 14 mandate extends the guidance to
the essential support personnel (P-1S category) of the P-1
visa holder. The guidelines stipulate that individuals with
P-1S visas are only allowed U.S. admission for ten years,
and must leave the U.S. after the ten years to apply for an
initial extension petition of one year. However, P-1S visa
holders are no longer subject to a total lifetime admission
of ten years.
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H-2B Program Slow Down
The filing target of 47,000 H-2B visas for the first half of
the immigration fiscal year was already met last June, but
this year the USCIS indicates that only currently 1,800 H-2B
numbers have been used thus far.
The USCIS attributes the drop
off to two factors: the current economic downturn, which has
increased the demand of usually undesirable positions being
sought by U.S. workers and the H-2B program changes in
December 2008 that restricted the allowed filing time
periods. Since the H-2B has historically been in high
demand, the decrease presents an opportunity as a viable
work visa option again. Contact your immigration services
provider to determine if the H-2B work visa may be a viable
option for you.
The H-2B visa is a temporary work permit, allowing U.S.
employers to fill the temporary need for additional workers.
The H-2B category may be used for various occupations
(skilled or unskilled) besides foreign medical graduates
seeking employment within the medical field and agricultural
workers. For instance, it can be used for hospitality
industry and entertainers/athletes who don’t qualify for the
O or P visa categories.
The current economic recession is one factor that explains
the H-2B drop off, because as the unemployment rate climbs
and more U.S. workers lose their jobs, positions previously
considered undesirable by U.S. workers are now in high
demand. As U.S. workers “settle” for these jobs, the need
for U.S. employers to hire temporary foreign labor
diminishes.
The recent change to the H-2B program on December 19, 2008,
when the USCIS restricted the amount of time a petitioner
could file an H-2B petition before starting employment is another factor that is attributed to the
filing drop off. This change reduced the number of “place-holder”
filings by employers who may have filed the visa petition
before knowing their actual employment needs or actually
needing a worker. To discourage “place-holder” filings, the
USCIS pushed back the H-2B filing periods to be in line with
the temporary labor certification (a prerequisite for a
H-2B) deadlines and became more aligned with the Department
of Labor (DOL).
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The E-Verify
Controversy Continues
After a lengthy review and numerous delays, the USCIS
decided on July 8 that E-Verify, a Bush-era
worker-verification electronic system, will go into effect
on September 8 for federal contractors and subcontractors.
Meant to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants, E-Verify
has been a contentious topic since the administration
takeover. The debate continues as new legislation
progresses, supporting the E-Verify system, which has been
touted as a "half-hearted and flawed." While
E-Verify is currently voluntary for employers, we recommend
keeping up on the legislative changes and working with your
immigration services provider on how best to handle E-Verify
and its potential impact on your organization.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with
the Social Security Administration, to quickly verify new
hire information from I-9 forms against Social Security
Numbers (SSN). While employers use E-Verify on a voluntary
basis, federal contractors and subcontractors are now
officially required to use E-Verify from September 8 onward.
Read more about E-Verify and the federal contractor rule.
The E-Verify program has been under fire for being
inaccurate and ineffective. The biggest flaw, besides not
being able to produce 100% accuracy, is that the program
does not safeguard against identity theft. Senator Charles
Schumer [D-NY] believes that the program “will increase the
use of fake documents and false identities unless the system
includes a new way to confirm workers’ identities using
unique biological markers.” Debate surrounds the need for
biometric identification such as fingerprinting or iris
scans and the enablement of driver’s license photo access to
combat identify theft in addition to the current E-Verify
system.
Despite the mounting criticism and proposed enhancements,
much legislation regarding E-Verify has already been
approved. The program will be extended for another two
years, after which E-verify will be made permanent by law,
removing the option of future reversal of the amendment.
Further, federal contractors will then have to use E-Verify
to check the work authorization status of all workers and
not just new hires.
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August Visa Bulletin
The August Visa Bulletin remains unchanged from
July, except for the three-year leap ahead in
priority dates for Chinese and Indian nationals in
the Employment-Based (EB) second category (members
of professions holding advanced degrees or persons
of exceptional ability). This leap ahead is a
positive change from the prior months of June and
July, when EB-2 Chinese and Indian foreign national
dates retrogressed (when previously current dates on
the bulletin go backwards and become unavailable)
five years. The three-year leap ahead could be a
positive signal, but will not provide permanent
relief for Chinese and Indian foreign national
cases.
The dramatic and sudden advancement of the priority
dates for EB-2 China and India cases was not
explained, but it is likely that the dates were
advanced in order to ensure that all remaining visas
for these categories are used up by the time the
immigration fiscal year ends on September 30. It may
also possibly reflect the shift of unused visa
numbers from the quotas of other immigrant visa
categories with less demand to those for EB-2 China
and India.
Such measures only provide temporary relief, and do
not dispel the previous predictions from the U.S.
Department of State (DOS) that progress on EB-2
India and China cases will be very slow over the
coming years. At the beginning of the next fiscal
year on October 1, 2009, these categories will more
than likely retrogress again, due to continuously
high demand.
In addition, the DOS notes this month that the
fourth category for certain special immigrants
(including religious workers) may retrogress or even
become unavailable by the month of September, due to
unprecedented demand, but this category is expected
to become current again at the start of the new
fiscal year.
EB Visa Bulletin for
August 2009
|
Employment-Based |
All Other Countries |
China (mainland born) |
India |
Mexico |
Philippines |
|
1st |
C |
C |
C |
C |
C |
|
2nd |
C |
10/1/2003 |
10/1/2003 |
C |
C |
|
3rd |
U |
U |
U |
U |
U |
|
Other Workers |
U |
U |
U |
U |
U |
|
4th
|
C |
C |
C |
C |
C |
|
Certain Religious Workers |
C |
C |
C |
C |
C |
|
5th
|
C |
C |
C |
C |
C |
|
Targeted Employment Areas/Regional Centers |
C |
C |
C |
C |
C |
Legend
-
C = Current as there is
no waiting period necessary to file the I-485
-
U = Unavailable as visa
supply has been exhausted for the remainder of fiscal
year
-
Date indicated = Cut-off
date that indicates a backlog; if the priority date
(date the labor certification or I-140 was filed,
depending on the type of case) is BEFORE date listed,
the I-485 can be file
Employment-based Preferences
-
First: Priority Workers
- Second: Members of the
Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of
Exceptional Ability
- Third: Skilled Workers,
Professionals and Other Workers
- Fourth: Certain Special
Immigrants
- Fifth: Employment
Creation
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International Immigration News
Canada Strengthens Entry Requirements for Czech and Mexican
Citizens
Canada is strengthening its requirements for temporary
visitors with two new implementations. As of July 13, Czech
Republicans and Mexican nationals will be required to secure
a Temporary Residence Visa prior to visiting Canada. The
changes have gone into effect to combat the increasing
number of refugee claims the Canadian Immigration and
Refugee Board receives each year. We recommend
contacting your immigration services provider for assistance
with Temporary Residence Visas if you employ Czech and
Mexican foreign nationals in Canada.
Visa requirements were initially lifted from Czech Republic
in October 2007, and since then there have been 3,000
claims, making it the second largest source of refugee
claims. Moreover, the largest source of claims is from Mexico
who submits 25% of all refugee claims to the
Immigration and Refugee Board. Aside from the sheer volume
of applications and the subsequent delays these claims have
created, many of the claims are abandoned before the process
is finalized. This is not only a waste of the time for the
Immigration and Refugee Board, but also indicates a more
pressing issue which is the assertion that these claims were
not legitimately made by true refugees.
In light of these new regulations, the Minister of
Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism explains “The
visa process will allow us to assess who is coming to Canada
as a legitimate visitor and who might be trying to use the
refugee system to jump the immigration queue; It is not fair
for those who have been waiting patiently to come to Canada,
sometimes for years, when others succeed in bypassing our
immigration system.”
Learn more about the restrictions on
Czech Republicans and
Mexican citizens.
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