|
Comment
Processing Times
ILW.COM strives to be a one-stop shop for all immigration law information. Current immigration processing times are available on ILW.COM and include waiting times announced by the Department of State, Department of Labor, USCIS Service Centers, USCIS District Offices, and most recently CBP. Times from all sources conveniently appear on one page, a useful page to bookmark. If you have your own website, please consider linking to this page since it will save you the effort of constantly updating this information on your website. For our processing times page, see here.
We welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas with us by writing to editor@ilw.com.
Focus
H-1B For Beginners
ILW.COM is pleased to present a new 3-part telephone seminar "H-1B For
Beginners" with speakers: Karen Weinstock, Russell C. Ford, Loan T. Huynh,
Cora D. Tekach, Roger Tsai. The
curriculum is as follows:
FIRST Phone Session on February 12:
- Overview and requirements for the H-1B visa
- Understanding the cap problem, brief analysis of cap exemptions
- Does the person qualify for an H-1B: specialty occupations,
educational and work equivalency evaluations, degree mismatch issues,
combinations
- Dual representation issues: Must the attorney represent both
parties? How to do so properly? What to do when a conflict arises?
- Is it OK to deduct attorney fees from the required wage?
- Attorney's fees issues; who is paying which fee?
- Dealing with pre-filing gaps in employment
- Best practices for obtaining a credential evaluation
SECOND Phone Session on March 12:
- History and overview of the labor condition application
- Basic Requirements of the LCA
- Wage and benefit issues
- Prevailing wage issues in the H-1B and Labor Certification
- What is the difference between actual vs. prevailing wages?
- What is a Public Access File and what documents are included in
it?
- What documents are required to be maintained for public viewing
versus audit?
- What is Benching: Maternity Leave vs. License?
- When does the payment of wage obligation begins?
THIRD Phone Session on April 9: Post Filing Issues
- How to responding to the dreaded RFE?
- Obtaining H-1B Extensions
- AC21 portability and current issues with transfers
- Dealing with gaps in employment post-filing including lay-offs,
downsizing, leaves of absence
- When can my client travel abroad and still be able to come back
to resume H-1B employment?
- Planning the case from H-1B to Permanent Residency, and why you
should
- 7th year H-1B extensions vs. concurrent filing of I-140 and
I-1485
- How to deal with changes in the H-1B job, location, or corporate
changes?
Don't wait to register. Wednesday, February 11th is the deadline! For more
info, including speaker bios, detailed curriculum, and
registration information, please see: Online: http://www.ilw.com/seminars/200904.shtm
Fax form: http://www.ilw.com/seminars/200904.pdf
Articles
Taking Back The Streets: ICE And Local Law Enforcement Target Immigrant Gangs
Jessica Vaughan and Jon Feere for the Center for Immigration Studies write "Local governments and law enforcement agencies that shun involvement in immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities from criminal immigrant gang activity."
Source Of Income And Why It Matters
Paula Singer, Esq. writes "Payers making payments to foreign nationals have the additional task of determining if the payee is a nonresident alien, in which case special U.S. tax withholding and reporting rules apply."
Immigrants Of The Week: Isabel Toledo, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Jason Wu
Greg Siskind celebrates the achievements of these immigrants.
To submit an Article for consideration, write to editor@ilw.com.
News
EOIR Releases Asylum, Withholding Of Removal, CAT Fact Sheet
The Department of Justice released a fact sheet providing basic information on forms of relief and protection for aliens in the US who fear persecution or torture in returning to their homeland.
Classifieds
Website Services
Gain the competitive edge with your new website from INSZoom, the world's largest immigration software company. Choose from a range of template websites, complete with customized logos and images, 60-70 pps. of professionally written immigration law content including news articles, processing dates, and priority times posted directly on your site. Our search engine optimization tools will increase your web traffic and prioritize your site in the major search engines. Our content management tool lets you update your site in real time. Customized intake sheets let you integrate your case management software directly into your site. Biweekly newsletters and email blast tools enable you to stay in constant touch with current clients and strengthen your potential client base. Build leads and maintain a professional presence at a reasonable cost with websites from INSZoom. Learn more online at www.inszoom.com/websites or contact a sales representative at (925) 244-0600 to start the process of launching your new website today.
Credential Evaluation And Translation
As the nation's leader in foreign credential evaluations and translations, American Evaluation and Translation Service, Inc. (AETS) provides the most competitive rates in the industry – $50 educational evaluations, as well as $200 'expert opinion' work experience and position evaluations completed by PhD university professors who have the "authority to grant college level credit for work experience and/or training." AETS offers a variety of turn-around times, including same-day service for educational, work experience, and position evaluations. For list of rates and times, see: http://aetsinternational.com/applicationforevaluationservices.pdf. AETS also provides certified translations in 100+ languages, with translators that are specialists in 80+ fields. For a copy of the Application for Credential Evaluation and Translation Services, please contact AETS at (786) 276-8190, visit http://www.aetsinternational.com, or email: info@aetsinternational.com.
Headlines
Obama's Aunt Has Immigration Hearing In April
The Bush administration quietly withdrew in the weeks after Barack Obama's election a new rule requiring high-level approval before federal agents nationwide could arrest fugitive immigrants.
Utah Legislator Wants More Scrutiny Of Immigration Bill
After hearing impassioned testimony from dozens of advocates on both sides of the immigration reform debate, one House member thinks more objective, factual information is needed before Utah allows a comprehensive immigration reform bill to become law this July.
RI Prosecutors: No Charges Over Detainee Death
Rhode Island prosecutors said Monday they would not bring any criminal charges in the cancer-related death of an immigration detainee at a detention facility where federal officials acknowledged the man was mistreated.
Hispanic Leaders Differ On When To Expect Immigration Reform
Hispanic leaders sent a message, and a few demands, to the new Obama administration today at a panel discussion in Washington, DC.
comingsNgoings
Readers can share their professional announcements (100-words or fewer at no charge), email: editor@ilw.com. Readers interested in learning about featuring your event or conference in Immigration Daily, see here. To feature your newsletter in Immigration Daily, see here.
New Partner - Austin, TX
Daniel M. Kowalski, Editor-in-Chief of Bender's Immigration Bulletin and Online Editor of BIB - Daily Edition www.bibdaily.com, has joined the Austin office of Reina & Bates, now known as the Reina, Bates & Kowalski Immigration Law Group.
Letters
Readers are welcome to share their comments, email: editor@ilw.com (300-words or fewer preferred). Many letters to the Editor refer to past correspondence, available in our archives.
Dear Editor:
David D. Murray's letter (1/27/09 ID) is absolutely correct in stating that
"earned legalization" and "amnesty" are one and the same. I support
this idea, but what is the point of trying to use euphemisms? The same
is true of those who cannot bring themselves to use the words "illegal
immigrant" or even, more pejoratively, "illegal alien", but insist on
using misleading terms like "undocumented immigrant". As the
restrictionists are never tired of pointing out, many of the
''undocumented" have plenty of documents - just not real ones.
However, there is nothing inherent in the idea of an amnesty, even a
large scale one, that necessarily has to cause such confusion and
chaos, any more than the H-1B program needs to be the mess that our
bureaucrats are making of it because of current public and official
hostility to letting in legal skilled immigrants. The 1986 amnesty was
based on a very simple concept, made complicated only by immigration
examiners who refused to accept the fact that most applicants had in
fact been "illegal" during the prior five years, as required to
qualify for amnesty, and who instead insisted that the "illegal
status" of the applicants they were interviewing must have somehow
"expired". I even heard a story about one examiner at the time who
boasted to a colleague that he "broke" an applicant into "admitting"
that he had really been in the US legally for the entire five year
period during which the applicant was required to show that he had
been "illegal". I trust that no enhanced interrogation techniques were
used.
Roger Algase, Esq.
New York, NY
Dear Editor:
The question of what is an Article II "natural born Citizen" is not to
be confused with what is an ordinary citizen under the 14^th Amendment
or a Congressional Act. Article II states "No person except a natural
born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the
Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of
President . . ." If one was not a "natural born Citizen," and only a
"Citizen of the United States" at the time the Constitution was adopted,
one could be President only under the grandfather clause. But all
children born after 1789 have had to be "natural born Citizen," and not
only "Citizens of the United States" to be eligible to be President.
"The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country,
of parents who are citizens." _The Law of Nations_ (1758). The _Wong Kim
Ark_ decision did not deal with the issue of what is an Article II
"natural born Citizen" but rather only with ordinary U.S. citizenship
under the 14th Amendment. Further, the father of the 14th Amendment,
Rep. John Bingham stated: " ... I find no fault with the introductory
clause [S 61 Bill], which is simply declaratory of what is written in
the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of
the United States of parents [plural, meaning two] not owing allegiance
to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution
itself, a natural born citizen ... " If Obama was born in the U.S., he is a "Citizen" of the U.S. under the
14^th Amendment. But even if Obama was born in the U.S., he is not a
Presidential Article II "natural born Citizen" because his father was
not a USC when Obama was born. Hence, he's not eligible to be President.
Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
Jamesburg, NJ
Dear Editor:
S.9 (1/12/09 ID news) doesn't look comprehensive. What are all the anti-immigration folks up in arms about?
Phelps Hobart
Dear Editor:
Responding to the ID Letters of Jan. 27th, D. Murray is correct in
standing by his definition of "CIR as a buzzword for Amnesty" as any
scheme short of the present law calling for deportation is certainly
that, regardless of what it's advocates call it or the details. The
letter's invaluable experience of the 1986 disaster also correctly
predicts an even worse one if tried now. But, the letter's conclusion:
"make it simple, quick and painless - then shut the door" would not work
either as there has never been any substantive ability for US to shut
the door. As the letter points out, millions more came after that
amnesty. Another case in point is The Secure Fence Act of 2006 in which
the DHS has built fewer than 200 miles of fence along the U.S. border
with Mexico, not the 526 miles claimed or the total called for,
according to Glenn Spencer, of the watchdog group American Border
Patrol. ABP's aerial surveys show that some 248 miles of "vehicle fence"
that "isn't a fence at all and doesn't even stop vehicles." Not counting
useless vehicle barriers and very old 10-foot fencing, not constructed
under the Secure Border Initiative, about 200 miles actually was
constructed in accordance with the congressional mandate originally set
forth. Citizens simply don't trust government's ability or will to
fulfill enforcement promises. The thoughtful letter of R. Algase
correctly discusses the parameters of the Law and the 14th Amd. and
fully answers the inane comments of the S. Sheplov letter, who along
with the R. Gittelson letters, reminds me of juvenile temper tantrums
who demand their self centered ways and resist prudent, parental
policies and discipline with specious "reasoning". America has every
right to limit entry, enforce laws, reject CIR and deport illegals.
Jim Roberts
Dear Editor:
This time around let see what Congress and Senate Houses do. I do not have much faith in their cooperation with the new President but I do have faith that the President will have things done the way he wants.
Gladys C. Farris
Dear Editor:
Regarding Jim Roberts' and other comments (see 1/26/09 ID), it boggles the mind that individuals intend the U.S. to become more isolationist as this country and the world is in an era of globalization that is unprecedented. Just as thousands of immigrants are coming to the U.S. everyday to find work, thousands of Americans leave the U.S. to find work around the world. They are not leaving because there is no work here - they are leaving so that they can experience what the rest of the world has to offer. The numbers are only going to increase going forward. Are you now saying that a person who can trace their ancestry in the U.S. back to the Mayflower cannot claim his or her child is a U.S. citizen simply because he chooses to work or live somewhere else? Are you also saying that my son, a 2nd generation American is not a citizen because his father is a legal permanent resident? or that his child, a 3rd generation American, may not be a citizen if he decides to marry a non-citizen. Give me a break. It has to stop somewhere. The current interpretation of who is and is not a citizen has worked fine for the last 100 years.
ASV
An Important disclaimer! The information provided on this page is not legal advice. Transmission of this information is not intended to create, and receipt by you does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Readers must not act upon any information without first seeking advice from a qualified attorney. Copyright 1995-2008 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM. Send correspondence and articles to editor@ilw.com. Letters and articles may be edited and may be published and otherwise used in any medium. The views expressed in letters and articles do not necessarily represent the views of ILW.COM.
|
