H1B Visa Lawyer BlogEffective October 13, the US District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a ruling that allowed special immigrant religious workers to file their Form I-485 alongside the organizations’ Form I-360. United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) will no longer accept Forms I-485, I-131, I-765 that are filed based on are with a pending I-360 petition as of November 8. Forms I-485, I-131, and I-765 filed on or after November 8 must be submitted with an approved I-360 petition or they will be rejected.
ICE has a NEW website
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the launch of its newly designed website, ICE.gov, on October 26. Features of the new website include up to date news from ICE as well as an improved image gallery. Information about ICE Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) are also accessible on the new website.
A new function allows users to bookmark articles, receive email alerts on a range of topics, follow ICE on twitter and watch ICE YouTube videos. In addition, the Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS) launched on July 23 allows the sites users to search for detained aliens in ICE custody. Already, ICE has over 12,500 subscribers.
LATEST UPDATE: H-1B FY2011 CAP COUNT
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 19, 2010, 48,977 H-1B Regular CAP subject non-immigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 19, 2010, 17,836 H-1B Masters Degree CAP subject non-immigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS towards the 20,000 cap.
Release of Revised Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker
The Form I-129 has been revised by the United States Immigration and Citizenship Service (USICIS) which allows employers to petition for temporary workers under a variety of nonimmigrant visa classifications. Publication of the revisions by USCIS will be available on November 23, 2010.
For 30 days after the publication of the new version or until December 21, 2010, USCIS will accept previous versions of the Form I-129.
Beginning December 22, 2010, USCIS will only be accepting the revised Form I-129 and will decline any request filed with previous versions of the form.
Restaurant Owner Found Guilty of Harboring Illegal Aliens
After an investigation lead by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), George Anagnostou of Maryland, was sentenced on October 28 to four months in prison and another four months on house arrest with electronic monitoring. Anagnostou also faces two years of supervised release after serving his sentence. His charges consisted of harboring at least 24 illegal workers of the Timbuktu and By the Docks restaurants. As a part of his sentencing, Anagnostou was forced to give up his motorcycle, pay a sum of $378,386.21 from five different bank accounts, give up $99,890 from the restaurant and his house, as well as an additional pay $256,696.67 at his court hearing.
From 2000 to 2005, Anagnostou was in charge of hiring employees for both Timbuktu and By the Docks restaurants. Other than collecting two documents, Anagnostou never made any other efforts to verify the authority of an individual to work in the United States, like using the required Employment Eligibility Verification forms (I-9s). Even when informed that many of his applicants had presented him with falsified forms, he insisted that his employees stop asking questions and accept the documents. In addition, the Social Security Administration began notifying Anagnostou that the Social Security numbers he was supplying for his employees did not match up in the database but he still did nothing to validate the legitimacy of his workers.
Anagnostou benefited financially from the illegal workers employment at the restaurants because he deducted their rental payments from their overtime wages due, paid them in cash preventing him from being subject to tax liability and he didn’t claim the rental property on his income taxes.
Arkansas Employer Guilty of Harboring Illegal Aliens
After pleading guilty to harboring and concealing illegal aliens on November 11, Arkansas resident Sen Chen was sentenced to five years probation, six months house arrest, a $5,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. As a part of his sentencing, Chen also forfeited his restaurant, house, and car. The investigation of Chen led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents discovered he was providing illegal immigrants with transportation, food, housing and money in exchange for working at his restaurant.
According to ICE HSI special agent Raymond Parmer this case, “serves as a stern reminder about the consequences facing employers who exploit illegal alien labor.”
Updated Service Center Processing Times
Processing Time reports for all of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Service Centers were released on November 18, 2010 with processing dates as of September 30, 2010.
If you filed a petition with one of the Service Centers, please review the links below to determine the applicable processing time associated with your particular case.
MVP LAW GROUP – Immigration Q&A Forum, Friday, November 19th, 2010
MVP Law Group, P.A. makes available the information and materials in this forum for informational purposes only. The information is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice or any contractual obligations. Further, the use of this site, and the sending or receipt of this information, does not create an attorney-client relationship between us. And, therefore, your communication with us through this forum will not be considered as privileged or confidential.
Question #1 – Employment Based Immigration, Green Card
My case was filed in Oct 2005 and it is current and still waiting. I tried opening Service Request and took InfoPass as well. I got InfoPass appt yesterday in local VA office. They were not able to tell me about my case only that it is still under review at the local Baltimore office where it was transferred to in August 2009. Please let me know what I need to do?
LATEST UPDATE: H-1B FY2011 CAP COUNT
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 12, 2010, 47,800 H-1B Regular CAP subject non-immigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 12, 2010, 17,400 H-1B Masters Degree CAP subject non-immigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS towards the 20,000 cap.
DOJ Reaches Settlement Agreement with Catholic Healthcare West
After alleged immigration related employment discrimination charges were investigated by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) against Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), a voluntary settlement was reached between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and CHW.
During the investigation , the OSC determined that there was “reasonable cause” to suggest that CHW required immigrant workers to provide additional documentation than required by law while they let U.S. citizens choose which documents they wanted to submit. Some of the agreements made under the settlement included CHW paying OSC $1,000, a civil penalty of $257,000 from CHW to the US Treasury, a required I-9 review of all CHW’s both naturalized and immigrant employees by August 1, CHW establishing review teams, and CHW being required to provide OSC with reports tracking the progress and status of its reviews. In addition to the requirements, CHW created specific timelines and instructions on how to carry out each agreement of the settlement. The settlement also required CHW to treat all of its employees fairly and to use non-discriminating hiring practices. The training practices of CHW were updated and revised under the settlement; the employment eligibility verification process and discrimination were especially emphasized.