The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) Processing Times were released on October 1, 2009 with processing dates as of October 1, 2009
If you filed an appeal, please review the links below to determine the applicable processing time associated with your particular case.
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently affirmed the final determination of a Certifying Officer (CO) denying labor certification (LC) for an alien worker for the position of “Financial Manager.”
The employer filed an application for LC which was accepted for processing on April 12, 2007. Form 9089 provided that the State Workforce Job Order had a start date of February 5, 2005 and an end date of February 13, 2005. The CO thereafter denied certification on several grounds, one being that the Job Order was not placed for a period of 30 days as required by the governing regulations.
PERM Regulation 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e)(1)(i)(A) controls and it provides that an employer must place a job order with the SWA serving the area of intended employment for a period of 30 days for professional occupations. The start and end dates of the job order entered on the application shall serve as documentation of this step.
Do you have questions about the status of your pending Employment Based I-485 Petition?
Hopefully the Q&A created by the USCIS will help ease your frustration and answer some of your questions.
Following the Q&A are I-485 Employment Based Inventory Statistics, which provide an explanation as to how to interpret them. The Inventory Statistics are categorized by Country and Priority Date.
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently affirmed the final determination of a Certifying Officer (CO) denying labor certification (LC) for an alien worker for the position of “Specialty Cook/Italian.”
The employer filed a LC which was accepted for processing on June 13, 2006. Thereafter, the CO issued an audit notification letter requesting among other documents, the Employer’s Notice of Filing. The employer submitted its Notice of Filing, yet the Notice failed to provide the CO’s address or any other means of contacting the CO. As such, the CO issued a denial letter.
PERM Regulation 20 C.F.R. § 656.10(d)(3) controls and it provides that the Notice of Filing must (i) State that the notice is being provided as a result of the filing of an application for permanent alien labor certification for the relevant job opportunity; (ii) State that any person may provide documentary evidence bearing on the application to the Certifying Officer of the Department of Labor; (iii) Provide the address of the appropriate Certifying Officer; and (iv) Be provided between 30 and 180 days before filing the application.
On September 24, 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of September 18, 2009, 46,000 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been accepted by USCIS. The Service has advised that they will continue to accept petitions until the cap is reached.
Additionally, the Service has reported that they received 20,000 advanced degree H-1B petitions. Although the limit on advanced degree petitions is 20,000, past experience has tended to show that not all petitions received are approvable.
After an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Missouri poultry processing plant paid $450,000 in fines as part of a settlement agreement for hiring illegal aliens.
As a result of the 2007 poultry plant investigation, ICE administratively arrested 136 illegal alien workers from Mexico and Guatemala within the plant in Cassville, MO. Two of the company’s hiring personnel were convicted of harboring illegal aliens and inducing them to remain in the U.S.
An additional provision of the settlement agreement provides that the company has to establish a compliance program to ensure that its employment procedures are in accordance with U.S. immigration laws. Additionally, the company has to train its human resource managers and employees on how to avoid hiring an illegal workforce.
Processing Time reports for all of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Centers were released on September 14, 2009 with processing dates as of July 31, 2009.
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.
The Department of State has released its latest Visa Bulletin. The October 2009 visa bulletin still shows employment based third preference (EB-3) visas as oversubscribed while the employment based second preference (EB-2) is current for all areas of chargeability except for China and India.
Click here to view the October 2009 Visa Bulletin.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) recently announced that the 8/7/2009 revision of Form I-9, which is currently located on the USCIS website will remain valid until 8/31/2012.
U.S. employers should no longer be using outdated versions of Form I-9. However, the Service has indicated that employers may use versions 8/7/2009 or 2/2/2009 of Form I-9 until 8/31/2012. The revision date is located in the bottom right hand corner of the form.
The updated Form I-9 is available in English and Spanish via the USCIS website. Instructions for completing Form I-9 have also been made available by the USCIS. Additionally, the USCIS has provided a 1-800 number that employers may use to order updated Form I-9 if they do not have online access.
Beginning September 8, 2009, all Federal Contractors and Subcontractors who enter into contracts on and after September 8, 2009 must be enrolled in the online E-Verify work authorization program.
The E-Verify program is a free optional web based employment verification program that verify’s employee’s employment eligibility by submitting key information from Form I-9 into the online database.
The purpose of the program is to deter unauthorized individuals from attempting to work, while at the same time helping employers to avoid contributing to an unauthorized workforce.
H1B Visa Lawyer Blog