Visa Lawyer Blog
Published by Jacob J. Sapochnick

• H2A Visas - Important Changes and Final Rules expected soon
  

  A December 11, 2008 USCIS Update announces that the agency has finalized changes to H-2A regulations. This final rule will facilitate the H-2A process for employers by removing certain limitations.

  U.S. employers may file an H-2A petition with USCIS if they have a shortage of available U.S. workers to fill temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. Once the petition is approved, the employers can hire foreign workers to fill those jobs for a limited period of time. There is no cap limitation on H2A visas unlike the sister program H2B.

  Key areas of reform addressed in the final rule include:

  • Relaxing the current limitations on H-2A employers to petition for multiple, unnamed agricultural workers;
  • Extending from 10 days to 30 days the time a temporary or seasonal agricultural worker may
  remain in the country following the expiration of his or her temporary H-2A stay;
  • Reducing from six months to three months the time an H-2A worker who has spent three years in the United States must reside and be physically present outside the United States before he or she is eligible to re-obtain H-2A status;
  • Allowing H-2A workers, who are changing from one H-2A employer to another H-2A employer,
  to begin work with the new petitioning employer upon the filing of a new H-2A petition,
  provided the new employer is participating in USCIS’ E-Verify program;
  • Prohibiting H-2A employers and recruiters from imposing certain fees on prospective H-2A
  workers as a condition of employment;
  • Requiring an approved temporary labor certification in connection with all H-2A petitions;
  • Requiring employers to notify USCIS when H-2A workers fail to show up for work, complete the work more than 30 days early, are terminated, or abscond from the worksite; and
  • Permitting the approval of H-2A petitions only for nationals of certain countries designated as
  important to the operation of the program and appearing on a list to be published annually in the
  Federal Register. The initial list of participating countries to be published simultaneously with
  this Final Rule includes Mexico, Jamaica, and 26 others. DHS may allow on a case-by-case basis a worker from a country not on the list to be eligible for the H-2A program if such participation is in the U.S. interest.

  This rule will also establish a land-border exit system pilot program requiring H-2A workers admitted through a port of entry participating in the pilot program to also depart through a participating port and to present designated biographic and/or biometric information upon departure.

  In my opinion, some of the changes are very positive, while other issues remain to tested. We all agree that reform for the H2A system is needed and the proposed rules may not be sufficient at this time.

• The Economic Crisis may hurt Obama's efforts on immigration reform
  

  According to the SF Chronicle with unemployment rising, foreign workers are less welcome, say immigration restrictionists, who have vowed to oppose offering legal status to the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.

  Until a comprehensive bill is introduced in Congress, Obama's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, will play a key role in refocusing the way the government handles immigration.

  Problems in the legal immigration system have festered for years. The agency granting permanent legal residence (the green card is the token) and citizenship has long been plagued by epic backlogs and dysfunctional computer networks. Major policy debates over appropriate levels of immigration and whether to prioritize family ties or economic contributions - and high- or low-skilled workers - remain unresolved after "comprehensive" immigration bills died in Congress in 2006 and 2007.

  Obama supports allowing illegal immigrants to earn legal status, continuing tough border enforcement and establishing an electronic worker eligibility verification system. He has been largely silent, though, on whether to admit temporary foreign workers. Obama's advisers and congressional leaders are instead talking about a bill that would include a strong, mandatory verification system to ensure employers are hiring legal workers, combined with a measure to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants and require them to register and pay taxes.

  Those that are tough on immigration, proposing even greater scrutiny of employers hiring illegal workers, hope that tougher law will make the illegals leave. That will never happen. Instead we must find a system to legalize those that are already here. We must also create a system to encourage the best and the brightest form other countries to come to the US and help our economy prosper. Tis can only happen with more H1B and other visas numbers increase.

  Read more

  
  

• Government expanding recruitment of foreign doctors, nurses and linguists
  

  Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to recruit certain legal residents whose critical medical and language skills are "vital to the national interest," officials said, using for the first time a law passed three years ago.

  Gates' action enables the services to start a one-year pilot program to find up to 1,000 foreigners who have lived in the states legally for at least two years. The new recruits into the armed forces would get accelerated treatment in the process toward becoming U.S. citizens in return for military service in the United States or abroad.

  This program could benefit large number of foreign born medical professionals, like Nurses, PT's and dermatologists currently in the US waiting in line to become residents and Citizens. The government expects that among those who will be interested in the new effort are doctors with work visas who are employed at hospitals around the country.

  Read more...

• Lost your H1B Visa Job? - America's layoffs crisis Free Legal support campagin!
  

  In November, the U.S. economy shed jobs at the fastest rate in 34 years - and experts say December could be even worse. The number of jobs lost in the current recession, which began in December 2007, surpasses the 1.6 million jobs lost in the 2001 recession.

  As a result, job losses were spread across a wide variety of industries: manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, construction and even, in the midst of the holiday shopping season, retail. Also seeing sharp declines were professional and business services, a category seen by some economists as a proxy for overall economic activity, and financial services, at the heart of the current crisis.

  In November the number of people with a higher degree who were out of work rose to 1.413 million from 1.411 million in the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  Many of the workers losing their jobs are visa workers. Employees sponsored by companies for visas like H1B's, J1's and H2B's. Once a visa worker looses his job, he must depart the country or find an alternative employer as soon as possible. The longer such an employee stays unemployed, the harder it will be to get the visa transfered.

  Industries like software development, research and bio-tech depend on skilled foreign workers to keep innovation going. Unfortunately, at times of economic crisis, when layoffs start, visa workers tend to go first.

  We have decided to do our share and help America's Money Crisis by offering free legal support to transitioning H1B visas workers where time is of the essence.

  So if you are on a visa and just lost your job, tell us about it. We want to hear your story. And if you need help, click here for a FREE legal support consultation.

  We will post the most interesting stories on CNN ireport Have you lost your job? page

• San Diego Immigration Lawyer - N400 Name Check Delays Update
  

  The Name Check that are holding thousands of Citizenship and regular adjustment cases, are of major concern to many of our Blog readers and clients. Clients call me almost every day asking why there is no N400 interview scheduled, why after passing the interview they are still pending for months and months. I often tell them that the security clearance issue must be looked at on a case by case basi