Brief Trips to the U.S. and Foreign Residency for New 6-year H-1B Term

As many of our clients and readers know, the H-1B program allows stay in the U.S. on H or L status of up to six years.   Time spent abroad during this period may be “recaptured” and added towards the six years of H-1B time.

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AILA Letter to USCIS on Employer-Employee Relationship Memo

We have written extensively over the past two months on the January 8, 2010 Neufeld Memorandum (the “Neufeld Memo”) changing the H-1B adjudication standards for H-1B employers engaged in 3rd party placement or employee-owners.  We have also written about AILA’s efforts to rescind the Neufeld Memo.

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Senators Schumer and Graham Unveil Immigration Reform Plan

In an opinion piece, to be published tomorrow, Friday, March 19, 2010, at the Washington Post, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) have unveiled their proposal for comprehensive immigration reform.   The plan, as outlined in the Washington Post piece, sets several four broad principles for immigration reform.

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Analysis of Proposed Changes to Form I-129 (H-1B, L-1, TN)

USCIS published a notice in the Federal Register with proposed changes to Form I-129 which is used for H-1B, L-1, TN, among other visa type filings.   Please see the DRAFT proposed Form I-129 (and draft instructions).  The proposed changes are significant and are likely to impact most, if not all, employers who file Form I-129.

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Various Updates from the Texas Service Center

The Texas Service Center (TSC), in a meeting with AILA, has provided some helpful updates regarding processing of petitions filed with TSC.

Processing Times

TSC has confirmed that the pending application reports posted on the USCIS status check website are generally correct.  I-485s filed prior to March 26, 2009 that are still pending should be in for processing and for those I-485s, a streamline request is appropriate.  Similarly, TSC has completed review of derivative I-485 that have become separated from the primary I-485, so a streamline request may be appropriate in such cases as well.

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April 2010 Visa Bulletin – Gradual Forward Movement, EB-2 India Unchanged

The April 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department.  The seventh visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings gradual forward movement.  There is some gradual forward movement across most employment-based categories except EB-2 India and EB-3 Mexico which did not change this month.   A notable movement is in EB-3 India category where the priority date moved forward by over two months.

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Current State of Immigration Reform: Barely Moving

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a recap of recent high-level meetings and plans regarding an immigration reform, a topic which President Obama said he will tackle during his first year in office.

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USCIS Will No Longer Accept H-1Bs Without Certified LCAs

In November of last year and in February of this year, we wrote about a temporary change USCIS made with respect to H-1B petitions filed without certified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs).   The reason for this temporary change in policy was to accommodate LCAs which have been delayed past the 7-day LCA processing window.   Pursuant to the temporary policy, H-1Bs could be filed with evidence of filed LCA which shows that the LCA has been pending for more than 7 business days.

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Greece to be Designated a Visa Waiver Program Country

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secreatary Napolitano announced that DHS will designate Greece as a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) yesterday, March 9, 2010. As a result, Greek nationals will be able to travel visa-free to the United States effective April 10, 2010.

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VSC Officers and “Credit” for RFES

During a recent AILA conference, the Vermont Service Center (VSC) Director Dan Renaud told the audience that the performance review structure for adjudicating officers has recently changed. Pursuant to the new performance review structure, officers get credit for issuance of Requests for Evidence (RFES), in addition to issuing approvals and denials, under the previous performance review structure.

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