Endless Wait

***** THIS POST WAS CONTRIBUTED BY CAMERUNRO   ***

Today, 10/13/2009, in Washington, Congressman Luis Gutierrez will introduce the principles behind his plan for comprehensive immigration reform. This is the kickstart that Congress needs to begin working on immigration reform. But unless they hear from you and your family and your friends, they won’t know how powerful our movement is and how much we’re supporting real change from the failed policies of the past.

Go to http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?key=328170518&url_num=4&url=http://actions.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/t/5174/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY%3D3009 or click on the “Write to Congress” banner of the right side of this page in order to send your message to Congress. You can personalize the message to include the legal immigrant’s issues, as Reform Immigration for America is an organization that focuses mainly on the illegal immigrants.

Most people that I have talked to about their new website and the new initiatives to re-design the technology behind the immigration system over the next 4 years, seem positive on it. However, when I bring up the fact that such overhaul costs millions of dollars and USCIS runs on application fees from immigrant petitions, which means we will are likely to bear that cost, the discussion takes a different turn.

A H1-B petition costs about $3000. A transfer costs $1000 or so. Recently, due to layoffs, several immigrants have had to go from H1 to H4 and back to H1. Several others have had to transfer their H1’s to a new employer (if they were fortunate). Between all the stresses of joblessness, uncertainty of their future, unclear laws that don’t clearly specify what your status is the day you are are laid off, Etc., you are also expected to shell out thousands which might be possibly going down the drain! Talk about compassion from the USCIS. The govt. uses our money to bail out banks that were irresponsible but never cuts us any slack when it comes to application fees.

When that’s brought up, people start debating how useful the glamourous typo-ridden changes on the USCIS website really is. Personally, I do feel it’s a move in the right direction, overall, though there is a lot more information that the USCIS could potentially present that would make such a move worthwhile. A quick look at Trackitt will provide a good example.

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I reported about the new USCIS website launched September 22 yesterday. Looks like that wasn’t all.

A friend and fellow endlesswaiter forwarded me this piece that you’ve got to read -Q&A on pending I-485 applications. The report at the bottom of this page shows the exact number of EB3 immigrant applicants from India that are waiting in line. Within minutes, I could calculate, based on the fact that my priority date is on April 2007, that there are 59,404 waiting in line ahead of me. That’s a LOT of people, from just one country! These reports reveal a lot of numbers. The statistics are painful, to say the least, but at least make these details transparent. USCIS must be commended for taking the initiative to come out in the open about such details.

At one point in the page, they say

“See the “Pending Employment-Based Form I-485 Report” link to the right.”

But no link

This guy, founder of Euro Pacific Capital, speaks with TheStreet.com’s Gregg Greenberg about the dollar, US economy and outsourcing. This guy’s views make sense to me.

Regarding outsourcing, one of the key things he points out is around 3-4 minutes into the video. He says “Outsourcing is not about low cost labor alone. Germany has higher wages than the US but still has a trade surplus with China”. Interesting viewpoint…I wonder if he is just saying that or actually has numbers to back that claim…If that is indeed true, then I do think this is a super important thing that the Obama administration should take a serious look at.

The new USCIS Directory, , announced the launch of the new http://www.uscis.gov website today.

Today our agency took a major step forward to put these ideas into action. After much hard work, including substantial feedback from the public, we launched a new and vastly improved USCIS.gov website. This new one-stop-shop will provide a range of tools and features for those looking for information, including case status updates. For example:

* The site features a My Case Status tool that allows users to type in a receipt number and find out what processing step their case is in, how that fits into the overall process, and what the local case processing times are.

* A National Dashboard that allows the public to compare national processing volumes and trends and download raw data.

* A better search engine so it is easier to find what a user is looking for.

* New options to receive status updates via email or text alerts

Leadership Journal: Exciting Changes at USCIS.

This website is considered by many, based on USCIS announcements earlier this year about technological improvements to its systems via their partnership with IBM, as a precursor to more detailed changes that will help USCIS achieve its 4 month processing goal.

The point about a national dashboard that allows public to copmare national processing volumes piqued my interest the most. So are they planning to offer something like Trackitt? I set out to their website to find out.

Right off the bat, I noticed the cleaner, nicer-looking home page that finally reflects some class for a website that must have a whole team updating/maintaining it. The improved search functionality does work, unlike in the past, where I constantly had to save bookmarks or spend a while trying to find things on their website. A search for “case status online” results in dozens of results, and the top result is not the actual case status tool but some press release that the USCIS released about the case status tool. I wish the search returned fewer results with higher relevance. Not an easy task, but hey, we pay TOP dollar on our application fees, annual renewal of Advance parole and EAD, fees with every H1 transfer, H1-stamping, H1-to-H4 transfer…and the list goes on. Anyway, at least it works.

Since they talked about imoroved case status, I thought that the improvements would be in features available after logging in to my account. But I was wrong, no changes there. The changes are on the public features.For instance, you are able to look at the average processing time for your petition at your service center without having to read the NSC, TSC, etc. processing times page. OK, helpful, but for someone like me, this is just a presentation level improvement. No new data surfaced to me yet.

USCIS Processing Times New Display

The other feature is to visually view the status of your petition by entering your Receipt number on the screen -

USCIS Petition Status Graphical Display

Alright, that’s good, but again, just aesthetic in my opinion, more than anything else. But now comes the really useful stuff. They have trending and volume charts for most petitions - by service center. See a report below that I ran for I-485 petitions at the Nebraska Service Center. This is great stuff. More accurate than what TrackItt offers without having to dig into USCIS and DOL document releases in their archives. Finally, one thing useful out of my tax money!

I haven’t really had a chance to play with this too much but overall, I’d say - good start! This provides a ray of hope that other processes in USCIS will also start to improve. And while we are on that optimistic note, may be, just may be…that decade long wait for a green card might ease up on us a little bit? I know, who am I kidding?

********* THIS POST WAS WRITTEN AND CONTRIBUTED BY LISAKI ***********

I’m about to apply for H1B extension, as I’m in the EB3, “endlesswait” category, and my 6 year H1B is going to expire next year.  I’d like to know how this new H1B extension is different from my previous H1B.  For instance, am I able to change the job with the H1B?

********* THIS POST WAS WRITTEN AND CONTRIBUTED BY LISAKI ***********

Have you all checked the current visa bulletin for October 2009?  It says that the cut-off date for EB3 is now JUNE 2002!  Does this mean these people have waited for 7 years?  Here is another question: The last year’s bulletin for the same month (October 2008) said the cut-off date was then JANUARY 2005.  How is it possible that the date moved backward?

ComputerWorld reported today that the US govt. sued Vision Systems, an IT firm based in New Jersey for $5 million on 18 accounts of H1-B fraud. The charges appear solid and it is likely that the firm will have to pay, even though their defense attorney disputes all charges on grounds that they believe they paid their employees at or above prevailing wage and that the case is based on “a number of misconceptions about immigration law and procedure”. What?? Let me get that straight. Is Vision Systems accusing the Government of the United States that they don’t understand their own laws? When lawyers say stuff like that, that’s when you know they are going down.

But it’s good to FINALLY see some action against H1-B fraud. This should explain why the H1-B quota is still unmet today. H1-B fraud has brought a bad reputation to consciencious immigrants, IT firms and the entire process of immigration as a whole. Good to see some big numbers and specifics in the play finally.

The U.S. government filed a new, expanded indictment last week against a New Jersey IT services firm it alleges fraudulently used H-1B visas through a scheme that delivered it millions of dollars in gains.

If federal prosecutors win their case against Visions System Group Inc., in South Plainfield, NJ — part of apparent government H-1B enforcement push — they will ask the court to approve $4.9 million in forfeited assets, an amount “representing the total amount of gross proceeds obtained as a result of offenses,” the government said.

U.S. government seeks $5M in H-1B fraud case.

It appears that H1-B stamping at US consulates in foriegn countries is experiencing more-than-usual scrutiny and unncessary delays due to  additional security checks. This is especially happening for people that have complications in their case. For instance, H1-B visas for those working 20 to 40 hours per week or H1 transfers within a very short period of work with the original company. If you’ve been laid off recently and want to travel internationally using your H1B visa and expect to get it stamped on your way back, consult an attorney before leaving!

I was told about some options available for pre-screening documents and getting security clearances prior to a foriegn visit. I don’t know the details of that but thought I’d mention it here in case any of you guys know more and would be kind enough to share.

See examples of several poeple talking about this:

http://www.lawbench.com/immigration-forum/5260/warning-call-for-delay-in-h1-visa-stamping

http://www.visastamping.com seems to focus on visa stamping alone and has some useful checklists. The company doing this - TechMaxx seems interesting (or peculiar). They seem to own 52 more website domains and they claim on their home page that they are neither attorneys not legal advisors and specialize in transporting people from and to the consulate!

http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/h1b-visa-stamping-required-documents/ has a useful checkist as well.

September 2009 visa bulletin -

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4558.html

Spectacular news for EB2 folks. This is the kind of news that I know many were waiting for all year long. And hopefully this will stay at least for a few months so that all EB2 petioners that applied until January 8, 2005 actually get their green cards soon! Most of them applied for the I-485 in July 2007 already so this is their chance to get the actual elusive card.

This is especially good news since the 2003-2004 time period saw a lot of new jobs created in the US.  post-dot-com-bubble economic slowdown and 9/11 jitters were finally beginning to show signs of giving in. Several immigrants were able to secure these positions, primarily due to the rising demand for tech workers, moving from hyped dot com related businesses to a variety of businesses across the board. This group of individuals benefit from this bulletin significantly.

EB3’s face despair again. No dates available. If you think about it, this is September 2009 bulletin, still Fiscal year 2009. If it stays this way in the October 2009 bulletin, I’d be worried.

Here’s one thing for Eb3 applicatnts to consider. Those petitioners that applied into an EB3 4-5 years ago since they did not have the requisite amount of experience or educational qualification for EB2 at the time of filing, should consider interfiling an EB2 petition. Over the last 4-5 years, if you are now caught up and satisfy the requirements of an Eb2 filing, you can request your employer to initiate a fresh Eb2 filing for you. When the I-140 for this new filing is approved, “inter-filing” allows you to retain your priority date from the EB3 filing but get processed using EB3 cutoff dates.

The September 2009 visa bulletin should certainly has EB3’s thinking about this option. However, reality is that most companies are trying to cut costs and with a significant rise in unemployment, new employment-based labor petitions are being scrutinized a lot more closely than before. In such an environment, companies are going to think twice before spending another $5000 or so to file for labor, I-140, Etc. all over again.

Comments/thoughts?

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