USA Green Card Immigration Blog

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the set up of an efficient and consistent process for getting accommodation requests from customers who are disabled. This standardizes process requires customers with disabilities requesting for accommodation from field offices and Application Support Centers to call National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 (TDD: 1-800-767-1833).

In the past, a Federal law that requires USCIS offices to provide accommodations to disabled customers has already been made. For instance, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) forbids disability discrimination by public units at local places, such as school districts, municipals, and counties. In case of accommodation requests for the disabled, Federal Immigration Offices are included.

Even with this federal law, the disabled had to face several problems. To make the federal law more effective, the USCIS has introduced this streamlined process to make the process convenient for disabled customers. This process will provide customers with disabilities a centralized point of contact for requesting accommodation across the country. This process is to ensure that disabled customers won’t face any difficulty while applying for accommodations and will have a good experience dealing with USCIS offices.

This process also facilitates disabled customers who want to attend an event or fix up online appointment to meet with USCIS, to contact the National Customer Service Center at all times to request for accommodations.

It is required from customers who have appointments in regard with applications like an Application Support Centers (ASC) or interview appointment to wait for the appointment notice request prior to requesting accommodation from the National Customer Service Center. On the other hand, customers who need accommodations at asylum offices can directly contact the asylum offices for accommodation, instead of calling the NCSC toll free number.

On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act of 2010. This bill extended certain USCIS programs until September 30, 2012. The programs extended include the E-Verify program, the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, and the special immigrant visa category for non-minister religious workers. In addition, the law also extended the availability of the “Conrad-30” program for J-1 non-immigrant exchange visitors.

E-Verify program is an online system operated by the DHS together with the Social Security Administration (SSA.) This voluntary, government-based program allows participating employers to electronically verify the work eligibility of their newly-hired employees in the United States. The program does not charge employers who want to use E-Verify to certify their new hires as legally authorized to work in the US. Over 169,000 employers use E-Verify to run queries.

Under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, USCIS will now continue to receive and process Immigrant petitions by Alien Entrepreneurs and Applications to Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. At present, there are more than 70 regional centers throughout the US, which deal with this EB-5 Pilot Program.

Special immigration status applies for non-minister religious employees, who work in a religious vocation or occupation. This special immigrant visa category also applies to accompanying spouses and children of non-ministers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue to accept and process the Form 1-360, Petition for Amerasian, Special Immigrant, Widow(er), Form 1-485, and Application to register for permanent residence or adjust status based on Form 1-360 petitions.

The “Conrad 30” program allows each state health department to submit requests directly to the Department of State to obtain a waiver on the two-year foreign residence period for foreign medical graduates. Prior to this extension, it was required that foreign medical students should acquire J-1 status before September 30, 2009. Now, the program has been extended up to September 30, 2012.

A new Verification Center has been opened by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Buffalo, New York, exclusively for the verification operations. Major John Farquhar, who represented Buffalo for six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, was given a tribute on this occasion. He migrated from Scotland to U.S. and joined the Union army playing an important role in the civil war before representing Buffalo. He spent his life serving the country and fighting with boldness and courage.

This operation of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services involves immigration status verification that helps in the E-Verify Program and the SAVE Program. A hundred and thirty five employees at the Bank of America building in downtown Buffalo will verify work authorization status for companies using E-Verify. They will also process requests to confirm immigration status using SAVE Programs. There will be a monitoring office as well for checking the proper functioning of the two programs. This is to makes sure that there are no discriminatory practices and also for safeguarding privacy. USCIS has also made sure that this checking is done in a proper manner and according to the rules.

Michael Aytes, who is the USCIS’s acting Deputy Director, also dedicates this proposal to Major John Farquhar for his bravery, heroism and loyalty to the U.S. There has been a dramatic increase in the E-Verify Programs and SAVE Programs in the last three years. This increase has helped in keeping track of employees.

More than 300 agencies, including 175 State agencies, 30 department of motor vehicles ,64 local agencies and 28 Federal agencies have registered for being a part of the SAVE Program. About 6,50,000 places across the nation with 1,70,000 employers are now using E-Verify Program to verify their employees eligibility to work in the U.S.. Hence a number of issues related to employment are solved.

An announcement was made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s on November 27, 2009 regarding immigration laws of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI.) The announcement states that the immigration laws of CNMI will be replaced by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and other U.S. immigration laws on November 28, 2009. This new amendment eases restrictions and provides new privileges to CNMI residents who wish to live and work in the United States.

In order to address key changes under the Consolidated Natural Resources Act, five new transition rules were published in the Federal Register in the year 2009. They are listed below:

• The U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a rule on the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program extending the admission period from 15 days to 45 days. The geographic area has also been extended from Guam-only to Guam and the CNMI. The list of eligible countries and geographical areas has also been modified.

• USCIS has opened an Application Support Center (ASC) at TSL Plaza in Saipan to provide biometric services including fingerprint capture, photographs, and signature. They also provide other services like naturalization and adjustment of status interviews and answer questions on immigration to the public.

• USCIS has published a proposed rule that created CNMI-specific nonimmigrant investor visa classification known as “E-2 CNMI Investor” status. This status allows CNMI investors to remain in CNMI for a transition period under the “E-2 CNMI Investor” status. They can enter and exit CNMI with E-2 CNMI Investor visas.

• USCIS has also published an interim rule that classifies Transitional Worker visa during the transition period. Alien workers, who have performed services for an employer, but were ineligible for other INA classifications were allowed to receive nonimmigrant visa classification.

• USCIS and the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review published an interim rule to revise immigration rules to implement the new laws applying to CNMI.

Keep ugliness out of immigration debate – CNN.com.

San Diego, California (CNN) — ‘Tis the season of peace on Earth and good will toward men. Yet you wouldn’t know it from the screed from the conservative radio talk show host who recently charged into the immigration debate with gums flapping.

He called for a crackdown on illegal immigration but also a wholesale tightening of immigration policy so we admit fewer legal immigrants as well.

The radio talker was half-right. Americans must get serious about stopping illegal immigration, mostly by doing something we never seem to do with much enthusiasm: punish employers. But legal immigration shouldn’t be dragged into the mix.

Legal immigrants — with their energy, passion and optimism — have always been this country’s most valuable import. Even in bad economic times, we need more of them and not less.

Still, the worst part was the wildly inappropriate language the host used to justify his position. He was dangerously out-of-bounds in framing the issue as one of protecting society from the latest wave of immigrants, most of whom come from Mexico and Latin America. Unless something was done to curb the flow, he said, these foreigners would continue to “alter our demographics, erode our culture, and threaten our language.”

Demographics. Culture. Language.

And people wonder why accusations of racism and ethnocentrism keep surfacing in the immigration debate. It’s because of ugly, alarmist and bigoted statements like these — the sort of poison that has a familiar ring to it.

Let’s be real. Americans have been griping, “There goes the neighborhood” for more than 200 years. The first group of immigrants to the United States who were accused of diminishing the quality of life for everyone else — by altering the demographics, eroding the culture and threatening the language — were the Germans, followed by the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, the Greeks, the Jews, the Muslims, etc.

Now, it’s the Latinos’ turn to be in the rhetorical crosshairs. They’ll be there again this spring, when the Obama administration has promised to join in an encore to the immigration debate of a few years ago, which, as you may recall, provided substantially more heat than light.

One of the people leading that debate will be Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, who has said he plans to introduce a comprehensive immigration bill on Tuesday.

The 10-point plan provides for enforcement, but also gives illegal immigrants a pathway to earned legalization, promotes integration of immigrants and tries to manage the future flow of immigrants by protecting American workers from having to compete with foreign workers.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the White House’s designated point person to shepherd immigration reform, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee what she has in mind.

“We must seize this moment to build a truly effective immigration system that deters illegal immigration, provides effective and enduring enforcement tools, protects workers from exploitation and retaliation and creates a tough but fair path to legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants already here,” Napolitano said.

It’s that last item, a path to legalization for illegal immigrants, that will be the main sticking point. For many Americans, this translates into amnesty for lawbreakers.

Yet, critics come up empty when asked what we should do with 12 million illegal immigrants, given that our deportation process works like a revolving door. Many of those who we deport to a neighboring country like Mexico return before the paperwork is processed. And those who we hope will “self deport” when jobs disappear can opt to “self re-enter” when the economy improves. So that’s no solution.

That’s one of the problems with the immigration debate. Confronted with a complicated situation, the extremes on both sides propose simplistic solutions — whether to build a wall, or unconditionally pardon millions of illegal immigrants with the stroke of a pen.

Another problem with the debate: Both sides insist on blaming others. Neither side wants to take any degree of responsibility for fueling, through their own behavior and hiring practices, America’s addiction to cheap and reliable illegal immigrant labor.

Another problem: Even when the conversation does turn to employers, it is always framed as being about huge companies. What happened to soccer moms? Our leaders in Congress somehow got through months of debate without ever uttering the words “nanny” or “housekeeper.” That’s not easy to do unless you’re really trying to avoid drawing attention to our domestic workforce.

Another problem: Those Americans who are also parents always refuse to accept their role in creating the demand for illegal immigrant workers by raising teenagers and young adults who refuse to do the hard and dirty jobs that their grandparents did a couple of generations ago. Someone has to do those jobs. Guess who does them?

Then, of course, there’s the divisive language and the tendency for some groups to look down on others.

Critics of comprehensive immigration reform can talk all they want about the alleged strain that illegal immigrants put on the U.S. economy, the alleged burden on social services, the porous borders, the undermining of the rule of law, the swelling of the U.S. population, or the alleged lowering of wages by illegal workers and the claim that it puts working-class Americans at an unfair disadvantage.

Those arguments are totally acceptable. But when opponents get down in the mud by mentioning things like demographics or culture or language, they shouldn’t be surprised when they’re accused of racism and ethnocentrism. And even less surprised when the label sticks.

The United States is a remarkable and compassionate country unlike any the world has ever seen. It deserves an immigration debate that is principled, high-minded and purged of the ugliness that has been part of this discussion since the first immigrants arrived. Let’s make it happen this time.

The Custom and Border Protection in USA has now added two new ports-of-entry (POE) for USA Immigration. These two ports are the Oakland International Airport in California and Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

According to the notice given by Custom and Border Protection on August 8, 2006, there were 115 ports-of-entry for non immigrant aliens. These additional two places are designated as POEs authorized to provide final registration and departure by non-immigrant aliens subject to special registration.

Certain applicants who wish to immigrate to the US are subject to special requirements. When these non-immigrant aliens arrive in the US, they have to provide particular information regarding their visa status to the Department of Homeland and Security (DHS.) These aliens will also be photographed and finger printed. They will also be asked to appear for in-person verification or a re-registration interview. Information regarding changes in address, employment, institution, and reporting departure from US should be informed to the DHS.

Non-immigrant aliens who are subject to special registration may depart from the Oakland International Airport at California from November 25, 2009. The effective date for departure of non-immigrants with special registration requirements from Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands is November 28, 2009.

An alien who has specifically registered for departure, but not yet departed from the United States can seek relief from the departure control requirement for that admission by applying to the USA immigration services. The alien should ascertain that exigent or unusual circumstances exist that prevent or delay departure from the US.

When departing from the United States, non-immigrant aliens who are subject to special registration requirements should report to an inspecting officer at the approved port-of entry. Non-immigrant aliens subject to special registration may depart from the US only from the POEs that are authorized for such aliens.

The Diversity Visa Program (DV) is an annual lottery program for issuing US permanent resident card, which is conducted by the Department of State. This lottery program selects 55,000 immigrants randomly from applications sent from applicants belonging to eligible nations. The Diversity Visa Program is conducted under the terms of the Immigration and Nationality Act and meets the strict requirements of USA Immigration laws. The DOS grants permanent resident visas to applicants from countries, which have low immigration rates to the USA.

This year, the DV-2011 Program was declared open on October 2. Entries were invited from applicants who belong to nations that are eligible for this lottery. The last date for submission of entries was November 30. There was a dramatic increase in the number of entries this year, when compared to the last year. Over 900,000 applications were received in the very first week of registration, a significant 63% increase from last year’s entries in the same period. The DOS expects to receive nearly 13,000,000 entries for the DV-2011 Program.

Natives from certain nations are not eligible for immigration to the US through the Diversity Visa Program. This is because more than 50,000 persons have immigrated to the USA in the past five years from those countries. Applicants from Brazil, Canada, China (Mainland-Born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam are ineligible for the DV program.

Applicants who immigrate to the USA though the Diversity Visa Program are called “diversity immigrants.” These applicants should have completed at least a high school diploma or an equivalent. Else, they should have work experience of two years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training.

Successful DV-2011 program applicants will receive a notification of their selection through mail between May and July, 2010.

Letters to the Editor: Smart Immigrants Yes, but H1-Bs Are No Panacea – WSJ.com.

Paul Kedrosky and Brad Feld assert that we should make it easy for immigrants to move here in order to create start-ups by stapling green cards to the degrees of foreign students and easing H1-B restrictions (“Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy,” Dec. 2). In support of their argument that immigrants are entrepreneurial, they list several start-ups founded by immigrants, including Google, Pfizer, Intel, Yahoo, DuPont, eBay, and Procter & Gamble. However, a closer look at these examples proves very enlightening. Three of these immigrant-founded start-ups were created in the 19th century. Andy Grove of Intel, a Hungarian immigrant, was not the founder of Intel. That honor goes to two Americans, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. Mr. Grove originally joined the company as an employee. Of the remaining companies, all of their founders immigrated to the U.S. with their families as young children. Google’s co-founder (with an American) Sergey Brin left Moscow with his family at age 6; Yahoo co-founder (with an American) Jerry Yang left Taiwan at age 8; eBay’s founder, Pierre Omidyar, emigrated from France at age 6.

Note that none of these immigrants was on an H1-B or even a student visa. Essentially, the “immigrant” entrepreneurs whom the authors so admire were raised as Americans and were co-founders of businesses with Americans.

Mara Alexander

Alexandria, Va.

Messrs. Kedrosky and Feld’s appeal to allow would-be immigrant entrepreneurs and technical grads to enrich our economy with fast-track visas is spot on. I would add that we should also allow investors, holders of advanced degrees, and in-demand skilled professionals, regardless of their country of origin, to be fast-tracked also. They are most likely to enrich our country. We allow special consideration for compassionate reasons such as family reunification and amnesty from abusive regimes, even though they may be net revenue drains on our economy via social services, schools and prisons. Why not allow in those immigrants w

ho will create jobs through investment, innovation and valuable education or technical skills which they’ve acquired by becoming successful and who want to take a chance on us?

Debra Janssen-Martinez

Los Gatos, Calif.

Paul Kedrosky and Brad Feld: Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy – WSJ.com.

While fast-growing companies have long been the main source of new jobs and innovation, this country makes it outrageously difficult for immigrants to launch new companies here. This doesn’t make any sense. After all, Google, Pfizer, Intel, Yahoo, DuPont, eBay and Procter & Gamble are all former start-ups founded by immigrants. Where would this country be today without their world-changing innovations?

Immigrants have not only founded big, well-known companies. Foreign-born residents made up just 12.5% of the U.S. population in 2008. But nearly 40% of technology company founders and 52% of founders of companies in Silicon Valley.

Yet we don’t seem to care. We send recent, foreign-born university science and engineering graduates back to their own countries after their student visas expire—unless these creative sorts are willing to spend some of the most entrepreneurial years of their lives working in a big company under an H-1B visa after they finish their studies.

For those who studied elsewhere, but who nonetheless want to bring their job-creating ideas here, American policies treat them—the job-creating, trouble-making innovators that they are—as a cross between deadbeats and queue-jumpers. Why can’t they wait in line like everyone else to get a visa in five years or so? What’s their hurry?

Their hurry is Joseph Schumpeter’s hurry: They want to hustle out and disrupt markets when the opportunity arises.

In the 21st century those opportunities don’t wait for our interminable, employment-based visa programs. As a result rather than saying “Come and create jobs here” we, in effect, tell them to shove off. Come back when you have a few million in sales— at which point they will be rooted elsewhere and creating jobs somewhere else.

That needs to end now. Immigrants who come here to create companies create jobs. We need the jobs.

One good idea to make this process easier is to create a new visa for entrepreneurs, something that is increasingly being called by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and angel investors a “start-up visa.” It might work like this: If immigrant entrepreneurs want to start a company in the U.S. and are able to raise a moderate amount of money (perhaps as little as $125,000) from an accredited U.S.-based venture capital firm or qualified U.S.-based angel investors, we should let them start a company here. It could be a couple of founders with an idea—that’s it. We would give visas to the founders and welcome them in to our country.

Would it work every time? Of course not. It would fail more often than not. Start-ups often fail.

But having failed, the immigrant entrepreneurs could try again, and again. And as long as they are trying, raising money, creating jobs, and making sales, we would let them stay here. Founders of new companies are precious for a vibrant economy, and we should welcome them. Indeed, the country would be better served to find more of them.

Some will say a start-up visa program will be abused. They will say that it will become a way to end-run immigration rules, to jump the queue if you have money.

There are at least two answers to these objections. First, to get such a visa you would have to raise money from real investors. Second, Canada and other countries already allow entrepreneurs to start a company in their country. Shouldn’t the U.S. stop worrying so much about keeping these people out, and start worrying about bringing them in?

We also think science and engineering graduates should get visas stapled to their diplomas. You complete your higher education here, you get to stay so that you can get out and create jobs, innovate, and grow the economy. Uncle Sam wants you, if you’re a prospective entrepreneur.

The U.S. remains one of the most attractive countries for entrepreneurs. It has a culture of risk taking, capital formation, and an economic dynamism that is the envy of the world. This gives us a competitive edge that we should not let slip through our fingers.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been temporarily holding certain immigration applications from November 13, 2009. This is because the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced new vaccination criteria for immigration to the United States on Nov 13, 2009. These vaccination criteria will come into effect on December 14, 2009.

If the applicant is in the United States, then vaccinations are administered by a civil surgeon. In case, the applicant is outside the US, then the vaccination should be done by a panel physician. The new regulations of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention list the vaccinations that have to be taken by applicants seeking to immigrate to the US.

According to the US immigration law, vaccines for the following diseases are currently required for U.S. immigration: mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertusis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, pneumococcal disease, varicella, seasonal influenza, human papilloma virus (HPV,) Haemophilus influenzae type B, and zoster. Applicants should have their vaccination records when they come for the medical examination. This is very important for pre-school and school-age children to have these vaccination records when they come in for the medical test.

According to the new criteria, vaccines for herpes zoster and human papilloma virus (HPV) will no longer be required for immigration purposes.

Until the new vaccination requirements become effective, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have decided to temporarily hold certain applications to adjust their status to lawful permanent residence. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will start hearing pending applications from December 14, 2009 using the new criteria for vaccination, which excludes these two mentioned vaccines.

This new criteria will help those applicants whose applications have been denied for failing to submit proof of receiving zoster vaccine or human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine.