USA Green Card Immigration Blog

The final fee rule for processing immigration petitions has recently been announced by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS.) On June 11, 2010, USCIS published the proposed rule in the Federal Register. The final rule has been announced after taking into account the 225 comments received from stakeholders on the proposed rule.

As per the final rule, the overall processing fees for immigration petitions will be increased by an average of about 10 percent. The increase in fees does not apply for the naturalization applications. The adjusted fees will be effective from November 23, 2010.

Alejandro Mayorkas, USCIS Director expressed his gratitude to the public who submitted their comments on the proposed rule. He also added that USCIS will work towards enhancing the services that they provide.

The final fee rule includes the following three new fees.

• . Regional center designation fee under the Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Pilot Program

• . Civil surgeon designation fee

• . A fee to cover the costs borne by USCIS in the processing of immigration petitions

Further, processing fees for service members and for a few experienced members of the U.S. armed forces have been reduced and eliminated. USCIS has also expanded the availability of fee waivers for certain USCIS forms.

USCIS is obliged to carry out fee reviews once in two years. The fee review is done in order to arrive at the funding levels required for processing of immigration petitions, for managing the nation’s immigration laws, and to set up the infrastructure that is convenient for those activities.

The fee revenue in financial years 2008 and 2009 was lower than it was planned and it continues to be low in financial year 2010. Although USCIS reduced its budgeted expenditures by about $160 million, the gap that existed between costs and expected revenue was not bridged. Thus, the final fee rule is expected to recover the operations cost and also meet the application processing goals that was determined in the 2007 fee rule.

Petitioners requesting for immigration benefits can visit www.usa-green-card.com to get assisted in the preparation and submission of visa applications.

The issuance of new birth certificates for those U.S. citizens who were born in Puerto Rico has been initiated by the Vital Statistics Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as of July 1, 2010. These certified birth certificates are being issued due to a new Puerto Rico birth certificate law that has been put forth. Those Puerto Rico birth certificates that have been certified before July 1, 2010 will not be valid after Oct. 30, 2010. Except for the validity of the Puerto Rico birth certificates, the new law does not have any impact on the U.S. citizenship status of those born in Puerto Rico.

Impact on the Form I-9 process

• Until Oct. 30, 2010, USCIS will accept all certified copies of Puerto Rico birth certificates from new employees for the processing of Form I-9. Commencing Oct. 31, 2010, during the Employment Eligibility Verification, employers are obliged to check the date in the certified copy of employees’ birth certificate to verify if it is still valid.

• Those certified copies of employees’ birth certificate that have already been verified by the employer for the processing of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification before Oct. 31, 2010 need not be re-verified.

• Employers who are honored with a federal contract consisting of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause are required to follow certain special Form I-9 rules when the existing employees are verified. When the Form I-9 for the existing employees is updated, the employee should not be demanded for a certified copy of birth certificate that was issued on or after July 1, 2010.

According to the existing federal law, employers are not allowed to keep the original certified copies of the employee’s birth certificates for the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification processing. Employers can only have the photocopies of those birth certificates. In case, employers choose to keep the photocopies of the documents, then they should carry out the process for all irrespective of their national origin or citizenship status.

The 2010 DV Lottery, commonly known as the “Green Card Lottery,” started on October 5, 2010 and will run through November 3, 2010.

The visa lottery, an official program of the US Government, grants 50,000 visas each year to qualified individuals and their immediate family members.  The programis open to everyone who satisfies basic nationality and work/education requirements.

USA Green Card provides professional assistance with the application preparation and submission process.  You can learn more about this year’s requirements and prepare your application electronically at http://www.USA-Green-Card.com

Interested applicants are encouraged to complete their registrations immediately to avoid possible server delays caused by high Internet traffic as the November 3rd deadline approaches.

Deportations Hit Record Level – WSJ.com.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the U.S. deported a record 392,862 illegal immigrants and arrested more of their employers this past year than ever before.

Nearly half, 190,000, of those removed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 had criminal records. That figure is 70% higher than the number of people with records deported in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008, Ms. Napolitano told a news conference Wednesday.

She said the administration of President Barack Obama has purposely targeted illegal immigrants who have been convicted of offenses in the U.S. Those crimes range from murder and sexual assault to misdemeanors, such as minor drug offenses and disorderly conduct.

The White House has also stepped up punishment of those who employ illegal workers. In fiscal 2010, the department scrutinized the employment records of more than 2,200 companies, up from 1,400 the previous year, Ms. Napolitano said.

In the past year, the department criminally charged a record 180 owners, employers and managers, compared with 114 in 2009. Since January 2009, it has imposed about $50 million in fines on businesses that employed illegal immigrants.

Last month, for instance, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch agreed to pay $1.04 million to settle charges that the company had deficiencies in its employee-verification system.

“ICE has increased the audit and prosecution of employers who repeatedly and egregiously hire illegal workers,” Ms. Napolitano said.

About 11 million illegal immigrants reside in the U.S., according to Department of Homeland Security estimates.

The Obama administration is under pressure to show it is tough on illegal immigration as candidates for Congress and local office from Nebraska to California focus on the issue ahead of the Nov. 2 midterm election.

The White House also faces Hispanic voters frustrated with stepped-up enforcement and scant progress towards an immigration overhaul that would give illegal immigrants a path towards citizenship. Critics of the program say it wastes resources by arresting minor offenders.

Julie Myers, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Bush Administration between 2006 and 2008, commended the stepped up enforcement but said much of the department’s focus has been on small employers. “To make the program overall more effective the way they are seeking, ICE is going to have to bring substantial cases against large employers, as well,” she said.

Ms. Napolitano credited a fast-expanding enforcement program begun in 2008, dubbed Secure Communities, for the steep increase in the deportations. Under the program, law-enforcement officials check the immigration status and the fingerprints of prisoners against national databases. More than 650 localities across the U.S. now participate in the program. The department said it was on track to expand the program to all law-enforcement jurisdictions nationwide by 2013.

Immigrant advocates attribute the surge in deportations to the agency’s apprehension of foreigners who did not commit any crime other than entering the U.S. legally and overstaying their visas. The department has rejected that assertion.