USA Green Card Immigration Blog

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.

A bill that extends the E-Verify Program, the online employment verification system, has been passed by the Congress. It now awaits the signature of President Obama for final approval. This bill allows the extension of the E-Verify Program by three years. E-Verify Program is a system wherein employers in the United States can check the legal status of employees newly hired by them.

However, the bill does not contain a proposal from Senator Jeff Sessions who wanted to make the program permanent. But, the Congress has opted only for extension and not permanency of this bill. The program has the backing of Homeland Security officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The legal immigration of employees is an important aspect of the Immigration system of USA. Some or all employers of twelve states, namely Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Utah are required to use the E-Verify Program to check the legal status of their employees.

It is also mandatory for federal contractors and subcontractors to check the program for the legal status of government workers. According to them over 126,000 employers nationwide use this program to check on the legal status of their employees.

But many criticize that the E-Verify program cannot be depended on for confirming the legal status of employees faulty and should be done away with altogether. Even the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have said that the E-Verify Program is faulty and have led to the erroneous disqualification of many. Homeland Security officials say that the program is 94% accurate but critics of the program argue that this could mean up to 9 million workers could still be at risk.

Though the E-Verify Program may be extended by three years with President Obama’s signature, a complete overhaul of the immigration system seems to be the ideal solution to all these problems.