Author Archive
Visa Fees to Increase on June 4, 2010
On June 4th, the fees for nonimmigrant visa processing at U.S. consulates around the world will increase. The fee increase was necessary, according to the Department of State, to help cover the rising cost of processing visas.
The new fee schedule is as follows:
Applicants for all visas that are not petition-based will pay a fee of $140. These are visa categories that don’t require an approved petition from a USCIS service center, and include B1/B2 tourist and business visitor visas and all student and exchange visitor (F, M and J) visas.
Applicants for petition-based visas will pay an application fee of $150. These are visas that require an approval of a petition from a USCIS service center before the applicant can apply for a visa at the U.S. consulate. These visa categories include:
· H visa (for temporary workers and trainees)
· L visa (for intra-company transferees)
· O visa (for persons of extraordinary ability)
· P visa (for athletes, artists and entertainers)
· Q visa (for cultural exchange visitors)
· R visa (for religious workers)
The application fee for a K visa for a fiancé(e)s of a U.S. citizen will increase to $350.
The application fee for E visas for treaty traders (E-1) and treaty-investors (E-2) will increase to $390.
Proposed fee increases for U.S. passports and immigrant visas are currently under review.
Posted in Alerts | Read More »
Visa Extensions: A Problem?
Many of my immigration attorney colleagues are reporting denials of visa extension requests. These are situations where the foreign national is already in the U.S. working legally; but when it comes time to renew the visa, the USCIS says no.
If your status is about to expire, do not think that the USCIS will simply rubber stamp a prior approval and extend your visa. Now more than ever it is important to thoroughly document your eligibility again even if nothing about the employment situation has changed. What was approved once will not necessarily be approved again.
Although most reported cases I’ve heard about involve denials of L-1, O-1 and H-1B visa extensions, other visa types are not remotely immune to the culture of no that pervades USCIS these days.
In fact, just this past weekend, the New York Times reported that E-2 visas are becoming difficult to extend. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30visas.html?pagewanted=2&sq=E-2%20visa&st=cse&scp=1 for a woeful tale of a business forced to shut down because its British proprietors were not able to renew their visas.
Tags: E-2, extension, H-1B, L-1A, O-1, renew, visa
Posted in Alerts | Read More »
F-1 Students: Beware of Falling Out of Status
Over the years, I have seen many cases of international students falling out of status for reasons that could have been avoided. Typical scenarios include dropping below the required 12 units per term, or failure to pay tuition in time, as well as other seemingly minor violations.
When an F-1 student falls out of status, there are usually two options for fixing the problem:
1) the student can leave the country and seek re-entry with a new Form I-20 provided by the university. Depending on the situation, it may also be prudent to obtain a new visa at the U.S. consulate;
2) the student can apply to USCIS for reinstatement of their F-1 status. Essentially, the student must then prove to USCIS that failure to maintain status occurred through circumstances beyond the student’s control.
Both courses of action involve risk and uncertainty, and it’s best to avoid having to go down either path. I always advise students to be as proactive as possible in maintaining their status. This involves being in regular contact with your international student office, and making sure that the advisors in that office have everything they need from you in order to maintain your record in the SEVIS system
If you require assistance with F-1 immigration issues, please contact one of our San Francisco Immigration Attorneys who can assist you.
Tags: F-1, I-20, international students, reinstatement, SEVIS
Posted in F-1 | Read More »
Have You Been Convicted of a Crime? Speak with an Immigration Attorney Before You Travel!
If you are a lawful permanent resident or a lawful nonimmigrant residing in the U.S. with a criminal conviction in your past, and you plan to travel outside the U.S. and re-enter, it is critical that you consult with an attorney prior to departing the US.
Certain crimes are considered Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMT) under our immigration laws. These crimes can make you inadmissible to the U.S.
Even if you are a long-term resident of the U.S. with one prior conviction, you could have trouble re-entering the U.S if the crime you were convicted of is considered a CIMT. This may be true even if you served a jail sentence, satisfied your probation requirements, and are otherwise now a model citizen. It is essential to analyze the conviction or convictions in your case to determine whether or not you are inadmissible to the U.S.
Do not find out the hard way that you have a problem. Please consult with an immigration attorney prior to travel.
Tags: CIMT, crime moral turpitude, immigration, inadmissibility, nonimmigrant, re-entry, resident, travel
Posted in Crimes and Immigration | Read More »
Attention Foreign National Entrepreneurs: Small Tech Companies Needed in the U.S.
Attention Foreign National Entrepreneurs: Small Tech Companies Needed in the U.S.
There are a number of potential opportunities in the U.S. for small technology companies, including start-ups established by foreign nationals. Reported on http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100416_1532.php, and confirmed in that article by Alan Swendiman, former general counsel of the General Services Administration, small businesses (even those established by foreign nationals) in the U.S., are able to go after “set asides” (Federal contracts) reserved for small firms. Foreign companies and foreign national entrepreneurs should find this encouraging and should be incentivized to establish U.S. start-ups, subsidiaries or branch offices.
Currently, large companies submitting proposals for Federal projects must include a subcontracting plan using smaller subcontractors. These plans must account for 40% of the total offer. This is great news for small U.S. companies since large companies are constantly seeking the work of smaller subcontractors to meet this requirement. This also allows small companies to take advantage of the Federal Recovery Act stimulus money available to Federal subcontractors. Please note that in order to qualify for these subcontracts, the U.S. company must have been in business for at least two (2) years.
We encourage you to take advantage of these unique subcontracting opportunities by establishing a company in the U.S.. If you have any immigration questions regarding the establishment of your business within the U.S., please don’t hesitate to contact our immigration law firm.
Tags: entrepreneur, foreign national, immigration, start-up, technology, visa
Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
Report Shows 88,000 U.S. Children Lost Immigrant Parent to Deportation
A report based on analysis of data provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was recently released showing that between 1997 and 2007, 88,000 children in the U.S. lost a legal permanent resident parent to deportation. In most of these incidents, the green-card holding parent was deported because they committed a crime deemed by the Department of Homeland Security to be an “aggravated felony”, and therefore a deportable offense.
In 1997, the definition of what constitutes an aggravated felony was significantly expanded to include even relatively minor crimes, such as non-violent theft and drug offenses, as well as other offenses which are not felonies under state law. The study found that in 68% of cases, the crime in question did not involve violence.
Not surprisingly, subsequent to their parents’ deportation, many of these children simply tanked. High rates of depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, as well as plummeting grades were documented.
The results of this study should come as a surprise to no one. It’s obvious that when a child loses a parent, he or she loses a main source of stability and support. What astounds me is that our government, in the name of enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, would inflict this harm on its own citizen children. How absurd from a policy standpoint, considering the broader cost to our society.
As this study recommends, immigration judges should have the discretion to grant individuals a waiver from deportation when minor children are involved.
The study was a joint project of the Immigration Law Clinic at the UC Davis School of Law, and the International Human Rights Law Clinic and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the UC Berkeley School of Law. It is available at: http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/news/images/childsbestinterest.pdf.
Tags: immigrant; immigration; green card; lawful permanent resident; children; crime; deportation; removal
Posted in Politics/Current Events, Uncategorized | Read More »
Immigration Reform: What’s Next?
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Senators Schumer and Graham outlined a bipartisan proposal for immigration reform. At the heart of the need for reform is the question of what to do with the 12 million or so undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. As the idea of immigration reform gains momentum again, it surely won’t be long before we hear the shrill cries from the anti-immigration conservatives: “No amnesty for people who break our laws!”
Let’s get two things straight: crossing an international border without being inspected is not a criminal offense, and the reforms proposed are no amnesty.
First, immigrants do not cross our border illegally because they are inherently lawbreaking. They do so because there is no legal channel for them to come to the U.S. to fill an entire sector of low-skilled jobs that, for the most part, U.S. citizens do not want.
Second, an amnesty is a pardon, which this proposal is not. Schumer and Graham propose to give the undocumented some type of non-permanent legal status (note: not a green card) only if: 1) they pay fines; 2) pay back taxes; 3) and perform community service. This is no amnesty. Two of these measures are even punitive.
For the record, many undocumented immigrants are already paying taxes, either because taxes are deducted from their paychecks, or because they are affirmatively filing tax returns with an Individual Tax ID Number, which anyone can apply for from the IRS.
Most undocumented immigrants are law-abiding, peaceful, and hard-working. Why should we punish them with steep fines for contributing to the growth of our nation’s economy? And why should we force an entire class of people (who are often living in poverty despite working more than one job) to perform community service? These two proposals strike me as completely unjust, disingenuous, and exploitative.
Tags: amnesty, Graham, immigration reform, Schumer, undocumented
Posted in Politics/Current Events | Read More »
The Start-Up Visa Buzz
While comprehensive immigration reform currently seems a distant dream, there is some support in Congress for a new immigrant visa for entrepreneurs. Called the Start-Up Visa, this new category of immigrant visa would require a $250,000 investment in a start-up venture. At least $100,000 of that capital would need to come from a U.S. investor. An entrepreneur would receive a conditional green card for two years, and at the end of those years, he or she would need to show that the start-up venture created at least 5 jobs for U.S. workers.
Modeled on the EB-5 program, which currently requires a $1,000,000 investment in most cases and the creation of 10 jobs, the Start-Up Visa is a brilliant idea which recognizes that scrappy entrepreneurs (not just those investors who have $1,000,000 in cash to plunk down) create the companies that are an engine of huge growth in our economy. The idea has generated a lobbying effort by Silicon Valley, and appears to have some key Congressional support. To learn more, visit www.startupvisa.com . Let’s hope the xenophobes in Congress don’t kill this one.
Tags: entrepreneurs, start-up visa
Posted in Alternative Visa Categories, Politics/Current Events | Read More »
Alert: H-1B Filing Season is Around The Corner
The H-1B filing period for fiscal year 2011 (for a start date of October 1, 2010) will open on April 1, 2010. The H-1B category is used by an employer to sponsor a foreign national to work in a specialty occupation, which is a position requiring, at a minimum, a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
As you may already be aware, there are a limited number of H-1B visas each fiscal year: 65,000 slots for holders of Bachelor’s degrees and 20,000 additional slots for holders of Master’s degrees or higher level degrees from U.S. universities. In 2007 and 2008, the numerical limit was reached in the first few days of April . In 2009, due to the struggling economy, the quota was not met until December 21, 2009.
While there is no way to predict how quickly the visas will be used this year, we do anticipate that demand will increase from last year, and therefore we recommend that all employers planning to file H-1B petitions file them on April 1, 2010 so as to ensure the greatest chances of success.
Filing an H-1B this year requires more lead time for preparation than in prior years. This is because in 2009, the Department of Labor (DOL) rolled out a new system for certifying the Labor Condition Application (LCA), a form required in the filing. This new system, involving manual review of all LCA’s, has created unforeseen delays and unpredictability of timing in the H-1B process. Under the old system, the LCA could be certified automatically upon an attorney submitting it online. Certification is now projected to take 7 days. However, in many instances, the LCA is denied erroneously because of DOL computer error, and must be re-filed, making the exact length of the LCA process unpredictable.
Please contact our office if you’d like to file an H-1B petition for fiscal year 2011. Given the changes discussed here, it would be prudent to begin the process as soon as possible. We look forward to assisting you.
Tags: cap, DOL, FEIN, H-1B, iCert, LCA, quota, tax identification number
Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
