Articles Posted in Employment based visa

The 27th AILA (American Immigration Lawyer Association) California Chapter Conference was held between the 13th and 15th of November 2014 at San Jose, California. Attorney Yingei Zhou, Esq. was in attendance on behalf of our law firm. The conference concentrated on several trending topics such as status of comprehensive immigration reform, consular processing and updates with border posts in Mexico and Canada, driver’s licenses for undocumented workers, unaccompanied alien children (UAC), H-1B/L-1A/O-1/EB-1 adjudications, federal litigation, and advanced family immigration issues, as well as staple subjects like evidentiary issues in removal proceedings and PERM applications.

This article provides you several important updates from the conference addressed at the conference, especially the government open forums with AILA practitioners, USCIS representatives, CBP officers, and San Francisco Asylum officers.

In the following weeks, we will post more articles to address the trends on each specific visa applications and immigration proceedings discussed in the conference.

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You are a H-1B visa holder from a country with a backlogged employment based category and you are currently living and working in the United States. You have applied for permanent residence through your employer. You have been working for the same employer for years and have extensive experience in your field. Despite all of these factors, you are still waiting in line for your priority date to become current, and what’s more, your spouse has not been eligible to apply for their employment authorization due to the restrictions on their visa. What, if anything, can be done to receive your permanent resident card sooner?

Thousands of immigrants are in the same hypothetical situation. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is necessary not just for undocumented immigrants living in the United States, but also for such specialty workers who regularly contribute to our economy and society, but are stuck in limbo awaiting their permanent residency. Comprehensive immigration reform is also necessary because specialty occupation workers often run out of their H-1B status while they are in line for their priority date to become current. If the specialty occupation worker is married, chances are their spouse has not had the opportunity or privilege to legally obtain employment while the primary applicant has been in line waiting to adjust their status. Many immigrants who have found themselves in similar situations fear international travel due to the risk they may run in not being able to return to the United States.

Bypassing the Quota System

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently released a report helping foreign workers and their employers answer the following question:

Where on the ETA Form 9089 should the employer enter the foreign worker’s qualifications which show that the foreign worker does in fact meet the minimum requirements to perform the job opportunity?

Such qualifications may include certifications, licensures, or other credentials. The ETA Form is meant to establish whether the foreign worker meets all of the qualifications for the job opportunity offered by their employer. The employer must list the foreign worker’s specific skills and other requirements for the job opportunity they are offering in Section H Question 14, and demonstrate that they in fact possess those skills and or requirements by utilizing Section K, and listing the foreign worker’s qualifications to prove that the requirements for the specified job opportunity listed in Section H have been met. Examples of qualifications that can be provided in Section K are; bar admissions, medical residency, ordination, professional exams, medical board certifications, professional certifications, teaching certificates, university or professional coursework, professional insurance, etc. For each special skill or requirement listed in Section H, the employer must demonstrate its respective business necessity. If not listed elsewhere, the qualifications to fulfill the job opportunity should be entered after all jobs held in the past three years are listed under Question 9 Job Details. It is advised that Question Numbers one to eight requesting job information can be left blank.

Great news for Indian Nationals! The United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs recently released the August Visa Bulletin which summarizes the availability of immigrant visas for the month of August for family-based and employment-based visa preferences. According to Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) the allotted number of employment based visas is set to at least 140,000 visas for the worldwide level. The Visa Bulletin for August indicates that the second preference EB-2 employment-based category for India has advanced by 5 years when compared to the Visa Bulletin in the recent year. The advancement of the employment based second preference EB-2 category provides Indian nationals whose Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker was approved and whose priority dates fall before January 22nd of 2009, with the opportunity to apply for their green cards beginning August 2014. For priority dates related to family sponsored preferences and diversity immigrant categories please click here to read the August Visa Bulletin. For legal questions please contact our office and we would be happy to help.

Employment Based