New York, December 2011
The United States Immigration Newsletter
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H-1B Applications Closed for 2012
 Washington, D.C.:
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will not accept any more H-1B
Visa petitions for the 2012 fiscal year (FY). The reason is that the agency has already received enough petitions to fill the quota of 65,000 H-1B work visas per year. The USCIS recently announced that November 22, 2011, was the last day for H-1B visa petitions to be accepted. A petitions is considered received when it arrives at the USCIS office, not the day it is post marked. Petitions that arrive to the USCIS after November 22 will thus be rejected. The agency has also received more than 20,000 petitions for individuals who are exempt from the regular H-1B quota because they have an advanced degree. The first 20,000 petitions that qualify for the “advanced degree exemption" will not count towards the annual quota of 65,000 H-1B visas. Advanced degree petitions above 20,000 will be counted as part of the regular visa cap, unless they are exempt for other reasons. Although the USCIS will not accept any more H-1B visa petitions that are subject to the numerical limitation, the agency still accepts petitions that are not subject to the cap. For example, petitions that are filed on behalf of individuals who already hold H-1B
work visas, whose petitions were counted toward previous visa caps, will still be processed. Thus, immigrants with specialty occupations can still extend their H-1B visas, change the terms of their employment or change employer. Businesses in the U.S. can use the H-1B visa program to employ foreign workers in certain fields, for positions that require specialized knowledge.
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Alabama Immigration Law causes Few Issues, Police Says
 Athens, AL:
According to police officials in Athens,
Alabama, the state’s new and strict illegal-immigration law is not causing much problem for law enforcement agencies, and is not straining city and county resources, three month after taking effect. Athens Police Captain says the department is still in the process of gaining experience with the new law as new scenarios play out, but he says that so far the new immigration law has not greatly affected the work day of Athens police officers. Police officers have taken classes on the enforcement of the new law, and the police captain say the department has been careful to stay clear of racial profiling. According to the captain there has been several arrests made where the detained has later been picked up and detained by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The sheriff of Limestone County says his department works well with ICE, that relieves the department of extra responsibilities. He says that if there is a drain of his department’s resources, it is not due to arrests of illegal immigrants, but rather due to allegations of mistreatment of
illegal immigrants, that the department investigates. There is also a misconception among citizens, according to the sheriff, that they can investigate and arrest any illegal immigrant, and he says the department is getting more phone calls from people who suspect their neighbors to be in the U.S. illegally. The sheriff says that he can call ICE and ask them to investigate the matter, but he cannot arrest anybody unless they have committed a crime.
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Program to check Work Authorization Gains Popularity
 San Bernardino, CA:
The number of businesses that use the
E-Verify, a government-run, Internet-based system to check the employment eligibility of new hires, is growing ever more popular. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 300,000 employers were enrolled in the E-Verify program as of November, 2011, using the system to check the employment eligibility in more than 17 million cases. In San Bernardino County in California, nearly 1,000 employers now use the system to verify that their employees are authorized to work in the United States. Those numbers have increased from only 600 in 2009, and do not include those companies that are based outside San Bernardino County but still use the employment verification system. In the past couple of years, several cities have made it a requirement for business to use E-Verify, but in October state legislatures voted to make it illegal for local governments to force companies to use the system. That law will take effect in January next year. And there are companies that chose to not participate in the program. One company in Fontana says that they do care about illegal immigration, but are reluctant to use the system because they worry that the process behind E-Verify is flawed. The vice president of the company says he’s heard terrible stories of employers who have fired people because of something they found in the E-Verify system, despite the fact that the workers were actually allowed to
work in the U.S. An independent think tank has reported that the E-Verification system has an error rate of 1 percent. |
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Sea Fence to Stop Illegal Immigrants from Mexico
 Los Angeles, CA:
In project that is estimated to cost $4.3 million, the United States will build a barrier in the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the fence is to stop illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. by using a low-tide route from
Mexico to California. The fence will reach almost 100 meters (300 feet) out to sea and the whole structure will be 365 meters long, with most of it sitting on dry land. A Border Patrol official says that the new structure will replace an existing fence that is broken in several places because of corrosion due to the salt air and sea water. Another problem with the old fence is that many border crossers have been able to walk around it at low tide and get to the beach on the U.S. side of the
border. It has also been possible to get around the old fence by paddling on surfboards or by using jet skis. Particularly in the late 80s and early 90s, a large number of illegal immigrants crossed the border by the beach, tempted by the San Diego skyline, visible from a distance away. The new border fence will be almost six meters high, and it is scheduled to be finished in March of next year. According to the Border Patrol spokesperson, the new border fence is expected to last for about 30 years. |
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Americans with Dual Citizenship Oppose U.S. Tax Laws
 Fredericton, Canada:
Canadian residents that have dual U.S./Canadian citizenship are opposing the way U.S. tax laws are being enforced abroad. U.S. citizens are obliged to pay taxes to the United States on their world-wide income, as well as to disclose any funds in foreign bank accounts holding more than $10,000. This has been the law for many years. What is new is that enforcement of the FBAR (U.S. Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) filing requirements have been stepped up, and those who took advantage of a recent voluntary disclosure period to report their foreign assets to the IRS, could be fined anywhere between five and 25 percent of those assets. Now a U.S.-born Canadian lawyer is recommending that dual citizens in
Canada stay away from the U.S. until issues concerning a recent U.S. measure to step up enforcement of tax laws abroad are settled. The Canadian lawyer says that with so many of them living in Canada, dual citizens not traveling to the United States would have a noticeable impact on the U.S. economy. Dual citizens in Canada are also worrying about a new measure, the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, requiring banks abroad to report assets held by U.S. citizens. This law will take effect in 2014. According to the Canadian lawyer, there are approximately one million Canadians with dual U.S.
citizenship. He sees the new measures as a violation of Canada’s sovereignty, and he believes it is up to the Canadian banks to fix this issue |
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Deportation of Convicted Criminal on Hold by Appeals Court
 Philadelphia, PA:
A federal appeals court has ordered U.S. immigration authorities to stay the deportation of a man who is a legal immigrant in the U.S., but who was once convicted of Third Degree Attempted Arson. The man was convicted in 2003, following his arrest in 2002. The immigration proceedings against the man were started by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the beginning of 2010 and he has been held without bail for almost two years. According to the man’s immigration lawyer, the DHS ignored the fact that the convicted man has rebuilt his life after his criminal conviction, and that he had been a law-abiding
resident for many years. The lawyer says the DHS had no reason to arrest the man who was running a successful business and is married with three children. With his arrest the family has not only lost a husband and father, but also its income and their home. The stay of
deportation will be in place until the court has reviewed the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals that the crime committed in 2002 constituted an aggravated assault. The question of the matter is whether federal statues have to be taken into consideration when deciding whether the man should be classified and an aggravate felon, and the decision by the immigration court is the first of its kind. If the ruling is upheld and the man is subsequently deported, it could come to affect thousands of immigrants across the United States. |
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