The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently affirmed the final determination of a Certifying Officer (CO) denying labor certification (LC) for an alien worker for the position of “Specialty Cook/Italian.” The employer filed a LC which was accepted for processing on June 13, 2006. Thereafter, the CO issued…
On September 24, 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap. As of September 18, 2009, 46,000 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been accepted by USCIS. The Service has advised that they will continue…
After an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Missouri poultry processing plant paid $450,000 in fines as part of a settlement agreement for…
Processing Time reports for all of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Centers were released on September 14, 2009 with processing dates as of July 31, 2009. If you filed a petition with one of the Service Centers, please review the links below to determine the applicable processing time…
The Department of State has released its latest Visa Bulletin. The October 2009 visa bulletin still shows employment based third preference (EB-3) visas as oversubscribed while the employment based second preference (EB-2) is current for all areas of chargeability except for China and India. Click here to view the October…
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) recently announced that the 8/7/2009 revision of Form I-9, which is currently located on the USCIS website will remain valid until 8/31/2012. U.S. employers should no longer be using outdated versions of Form I-9. However, the Service has indicated that employers may…
Beginning September 8, 2009, all Federal Contractors and Subcontractors who enter into contracts on and after September 8, 2009 must be enrolled in the online E-Verify work authorization program. The E-Verify program is a free optional web based employment verification program that verify’s employee’s employment eligibility by submitting key information…
On September 4, 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap. As of August 28, 2009, 45,100 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been accepted by USCIS. The Service has advised that they will continue…
The Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division has recently issued an H-1B Employee Questionnaire that covers issues dealing with H-1B employment such as wages and deductions, working conditions, termination, and more… This questionnaire has been sent via email by the DOL to an H-1B Employee, and provides that…
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently affirmed the final determination of a Certifying Officer (CO) denying labor certification (LC) for an alien worker for the position of “Computer Software Engineer, Applications.” The employer filed a LC on behalf of an alien worker and in June of 2007,…