The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a news release announcing that there is NO REQUIREMENT that travelers show proof of H1N1 Flu vaccination. No such vaccination requirement exists.
The CBP issued this release as a result of several rumors related to U.S. entry and the H1N1 virus.
The CBP encourages travelers to visit Flu.gov for tips on seasonal flu prevention, and cpb.gov for helpful traveling tips.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of December 4, 2009, 61,100 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS.
USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn.
Effective January 1, 2010, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center (NPWHC) in Washington, DC, will receive and process prevailing wage determination (PWD) requests for use in the H-1B, H-1B1 (Chile/Singapore), H-1C, H-2B, E-3 (Australia), and permanent labor certification programs.
On December 19, 2008, the Department published a Final Rule addressing the Labor Certification Process and Enforcement for Temporary Employment in Occupations Other Than Agriculture or Registered Nursing in the United States (H-2B Workers), and Other Technical Changes. The Final Rule implemented a federalized process for obtaining PWD requests for use in the H-2B temporary nonagricultural labor certification program directly from the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) appropriate National Processing Center (NPC)–which was designated as the Chicago NPC.
Furthermore, beginning on January 1, 2010, the Final Rule also federalized PWD for use in the H-1B, H-1B1 (Chile/Singapore), H-1C, E-3 (Australia), and the permanent labor certification programs.
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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 27, 2009, 58,900 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS. The Service has advised that they will continue to accept petitions until the cap is reached.
Qualifying applicants are still able to petition for an H-1B nonimmigrant visa under the general cap.
$950 flat fee (no admin fee) for filing Form N-400 + One Hour of Individualized Review
*Additional $750.00 for Attorney to Attend Naturalization Interview
Our normal legal fees are $1000 + $150(admin fee) per application
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a bold new audit initiative this year to combat the problem of hiring of an illegal workforce.
On July 1, 2009, 654 businesses nationwide were served with Notice of Inspections (NOIs) indicating that ICE would inspect their hiring records (Form I-9) to determine whether they were in accordance with the employment eligibility verification laws and regulations. The businesses presented with the NOIs to Audit Form I-9 were selected as a result of leads and other information obtained through other investigative measures. This was the first step for ICE in its nationwide plan to promote compliance with the employment eligibility laws through an effective I-9 Audit system.
Audits involve a comprehensive review of Form I-9s. Form I-9 must be completed and retained for each new hire. The form requires the employer to review several personal identification documents of the new hire (i.e., passport, permanent resident card, employment authorization card, driver’s license, birth certificate, military id, etc) and to determine the genuineness of the documents.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has updated the count of H-1B petitions received and counted towards the 65,000 cap.
As of November 13, 2009, 55,600 H-1B cap subject nonimmigrant visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS. The Service has advised that they will continue to accept petitions until the cap is reached.
Additionally, the Service has reported that they received 20,000 advanced degree H-1B petitions. Although the limit on advanced degree petitions is 20,000, past experience has tended to show that not all petitions received are approvable.
Processing Time reports for all of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Centers were released on November 16, 2009 with processing dates as of September 30, 2009.
If you filed a petition with one of the Service Centers, please review the links below to determine the applicable processing time associated with your particular case.
The Department of State has released its latest Visa Bulletin. The December 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 December 2009 Visa Bulletin.
H1B Visa Lawyer Blog