USCIS Message: Temporary Protected Status Extended for Haitians
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, has announced a TPS extension for eligible nationals of Haiti. The extension is effective July 23, 2014 to January 22, 2016. The 18-month extension will also allow re-registrants to apply for a new Employment Authorization Document (EAD).
http://www.uscis.gov/news/temporary-protected-status-extended-haitians-0
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USCIS Increases L-1 Denial Rates for High Skill Foreign Nationals
According to contacts at the national Foundation for American Policy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) increased its already historically high rate of denials for L-1B petitions, a visa category used by employers to bring highly skilled employees into America.
Originally at a denial rate of 6 percent in 2006, the rate rose to 34 percent in 2013, a remarkable increase considering a lack of documented regulation changes and the pledge in 2012 from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to update and modernize the understanding of the specialized knowledge and definition for public review and comment.
About half of L1-B petitions have been either denied or delayed by USCIS since 2013. In addition to the increased level of denials, Requests for Evidence which can result in months of delays and affect costs, potentially harming the ability to fulfill terms of a contract, have increased 46 percent since as recently as 2004 where they were previously issued in only 2 percent of L1-B cases. USCIS released this data only after the American Immigration Lawyers Association submitted a request through the Freedom of Information Act. While USCIS did not release country-specific data concerning L1-B denial, many attorneys and employers indicate an increase in the difficulty of receiving approvals for L1-B petitions involving Indian nationals as well.
With a constantly evolving and escalating global economy, “It is very difficult for companies to make business decisions when there is so much uncertainty in the L-1 visa process,” suggests Lynden Melmed, a former chief counsel at USCIS. “A company is going to be unwilling to invest in a manufacturing facility in the U.S. if it does not know whether it can bring its own employees into the country to ensure its success.”
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57 Arrested in Immigration and Customs Operation in West Michigan
Fox17.com reports that 57 people were arrested in West Michigan as part of a four-day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation targeting “criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and other immigration violators.” The operation ended March 6 and spanned 16 communities. Of the 57, 54 had previous convictions for crimes while the remaining were considered “priorities for arrest as egregious immigration violators.”
Some of the previous convictions included criminal sexual conduct against a minor, felony assault with a weapon, larceny and drug possession. According to ICE, 32 of those arrested were from Mexico and 18 were from Guatemala; however, people from Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Jamaica, Zambia, Bosnia, and Brazil were also arrested.
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USCIS Introduces Form I-190 and Centralizes the Civil Surgeon Application Process
USCIS has announced the implementation of a new process to receive and adjudicate applications for civil surgeon designation at the National Benefits Center. This will require physicians seeking civil surgeon designation to file an application at a USCIS Lockbox meaning designation will no longer be a local process at the district or field office with jurisdiction over the prospective civil surgeon’s office location. Centralizing the civil surgeon process will improve the intake process, enhance USCIS’s ability to manage and track applications, promote consistency in all civil surgeon case adjudications, and improve overall efficiency.
Physicians seeking civil surgeon designation need to complete Form I-910 and pay a $615 application fee. This change, however, will not affect current civil surgeons.
The new policy intends to reaffirm and clarify the purpose, role and responsibilities of the civil surgeon, outline profession qualifications for designation, clarify the adjudication process, provide guidance on blanket designations, and reaffirm USCIS’s ability to revoke civil surgeon designation.
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South Carolina Puts Brakes on Immigration Law
USAToday.com reports that the South Carolina law S.B. 20, which allows officers to check immigration status during traffic stops, will no longer be enforced. The decision complies with the opinion of South Carolina Solicitor General Robert D. Cook, who argued that officers could not continue to hold an individual for the purpose of checking immigration status upon completing the original purpose of the traffic stop. A spokesman for South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley stated that the law arose only out of a need to address issues left unaddressed by the federal government.
The conflict over state and federal immigration laws began in 2010 with a bill passed in Arizona. S.B. 1070 required all officers to check the immigration status of individuals during traffic stops. In 2011, Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Utah, and South Carolina all developed similar legislation. Since then, state immigration law enforcement has been notably scaled back in all but two states—Arizona and Georgia, where the discussion between state and federal authorities continues to thrive.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/03/south-carolina-immigration-law/5971023/
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USCIS Releasing New Policy Manual
USCIS will release a new Policy Manual—which will take the place of the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM), the USCIS Immigration Policy Memoranda site, and all other policy repositories—in an effort to centralize all online policy resources. The USCIS Policy Manual will include up-to-the-minutes comprehensive policy updates, and expanded table f contents, and links to related Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) sections, as well as Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) forms and public use forms. The manual will also have a keyword search function, tables, charts, and footnotes in order to facilitate user understanding of in-depth topics.
http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual.html
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Nature of Charge in New Filings Seeking Removal orders through February 2014
Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports that the proportion of individuals deported from the U.S. for criminal reasons has decreased in recent years. The majority of removal procedures occur based on charges of “Entry without Inspection” or other non-criminal immigration charges.
To access graphs and charts detailing these trends, visit: http://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/charges/apprep_newfiling_charge.php
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USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of Fiscal Year 2014
The statutory limit of 33,000 H-2B petitions has been reached for the first half of fiscal 2014. USCIS will reject all new H-2B petitions that request an employment start date before April 1, 2014 and that were received after March 14, 2014.
Certain H-2B petitions are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap, including:
- Current H-2B workers in the U.S. petitioning to extend their stays and, if applicable, change the terms of their employment or change their employers;
- Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and
- Workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam (from November 28, 2009 until December 31, 2014).
There will be no carry-over spots in the second half of fiscal 2014.
http://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-reaches-h-2b-cap-first-half-fiscal-year-2014
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AMPTP Revises O-1/O-2 Consultation Instructions
AILA reports that the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) has made changes to the consultation request process in connection with an O-1 or O-2 petition for a foreign national in motion pictures of television. As of March 17, 2014, all deal memos or contracts between employer and beneficiary must contain the following information:
- Name of the beneficiary with any a.k.a. or p.k.a.
- Position or job title
- Dates the beneficiary will be required in the United States
- Project or list of projects the beneficiary will be working on
- Genre of the project(s); all work must state motion picture, television, web-based series/program, commercials, or music videos
- Fee/salary
- Principle U.S. location where the beneficiary will be working
- All necessary signatures
If the third through seventh items are not already listed in the deal memo or contract, the items must be submitted in a separate itinerary. All offers, letters of intent, or requests lacking the signatures of both employer and beneficiary will be rejected, excluding one particular case: a deal memo stating the terms of an agreement that has already been reached between employer and beneficiary only needs the signature of the employer.
Processing for these requests is at least seven days, and AMPTP does not expedite requests.
http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=47695
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ICE Extension of Employment Authorization for Haitian F-1 Students
Effective March 3, 2104, the Department of Homeland Security will extend the unique circumstances for governing on and off campus employment for F-1 nonimmigrant Haitian students. Those who are experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti will continue to be deemed full-time students for the duration of their employment verification as long as they satisfy minimum course load requirements.
The extension will remain in effect until January 22, 2016.
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Tennessee Senate OKs Sen. Gardenhire’s Undocumented Student In-State Tuition Rate Bill
Timesfreepress.com reports that the Tennessee State Senate voted in favor of allowing in-state tuition for students born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. Students need only have lived at least a year in Tennessee and graduated from an in-state high school. Sen. Stacey Campfield fought against the bill, claiming that children of illegally present immigrants do not qualify for citizenship status under the 14th Amendment. Regardless, the bill passed 20-9 and a House version of the bill is scheduled for floor action soon. Another Republican-sponsored bill that would have allowed undocumented students to receive in state tuition was tabled for a year.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2014/mar/24/tennessee-senate-oks-sen-gardenhires-undocumented-/
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