Labor Immigration Law

Cap Reached.  On January 03, 2008, the USCIS announced that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the cap for the second half of 2008 fiscal year.  The USCIS will reject petitions for new H-2B workers seeking employment start dates prior to October 1, 2008, that arrive after January 2, 2008.

H-2B Visa Background.  The H-2B visa is not as popular as its sibling, the H-1B, but it provides an avenue for many foreigners to come to the United States and engage in a seasonal non-agricultural employment.  Service industries such as hospitality, landscaping, construction and food processing are using this visa the most to assure their businesses are staffed appropriately during peak seasons.  By closing H-2B processing for 10 months, USCIS has shown that the demand for temporary workers is enormous and that inability of employers to sponsor legal workers will put them in a difficult position as to whether to hire illegal workers and risk fines or imprisonment or scale down business operations until at least October.

Under U.S. law, all employers must be filled out and maintained on file for every hired employee.  The I-9 form requirement dates back to 1996, but the USCIS introduced a new version of the I-9 form which becomes the only version which can be used after December 26, 2007.  The new version can be recognized by the text “(Rev. 06/05/07)N” printed in the lower right corner of the form.

The new form eliminated as a evidence of employment authorization certificates of U.S. citizenship and naturalization, both of which are easily faked.  The form retains five documents which are allowed to establish employee identity and employment eligibility, including the U.S. passport and permanent resident card.

All new employees hired after November 7, 2007 must fill the new form. There is no need to have existing employees fill the revised version of the form again.  Also, the revised form does not affect the amount of penalty imposed on U.S. employers who are caught hiring employees without providing evidence of employment authorization. The fine is from $250 to $2,000 for that offense, while paperwork errors will be given a fine of $100 to $1,000.