Labor Immigration Law

Section 245(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows for the adjustment of status (I-485) which so many of our clients and readers are well familiar.  Section 245(c) of the INA establishes eight (8) bars to adjustment of status.  However, adjustment of status based on employment-based immigrant visa are exempt from three of these bars, pursuant to Section 245(k).

In a July 14, 2008, Memorandum, Donald Neufeld seeks to explain the applicability of these exemptions and provide details and clarifications on the applicability of the exemptions and the adjudication procedures.

What is the Exemption.   The bars to admission which are inapplicable are as follows: for a period of 180 days since the petitioner’s last lawful admission in the U.S. your status, (1) failed to maintain your status, (2) engaged in unauthorized employment, and (3) otherwise violated the terms of his/her status or admission.

Who is Exempt.  The exemptions are applicable to employment-based adjustment of status applications in EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, or EB-4 categories.  The alien must be present in the U.S. pursuant to a lawful admission.  The exemptions are available to derivative petitioners as well.

Analysis.  Although this is not a new rule, the July 14, 2008, Neufield Memo seeks to provide clear guidance and explanation on the applicability of the 180-day exemptions.  It is important to understand that the three exemptions are only for employment-based adjustment of status petitions, and not for family-based.  Also, it is important to understand that the 180-day period is cumulative and includes all days, weekend and holidays.  Finally, the 180-day period counts the dates since the last lawful admission - leaving the U.S. and entering legally “clears” the count.

The USCIS has released a revised list of vaccines required for applicants seeking to adjust status to become permanent legal residents.  The updated list, required for all medical exams conducted on or after August 1, 2008, are as follows:

• Rotavirus;
• Hepatitis A;
• Meningococcal;
• Human papillomavirus; and
• Zoster.

Although the requirements for these vaccines went into effect on July 1, 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved a 30-day grace period for all exams conducted prior to August 1.  In connection with the revised list of vaccinations, the revised Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, dated as of June 5, 2008, or later must be used.

A very frequent two-part question we receive from current and prospective clients who are expecting visa number and have used AC21 to switch employers and are no longer with the original employer who sponsored their green card is 1) whether they can travel abroad using advance parole (AP) document issued by the former employer and 2) what should they respond, upon return, when questioned by a border agent about their employment situation.

Before we go into the technicalities - there is one major rule which warrants repeating - be frank and honest with the immigration or border officers.  These are highly qualified professionals who are trained to detect evasive, misleading, or false answers and if caught in a material misstatement, the consequences may be very significant.

Now, the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act (AC21) was intended to address exactly the kind of situation to which the two-part question above applies.  After completing an AC21 switch of employers, the employee can freely continue his or her green card application and avail him- or herself of all of the benefits of pending green card adjustment of status application - including advance parole and EAD.  Thus, employees who have properly pending adjustment of status and unexpired advance parole document from a former employer can travel abroad and re-enter with such advance parole document with no issues.

Many clients are nervous to answer the question whether they are still employed by the sponsoring employer when, in fact, they are not.  However, the AC21 process is intended to address this kind of situation and we urge foreign nationals, who are asked this question upon their return to the country, to answer truthfully and explain to the border agent that they have done an AC21 transfer.

Some immigration attorneys advise against filing anything in connection with an AC21 job transfer.  However, we do advise our clients who switch jobs under AC21 to file a letter with USCIS.  The added benefit of this is that the employee has a letter documenting the AC21 transfer and which letter briefly explains the law and the circumstances of the AC21 transfer.  Having such letter and presenting it to the border agent unon re-entry is a nice way to deflect a skeptical border agent of the propriety of the AC21 job transfer.

The USCIS has released a modified version of Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record.  The most recent form is dated June 5, 2008 and previous editions will be accepted only until July 14, 2008.

The new form can be obtained from USCIS’ website.

For applicants for adjustment of status who are in the process of preparing their medical forms should ensure that their civil surgeon has the most recent version of the form, or if the form is already completed, it should be filed before July 14, 2008.

We wrote earlier today about the pending announcement that USCIS is restoring the possibility of filing I-140 via premium processing.  As we discussed earlier, the premium processing is limited to workers who are nearing the end of their sixth year in H-1B nonimmigrant status.

The premium processing procedure will guarantee 15 calendar-day response by USCIS for a non-refundable fee of $1,000.  To take advantage of the I-140 premium processing, the I-140 petition must be filed on behalf of aliens:

• who are currently in H-1B nonimmigrant visa status;
• whose sixth year will end within 60 days;
• who are only eligible for for a further extension of H-1B nonimmigrant status under section 104(c) of AC21 (permitting 3-year H-1B extensions upon approved I-140); and
• who are ineligible to extend their H-1B status under section 106(a) of AC21 (permitting 1-year H-1B extensions if I-140 or the underlying labor certification is pending for at least 365 days).

Even though the premium procedure is limited in certain cases, it brings welcome relief to a number of H-1B holders who are nearing the limit on their H-1B status.  Please contact us for more information on how you can take advantage of this new rule.

Many of our clients are complaining of the need to renew their employment authorization documents (EADS) every year while their green card adjustment of status application is pending. Given the long backlogs, the need to extend EADs every year becomes a hassle and, especially for those applicants who have to pay for each application, a financial burden.

DHS Secretary Chertoff, in remarks at the “State of Immigration” address, noted that beginning June 2008, DHS will start issuing 2-year EADs for applicants whose adjustment of status petitions if such petitions are expected to be pending for more than one year. His precise remarks are:

“Beginning later this month, we’ll start issuing these documents with a two-year validity period for aliens who are waiting adjustment of status if their application is expected to be pending for more than a year.

..

This, again, is eliminating a persistent source of frustration for workers who are here, who have a pending adjustment application but have to go and renew their employment documents every single year. It’s going to cut the paperwork there.“

Full text.

The speech does not address details such as the exact date of when this change would take effect and whether advance parole (AP) extensions would also be extended in 2-year terms. We will continue monitoring developments in connection with Secy. Chertoff’s statement and update our clients and readers as we know more. Readers can subscribe to our newsletter to obtain email notification of recent developments.

Update: USCIS has released more details on the new rule.

USCIS is proposing to amend the regulations concerning the concurrent filing of employment-based I-140 and I-485 petitions as long as visa number is available to the alien beneficiary. The proposed rule seeks to amend the rule so that a worker applying for I-485 adjustment of status must be the beneficiary of an approved immigrant petition prior to the filing of the adjustment application.

The proposed rule is scheduled for publication in June with a 60-day comment period.

Reasons
We do not have reliable information at this point as to the rationale of this proposed rule change. It seems that USCIS may be trying to eliminate the backlog of I-140/I-485 applications which were filed in the summer of 2007 when there was a substantial forward visa movement. It has been suggested that USCIS may be trying to control the volume of filings should a dramatic forward movement, similar to the summer of 2007, occur in the future.

About the I-140/I-485 Concurrent Filing Procedure
The concurrent filing procedure was implemented in 2002 and it has become a very useful for aliens who qualify. The concurrent filing procedure permits an alien who has an I-140 filed to file a I-485 adjustment of status application and, as a result, take advantage of a number of benefits associated with pending I-485. A properly filed and pending I-485 opens eligibility for employment authorization documents (EAD) and advanced parole (AP) for the beneficiary and his or her immediate family. Also, having I-485 pending for certain period of time may open other benefits, such as job portability to similar job opportunities.

Consequences
As a result of the new rule, foreign employees would be impacted negatively in several important ways. First, they would be restricted in switching employers. Additionally, families of foreign employees would not be entitled to work authorization until later in the process, thus putting financial strain on some of the immigrant families. Finally, international travel may be impacted as fewer families would be entitled to AP earlier in the process.

It should be noted that it is not expected that the proposed rule will impact currently filed concurrent I-140/I-485. We will continue to monitor the situation and update our clients as we learn more.

The June 2008 Bulletin is out.  Among the employment-based visa numbers, there is a slight forward movement in the EB-2 category for China and India, by about 3 months, from January 2004 to April 2004.

Unfortunately, there was no movement in the EB-3 category for any country.  There were more bad news for EB-3 applicants.  According to the June 2008 Visa Bulletin, the annual cap for EB-3 cases is expected to be reached in June; as a result, the EB-3 category is likely to experience retrogressions or visa unavailability beginning in July (stay tuned for the July 2008 Visa Bulletin in mid-June).  It is expected that in October, upon the start of the new fiscal year, the cut-off dates would recover to their present date.

Read the full June 2008 Visa Bulletin.

The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugess, Border Security and International Law held a hearing yesterday, April 30, 2008, on the topic of “Wasted Visas, Growing Backlogs.”

Michael Yates, the USCIS Associate Director for Domestic Operations testified in front of the Committee and although scheduling conflict did not permit our firm to be present at the hearing, we have reviewed the text of Yates’ prepared statement.

Unfortunately for us and our clients, Yates’ prepared statement does not seem to provide much forward-looking insight into the operations of USCIS.  The statement goes to great lengths to explain the visa categories, the processes for obtaining legal permanent residency and the historic numbers, but does little to show the millions of foreigners with backlogged pending applications how and when will the backlog be cleared and the process streamlined.

For completion, we are including the prepared statement of Stephen A. Edson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Servivce, U.S. Department of State.  Mr. Edson’s statement explains how the State Department allocates visa numbers and praises the State Department’s work in allocating the visa numbers so that close to 100% of the available visas in each Fiscal Year are used. 

The USCIS has announced that it has revised Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, to reflect changes to the Tuberculosis guidance by the Center for Disease and Control to Civil Surgeons.  The new form (edition date 04/02/08) must be used for all medical examinations completed on or after May 1, 2008.

Form I-693 is used by applicants filing for adjustment of status to become permanent residents.  Civil surgeons performing medical examination in connection with adjustment of status must use the new form for all examinations completed in the future.  According to USCIS, not all civil surgeons have provided accurate email or contact information and it is possible that some civil surgeons are not aware of the new form.  Therefore, we recommend that applicants for adjustment of status inform their civil surgeons of the new form and present at least one copy of the new form to them.