Author: SCwpadmin

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New Colorado Driver’s License and ID Law Effective August 1, 2014

The Colorado Road and Community Safety Act (SB-251) authorizes the issuance of Colorado driver’s licenses and identification cards to Colorado residents who have temporary lawful presence in the U.S. and Colorado residents who cannot demonstrate lawful presence in the U.S.  Colorado residents impacted by the new law include nonimmigrant visa holders*, asylees, and applicants for permanent residence.  The new law becomes effective on August 1, 2014.

Colorado driver’s licenses and identification cards issued under the new law will be restricted.  The cards will include a display that says, “Not valid for Federal Identification, Voting, or Public Benefit Purposes,” and the cards will not be valid for air travel or I-9 purposes.  This is a substantial change from Colorado’s previous law, which allowed nonimmigrant visa holders and others lawfully present in the U.S. to apply for an unrestricted driver’s license.

To apply for a driver’s license or identification card under the new law, applicants must schedule an appointment at one of five Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office locations.  Because only five DMV offices in the state are processing these applications, appointments may take some time to obtain.  We recommend that Colorado residents with temporary lawful presence schedule their DMV appointments as soon as possible.  Please visit the Colorado DMV website for more information about the five DMV locations and what you will need to bring to your appointment.

The DMV has not yet published regulations implementing the new law, which means there are still many unknowns, especially related to how the new law will affect Colorado residents who cannot demonstrate lawful presence.  Applicants suspected of current or past fraud may be referred to local District Attorneys for criminal investigation and prosecution, and applicants who have had their privilege to drive revoked or suspended in the past may also in some cases risk criminal charges.  DMV regulations, once issued, may clarify the process and its risks for prospective applicants who cannot demonstrate lawful presence.

The new law does not change anything for U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents of the U.S.

*Individuals in the U.S. on visitor visas are not eligible for a Colorado driver’s license or identification card.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 77 Comments

H-1B Visa Cap Reached

Release Date: April 10, 2014

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.

The agency conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. On March 25, USCIS announced that they would begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than April 28.  For more information on premium processing for FY 2015 cap-subject petitions.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 389 Comments

First DACA Recipients Eligible for Renewal

This summer will mark two years since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program first began. The first DACA recipients now have the opportunity to apply for a renewal of deferred action. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released a notice regarding the renewal process specifically for  applicants who applied between June 15, 2012 and August 15, 2012.

Renewal applications for another two-year period of deferred action must include Forms I-821D and I-765, along with the filing fee for the I-765 Employment Authorization Document. The original requirements for eligibility are still in place and renewal of deferred action remains at the discretion of USCIS.

It is important to note that if an applicant’s period of deferred action expires before they receive a renewal of deferred action, they will begin to accrue unlawful presence. They will not be eligible to work during any lapse in deferred action. In order to avoid a lapse, the government recommends applying for a renewal 120 days  before the current expiration of deferred action.

Individuals who applied on or after August 15, 2012 must wait for USCIS to issue a notice regarding the renewal process for their group.  Such guidance is anticipated in the coming months.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 602 Comments

USCIS Releases Revised N-400

Yesterday, USCIS released a revised Form N-400, Application for Naturalization.  The new N-400 is longer than its predecessor and contains several new questions. However, to the delight of paralegals everywhere, it no longer requires applicants to list all trips outside the U.S. since they attained Legal Permanent Resident status, but rather only those trips which occurred in the last 5 years. You can view the new form via the USCIS website.

USCIS will continue to accept previous versions of the form until May 5, 2014.

 

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Go Broncos!

While conversations in the office may mostly be around immigration, we also know how to take a break to celebrate wins.  And even though Charlotte supports the “other” team, we’re doing our best not to hold it against her.

Paralegals Tana Mauch, Charlotte Stanley, Eimi Gaucher, and Situ Bhojpure.

Paralegals Tana Mauch, Charlotte Stanley, Eimi Gaucher, and Situ Bhojpure.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 597 Comments

Immigration Lottery Hurting STEM Fields

U.S. immigration policy, especially the quota on H-1B visas, is preventing IT, biotechnology, and engineering companies from hiring the best and brightest professionals even in the face of increasing shortages of qualified workers in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.  According to reports from many sources, there are an ever increasing number of new STEM jobs being created in the U.S. and the competition to fill these jobs is fierce.  Many companies, particularly in the software and mining industries, are having an increasingly difficult time filling open STEM positions.

Nissa Szabo, Industry Affairs Manager of the Colorado Technology Association is well aware of this problem, “In Denver the unemployment rate in the IT and high tech sectors is less than 1%. A lack of available talent poses a major challenge to our members in terms of growing their businesses.”

Many of the news reports on this subject do not make the connection between the critical shortages in STEM positions and U.S. immigration policy.  It is estimated that approximately 50% of individuals pursuing advanced degrees at American universities are foreign students.  Accordingly, half of the available talent being turned out by U.S. educational institutions will need work authorization, usually H-1B visas, to fill open STEM positions.  Unfortunately, U.S. immigration law only allows for 85,000 H-1B visas each year.  During recessionary times, these 85,000 visas would last for six to eight months of a given fiscal year.  Last year, by contrast, on the first week that H-1B visas were available USCIS received almost twice the number of applicants as available visas, and, therefore, established a computerized lottery for determining which applications would receive increasingly valuable H-1B “numbers.”  As a result, approximately half of the applicants who qualified for H-1B status were turned away and many of these deserving candidates had no other option for obtaining work authorization. Given the continuing economic recovery, it is quite possible that USCIS could receive a higher number of petitions when it starts accepting new H-1B applications on April 1, 2014 for the next fiscal year.

As immigration lawyers, we therefore must advise our corporate clients that, notwithstanding the fact that they have engaged in a long and expensive recruitment effort and have found the perfect candidate,  they will have a 50% chance, or less of actually being able to employ their candidate in H-1B status.  In many cases, the individual has already started working for the company as part of their student visa practical training and are already making sizeable contributions.  Should the employer lose the H-1B lottery, it will need to terminate the productive employee. Some commentators describe the U.S. employment-based immigration system as the last bastion of Soviet-style economic planning where the government tells companies who they can and cannot hire.

Unfortunately, the push for comprehensive immigration reform has stalled (hopefully not died) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill passed by the Senate, if it became law, would almost double the number of H-1B visas available to American employers. In addition, the bill provides that H-1B numbers could be increased further based on changing economic conditions. The Senate bill also includes provisions to protect against the abusive or fraudulent use of H-1B visas. These provisions represent a reasonable compromise between many different stakeholders and would make great strides in addressing the problems described in this article. Ms. Szabo of CTA agrees: “comprehensive immigration reform would be a major piece in solving the talent dilemma facing CTA’s members.”

At this critical point in time, it is important for attorneys to urge their corporate clients to “weigh in” on this important issue so that comprehensive immigration reform can move forward, more H-1B visas can be made available, and U.S. companies can have the freedom to select and employ the professionals of their choice.

This article by Senior Partner, Ken Stern,  was originally published on January 6, 2014 in Vol. 12,  No.1 of Law Week Colorado.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 80 Comments

USCIS Will Not Offer TPS Status for Filipinos Impacted by Typhoon

After the devastating typhoon that hit the Philippines on November 8th of last year, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) pressed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to consider granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to impacted Filipinos. In a letter responding to that request, Director Alejandro Mayorkas states that USCIS will “continue to monitor the situation in the Philippines,” but makes no suggestion that TPS will be granted to nationals of the Philippines.  The Director encourages those impacted by the typhoon to utilize other forms of relief, such as those outlined on the USCIS website. These options include expedited processing of some petitions and extensions of certain grants of parole.

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 101 Comments

ICE Releases Report on FY 2013 Deportations

Earlier this month, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released their annual report on removals for fiscal year 2013.  ICE performed 368,644 removals, of which 133,551 were within U.S. borders.  According to ICE, the majority of individuals who were picked up within the U.S. have criminal convictions, suggesting that they came into contact with law enforcement, which then triggered an order of deportation. Of the 235,093 deportations not originating from within the interior of the U.S.,  95% were intercepted by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) before being turned over to ICE for removal proceedings. ICE maintains that it focuses its efforts on the deportation of individuals with criminal records, while also preventing immigrants from crossing the border without documentation.

Most of the deported individuals hail from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador respectively, with the vast majority being Mexican nationals.

 

 

 

by SCwpadmin SCwpadmin 452 Comments

CBP Expands Definition of Family Members

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be expanding the definition of “members of a family residing in one household” to include long-term same-sex couples. In practice, this means that same-sex couples and their families will be able to file one joint customs declaration upon entry to the United States. CBP reports that they anticipate the change saving “up to $2.8 million annually in personnel time.” Additionally, the rule provides for “other domestic relationships” such as foster children and stepchildren. The rule will go into effect on January 17, 2014 and applies to U.S. citizens, legal residents, and international visitors.

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