President Obama recently signed a bill to extend the EB-5 regional center investment program, which was set to expire at the end of September this year. The regional center investment program allows individuals to invest $500,000 in a program that has been approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and use that investment as the basis for a permanent residence application. The regional center program obviates the need for investors to create their own business enterprise that directly creates 10 jobs for American workers, and instead allows them to meet the requirements by investing in an ongoing enterprise and indirectly creating 10 jobs for American workers.
New Colorado Affirmation Form
All public and private Colorado employers are now required to the complete the specific Colorado Affirmation form created by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The new form can be used for employees hired between October 1, 2012 and October 1, 2014 and should not be used for those hired before September 6, 2012. As with the previous version, employers are required to keep the form along with copies of the documents provided by the employee for the completion of the I-9. The affirmation and documentation must only be kept for the duration of employment. Stern & Curray recommends that affirmation forms and accompanying documentation be purged when the employment relationship ends.
Release of New Form I-9 Anticipated
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is working on several revisions to Form I-9, including expansion of the form to two pages, expansion of the instructions to six pages, changes to Section 1, and a revised layout. The new version has not yet been approved so employers should continue to use the version of the form with the expiration date of 8/31/12 until the new one is posted at www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf.
EB-2 Worldwide is Current
The recently issued visa bulletin for November 2012 indicates that the EB-2 worldwide category will be current as of November 1, 2012. The EB-2 worldwide category retrogressed in July 2012 and has remained backlogged to date. Once the category becomes current, a visa number is guaranteed to be available for all EB-2 applicants who were not born in India or China through the end of the month. Please check our blog frequently for updates on visa bulletin movement.
Proposed Stateside Waiver Process
Currently, many people who are applying for lawful permanent residence have to leave the United States and request the immigrant visa from a U.S. consulate abroad. Since a large percentage of these applicants were in the United States for more than a year without authorization, they need a waiver of that ground of inadmissibility before they can be granted the immigrant visa to reenter the U.S. The waiver application process abroad usually results in months or even years outside the U.S. and separation from family. In part to remedy these long periods of family separation, in January of this year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service published a Notice of Intent for proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register. This notice proposed a plan to transfer the adjudication of the waiver applications from abroad to processing in the United States before the applicant has to travel. Since the decision on the waiver takes place before the applicant leaves for the interview at the consulate abroad, the waiting time outside the United States and the uncertainty of the waiver outcome would be greatly diminished. As of this writing on October 4, 2012, the proposed “stateside waiver” procedure is not yet in effect. There is no guarantee that the proposed rule will ever go into effect. However, there is strong indication that the change in the process will occur and many speculate that it will be final before the end of this year.
Number of Deferred Action Applications Lower than Anticipated
It’s been little over a month since USCIS began accepting applications for the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The program, which provides protection from deportation along with work authorization in two year increments, applies only to so-called “childhood arrivals” or “Dreamers,” those immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who either fell out of legal status or never had it to begin with. An August report from the Migration Policy Institute estimates that the number of eligible applicants is near 1.76 million. However, as of September 14th, only 82,361 applications had been received, and of that number only 29 applications had been approved (AILA InfoNet). Stern & Curray represents many Dreamers applying for deferred action status.
USCIS Issues New Rule about Change in H-1B’s Location
The California Service Center has issued a new policy about filing amended H-1B petitions for H-1B beneficiaries who change locations. In the past, USCIS has indicated that if a company files a new LCA before the H-1B beneficiary changes locations, an amended H-1B petition is not required. According to the new California Service Center policy, and experiences of companies in the field, companies must file an amended H-1B petition if an H-1B beneficiary changes locations even if the company already has an approved LCA in place that covers the new location.
Please contact us for more information if you have an H-1B beneficiary who has changed locations.
DREAMer Deferred Action Update
On July 19th, Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, made her first appearance before Congress since the June 15 memorandum on deferred action policies for qualified DREAMers. (Please see Stern & Curray LLC blog post of Wednesday, June 2012 for more information on the specifics of the program). In her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Napolitano explained that the department hopes to finalize guidelines for the process by August 1st and stated that DHS officially will begin accepting deferred action applications from undocumented youth on August 15th. A fee charged for the deferred action application would ensure the process does not pose an extra burden on taxpayers, Napolitano said. However, the amount of the fee is still unknown. Also unknown is what form an applicant for deferred action will be required to use. For Secretary Nepolitano’s full testimony, please visit http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Hearings%202012/Napolitano%2007192012.pdf
Immigrants Create Jobs
A number of studies show that overall immigrants greatly benefit the U.S. economy by starting businesses and creating jobs. Some key findings:
• Immigrants are entrepreneurial, being 30% more likely to start businesses than non-immigrants
• Although immigrants comprise 13% of the overall population, they own 18% of all small businesses
• 28% of new businesses started in 2011 were started by immigrants
• 18% of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants; another 22% were founded by children of immigrants
• Businesses owned by immigrants employed almost 5 million people and contributed over $776 billion to the economy in 2007
• Public companies started by immigrants include Google, Yahoo, eBay, Intel, Carnival Cruise Lines, DuPont, Nvidia, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble and US Steel
Sources: Fiscal Policy Institute, Small Business Administration, SmartMoney, Forbes, Washington Post, CNN Money
Immigrants Create Jobs
A number of studies show that overall immigrants greatly benefit the U.S. economy by starting businesses and creating jobs. Some key findings:
- Immigrants are entrepreneurial, being 30% more likely to start businesses than non-immigrants
- Although immigrants comprise 13% of the overall population, they own 18% of all small businesses
- 28% of new businesses started in 2011 were started by immigrants
- 18% of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants; another 22% were founded by children of immigrants
- Businesses owned by immigrants employed almost 5 million people and contributed over $776 billion to the economy in 2007
- Public companies started by immigrants include Google, Yahoo, eBay, Intel, Carnival Cruise Lines, DuPont, Nvidia, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble and US Steel
Sources: Fiscal Policy Institute, Small Business Administration, SmartMoney, Forbes, Washington Post, CNN Money