Immigration Articles  |
| Useful articles on a variety of immigration topics. |
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| These businesses cannot survive without temporary labor |
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| The debate over increasing the number of workers that can be brought into U.S. through the H2B program is heating up. The demand for H2B workers has greatly outstripped the number of visas, currently 66,000, which Congress makes available each year. |
| Embark on a religious journey to U.S. through R1 visa; New rules seek to eliminate fraud and bring integrity back to religious workers. |
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| It may soon become harder to get an R visa as a religious worker. Over the past few years the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US Consulates overseas, and the USCIS has determined that the R visa category is susceptible to fraud. The first report on the potential for fraud in the program was issued by the GAO in March 1999, over 8 years ago. USCIS, through the Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) Office, continued to review the program to look for weaknesses. In fact FDNS has found that as many as onethird of the cases filed under the R visa category are fraudulent. |
| Get Geared for the H1B Season |
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| We bring to you first hand insight into the “talk of the town”: H1B quota and all the preparation and paper work that the companies are getting ready with this year. |
| Raj becomes a successful consultant in the USA |
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| Raj is a database architect whose services are in great demand. Raj is currently employed by a small consulting firm in the United States where he works under a work visa on projects that client companies all over the US outsource to his employer. Raj's work is so well respected by the project managers at client companies that many of them specifically ask that the consulting firm assign Raj to work on their projects. |
| Plan your H1B filings: Don’t miss the bus for FY 2007 |
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| Because of H1B cap issues, you need to plan for the next financial year in advance. At this point you need to devise a suitable strategy for hiring a foreign national and plan the filing accordingly. If you miss petitioning for an employee before the cap is reached this year, you will have to wait until next year to file an H1B petition or look for an alternate visa category, which may or may not match your requirements.
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| A cold December for proimmigration measures |
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| The “immigration shocks” started with the passing of H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Bill in the House of Representatives. A mere three days later, the House passed a conference report on the budget reconciliation package that omitted the provisions that would have recaptured unused H1B and employmentbased visa numbers. |
| H1B quota 2006: U.S. employers taken by surprise |
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| The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced on August 12, 2005 that it had met the 65,000 H1B congressionally mandated cap for the 2006 fiscal year, which means that companies that need highly educated foreign professionals with critical skills will have to wait nearly 14 months before they can obtain this needed expertise. |
| Visa Number Retrogression: Tough times continue for US employers |
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| In September 2005, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the Visa Bulletin for the month of October 2005 which reflects widespread ‘retrogression’ in most of the employmentbased (EB) immigrant visa categories, affecting individuals from China and India in particular. It is essential to understand the concept of ‘visa number’ and ‘retrogression’, as they have a huge impact on the employment based green card process and longterm immigration strategy. |
| Hurricane Katrina: An Opportunity for H2B Workers to Help Rebuild |
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| The immense damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the Gulf Coast is projected to require an ‘unprecedented’ cleanup costing up to $100 billion. However, navigating through the various rules and regulations that are rapidly changing to accommodate Katrina reconstruction comes with its own set of difficulties. One such difficulty being experienced by small and medium sized Oil companies is the shortage of skilled workers such as divers to perform under water salvage, inspection and reconstruction related work. |
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