The month of July marks the first anniversary of the Presidential SAVE (Securing Americans’ Value and Efficiency) Award. It was a year ago that the President launched the SAVE Award by which he aim to get ideas directly from federal workers all over the world on how government can cut waste and save taxpayer dollars. One of the astonishing things of this year’s SAVE Award is people are contributing whole-heartedly and enthusiastically and one of the biggest examples of this is – the fact that in just three weeks, federal employees submitted more than 38,000 ideas identifying opportunities through which government can save money and perform better.
Let us just recapitulate the last year’s winner of SAVE Award and her winning idea. The winner of SAVE Award 2009 was Ms. Nancy Fichtner from Loma, Colorado and the idea that won her the award was: veterans leaving VA hospitals should be able to take the medicine they’ve been using home with them instead of it being thrown away when they’re discharged. So, if you are a federal employee and you have and idea, just submit it. Who knows you might be the winner of the SAVE Award, and your simple idea could make huge difference in many people’s life.
Well, you would not be surprised to know that its been 4 months since the USCIS started accepting H-1B petitions but it has not yet received sufficient number of H-1B visa petitions to meet the 65,000 cap for the fiscal year 2011. In such a scenario, it is practically impossible to predict how long the H-1B visas will be available. If you are an employer or an employee aspiring for an H-1B visa for fiscal year 2011, make sure that you file the application as per the revised fee. On June 28, 2010, the DOS published its Schedule of Fees for immigrant visas, nonimmigrant visas and consular services, which took effect on July 13, 2010.
We understand that it is extremely difficult to search for jobs in the U.S. especially when you are not inside the U.S. Understanding this concern the Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has developed a new web-based tool, the H-2A Job Registry, allowing the foreign workers to search and retrieve temporary agricultural jobs with unprecedented ease and timeliness. This new tool was developed to comply with the Department’s new H-2A regulations implemented on March 15, 2010, and is fully integrated into the OFLC’s iCERT Visa Portal System. For the first time, U.S. workers and organizations representing farm workers will have convenient access to learn about temporary agricultural jobs accepted by the OFLC through a single public location and searchable along a series of common data points. The H-2A Job Registry will display all active agricultural jobs until 50 percent of the period of employment has elapsed as well as an archive of certified agricultural jobs for up to 5 years.
Other Developments in Immigration Law:
DOS Releases Visa Bulletin for August 2010: Substantial Advancement for EB-2 and EB-3
The Department of State (DOS) has recently released the Visa Bulletin for August 2010. The August 2010 Visa Bulletin shows substantial advancement in priority date cut-offs for EB-2 and EB-3.
H-2A Visa Aspirants Can Now Search and Retrieve Temporary Agricultural Jobs through a New Web-Based Tool, H-2A Job Registry
The Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has developed a new web-based tool, the H-2A Job Registry, which allows the H-2A visa aspirants to search and retrieve temporary agricultural jobs. This new tool was developed to comply with new DOL H-2A regulations implemented on March 15, 2010.
Immigration Articles and Other Fun Stuff:
Now for the regulars – this month’s Immigration Article entitled ‘Visa Status: Difference Between Visa and Status’ clarifies the difference between the terms visa and status and also explains why is important to understand the difference between the two legal terms. Also check out our In Focus section for this month entitled ‘When to Use USCIS Premium Processing Service?’ to learn how to use USCIS Premium Processing Service so that you can get a response from USCIS within 15 calendar days.
Every month we introduce a new and interesting question for our opinion poll. Last month’s poll results indicate that 86.36% of the respondents believe that it is not wise to increase the nonimmigrant visa fee. We appreciate that people take interest in the opinion question and cast their vote to give us their feedback. Keep it up! And continue to cast your vote to express Your Opinion.
We congratulate Naeem for winning last month’s Immigration Quiz. Again, we received a significant number of responses from our readers, who talked about various solutions to support their position, but Naeem gave the correct answer and won a free online consultation to discuss the concerned Immigration issues. So it’s time to get ready for this month’s quiz. If you know the correct answer your name might be featured in next month’s newsletter. All the Best!!!
