Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak (NPZ) Law Group, P.C. - U.S. and Canadian Immigration and Nationality Newsletter and Update.
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Dear Readers: 

For a time of the year that is supposed to be quiet on the U.S. immigration and nationality law front (but set in the wake of inflammatory statement(s) made by "the DONALD" (Trump), the following words were issued in a recent report from the White House . . . "For more than 200 years, the United States has welcomed immigrants from around the world into our nation, enhancing our diversity, culture, and economy. These waves of immigrants have kept our country young, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. By emphasizing the reunification of families and specific employment needs as well as honoring our commitment to welcoming those fleeing persecution, the layers of our immigration system complement each other, underscore our best values, and contribute to economic growth locally and nationally. Immigrants' families, employers and communities help newcomers adjust, set down roots, and strengthen local communities. Our nation prospers when all the layers of our legal immigration system work together so that individuals can work and create businesses, reunite with their families, and build sustainable lives that enhance communities at a local level and grow our economy."  It is as simple as that!  


Further to these words, there have been some interesting and exciting recent immigration law developments. First, the President's Executive Actions (announced in November, 2014), with regard to "provisional waivers" is now a proposed rule. We continue to point out how this proposed new rule will further "family unity". Second, and as previously pointed out, if you have received a three year Employment Authorization (EAD) Card from the USCIS for a DACA extension, please check online about how to return that document and to have a two year EAD issued to replace it. If you do not do so, USCIS may come knocking on your door! Third, the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) announced that, after more than six years as the Chief Immigration Judge, Judge Brian M. O'Leary is stepping-down to return to the immigration bench in Arlington. The EOIR will soon begin recruiting a new Chief Immigration Judge. In the interim, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Print Maggard will serve as the Acting Chief Immigration Judge. 


Additionally, in the interests of "spiritual enlightenment", on April 7th, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, in Shalom Pentecostal Church v. Acting Secretary DHS, 783 F.3d 156 (3d Cir. 2015), found the regulatory requirements that qualifying work experience gained in the U.S. must have been acquired in lawful status ("lawful status requirements") in 8 CFR 204.5(m)(4) and (11) to be beyond the Department's legal authority (ultra vires). The Court found that the statute was clear and unambiguous and that the regulation was inconsistent with the statute. As a result of this decision, USCIS will no longer deny special immigrant religious worker petitions based upon the lawful status requirements. Also, USCIS announced this week that it has returned all of the H-1B nonimmigrant petitions that did not make the April 1st cap. If you received your H-1B back, we invite you consider some H-1B alternatives like the E visa, a cap-exempt H-1B, the O-1, the J-1, and others.

 
The foregoing developments are slowly opening doors for clients and potential clients of the Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak (NPZ) Law Group. Each day our immigration lawyers and attorneys work hard to provide creative methodologies for solving immigration law issues for our clients, their friends and members of their families. If you, or anyone you know, may be able to benefit from the U.S. immigration and nationality law services of the NPZ Law Group, please feel free to have them contact us by e-mail at info@visaserve.com or you/they can call us to 201-670-0006 (x107).

Also, we are excited to announce that, for the benefit and convenience of our growing client base, we have opened a NEW NPZ Law Group office in Massachusetts. The office is located at 300 Brickstone Square, Suite 201, in Andover, MA.  01810. Please feel free to call x107 to schedule an appointment with a member of our staff in Massachusetts.
 

FRAUD, TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS, AND/OR MISREPRESENTATION THAT COULD TRIGGER H-1B VISA REFUSAL OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING UNDER 221(g) AT A CONSULAR POST By: Michael Phulwani, Esq., David H. Nachman, Esq. and Rabindra K. Singh, Esq.      

Upon approval of H-1B petition by the USCIS[ii], foreign nationals residing abroad may need to go to the U.S. Consulate/Embassy to get an H-1B visa stamped into their passport before they can travel to and enter the United States. Before going for the visa interview, it is very important for a visa applicant to understand the purpose of the visa interview, the discretionary powers vested in the Consular Officers, and most importantly the kind of fraud, technical violations and/or misrepresentation that could result in visa refusal or administrative processing.

 

First and foremost, it is very important to understand that although Consular Officers cannot re-adjudicate petitions approved by the USCIS, Consular Officers can certainly review the petitions to determine the eligibility of visa applicants. Consular Officers, thus, are vested with wide and discretionary powers. Till date, there is no set mechanism in-place by which a foreign national, applying for a visa abroad, can challenge a Consular Officer's unfavorable exercise of discretion.

 

FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION, CLICK HERE . . . 

USCIS ON H-1B VISAS: THE USCIS ANNOUNCES THAT IT RETURNED UNSELECTED FISCAL YEAR 2016 H-1B CAP-SUBJECT PETITIONS.  

On July 14th, 2015, USCIS announced the completion of returning FY2016 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the computer generated random selection process. USCIS has urged that if your client submitted an H-1B cap-subject petition for FY2016, and does not receive a receipt notice or returned petition by July 20th, 2015, then they need to immediately contact the USCIS.

 

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 
PREMIUM PROCESSING UPDATE: USCIS RESUMES PREMIUM PROCESSING FOR EXTENSION OF STAY H-1B PETITIONS.       

USCIS announced that beginning July 13th, 2015, it will resume accepting Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for all Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, H-1B extension of stay petitions. Premium processing requests for Form I-129 H-1B extension of stay petitions received by USCIS before July 13th, 2015 will be rejected.


On May 19th, 2015, USCIS announced that premium processing services would be suspended for Form I-129 H-1B extension of stay petitions from May 26th, 2015 to July 27th, 2015 as a result of the  implementation of new H-4 EAD rule.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

NEWS FROM THE DOS: IMMIGRANT VISA PROCESSING RESUMES IN SUDAN.       

Recently, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan announced the resumption of Immigrant Visa processing in Sudan for the first time in nearly 20 years. Starting in July 2015, applicants for all categories of Immigrant Visas, including Immediate Relatives (IR) Non-Preference Family, Fiance's (K Visas) and Diversity Visa lottery winners will be able to interview and process their visas in Khartoum.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT? USCIS TO IMPLEMENT A CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS WORKER VISA PROCESSING BASED UPON THE SHALOM PENTECOSTAL DECISION.       

Based on the Third Circuit's decision in Shalom Pentecostal case, the USCIS has released a policy memo instructing adjudicators not to require that qualifying U.S. work experience have been acquired in lawful status for Form I-360 special immigrant religious worker petitions.  

 

This new policy memorandum applies to all Form I-360 petitions for special immigrant religious worker status currently pending with USCIS and to any new petitions filed on or after July 5th, 2015.

 

This is an exciting new development as many of our religious worker clients continue to have issues with showing that they had/have valid work authorized status while working for their religious organizations.  

 

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS SET FORTH IN POLICY MEMORANDUM, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

DO YOU HAVE A THREE YEAR DACA EAD? USCIS RELEASES IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT 3 YEARS DACA EADS PREVIOUSLY ISSUED.   

On July 15th, 2015; USCIS issued a notification for those DACA recipients who received a three-year Employment Authorization Document (EAD) after February 16th, 2015. The notification clearly indicated that the 3-year EADs were mistakenly issued and must be returned. 


About 2,100 recipients were issued three-year Employment Authorization Documents, rather than two-year EADs, after the February 16th, 2015, court injunction was in-place. USCIS has taken action(s) to correct this issue for these individuals and has updated their records to reflect a two-year period of deferred action and employment authorization.  

 

USCIS has re-issued and mailed the corrected two-year EADs to these individuals. USCIS has also notified these individuals that the three-year EADs are no longer valid and must be immediately returned, along with any related approval notices. USCIS is carefully tracking the number of returns of these invalid EADs and continues to take steps to collect the remaining cards. In a recent teleconference, USCIS stated that it will be sending agents door-to-door to collect any of the documents not voluntarily turned-in.  

 

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . .

DIVERSITY VISA UPDATE: DIVERSITY VISA PROGRAM DV-2015 EXHAUSTION OF DV NUMBERS.

DOS sent a recent alert that the 50,000 diversity visas available for the 2015 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2015) have been exhausted. The DV-2015 annual limits for all regions have been reached based on the determination of the September DV-2015 rank cut-offs.

 

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

THE AUGUST 2015 VISA BULLETIN: DOS REPORTS AUGUST 2015 VISA NUMBERS - IS YOUR PRIORITY DATE CURRENT?  IF SO, PLEASE LET US KNOW.     

The Department of State released the August 2015 Visa Bulletin.  Retrogression of the Philippines EB-3 continues. Although the July Visa Bulletin showed that Philippine EB-3 was unavailable, this month shows June 1, 2004. This means that there are a few available visas for this fiscal year. All Other EB-3 categories are essentially current. This is great news for all EB-3s, other than for the Philippines, China, and India. India EB-2 remained at October 1, 2008. On the other hand, India EB-3 is moving along nicely. It is at June 2004. China EB-2 improved by two and a half months to December 15, 2013 and EB-3 remained at September 1, 2011. The story was much different for China EB-3, which retrogressed to 2004.

 

CLICK HERE & READ MORE . . .

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 


"IMMIGRATION NEWS AND VIEWS" - NPZ'S NEW PRACTICAL SERIES ON YOUTUBE ABOUT VARIOUS U.S. AND CANADIAN IMMIGRATION LAW ISSUES.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING FOR H-1B APPLICANTS AT THE CONSULATE OFFICES ABROAD?  

  

 
* Administrative Processing:
1. Working at different addresses that are not listed on LCA.
2. Different regulations that are of additional scrutiny.
3. Putting more than one location on LCA to avoid amended H-1B applications.
4. Short term placement for 30-60 days.
5. Transferring workers from low income areas to high Income areas.
6. Site visits.

* Detention and Removal and EOIR:
1. Huge backlogs in Immigration court.
2. for the government.
3. Causes of extreme hardship for long detention processes.
4. Working at different addresses that are not listed on LCA.
7. Different regulations that are of additional scrutiny.
8. Putting more than one location on LCA to avoid amended H-1B applications.
9. Short term placement for 30-60 days.
10. Business Transferring workers from low income areas to high Income areas.
11. Site visits.

DACA/DAPA (President Obama's Executive Actions). | Recent Immigration Rule.   

 

 
  

1. Improvements to recruitment and advertising process with the DOL and Modifications to visa allocations which may have contributed to recent movement in visa numbers.

2. Addressing the DACA/DAPA issue with possible rule-making.
3. DACA/DAPA going towards Supreme Court may take several months to a year.
4. Utilization of Prosecutorial Discretion.
5. Concern of Republicans with what President Obama has done.
6. Removals have been high under President Obama.
7. Obama to become lenient on deporting people in order to get DACA/DAPA through.
* Recent Proposed Immigration Rules:
1. Parole-In-Place for Entrepreneurs and job creators.
2. Work Authorization for AC-21.