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As many of our H-1B petitioners and beneficiaries will be starting their H-1Bs during the next few days/weeks, we remind everyone that it is "never too early to start the green card process". We are also reminded about the important "first step" in the process that took many foreign students to the H-1B nonimmigrant professional and specialty occupation visa . . .

The U.S. continues to be a destination for students from around the world. They come to attend the nation's colleges and universities. They often stay to pursue job opportunities and then go on to apply for the green card and to make their lives here. Unfortunately, the U.S. immigration system continues to throw-up barriers at every step of the way (from 221(g) issues at the Consulates abroad to difficult issues presented for Reinstatement Applications). The fact of the matter is that international students add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy each year.

Additionally, statistics show that foreign students who remain are more likely to start businesses and contribute to innovation than their American counterparts. Presently, as the economy slowly recovers it vigor, there is a disparate recovery in the international student population applying for positions in the academic institutions in the U.S. This ongoing frustration has lead to more and more college presidents, professors, and higher education administrators declaring support for improving our nation's immigration policies.

As we have referenced in the past, immigrants are significantly influencing the economic activity of every state in our country. For every 100 foreign-born graduates of a U.S. master's or doctoral program who stay in American working in a STEM field, their employment creates 262 jobs for American workers. Clearly, it makes no sense for us to spend our time developing great minds that want to be in the US and contribute meaningfully to our culture and economy only to send them away.

As active members of NAFSA, NPZ sees the toll of the dysfunctional immigration system daily. It is for this reason that the Immigration Lawyers and Immigration Attorneys at NPZ continue to urge the House of Representatives to follow the Senate's lead and vote to overhaul the U.S. immigration system. For more information about international student visas or immigration to the U.S. or Canada, please feel free to contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 201-670-0006 (x100). 

We are given to understand that the Federal Government will be experiencing a temporary shut-down because the Republicans and the Democrats cannot find a way to compromise on many budget issues. As many already know, the U.S. Government will only be providing "essential services". Some of those services are immigration-related and others are not.

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

Government Shutdown Does Not Impact Our Ability To Work for Our Immigration Law Clients.

Government shutdown, Immigration, Visas, Essential services, government workers, USCIS, CBP, CIS, ICE, DOL, DOS, INS.  

Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak (NPZ) Law Group is pleased, once again, to announce that, during November 2013, prominent U.S. Immigration Attorneys and Representatives from the NPZ Law Group will be visiting India and meeting with corporate, and other, clients and with U.S. Consulate Officials. They will visit the U.S. Consulate Offices in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. They will also be visiting clients and friends in Ahmadabad. They will be in India between November 9th 2013 and November 23rd 2013.

This is a continuation of several articles providing AILA's (American Immigration Lawyers Association) on various topics contained in Senate Bill S. 744 which was passed by the Senate.

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

One of the major reasons that Citizenship is denied to applicants is because they have made a "false claim to U.S. Citizenship".

Nachman Phulwani Zimovcak Law Group, P.C., an international Immigration Law Firm (with Offices in NY, NJ and affiliated offices in Canada and Mumbai) recently heard that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of State (DOS) have stated that they will amend the Field Manual and the Foreign Affairs Manual to reflect the some position like "Only a knowingly false claim can support a charge that an individual is inadmissible under section 212(a)(6)(C)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The individual claiming not to know that the claim to citizenship was false has the burden of establishing this affirmative defense by the appropriate standard of proof (for applicants for admission or adjustment, "clearly and beyond doubt")".

Immigration & Nationality Act makes available up to 55,000 permanent resident immigrant visas each year by random selection through a Diversity Visa lottery (DV). The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Diversity Visa entries are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing.  

The visas are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than 7% of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.

FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE DV LOTTERY PROGRAM, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . .

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered annually by the Department of State (DOS). Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants," from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For Fiscal year 2015, 50,000 diversity visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV Program.

Applicants who are selected in the lottery ("Selectees") must meet simple, but strict, eligibility requirements in order to qualify for a diversity visa. Selectees are chosen through a randomized computer drawing. Diversity visas are distributed among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.

For DV-2015, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years:

Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible.

For DV-2015, natives of Nigeria are no longer eligible.

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . .

Recently, an article published in New York Times reported that House Democratic Leaders are working on a broad immigration proposal that will attempt to align both parties. The requirements will include a citizenship pathway for 11 million undocumented immigrants.  

It is anticipated that immigration reform discussions will heat-up on the House floor in the month of October. With mass rallies and demonstrations organized for early October (across the U.S.), we expect that the House of Representatives may make a decision before the years ends.

TO READ MORE, PLEASE CLICK HERE . . . 

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released its October 2013 Visa Bulletin which sets out per country priority date cutoffs that regulate the flow of adjustment of status (AOS) and consular immigrant visa applications. Foreign nationals may file applications to adjust their status to that of permanent resident or to obtain approval of an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad, provided that their priority dates are prior to the respective cutoff dates specified by the DOS.

In August, the cutoff date in the EB-2 category for individuals chargeable to India advanced by three years and four months in an effort to fully utilize the numbers available under the annual limit. As a result of a decrease in the use of EB-1 numbers and in the use of EB-2 numbers from most other countries, the cutoff date in this category advanced in September by an additional five-and-a-half months, a greater advancement than was anticipated. The October Visa Bulletin indicates no movement of this cutoff date. For October, all EB-1 categories remain current.

Cutoff dates in the EB-3 category for individuals from most countries advanced significantly between April and July. It was anticipated that such movement would result in a dramatic increase in demand within this category within a few months. No such increase has materialized.