INFINITI LAW
Immigration Bulletin
- 4th Quarter 2007
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Infiniti Law is a transactions-based law practice that provides innovative, superior quality, and cost-effective legal solutions to companies in the areas of corporate and general business law, intellectual property law, employment law, and business immigration law. The company's vision is to act as the equivalent of an 'in-house corporate counsel' for your company---providing all of the typical transactional legal services needed to establish, run, and protect your business in a cost-effective, service oriented manner.

The following guides can now be downloaded from our website:
  • 2008 H1b Guide for Employers
  • 2008 H1b Guide for Foreign Nationals
  • 2008 H1b Guide for Foreign Students at US Universities
The filing period for the 2009 Fiscal Year H1b filings will begin 4/1/08. The USCIS's fiscal year runs from 10/01 to 09/30 but the USCIS allows applications to be filed 6 months prior to the requested employment date...so applications can be filed on 4/1/08 requesting employment beginning 10/1/08. The H1b quota was reached the first day of the filing period during the 2008 fiscal year and we are anticipating that the demand will be equally high this year. Thus, we are urging all clients to take the H1b quota into account when developing their hiring plans for 2008 and to begin their H1b filings as soon as possible so that the filings can be submitted to the USCIS on 04/01/2008.
Priority Date Update: The priority dates for January 2008 are as follows:
  • EB1 category is current (i.e. no quota delay) for all countries
  • EB2 category is current for all countries except China & India ( for India only people with priority dates prior to 01/01/2000 are considered current; for China only people with priority dates prior to 01/01/03 are considered current)
  • EB3 category is backlogged for all countries (filing dates considered current for all countries except China, India, Mexico & Philippines are those prior to 10/15/02; dates for India are those prior to 05/01/01; dates for China are those prior to 11/01/01; dates for Mexico are those prior to 04/22/01; dates for the Philippines are those prior to 10/15/02)

Update on Premium Processing: Premium Processing of I-140s was temporarily suspended in the summer of 2007 due to the high volume of applications anticipated. The USCIS' temporary suspension was then extended indefinitely. There is still no news of when the premium processing program will be reopened for I140 filings.

Reminder Regarding Labor Certifications: The first I- 140 filing deadline that the new DOL rule that went into effect on July 16, 2007 created is quickly approaching. Under the new DOL rule, approved labor certifications now expire if an I140 application is not filed with the USCIS within 180 days of the certification date. For applications which were approved prior to the adoption of the regulation, the labor certifications expire 180 days from 7/16/2007.
USCIS published a final rule removing the requirement that certain H and L nonimmigrants returning from travel abroad present an I-485 receipt notice at a port of entry to avoid having the adjustment application deemed abandoned.
The USCIS has issued a revised I-9 form. The I-9 is the Employment Eligibility Verification form used by employer's. The new form is now available (along with a new M-274 (instruction guide for completing the I-9)) on our website. Penalties & sanctions will apply for employers after 12/26/07 for not using the updated form.
USCIS issued an advisory stating that it received such a large number of applications in July & August that it has affected their overall processing times. In July & August they received 2.5 million applications (compared to 1.2 million applications filed during that period during 2006). They state that they are working to improve their processes and are increasing their resources---including hiring 1,500 new employees--- to address the increased workload.
There is currently a backlog in the FBI name check clearance process that is part of various USCIS applications, including Adjustment of Status and Naturalization applications. DHS Secretary Chertoff announced that the USCIS and the FBI are changing parts of the name check process in such a way that they expect that a large proportion of the backlog should be cleared within six months.
Our Roseville office has moved to a new building. Our new address is: 915 Highland Pointe Drive, Ste 250, Roseville, CA 95678.

Our San Francisco office address remains unchanged (505 Montgomery Street Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94111)

If you know of anyone who would be interested in receiving our immigration bulletin, please feel free to forward it using the link below. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me.

SEASONS GREETINGS & BEST WISHES FOR 2008!
Charlotte Danielsson, Esq
JD Stanford Law School; BA Economics--UC Berkeley

phone: (415)874-3540
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