INFINITI LAW
Immigration Bulletin
- 1st Quarter 2008
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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 filing period for the 2009 Fiscal Year H1b filings will begin 4/1/08. The USCIS' 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 demand will be equally high this year. Thus, we are recommending that all filings be done on 4/1/08. If you need an H1b filed, please contact us immediately.
As announced on the 'H1b News' page of our website, the CIS was expected to release a regulation prohibiting duplicate H1b filings in January that would govern filings for the 2009FY H1b filings that begin on 4/2/08. While clearly multiple filings for the same beneficiary by the same employer for the same position would be considered duplicates, it is unclear how broad the CIS' definition of what a 'duplicate' filing is will be. The CIS missed their expected January 2008 release date. Today (3/17/08), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cleared for publication an interim regulation relating to duplicate H1b filings for the upcoming filing period. Once a regulation is cleared by OMB, it goes back to the agency for signature, and then it is forwarded to the Federal Register for publication (this process typically takes a few days or weeks). It is anticipated that this regulation will be published prior to 4/1/08 but no information is currently available regarding the contents of the regulation.
Priority Date Update: The priority dates for April 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 12/01/2003 are considered current; for China only people with priority dates prior to 12/01/03 are considered current)
  • EB3 category is backlogged for all countries (priority dates considered current for all countries except China, India, & Mexico are those prior to 07/01/2005; priority dates considered current for India & Mexico are 10/01/2001; priority dates considered current for China are those prior to 02/08/2003).

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.

PERM Audits Increase: The number of PERM audits has increased in 2008. The Department of Labor's Backlog Elimination Centers were closed in late 2007 after clearing the pre-PERM backlog of labor certifications, thus allowing the Department of Labor to utilize more staff for audits..
The DOL released a report regarding PERM filings in 2007. More than 85,100 PERM cases were certified during the 2007FY. Highlights from the report:

  • Beneficiaries were from 176 countries
  • Top countries: India (24,573), China (6,846), Mexico (6,442), South Korea (5,159), Canada (4,837)
  • Nearly 6 our of 10 PERM cases certified were from small employers with less than 250 workers
  • Top states: California (20,222), New York (8,843), New Jersey (6,594), Texas (6,534), and Florida (5,128)
  • Top Economic Sectors: IT (21,581), Advanced Manufacturing (11,980)
  • Top Occupations: Computer Software Engineers (9,844), System Software Engineers (5,716), Computer System Analysts (4,012)
The CIS experienced an increase in the number of naturalization applications received during the 2007 Fiscal Year, with a significant increase occurring in the summer of 2007. The CIS announced on 3/14/08, that individuals who filed for citizenship during the summer of 2007 can now anticipate an average processing time of 14-16 months.
Previous editions of our immigration newsletter are now available on our website via our newsletter archive.
Due to the long delay in receiving the name check results from the FBI in Adjustment of Status applications, the CIS has changed its adjudication procedures. Previously, the CIS could not adjudicate a pending adjustment of status application until the FBI name check results were received. Under the new policy, the CIS will adjudicate adjustment of status applications even if the FBI Name Check result has not yet been received in cases where the FBI Name Check has been pending for at least 180 days. If the CIS receives actionable adverse information from the FBI after the adjustment of status application has already been adjudicated, the CIS will detain the applicant and initiate removal proceedings. The CIS expects to significantly reduce the backlog of adjustment of status applications as a result of this new policy.

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.

Sincerely,
Charlotte Danielsson, Esq
JD Stanford Law School; BA Economics--UC Berkeley

phone: (415)874-3540
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