USCIS updated its count of FY2011 cap-subject H-1B petitions and advanced degree cap-exempt petitions receipted. As of 11/16/2010, approximately 47,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted against the overall quota of 65,000. USCIS has also receipted 17,400 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions against the separate quota of 20,000.

The USCIS' new filing fees go into effect on November 23, 2010. The new fee for an I-485 application for a child under the age of 14 was not initially provided by the USCIS when it announced the new fee schedule. 

The new filing fee for a child under the age of 14 will be $635 as long as the child's application is being submitted concurrently with that of the parent and the child's basis for applying is the same as the parent's.

The new fee of $985 will apply to I-485 applications for children

under the age of 14 whose I-485 applications are not submitted concurrently with that of the parent, or are not based on derivative status, or are on a basis other than that of a parent.

On November 10, 2010, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced the expansion of the E-Verify program's capabilities to include U.S. passport photo matching - further enhancing the integrity of the program by enabling E-Verify to automatically check the validity and authenticity of all U.S. passports and passport cards presented for employment verification checks.

Approximately 10 percent of all E-Verify queries currently provide a U.S. passport to establish both identity and employment authorization in order to prove employment eligibility.

Yesterday, the Department of State published the December 2010 Visa Bulletin, listing the current priority dates for family- and employment-based U.S. Permanent Residence cases.

The bulletin is available here.

For the first time, the Dominican Republic joins China, India, Mexico and the Philippines as a country in which the visa demand exceeds the per-country limit.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on November 10, 2010, that it had reached a settlement with Hoover Inc., a leading manufacturer of vacuum and carpet cleaners, to resolve allegations that Hoover engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination by imposing unnecessary and discriminatory hurdles in the I-9 process upon lawful permanent residents (green card holders).

According to the DOJ's findings, Hoover required all permanent residents who presented a permanent resident card (green card) for I-9 purposes to produce a new green card when theirs expired. In contrast, Hoover's U.S. citizen workers were not required to present new documents. Permanent residents are always work authorized, regardless of the expiration of their documentation and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits employers from treating permanent residents differently from U.S. citizens in the I-9 process.

Under the terms of the settlement, Hoover has agreed to pay $10,200 in civil penalties and will also train its human resources personnel in employers' nondiscrimination responsibilities in the I-9 process, and it will provide periodic reports to the department for one year.

The Department of State (DOS) announced yesterday that the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by 3 percent to 690,923 during the 2009-2010 academic year, representing a record high number of international students in the United States.

There was a 30 percent increase in Chinese student enrollment in the United States to nearly 128,000 students. Chinese students account for more than 18 percent of the total international student population. China leads the top ten countries sending students to the United States, followed by India, the Republic of Korea, Canada,
Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Vietnam and Turkey.

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