Watson Law Offices Newsletter
October 2011
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New Law Proposals in the House and Senate
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Buy a House, Get a Visa
A new bill has been introduced to the Senate that supporters hope would encourage foreign investors to buy up homes in the stagnant U.S. housing market.
If passed, the bipartisan bill, co-authored by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), would grant a "residence visa" (not a "green card") to foreign citizens who make at least a $500,00 cash investment on residential real estate - a single-family home, condo, or townhouse.
Click here to read more about this bill.
Green Cards for Graduates of Ph.D. Programs
There has also been talk in the House about a potential new bill that would expedite the process of obtaining lawful
permanent residence for graduates of some U.S. Ph.D. programs.
Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, has announced that he plans to introduce a new bill that would provide up to 10,000 immigrant visas per year for foreign students graduating from U.S. research universities with doctoral degrees in engineering, information technology, and the natural sciences, who have an offer of employment in the U.S. Rep. Smith does not intend for the bill to include master's program graduates.
Click here to read more about this bill.
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Continued Support for Immigrant Entrepreneurs
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In our last few newsletters, we informed our readers of new initiatives taken by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reach out to foreign investors and entrepreneurs. It seems that USCIS may finally be realizing just how important these entrepreneurs are to creating jobs in the United States.
And we hope the public is beginning to understand this as well. In a recent editorial, published in the Wall Street Journal, Leonard Lauder, chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies and son of Estée Lauder (who was herself the daughter of Hungarian and Czech immigrants), explained exactly why immigrants and their children are integral to the U.S. economy and how the country's current immigration laws and political rhetoric are making it more difficult for talented people to come to the U.S. to start businesses and create jobs.
Lauder points out that a report by the Partnership for a New American Economy concluded that more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrant or their children, including companies like Google, Intel, eBay, and Yahoo!. These companies employ over 10 million people worldwide.
There are many other articles and studies that have been published recently that all call for an increase in immigration by highly-skilled, highly-educated talent and entrepreneurs. We hope that these articles and the recent announcements from USCIS demonstrate that the government and the public are beginning to take notice of just how important immigration is to recovery of the U.S. economy.
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H-1B Cap Count as of October 21st
| |  U.S. Master's Cap Exhausted
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is now reporting the current H-1B Cap Count as of October 21, 2011.
Each Fiscal Year, the government may only issue 65,000 new H-1B visas. An additional 20,000 are set aside for graduates of U.S. Master degree programs.
46,200 Cap-Subject petitions have been received by USCIS for the 2012 Fiscal Year H-1B quota. Only 18,800 visas remain.
Please note: the 20,000 visas set aside in the U.S. Master's Cap have all been claimed.
Click here to read more.
If you are an employer interested in hiring a foreign worker under the FY 2012 H-1B Cap, now is the time to contact us!
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Cancels Two Proposed Policy Changes | | |
USCIS postpones implementation of H-1B pre-registration system
Earlier this year, USCIS unveiled a new program in which H-1B employers would be required to electronically register in advance in order to capture a visa number under the H-1B Cap. Many lawyers, employers, and foreign nationals were concerned about the new program. The system appeared to potentially disadvantage small businesses that wished to employ foreign nationals. With an electronic pre-registration system, it seemed likely that large corporations would be able to snatch up most of the visa numbers before they even had employees to file petitions for. Taking notice of these concerns, USCIS has decided to postpone implementing this program and to assess the program's possible impact on businesses.
Original Receipt and Approval Notices will again be sent to the Attorney of Record
Two weeks ago, we alerted our readers to a new policy change that had been enacted by USCIS without any formal announcement. In September, USCIS began sending the Original Receipt and Approval Notices for all cases directly to the applicant or the petitioner, with only a courtesy copy to the Attorney of Record. After a conference call (over a month after the change was implemented) in which stakeholders voiced countless complaints about the new system, USCIS has announced that it will revert back to the old system. Original Receipt and Approval Notices will again be sent to the Attorney designated by the applicant or petitioner. The necessary changes to the government's computer systems will take 6 to 8 weeks to complete.
Watson Law Offices always forwards our clients the Original Receipt and Approval Notices, and we intend to continue to do this once the old system is back in place. In the next few weeks, however, please continue to watch your mail for any Original Notices, if you have a case pending with USCIS.
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This is an effort on our part to reach out to our larger community of friends, colleagues, current and former clients and anyone interested in Immigration Law. We expect there will be a strong push to make changes to existing Immigration Laws in the coming months and years, and we will try to keep our subscribers informed not only as to what changes are taking place, but how they are likely to impact everyone.
We welcome your input on what we should include, and how we should present this information. Please let us know what you think and what you would like to see. Also, please share this email with anyone whom you think would be interested in and benefit from this information.
THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
ROY WATSON
Watson Law Offices
142 Great Road
Bedford, MA 01730
(781)533-7700
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