Watson Law Offices Newsletter
September 2012
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October 2012 Visa Bulletin
| |  EB-2 Worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines advance into 2012. More visas available for EB-2 India and China but long backlogs persist. The U.S. Department of State has published the latest Visa Availability dates for October 2012.
Because October 1st marks the beginning of the government's Fiscal Year, more visas are typically available this month.
In October, EB-2 Worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines remain backlogged, but cut-off dates have advanced to January 1, 2012. The most recent predictions suggest that these categories may become "current" again in the November Visa Bulletin.
Additional visas will be available for EB-2 India and China in October. However, neither category moved as far forward as previously predicted by the State Department. Although previous estimates offered 2007 or 2006 cut-off dates for EB-2 India, the Visa Bulletin has only been advanced to September 1, 2004. EB-2 China enjoyed significantly more progress, jumping to July 15, 2007.
This leaves many EB-2 India applicants who believed they would receive their green cards soon, still stuck in the retrogression. Unfortunately, the Visa Office has not offered any new predictions. They have only reported that slow movement in this category is expected throughout the 2013 Fiscal Year. If you have been affected by the retrogression, it is important to discuss your options with your immigration attorney to make sure you are maintaining valid status, that you can work, and that you can travel.
Watson Law Offices Summary of the October 2012 Visa Bulletin |
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
| |  Applications flood in from undocumented young people in the U.S.
Starting August 15th, certain young people residing in the U.S. illegally are now allowed to apply for special consideration from the government to not be removed, if they meet specific criteria. More than 72,000 applications have been received so far.
The Obama Administration's "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) attempts to temporarily resolve the decades long problem of the status of young people who were brought to the U.S. as children, grew up as American, but have little to no options for obtaining legal status.
In the first weeks of the program, some very strong mixed emotions have been expressed. While many who support immigration reform welcome the program in principle, there are very serious problems with DACA. The most serious issue is that this program is a discretionary program. It is not law that can be "enforced." It is only a request by the Chief Executive to the very people he instructs to enforce the laws - to consider exercising favorable discretion in certain cases. There is nothing that compels any of these enforcement-type people to actually exercise discretion, and while there may be some benefit to a limited number of "children" as defined by the policy, it also exposes all other family members to potential deportation. People who have successfully "hidden" from view, must now expose themselves, and for their parents and possible older siblings there is no protection. Anyone considering applying for this program should consider their options carefully and seek competent counsel before filing any paperwork with the government.
Only legislative reform of the U.S. immigration system can provide a real and lasting solution to this problem and the many other hurdles we have helped clients overcome throughout the years. If you have specific questions about DACA, we are happy to assist or refer affected individuals to other attorneys who specialize in this area of immigration law.
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USCIS Advises Employers to Continue to Use Expired Edition of I-9 Form
| | As if navigating the maze of I-9 requirements isn't tricky enough, USCIS has failed to release the new version of the Form I-9 early enough to replace the last edition, which expired on August 31st.
USCIS currently advises employers to continue to use this edition, still available on uscis.gov until further notice.
All new employees should complete a Form I-9 by the date they begin working at your company. If you have questions about I-9s or your company's Corporate Compliance policies, please feel free to contact our office for an assessment. |
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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 J. WATSON, JR.
Watson Law Offices
142 Great Road
Bedford, MA 01730
rjw@watson-law.com
(781)533-7700 |
The information you obtain in this newsletter is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice, and persons receiving this information should not act on it without consulting professional legal counsel. We invite you to contact us and welcome your calls, letters and electronic mail.
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