The United States District Court for the District of Arizona has denied Plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order ("TRO") to restrain the enforcement of the Legal Arizona Workers Act, which requires all businesses to utilize the CIS' E-Verify Program when hiring new employees. The Court also denied entering an injunction pending the appeal of its December 7th decision to dismiss the first lawsuit challenging the Act. Therefore, all businesses operating in Arizona must enroll in E-Verify on January 1, 2008.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") released an informative PowerPoint Presentation for employers and other interested parties to learn about the E-Verify Program. This PowerPoint outlines the Program and provides screen shots making it easy to learn about how E-Verify works.

The U.S. Department of State ("DOS") recently published an Interim Final Rule raising the fee charged for processing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications as well as Border Crossing Cards at U.S. Consulate Offices. The rule is effective on January 1st, 2008.

A Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") webpage gives the public some important information. The webpage shows the estimated wait times for reaching the primary inspection booth when crossing the Canada/U.S. and Mexico/U.S. land borders. CBP reports that the page is updated on an hourly basis. For frequent border-crossers, the webpage may be added as a "favorites page" on any Blackberry or PDA.

Effective on January 31st, 2008, CBP Officers will no longer allow travelers claiming to be U.S., Canadian, or Bermudian citizens to establish citizenship by relying only on an oral declaration. Beginning on that date, all travelers, including those claiming to be U.S., Canadian, or Bermudian citizens arriving by land and sea will generally be expected to present some form of documentation to satisfy the CBP Officer of his or her identity and citizenship.

On November 13th, 2007, following a unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Patrick Shen was sworn in as Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division), Office of Special Counsel, Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices. We join with the staff at the OSC to extend our congratulations to Mr. Shen and we wish him all the best in his new position as Special Counsel.

CIS recently published its responses to national stakeholder questions from its December 4, 2007 CIS National Stakeholder meeting.

The U.S. Department of Labor's ("DOL") Office of Foreign Labor Certification recently made available Round 8 of the Backlog Elimination ("BE") Frequently Asked Questions.

CIS recently announced that on December 3rd, 2007, all applicants filing stand-alone Form I-130s are encouraged to file their petitions with the Chicago Lockbox instead of at a CIS Service Center.

Ottawa wants to fast track more temporary foreign workers to address "immediate and deep labor shortages" in B.C. says Alberta Federal Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg. With the new programs, Ottawa can now get permission to hire a foreign worker in 5 days when, previously, it used to take five months.