On June 25th, President Obama announced that CIS would launch a vastly improved USCIS.gov public website to (1) make it easier for customers to navigate the immigration system information on the website; and (2) remain up-to-date regarding their case status.

We again remind federal contractors and subcontractors that effective September 8th, 2009, they will be required to use the E-Verify system to verify their employees' eligibility to work in the U.S. if the contract includes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify Clause.

In July, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano strengthened employment eligibility verification by announcing the Administration's support for the regulation that will award federal contracts only to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization.

The CIS has published a rule in the September 14th, 2009 Federal Register that proposes to recognize a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) specific nonimmigrant investor visa classification. The "E-2 CNMI Investor" status is one of several CNMI specific provisions contained in the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA), which extends most provisions of federal U.S. immigration law to the CNMI. These temporary provisions are proposed to provide for an orderly transition from the current CNMI permit system to the immigration laws of the U.S., to lessen potential effects on the CNMI economy, and to give foreign long-term investors time to identify and obtain appropriate U.S. immigrant or nonimmigrant status. The transition period will begin November 28th, 2009 and end on December 31st, 2014.

CIS announced that Interim Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) will be issued to Salvadoran Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries who have not yet received a final action on their re-registration applications and whose re-registration applications have been pending for more than 90 days.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has enhanced the iCERT system to include FEIN verifications that have been completed in the PERM system. According to the DOL, all prior FEIN verifications completed during the PERM employer existence verification process are now incorporated into the iCERT database, and new FEIN verifications are being introduced into the iCERT system daily as PERM employer existence verifications are completed. Because this is a data transfer from the PERM system to the iCERT system, DOL is suggesting that LCA applicants wait a day or two from the time the PERM employer existence notification is received to submit an LCA application through iCERT. In addition, DOL advises that an employer not previously in iCERT can submit FEIN verification data to the Chicago "LCA Business Verification Team" at LCA.Chicago@dol.gov in advance of filing an LCA to speed the FEIN verification process. Finally, DOL asks employers to look at the enhancements and improvements to the iCERT portal.

In connection with the notification that all employment-based visas had been allocated for FY2009, Mr. Oppenheim, Chief, Immigrant Control and Reporting Division Visa Services Office, provided the following background explaining how the Department of State allocates visas through its Immigrant Visa Allocation Management System (IVAMS):

CIS submits requests for visa authorizations if all required case processing has been completed (e.g., interview [if required], all clearances received, etc.). Therefore, once the authorization has been granted the case would be adjusted immediately, and could be forwarded to the "green card" processing facility. If the case is not within the established cut-off date the request goes into our "pending" demand file, which also contains the demand which has been received from our overseas posts. That demand is then used as the basis for the establishment of future cut-off dates.

When a CIS authorization is made from the "pending" demand file an e-mail message is sent to a single address which each CIS Office has provided to the Immigrant Control and Reporting Division. The first page(s) of the message provides a summary listing of the A-numbers which have been authorized, and the following pages contain an individual authorization page for each A-number. That listing would be the same type as received if the case had been authorized when the USCIS Officer had originally submitted the request. Such authorizations are assumed to have been processed to conclusion during the month of authorization. If not, USCIS must notify VO that the case was not processed, the case record would then be deleted, and the case would be resubmitted to VO once the reasons for the deletion have been resolved.

If the Officer believes that a case should have been authorized, but has not received such notification, the program which is used to submit requests has a feature for checking on the status of individual A-numbers.

The authorizations from the "pending" demand file are sent to a central address to ensure that they are seen by someone should the officer who originally requested the case not be there (e.g., reassigned, on leave, etc.). If authorization is immediately available at the time of request the response would be send to the requesting officer, not the central address.