In his State of the Union Address on January 25, 2012, President Obama made some bold pronouncements about changes to the U.S. immigration laws. One particular idea is generating a lot of interest: his proposal to issue employment authorization to the spouses of H-1B workers who are affected by the visa backlog.  President Obama proposed this measure in an effort to stop the flight from the U.S. of highly educated and skilled workers during the long wait for visas in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. Currently, some workers are subject to a visa wait ranging from six to ten years (and longer).

For now, the proposal includes only spouses of H-1B workers in their 7th or subsequent year(s) of H-1B status who are waiting to apply for adjustment based on an approved Labor Certification and/or I-140 Immigrant Petition. NOTE: This is just a proposed measure. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is expected to issue in March 2012 to define further the parameters of H-4 employment authorization. Rest assured, the attorneys at Rose Immigration Law Firm, PLC will keep employers and employees fully informed of progress in this area, so be sure to check back in March!

A mandamus action is filed to compel a government agency to act according to its mandate under the law. It is a last resort action by citizens and corporations against government inaction.

We are happy to report that the mandamus complaints prepared and filed by Rose Immigration Law Firm to date have been highly successful in prompting DOL to issue the needed prevailing wage determinations.  This has allowed our clients’ cases to move forward.

For more information on the reasons behind this unreasonable government delay, please see our accompanying article here.

The proposed rule change would mostly benefit the spouses and parents of adult U.S. citizens who entered the United States without permission and who have remained in the United States without permission for more than six months.  In many cases, the law requires the applicant to apply for an immigrant visa abroad, and then to wait for the immigration service to make a decision on their application to waive the ground of inadmissibility that results from previous unlawful presence.  If finalized, the proposed rule will allow waivers to be provisionally adjudicated in the United States before the applicant is required to report to an interview at the U.S. consulate in his or her home country.  This proposed rule has the potential to provide greater assurance that the family will be reunited and drastically reduce the amount of time families are separated.

The measure would eliminate the per-country limit of the current law, which is what creates the backlog for oversubscribed countries like China and India. It would not, however, increase visa numbers, even though the demand by employers is much greater than the allotted supply. Instead, employment-based permanent residence visas would be granted on a first-come, first-served basis. The bill would also increase family-based visas, an adjustment that could slightly ease the backlog for U.S. citizens who seek to bring relatives to the U.S., especially family members from Mexico and Philippines.

This bill, and other similar proposals in Congress, will improve the system somewhat, but much more is still needed. At least we see that Congress has the ability to act in unison on certain immigration issues, and improving the backlog clearly is one of them.

We will watch closely how this bill develops and will keep you informed.

TPS for Hondurans and Nicaraguans requires, among other eligibility factors, that registrants have been continuously present in the U.S. as of January 5, 1999 and continuously resided in the U.S. since December 30, 1998.

Our office is available to help your employees re-register for TPS, and in limited circumstances, to initially register late.  Please contact us if you would like to consult with one of our attorneys regarding TPS eligibility for your employees.

EB-1 and EB-2 cut-off dates for Worldwide, Mexico and the Philippines are projected to remain current, and EB-3 will move forward by approximately one month every month for these countries.

As for China and India- the most seriously backlogged countries- we expect the EB-2 category to make some advancement over the next few months, then most likely retrogress. EB-3 China will likely move one to three weeks per month for the rest of the year, but EB-3 India will see extremely limited movement due to the massive demand and very limited supply. 

Proposed immigration legislation would shift large amount of existing visas numbers to China and India, which would relieve the deep and prolonged visa backlog for these two countries, but at the same time will slow progress for the remaining parts of the world. Rose Immigration Law Firm continues to work with AILA, the immigration bar association, in lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform to provide backlog relief for all countries.