What the illegal immigrant can do now

Will an Immigration deal be reached? Who knows? But what an an illegal Immigrant do to prepare?

Usually Immigration legislation stops on the day it is passed. Thus the benefits accrue to people who were physically present in the United States before that date or earlier. This is done to stem people from crossing the border with the news that US is giving immigration. However proving that you were in the United States can be a challenge for people already here with no papers. Most states don't give them driver's license, and they do cash business and dont have bank accounts. They are not in school.

This problem wont be acute for the applicants who have submitted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Applicants.

However if you have not applied for DACA, you should prepare and get some documents together. Maybe make a purchase with your name.  Go to the church, get involved in community service. If you are sending money home, then keep those receipts. Get utilities bill in all your names, even if you are sharing them. Buy something on layaway. Get any record you can with your name on it.  And yes, best of all, if you can afford it, enroll in some school.

The next thing to do would be to save money. You are here illegally and there will be some sort of fines involved. Traditionally fines have been $1000/-   That was on top of the actual form fee. Add attorney's fees.  All this will add up.  Although its impossible to say how much money it will cost, I would think before buying my next beer if I was you.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Back of WHICH line, Mr. President?

The draft bill that the White house has been drafting which was recently “leaked” to the media has the President stating that the illegal immigrants will have to go to the “BACK OF THE LINE.”   But there are many lines in Immigration.  My question is Which line?

The ways to get Residency for legal people is through employment,  family, Asylum or by lottery (Diversity).  Visas have per country restrictions.  The same number is given to every country, irrespective of the size of the country. Thus for skilled professionals from India and China, there is a long lineup for educated legal people.  People born in India for instance, with a Master’s Degree (and this applies to people with Master’s Degree from an American University) has been waiting in line since 2004 just to get their Permanent Residency. Thats 9 years.  How does this jive with a “Path to Citizenship within 8 years ” that the administration has been promising? Lets face it, most illegal immigrants have at best a high school degree. Should they be allowed to jump over the legal non immigrants from India with a Master’s Degree?

In the family category,   brothers and sisters of  United States Citizens from Philippines   have been waiting since 1989.  They are patiently waiting in Philippines and did not enter illegally as did the people who crossed borders.  Should they now just enter this country illegally?

There is No line up for Asylum and Diversity visas.

The second question is how will we grant this “path to citizenship” to the 11 million illegal residents. Most of them are uneducated and don’t have steady permanent employers. Their relatives are most often illegal. Its not like Mexico will persecute them if they went back to Mexico, so no need to give them Asylum. (note: Asylum has no lines, and if amnesty is asylum then there would be no “back of the line.” ) And if Mexicans needed to enhance “diversity” , we would not even be having this conversation.  It’s only their voting power that is motivating this whole legislation.  So will we create a new category?

Will we clear ALL backlog by artificially increasing the numbers this one time?  If so, what about that very bright Master’s Degree holder who just happened to be born in India and just happened to have not applied before the passing of this legislation? Would the next Sergey Brin have to stand behind these 11 million people? Will they then not simply leave and go to EU?

Also Mr. President, any legislation that is passed WITHOUT the input of 2 parties is not the way our system is supposed to work.  We stand for the checks and balances. Did you not teach Constitutional Law?

However that is not to say that the the Republican plan is all good either.  Granting non immigrant visas to some of these 11 million people is like telling them to self deport.  They wont leave when their visas expire.

But my last plea is to the Democrats. Why do you hate Computer Professionals on H-1B?  Because unless you hate them, why do you still have the completely absurd, unconstitutional “Control” memo from 2010? And why are you selectively enforcing it to the computer consulting industry ONLY? Where is the rule of law that we all fought to reinstate from the Presidency of W Bush?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

PERM Advertisement

In a recent case, In the Matter of Oracle America, Inc. the Board of Alien Labor Certification (BALCA) held that if an advertisement says travel May be required, and the ETA 9089 does not say so, then the  PERM will be denied.  This is true even though there was one  advertisement for several positions, and the travel was required.

The PERM regulations hold that the advertisement cannot be more restrictive than the actual 9089 perm form. However the PERM form is unforgivable. No one sees the form but the Department of Labor. And if one forgets to cross the Ts and dot the Is, it results in a denial. There is no way to correct it, once the Holy highness of DOL lay their eyes on it.  If the Advertisements say XYZ, and you inadvertently leave out Z, and the DOL looks at the perm, you cannot withdraw anything. You have to defend your ground.  Because of course the almighty DOL never makes any mistake. I dont know of any court, any other agency that is so unforgiving as the DOL.

The court held that the job description for all the jobs were similar.  There is also a suggestion that too broad job description for different positions in one advertisement may not be feasible anymore. Although this is allowable under the PERM regulations, I think the DOL will soon clamp down on it, stating that the description has to be specific, or else the US Citizens wont know how to apply.

If there were USCs available to do the job, the Employer would not go through the whole hassle of advertising and paying a lawyer and going through the laborious Labor Certification process.  Thus is actual fact, the only person that the DOL looks out for are people who use the copy and paste function in their computer, thereby eliminating any risk of accidentally  leaving out any information in the form.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information