Immigration Law from Houston Immigration Lawyer - Annie Banerjee

Self Deportation and Our Economy

2012-01-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney walked into a storm when he used the term, "self deportation" ie don't give illegal people jobs, and they will self deport themselves. This idea was already present in America, with a different (better sounding) term: Attrition Through Enforcement." The blog by Immigration Policy Center talks about how research shows that immigrants will not leave even if they don't have a job, because many have lived here for more than 10 years, and have roots here.

Well, let's just assume Mitt Romney is right. If we demand to see "papers" for every job, that illegal immigrants will simply leave and go away. What will happen then to the American economy?

Construction costs will go up, and construction will take forever. Because Americans will simply not do the job. No one will pick fruits and vegetables, so as Stephen Colbert pointed out, "we should simply stop eating fruits and vegetables." And maybe build our own houses. I wonder if Romney's grand kids would mow the White House lawns. And yes, no one will cut up chickens and eggs.

Or maybe, as the Conservatives so often want, we can go back to the lifestyles of the original founders of the country. Work with our hands, make this country white only, and preserve our guns. And then we can simply sit and watch all other nations bypass us.

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

EB-2 visa numbers will move fast

2012-01-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Everyone from India or China who is waiting for a green card number knows that the Employment based second preference visa numbers are moving very fast. And the good news is that it is predicted to move fast, at least by 6 months, for the March Visa Bulletin that will come out in the middle of February. Every Country is allocated a fixed visa number and the numbers are distributed according to categories.

The First Categories consists of PhDs with a high level of research experience. They either have "extraordinary ability" or are Outstanding Researchers. The other group consists of International Managers and Executives generally with an L-1A visa. These people are deemed to have the highest priority and are given the visa first.

The number of visas left over are given to the Second Preference, who are either Master's degree holders, or have a Bachelors and five years of experience. Also included in this group are researchers, whose institutions just use them as slave labor and don't petition for them. They have to prove that it is in the National Interest to waive the requirement of a labor certification. Since China and India are huge countries, and there are huge numbers of EB-1 and Eb-2, they use up their quota very quickly. Thus if you were born in India and China, and are in EB-2 you had to wait for 5 years to get the visa, as opposed to people born in other countries.

However since October of 2011, the numbers for Eb-2 for India and China had been advancing rapidly. And that movement is expected to continue for the next several months.

Mr. Oppenheim of the Visa Office of the State Department said that the rapid movement is because there is very little Eb-1 petitions filed. That is probably because EB-1 has become much harder. The standard for Extraordinary has been increased, simultaneously as the average in our country has dumbed down.

However with so many filings, the USCIS will take forever to adjudicate these petitions. The visa numbers are expected to increase for some months; if after that the numbers retrogress, then all applicants will probably not be able to get their Green cards, and have to wait. However at least the H-4 dependents can work with their EAD cards.

EB-3 however will still remain retrogressed.

Meanwhile there is no progress to the Fairness and High Skilled Immigrant Act, (HR 3012) which sought to do away with per country quotas and passed with overwhelming majority in the House. Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) and anti Indian placed a permanent hold on the bill. Senator Grassley has a Master's degree in Arts from Iowa State Teacher's College. I'm sure like his Republican colleague, Ted Stevens, he thinks that the internet is a "bunch of tubes" and can be programmed by humanities majors from Iowa State Teacher's College.

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

Keeping Families together

2012-01-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Under the present law, anyone who entered the US illegally cannot adjust for status in the US. However, if they entered legally, ie on a visitor's etc, and then overstayed, they can still adjust for status if they married a US Citizen, even though they have no valid status anymore. However love does not make this distinction. People who entered US illegally, fall in love with citizens, marry and have children. If they had to become citizens, they would have to return to their home countries and wait for a waiver. The law dictated that if people who are illegal leaves the US, they would not be allowed in for 3 or 10 years depending on the length of their illegal stay. The CIS and State Department had the power to waive this requirement due to hardship. However this process took a long time, and there was no guarantee of success. So the illegal spouse would have to leave their spouse and children , go back and wait forever for the mercy of the US Consulate.

Thus we could not advise clients in good faith to do this. And the spouse remained illegal. That spouse could not work, have health insurance or any other types of insurances. Even though their spouse as US Citizen was paying taxes, they would have to live as a second class inhabitants.

On Friday the Obama administration announced that they would ameliorate the situation by making those waivers (known as 601 waivers, faster and perhaps easier. That would keep the family intact and not treat a member differently than the rest of the family. However, the pro family Republican party has accused the President of using back door methods to grant amnesty.

We would like to advise people caught in this situation to wait right now until further regulations are issued before they decide what their next step would be.

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

How Arapiao and others justify discrimination today

2011-12-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was in a spin class taught by this ultra conservative Christian teacher who had openly professed that the tsunami in Asia happened because "God punished those heathens." The teacher was substituting the class, which was supposed to be a non religious spin class. (In her own class she only plays Christian music). I asked her if she was playing Christian music, not because I dislike Christian music, but because at 5:45 am I want something loud with a fast rhythm. She immediately had it in for me. She did not play Christian music, but tried to correct the way I sat on a spin bike. Not the adjustment and bike setting, but my posture. I do a ton of spin classes and have been doing them for quite some time to know what to do. She obviously wanted to mess me up, so that I would injure my knees. When I told her to stay away, she immediately derided me publicly and said I was anti Christian. (with her microphone). She also tried to justify it by saying that she is a certified instructor and was trying to "correct me."

Yes, you can justify discrimination. The slave masters did it. And so does Maricopa county Sheriff, Joe Arapiao. How can you justify making illegal criminals wear pink underwear in jail and countless other indiscretions. How can you justify stopping people simply because of the color of their skin? How can you justify not looking into sexual misconducts against Hispanic victims? By blaming the Obama Administration as using this as political move. Exactly like the spin teacher derided me for being anti Christian when I told her to stay away. Arapiao said, "Don't come here and use me as a whipping boy for a national and international problem," he said. "We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration. "

The Justice Department released a scathing report after a long investigation, and the DHS revoked the counties ability to assist it in the Secure Communities Program.

Yes, I understand that the Republicans hate illegal immigrants. And yes, we need to pass legislation. But how can America justify violating the civil rights of anyone? Interestingly the forefathers of these same people thought trading and selling slaves was OK. And these forefathers at that time blamed the then Republican Lincoln of political moves.

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

Supreme Court to hear Arizona's Immigration Law

2011-12-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court has given certiorari to the Arizona case dealing with illegal immigrants. However the Supreme Court will only address the following questions:

Section 2(B), which requires local police officers to investigate the immigration status of any person they stop or detain whom they possess “reasonable suspicion” to believe is unlawfully present in the United States;
Section 3, which makes it a crime under Arizona law for foreign nationals to fail to carry or apply for registration papers provided by the federal government;
Section 5, which makes it a crime under Arizona law for immigrants to solicit, apply for, or perform work without federal employment authorization; and
Section 6, which authorizes local police officers to arrest foreign nationals whom they have “probable cause” to believe have committed an offense making them deportable from the United States.

Thus the court has thankfully left the bigger question of whether individual states have the right to rule on Federal Immigration issue alone. Knowing that the justices are conservative, they would probably rule for State rights which would create a mess.

Justice Kagan is recusing herself. This means that the court will be heavily Conservative. And most probably they will rule for Arizona's ability to keep the provisions alive. However in Alabama, a German Manager from a Mercedes Benz plant and a Japanese Manager from a Honda plant was detained by police. These companies will eventually leave Alabama. So good luck to the businesses in Arizona.

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

Knowledge of English for Citizenship Tests

2011-12-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

One of the requirements of the US Citizenship test is that the applicant demonstrate knowledge of English. Many applicant, especially with limited knowledge of English take this to mean that if they pass the civics test, that is enough. However knowledge of English is a separate requirement than the knowledge of Civics. The law defines it as, "an understanding of the English language, including the ability to read, write and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language. " However the law only requires a "reasonable test of literacy" and that "no extraordinary or unreasonable conditions shall be imposed on the applicant."
The English written test uses sentences using simple words prescribed by USCIS. Thus those sentences are not unreasonable. However the oral test is left up to the discretion of individual officers. In my experience, when some officers see applicants with limited knowledge of English, they get harder. I have had several officers ask applicants, after swearing-in to tell the truth, the definition of truth. Everyone knows what the word truth means, but it's very hard to define a concept. In fact, we should ask Rick Perry to define it on the spot and see how he does. I have also seen officers ask the definition of what it means to 'swear allegiance." Yes, try define that Mr. Texas Governor.
On the other hand though I come across clients who parrot the answers to the 100 questions, and expect to vomit it out in the exam and pass. And yes, they pass the civics portion, but they don't understand a word of English. An applicant must know enough English to be able to function in society, (ie do jury duty) and be able to make a reasonable decision during elections. And that means understanding people with somewhat more brain than Rick Perry.
My best advice is to learn the 100 questions, but also to watch English TV. TV is a fun and painless way to learn enough English to pass the Naturalization test.

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

Why Americans will just not do certain jobs

2011-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

This week Business week explored the subject as to why some Americans wont do "Dirty Jobs." After Alabama passed its most restrictive Immigration Law, the poultry industry, the fruit picking industry, the construction industry are all virtually shut down because no Americans who will take these jobs. This even though Birmingham Alabama is declaring bankruptcy and unemployment is sky high. The article says that these jobs are hard, and pay little with no benefits. The comments on the article are ablaze with how these employers should pay higher amounts and have benefits. But the article does not elucidate as to what will happen if we mandate employers to do that.
The cost of food will go up. The Americans will initially take the jobs. Then when they discover that its hard work, they will quit. Why? because Americans have this sense of entitlement that immigrants don't have.
This sense of entitlement amongst "true Americans" is pervasive throughout the society. Go to any ivy league college, and there are the kids who got in through legacy, who will walk around in their designer clothes as if they own the world. Yet they contrast with their immigrant classmate, who got in based on merit and continue to outperform the legacy kids in academics. That is why you have people like George Bush and Rick Perry, graduating with a "gentleman's C" They never had to work hard ever in their lives.
Same is true of the blue-collar workers. They are spoiled with clean, cool working conditions with accompanying money and benefits. Make them work in the field under the burning sun or in a smelly poultry factory, and their auto industry trained body will not take it.
Yet immigrants come in, work hard and don't complain. That is true of all immigrants , in all ages, starting from the pilgrims. They were not born into privilege. They chose to live in America and expect to work hard and go up the ladder. And that is how America was built, and that is how it became a super power.
So if we become restrictionists like Arizona and Alabama, it is our quality that will suffer. By becoming insular and white, we will turn the clock back to the time of the Willy Lomans (Death of a Salesman) of this country.

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

Privacy Issues in the Internet Age

2011-11-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

This week the Supreme Court heard a case as to whether the police can track an individual through a GPS (available in most smart phones) without a warrant. USCIS has also been using the internet for some time now. For family based cases based on marriage, the officers check facebook to see the status of the person. Never mind that some people forget to update their status from single to married especially if they are not addicted to Face Book.
But what is more irritating is that USCIS uses Dun and Bradstreet (a private company) to check the address of companies filing for employment based cases. D&B extremely frequently do not update their listing of the Companies. USCIS "suggests" that the Employer update their information in D&B. Employers are not lawyers and get scared whenever any Government authority tells them to do something. So they call D&B, who then sign on these employers for paid listings, etc. In the end, this Government agency is enabling a private company to solicit employers and enrich their pockets.
Is this Legal? Yes, employers may not have a right to privacy, but should USCIS suggest to employers to follow up with D&B reporting? Especially when there is NO law to do so?

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

Perm Audits

2011-11-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that the Perm audits will increase. Of these audits, 24% are certified, 55 % are denied and 21% are withdrawn.

The DOL says most of the denials are in the lower skilled categories and in the financial industry. DOL feels that by denying these petitions, they are protecting American jobs. However, there are some lower skilled jobs (like machine work, technical work in the oil and gas industry) where there is a real shortage of US workers. No US Employer goes through the hassle and expense of the Immigration process if they can find qualified local grads. And by "qualified" I don't mean the least qualified, I mean the most competitive.

The DOL also expressed surprise that 21% of the cases were withdrawn. They think that those are fraudulent filings. Not so. It takes two years for an audit. The DOL has a target time of 45-60 days for approving PERMS. Many qualified employees don't want to wait that long.

The whole problem with restrictionist policies is that they negate free market capitalism, and thus are inherently un American.

And that is the problem of the whole PERM process. DOL just restricts the job to the least qualified individual who can do the job. Lets say the Petitioner is Bank of America. The position is an investment analyst. The minimum education requirement is a Bachelor's Degree. The Beneficiary is a graduate in finance and Math from MIT. Lets say someone with Rick Perry's credentials (a C from Texas A & M ) applies. Would you rather have financial advice from the American born A & M grad or the foreign-born MIT grad? By insisting on having the lowest possible credentials available to do the job, the DOL is actually dumbing down the American workforce and decreasing quality of work here.

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

We the People

2011-10-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today is Diwali. In the North Eastern Province of Bengal, where I'm originally from, it is celebrated , like the rest of India with lighting rows of oil lamps called the Diya and with fireworks. But the day before this festival is the day of the ghosts, and in the evening the ghosts are rumored to come out. With the lighting of the diyas on Diwali, the Ghosts disappear. This is similar to All Hallows Eve, and Dia de los Muertos. Its a celebration of life as opposed to death. The shortening of days make people aware of their own mortality and the festivals reinforce life.

Similarly in the spring there is a renewal of life which is celebrated in different cultures, in different ways. Be it Easter, or the Indian festival of Holi, color plays a dominant part.

We may come form different regions, different religions and cultures, yet we are fundamentally all equal. The Restrictionists in our Immigration policy cannot see beyond these differences in color, race or religion. But we are becoming one world. The internet today unites the world, and outsourcing forces us to compete globally. Yet when it comes to Immigration, we try to restrict our borders and try to unnaturally preserve our jobs. But the reality of the marketplace is that people only come if there are jobs, if they can compete. If not, the jobs are outsourced anyways.

Maybe some day we will have one world where there will be no Xenophobia, and no barriers.

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

Entrepreneurs in Residence

2011-10-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

The USCIS recently announced an “entrepreneurs in residence initiative.” This follows President Obama’s speech welcoming foreign entrepreneurs who would want to invest in the US for Permanent Residency. It makes sense, since money brought over by these entrepreneurs will be used towards building businesses and jobs in the US.

Towards that end, the USCIS is launching this Initiative to gather information about these programs. Especially targeted is the EB-5 program, and also on Eb-2 and L-1Bs. The EB-5 applicants will have direct access to adjudicators through e mail. All this is positive development, yet, the adjudicators themselves are still giving out under the kitchen sink Requests for Evidence. This is especially true of L-1 A, new Office where an entrepreneur is bringing in money to start the business here. Sometimes it’s apparent that the officer has not even looked at the file, since they want evidence already included in the original petition.

I think the adjudicators have to meet a certain quota, and some adjudicators are happier to give out requests for evidence (RFE) rather than meeting that quota. What the USCIS should do is require the officers to notate the petition. Also such notations should be included in the actual RFE as well. Clients ask me why, when they are bringing in money and investing in US, should the US Government want every single piece of paper they could possibly generate. Such a burden is a big deterrent in many people investing here. It’s much easier to invest in Canada than the US, so why would people looking towards investing bother with us?

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

Approval Notices

2011-10-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Recently the Citizenship and Immigration Service instituted a new rule whereby the approval notices of visas, with the original I-94s are being sent to employers instead of the Attorney. The attorneys get the courtesy copy. The American Immigration Lawyer's Association is protesting against this move.

However I think this is a good move by Citizenship and Immigration Service. First it cuts down on fraud. Fraud is very prevalent in the Immigration petition system. Although the forms require signatures from the employers, those signatures can be forged. Documents can be manufactured. And if employers get a representative’s copy, the lawyer can give the actual copy to the fraudulent employee, who would then get false status. Granted maybe one attorney in the country will do this, but still its fraud.

Secondly the clients can get the approval notice expeditiously. In most states clients need the approvals to renew their driver’s license. Sending that approval notice to the attorney means the attorney has to mail it to the client. Even if the attorney fedexes, it still takes time. And most large law firms take forever to send the documents. This way everything can be done expeditiously.

American Immigration Lawyer's Association has complained that the attorneys can check and see mistakes in the I-797, and correct them. But attorneys can simply ask their clients to scan and send them that approval notice. On the contrary attorneys cannot scan and send the original to the client, since they need the original approval. My clients have no problem scanning and sending the copies to me.

I feel that many lawyers have an inflated sense of ego, and feel that the Citizenship and Immigration Service is slighting them by sending originals to the employer. I applaud this move by the Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is probably the only time, in years, that I think that the Citizenship and Immigration Service is doing something sensible.

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

My hats off to Arizona and Alabama

2011-10-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

When Arizona enacted the most restrictive Immigration Laws in the book, I was wondering why the deep south was lagging behind. They just take time to think up legislation, and Alabama delivered with a far more severe punch than Arizona. The law even forbids undocumented school children from attending schools.

The common concern of all these States is that we have too many illegal immigrants. The Federal Government is not going to do anything for it. So these States take Federal law enforcement in their own hand.

Yet these States bring forth the importance of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The only problem is that the legislature cant agree on anything. Even the Dream Act, which gives amnesty to children brought over illegally here by their parents, and educated here have not passed. They don't have any criminal records. Yet the Republicans don't want to give the Permanent Residency to these people.

The Democrats are no Saints either. They have effectively killed the work visa process for small businesses. Especially hit is the small IT industry, where the Obama Administration "legislated on their own" stating that employers should "control" their employees. They effectively nullified third party contracts for H-1B employees for smaller employers in IT industry. Yet such contracts are Ok for the health care industry. Talk about the Rule of Law and Obama's lofty principals.

In a Country where even economic reforms gets shot down, willl there be a Comprehensive Immigration Reform? I dont think so.

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

Advice for Foreign Students

2011-09-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

A question is sometimes get form foreign students is , "what school should I go to?" The answer to that is probably simple, the school that is best ranked by US News and World Report. There was an ex Taliban student from Afghanistan, who got a visa to go to Yale.

The rationale for that is US needs bright students. But what if you cant get into Harvard or Yale?

Usually its harder to get a visa from a foreign country (especially India) if you are going to a community college. Try for at least a 4 year degree college. A community College degree is useless anyways, so dont waste your money on them. The colege has to be SEVIP approved. Ask and find out if it is.

There are numerous colleges and Universities in the US. Online colleges and degrees obtained from them are not given the F-1 visa. In general, online colleges are not good colleges, and most places dont recognize such degrees.

The procedure is simple. After getting admission, the College will send you the I-20. One needs to take that, and proof of financial Support to the consulate to get the student visa and come in.

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

The decade Since 9/11 in Immigration

2011-09-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was working on a sunny morning when my legal assistant came in looking agitated and said,"Did you hear, the World Trade Center got hit by a plane." I did not think much about it. I did not have a TV in the office, so I did not get the impact. Then my husband called and said, the towers are falling. The news took a long time to sink in, actually. It was unbelievable that such a thing could happen, right in the middle of NYC.

That past summer we were in NYC, and although we don't usually do the touristy thing in NYC, we thought it would be fun to take the children on top of the twin towers. That night my son clutched the bear he bought from the gift store on the top and said, "you are safe bear, although a lot of your friends may have not survived."

Thankfully all our friends who worked at the WTC were safe. Yet the specter of death, the sheer magnitude of it gave rise to tremendous nationalism. Flags went up everywhere, and we could not help but feel solidarity towards the people. We were one America, scared by the ravages of terrorism.

Yet, as so often happens in Nationalism, there was a backlash to internationalism.

Soon people began to discriminate against others who looked like Muslims, or looked foreign. For their part, the Muslims began to bad mouth America as well. Thus began a mutual distrust and hatred, which saw the passing of the Patriot Act. In those early days, Immigration Services showed up at the door of illegal Muslims, without any warrant, or any documents, and deported them, simply because they were from Pakistan, or Iran.

The Immigration Service instituted the 'Special Registration" a process by which citizens of Muslim countries had to register, with their information to the Government and testify as to whether they know of any terrorists. They had to let the Immigration Service know when they exited the country and when they got back. This process was so similar to the Japanese internment that we all wondered if America, the home of the free was lost forever.

This was followed by the notoriously slow FBI name checks. If you applied to become a Permanent Resident or a Citizen, the FBI had to (1) clear fingerprints, and (2) Do a name check. The fingerprints were unique so they cleared quickly. But the name check involved a computer search of the name or combination of names that could match any known criminals on the FBI database. That database was never released to the public. Of course since Muslims have common type names like Muhammad , their names would very often get a hit. But so would Hispanic names or simply names like Jones or Smith. If the name got a hit, an individual officer would have to go into the files and manually make sure that the applicant was not the same as the criminal. The problem is that this would take 3-4 years. Our plea that if these people really were criminals, would it not be safer to do the check as soon as possible and deport or prosecute them were not heard. 99% of these cases ultimately cleared, yet these individuals had to wait a long time before they could get their green cards. Many times they were scared to visit or for legal reasons could not visit their home country until they got their green card. This meant they could not see many a dying parent, although they never committed any crime.

Yes, we went into two wars, we have to go through lengthy process of checks at airports.

Yet, things seem to be getting better. The FBI name checks eventually got quicker, and is not much of a problem any more. The Special Registration process was scrapped earlier this year.

Of course we can never replace the lives lost that fateful day, and we may never become the trusting country that we were pre 9/11. Yet maybe that's a good thing. The world is becoming very small and the trusting simplicity that America, Canada and UK have are not matched by most other countries. That day 09/11/2001, we had lost our ignorance and we stand now, like the rest of the world, distrusting our citizens.

Even now it is so much easier to pull the wool over the eyes of these countries than it is to do that to the rest of the world. Routinely applicants for Asylum concoct their stories and very often the US government buys those fib. I have been asked by Muslim citizens from certain countries whether they can convert to Christianity and claim Asylum. Thankfully I dont do Asylum. Same is true , although to a lesser extent to many immigration cases. Its time the Government smarten up and treat their citizens like the rest of the world does. No one can do that to the Israeli, Chinese or even Indian Government.

And for my part, I would happily succumb to a search at the airport if this means we all can be safe.

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

Choosing a Lawyer-- clients beware

2011-09-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

A lot of clients come to me and ask things like: Can you help me find a job? Can I just say something not true. And when they don't like what I tell them, they go to another lawyer.

Yes, there are lawyers who for a price give them jobs, and the promise of Immigration. And very often deliver. But what if the lawyer gets caught? CIS investigates every case that the attorney had represented, and investigates. So people who get their green card by dishonest means can loose it after several years, when they are settled here and gotten used to the US lifestyle. Please remember , if the attorney does something illegal for you, he or she is probably doing this for many others. And eventually the CIS will catch on, and investigate the lawyer. And if your case is found to be a fraud, you will be banned permanently from the United States.

Thus the stakes are high.

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

Immigration, If Bachman/Perry Rules

2011-09-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

This blog is obviously not true, but after bad news on job growth, Texas weather, Vermont weather , we need a laugh. So here's my projection of what the form I-485 would look like if Bachman or Perry was to become President in a Republican dominant legislature.

Instructions on Form I-485, Application to adjust status to Permanent Resident: Do not fill out this form if you are gay, lesbian, transsexual, or bisexual. We will simply deny your case.

Questions:

1. Do you believe in God?

2. Is it a Christian God?

Only proceed If the answer to the above two questions are yes

3. Do you believe in Science?

4. Have you ever in your lifetime aided or abetted any terrorism or any scientific endeavors?

5. Do you drink?

6. Do you believe in abortion?

7. Do you believe in Evolution?

8 Did you ever get an A or a B in any of your grades?

Only proceed if the answers to questions 3 to 8 is no

The rest of the form hopefully will look the same as the current I-485.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Talk Policy and Results

2011-09-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

President Obama is going to speak to the Congress today about job creation. The Government speaks, and people get hopeful. But does this translate to policy and if so, how long does that take?

The Obama Administration had before that announced that ICE would use prosecutorial discretion to not deport students brought over the the US when they were very young and not by their own will. Yet shortly after there were reports that the Administration is still deporting these types of individual.

How long does it take to make it from the words of President Obama, or the Administration to the execution level of the Administrative Department of our Government? And at this level, when will be see a rise in jobs?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Undocumented Aliens, please dont go to Notarios....

2011-08-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

With news of the prosecutorial discretion in deportation flying, many illegals are flocking to attorneys and notarios. And notarios will make a lof of money from this deal by giving false hopes.

Note: this announcement is preliminary.

So:

First: there is no uniform regulations, for individual Immighration and Customs agents to act yet. This could take years

Second: There is only very preliminary talk about work permit, and work permits may not materialize

Third: Please dont turn yourself in, because in all likelihood you will be deported

Fourth: Notarios are not lawyers in the US, and they will mislead you and take your money.

Fifth: below are a very preliminary list of factors, and if you dont fall uunder many of them, this is not for you. If you entered by your own volition, illegally, and work here, this is not for you.

FACTORS:

the person’s length of presence in the United States;

the circumstances of the person’s arrival in the United States, particularly if the alien came to the United States as a young child;

the person’s pursuit of education in the United States, with particular consideration given to those who have graduated from a U.S. high school or have successfully pursued or are pursuing a college or advanced degrees at a legitimate institution;

whether the person, or the person’s immediate relative, has served in the U.S. military, reserves, or national guard;

the person’s criminal history, including arrests, prior convictions, or outstanding arrest warrants;

the person’s ties and contributions to the community, including family relationships;

the person’s age, with particular consideration given to minors and the elderly;

whether the person has a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, child, or parent;

whether the person is the primary caretaker of a person with a mental or physical disability, minor, or seriously ill relative;

whether the person or the person’s spouse is pregnant or nursing.

MY ADVICE: Just wait. Dont even go to an attorney now, becasue until the regulations come out, Attorneys will not be able to help either, and will charge for the advice above.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Dream half fulfilled

2011-08-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration announced a policy yesterday that it would not deport "young people" who had been brought into this country when they were young, and through no fault of their own. These people were educated here, often going to college or joining the military. Legislation to grant them status were stalled in the Congress for over a decade. The Republicans did not want to give them any status because "they could then pass on the status to their parents". However the re is no current law for the children to do that. These children can only petition for a spouse who is illegal under current laws.

Yet these children came into the country through no fault of their own. They were educated here, often having college degrees. Yet they lacked a social security number and cannot work. They cannot do anything in this country. And because they lived here, they had no other country. These educated young man and women are countryless.

The Obama administration is not giving them a complete pass. Each case will be decided on a case by case merit. And only for this class of people, not for their parents who chose to come here illegally. And only the fact that they will not be deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have to use prosecutorial discretion. They have to consider their education, their ties to Unityed States Citizen, etc. And they will simply not be deported, they will not be given any status here.

Even then, Republicans like Lamar Smith of Texas (where else?) calls this a "backdoor method of amnesty."

Hopefully the Latino community will remember this.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing

2011-08-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

On August 02, 2011, both Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director, Mr. Mayorkas announced that they are going to promote start up enterprises and entrepreneurs. Yes, America cant continue living on debt forever, yes, we need highly skilled people to come and create jobs in the US. Tell that to the legislature that just raised the debt ceiling, and they will unequivocally say no to any immigration legislation right now. Note, the CIS cannot make laws. There are certain things that they can do, but will they?

The initiative says it will clarify when a new business can hire an 'entrepreneur" in a new business when the company is a start up , and the employee is the sole employee. Traditionally this type of business was shot down because according to CIS, the employer would not have the ability to pay. Will any new regulations be promulgated to make it easy for small or newly opened businesses to hire a sole H-1B employee? My guess is only if that business has substantial venture capital backing. How many new people who have great ideas will find such a company in the US? How about we start with nullifying the unjust and selectively enforced 2010 Neufeld Control Memo?

The next thing that the proclamation talks about is Employment Based Second Preference. To obtain that, businesses have to get a labor certification. Labor certification, granted by the Department of Labor (not by CIS) prohibits businesses closely associated with the beneficiary from applying. And in a case of National Interest Waiver, education is not enough. The requirements and the denial rates are rising rather then webbing for such jobs that Americans don't do, like bio research. I had to prove that the scope of breast cancer research was "national" rather than "regional" in scope. There are no new laws, just some empty tall talk. But whenever this happens, it gives a lot of false hopes to intending immigrants, hopes that will be dashed soon.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The truth in Asylum cases

2011-07-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

The accuser in Dominique Strauss Kahn's case lied to the Immigration about her Asylum case. But this is not unique. I suspect that the majority of Asylum cases are fraudulent. I am not saying that torture doesn't happen. It does. But as with most things in life, its the poor people who actually suffer. Whether its the Hutu vs. Tutu, or Shia vs Sunni, its the poor that gets tortured. And since they are poor, they don't have the ability to come to the US. Richer people from these countries steal these stories, land here illegally and claim asylum. And that's why I don't do asylum cases.

I did a pro bono case from Catholic Charities once. The beneficiary was from Africa and almost moved me to tears with his story. He even showed me his scars. I wrote up volumes of affidavits, doctor's records, etc. The story was that he was picked up during a political rally, beaten and imprisoned for three days with no food or water. His girl friend was raped in front of him. Brutal beatings. Somehow after three days he was released. Then one day at night the oppressors came knocking at the front door. He left quietly by the back door, and in the cover of the night to the boat dock. There he took a boat to another African country, where he purchased a fake passport, and came to America. Somehow he was let into the US, threw the passport in a garbage can at the airport, and went to Catholic Charities to file an Asylum case. His girlfriend could not come with him.

While I believed his story 100%, the immigration officer denied his case. We filed an appeal with the Immigration Judge. During the waiting though the guy told me that he has a new girlfriend, and would like to substitute her name instead. I was shocked. The guy then gave me a completely different name of the girl friend and told me that the Catholic Charities person made the mistake in the name. This was impossible, since he read the whole affidavit in front of me. I realized that he was lying about everything.

On the hearing day, I did not guide him, other than saying, "please tell the truth." We had an expert witness, who went through the same situation as our guy. While their main stories matched, the details of what he told the judge and what that other witness said did not match at all. His case was denied. I did not appeal. He took his file. He definitely filed an appeal with another attorney, and probably by now has his Green card.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The Diversity Visa

2011-07-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Generally people can immigrate to the US through employment, family or asylum. But there is another category---the diversity visa. People from nations that are underrepresented in the US, can enter a visa lottery. The Government computer picks applicants, and they get to immigrate to the US.

Obviously whenever there is such a lottery, scamers abound. Scamers ask people to pay money to them, and they "guarantee" that those people will get in. Applicants should apply ONLY through the government website: http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

But when thousands of immigrants have to wait for so many years, is it fair to select a lucky few through a lottery, and hand them the golden ticket to immigration? To participate in the Diversity visa, one has to be just a high school graduate, and be born in a country whose citizens are under represented in the US. How does a US Master's Degree holder from India and China, who came here, studied, work hard, and has to wait forever to get their immigration, watch someone who is just a high school graduate come into this country. And is it fair to our, native born high school graduates, to see someone from Romania take that McJob?

And what exactly does "diversity" establish? Back in the days when there was no computers, we might actually learn a lot from someone from say Sierra Leone about their country. But now that information is just a google click away.

There is a bill in the house to do away with the 'diversity" visa. Its time we get the brightest and the best from other countries, to advance the United States, rather than just some high school graduates who just happen to be born in these fortunate countries. The quota for diversity visas should be allocated to US Master degree's holders who will benefit our economy.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Immigration and Gay Marriage

2011-07-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

Recently 6 states have legalized gay marriage. The States are mainly in New England, New York, DC, and Iowa. Yet, just before Massachussets legalized gay marriage, the federal Government passed a Statute called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996 which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. DOMA does not prevent a State from legalizing gay marriage, but States can refuse to grant any rights to same sex partners.

Many Red ( read Republican) States like Texas prohibits same sex marriage by statute or Constitution. Yet under the full faith and credit law, States are supposed to recognize marriages held in other states.

When it comes to Immigration, same sex partners have so far been denied the right to adjust status via marriage. If one partner of a heterosexual couple is a United States Citizen, the other partner can obtain the Permanent Residency (Green Card) very easily. Yet that same right is denied to a same sex couple. Recently Jose Antonio Vargas, the pulitzer prize winning journalist from the Phillipines, who is undocumented, said he was asked to marry a girl to get the immigration, but he is gay and could not. Stories of long time gay couples, who cannot be united are heart wrenching. And whats more outrageous is that a Government entity from what is known as a "civilized" nation like ours is the one doing the discrimination.

Legally the federal law is supposed to recognize the law in a state, when it has to deal with state law issues like family law. Yet the DOMA prevents the federal government to grant rights to same sex couples. So the Citizenship and Immigration Service in these 6 states are shelving the cases hoping that the courts will rule on DOMA.

What is really maddening though is that when President Obama ran for President, he supported gay marriage. But now, trying to concede to the conservative opposition, he says he is rethinking his position on DOMA. We, the people of the United States voted for Obama, because we wanted America to regain the freedom we lost during the Bush era. Let us show the world that we will not fall behind when personal liberty is at issue.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Dependent child of Fiance Visa

2011-07-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Board of Immigration Appeals, in a recent case --- Matter of Hieu Trung LE, 25 I&N Dec 541 (BIA-June 23, 2011)---- decided that if a derivative child of a F-1 fiance visa visa enters the country before the child is 21 (Note not 18), then even if he turns 21 before adjusting status, the child will still get the Permanent Residency.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) had held that under INA 101(b)(1) (B), that if a child turns 18 at the time of a parent's marriage, then the child cannot be a derivative beneficiary of the step parent and adjust for status. But the Board of Immigration Appeals, held in the case above that as long as the child is less than 21 at the time of the marriage, he can adjust even after he turns 21.

The child here was from Vietnam and was granted a K-2 visa and accompanied his mother, the K-1 visa holder when the child was 19. They entered the US. The mother married the US Petitioner after a week, and both she and the child filed for Adjustment of Status. The CIS granted the mother's adjustment, but denied the child's becasue he was older than 18.

The child was put in removal (deportation) proceedings. By the time the case got to a judge, the child had turned 21. The Immigration Judge held that the child was eligible to adjust status when he was 19, but cant anymore since he turned 21.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) held that when the statue does not define what a minor child's age is, it will be 21 under INA 101(b)(1) , which included unmarried children under the age of 21. The BIA also held that since in this case, the child entered when he was 19, and his mother did get married when he was 19; the child can adjust status to become a legal permanent resident.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The Doctors doing Immigration Physical

2011-06-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

If anyone wants to file an application for adjusting status to Permanent Residency (Green Card), they have to undergo a physical examination from a doctor listed by Citizenship and Immigration Services. The doctor has to ensure that the person has received all their shots and have to communicable diseases. The shots required by US Government are:

Hepatitis B at birth, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 months, 12 yrs

DTP 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 months, 4 years, 12yrs

IPV 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 months and 4 years

HiB 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 months

MMR 1 year and 4 year

Chicken Pox (varicella) 1 year and 12 years

PPV and PCV 2 months, 4 months and 6 months

TD Booster every 10 year

FLU last October

Many clients especially from developed countries have already had these vaccines. Since these vaccines are also required by most schools, most students have already had them. Same is true for clients coming in on K visas and adjusting status here.

Yet the doctors prey on these immigrants. Most of the doctors on the list are Foreign Medical Doctors (FMGs) I understand that GPs with good practices would not want to do immigration physicals. But it is very hard to find an ethical doctor.

The average cost of this physical should be about 150 USD. Yet clients routinely get charged anywhere between $600 to more than $1000/- The doctors give shots which very often these people have already had. The physical comes in a sealed envelop and lawyers or clioents cannot see it. So there is no way of verifying anything inside.

Also very often the doctors make mistake in filling out these forms. The client comes to know about this only through a Request for Information in an Employment based case, or at the Interview in Family based case. The clent has to take the form back to the doctor to correct the mistake. Very often they are charged again, this time for the mistake of the doctor.

I propose that we lawyers suggest the names of these doctors to the CIS, and offer proofs of these totally illegal activities. The CIS will then have a mandatory obligation to report these matters to the State Board of Medicine and the Attorney General's Office.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Undocumented Success

2011-06-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

Jose Antonio Vargas won the pulitzer in 1997 for the Virginia Tech shootings. He has interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. He writes for the Washington Post. And he is illegal.

His mother put him in a plane from the Phillipines, and he landed in California, and lived with his grandparents. He was a very good student. When he discovered that he was "illegal" he learned to speak English, so that no one would mistake him as "illegal". And now, he has come out, to fight for his rights, to fight for the rights of thousand others like him, illegal children, who were raised in the US, educated in the US. The House tried to pass, what is called the Dream Act several times, to legalize these children, yet the bill always die. Republican Congressmen, like Kay Bailey Hutchinson from Texas, think that granting these students the Permanent Resident status would encourage their parents to file for permanent residency.

Yet, if what Vargas did was criminal, then its criminal to be a human. He overcame, and he survived. And this determination achieved fruits for America. Yet, how many Vargases are being quashed everyday by restrictionists?

To deny undocummented children who are being educated in the US, the right to survive and live properly in the US, is not only inhumane, its ultimately detrimental for America. Look at the list of Nobel Prizes from America, at the list of Intel and Westinghouse Science Scholars. Yes, if we were to all leave the US, the US would become a third world country in a day. It would become the country of sub intellects like Sarah Palin.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Deemed Export Control

2011-06-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Although Export Control can apply to goods, Deemed Export applies to Technology. This blog will only deal with Deemed Export.
Certain technology is controlled by our Government and restricted for importing to other countries. The Commerce and State Departments issue licenses for such exports. This rule has long been in the books, but was not really enforced. Suddenly in December of 2010, the new I-129 form came in, and the form included questions about deemed export for H-1B, H1B1,L-1 and O-1A.
The employer has to first ascertain what the beneficiary’s citizenship country is. (Not country of birth) Particularly countries like Iran, Iraq, Lybia, China are suspect. Then ascertain what technology or technological data the beneficiary has access to. If the employer needs a license from the Department of commerce/State to export that technology to that person’s country, then the employer has to first get the license before filing the H-1B, or deny access to the person until such license is obtained. This process can take about 6 months.
For large high speed Computers Systems, usually source code is controlled, not object code. Also sophisticated networking systems and encryptions are usually controlled.
There are two types of Deemed Export regulations: the Export Administration Regulations administered by the Department of Commerce, (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, (ITAR) administered by the Department of State. More information on these can be found at:
http://www.bis.doc.gov/licensing/exportingbasics.htm

EAR typically deals with high speed computers, semi conductors, telecommunications, and technology dealing with manufacturing equipment. ITAR deals with technology which has space or military applications.
To get the license for nationals from countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, China and Libya is very difficult, especially for ITAR
The penalties for violation of this law is severe. And ICE will audit employers. Civil penalties range is either $250,000 or twice the gain from the particular technology. Criminal penalties range from up to 1 million USD, and up to 20 years prison term.
There is of course no prior evidence that anyone on H-1B ever exported any technology back home. But, Immigration is fast becoming a huge cash cow for the Government. We love to hate immigrants, and make employers who hire immigrants pay severe penalties. And in the process we will lose our competitive edge to other countries.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Following to Join

2011-06-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

If the principal beneficiary becomes a green card holder, the immediate family, ie spouse and minor children can file following to join if they have not filed together. The requirements are enumerated in 9 FAM 40.1 N7.1 General
There is no time limit to file this petition, provided that the Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) has not left the country. Minor children, if they are in US can adjust, no accrual of illegal stay (under 21) However the relationship should still exist, ie the child has not reached 21 years of age, got married, or the LPR has not died. The relative should consult the consulate, fill out a DS-230. Documents should include all of the LPR’s Immigrant visa petition, and a copy of the Green Card (Permanent Resident Card) and documents to establish the relationship, like marriage certificate or birth certificate. The LPR has to also file the I-864.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

CIS going to issue fee waiver form

2010-07-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

The fees for most CIS applications are astronomical. For instance the fee for N-400 to become a US Citizen is $675/- The fee for adjusting status to become a permanent resident is $1010/- Many people simply cannot afford that. However previously there were no forms and no guidelines to filing anything without fees with the CIS. If anyone filed a form and could not afford a fee, they had to write a letter. But the mailroom personnel at CIS either does not read or perhaps cannot read. So the form used to be returned asking us to send the check. You could go back and forth and in the mean time loose time or even status.

Even more egregious were fees paid due to CIS' mistake. For instance if the CIS in clear cut error denied your case, you had to file a motion to reopen for $585/- We even had a case once where the CIS collected a fee for a I-765 (EAD) filing for $340/- and lost the file. When we traced and send them the check, the reply was that my bank should ask for the money back. My bank, Bank of America, did not know how to. So we simply paid again and refiled.

Now the CIS is proposing a form: I-912 which will establish clear guidelines for fee waivers. Hopefully the form in its approved version will have no fee requirements for CIS' mistakes along with applications for applicants below the poverty level.

Don't just start spending the money that you were saving for the CIS fees yet though. Sometimes these forms take years to come to fruition. As for me, I will believe it when I ultimately see it.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

How to How to show control under the Jan 08 memo

2010-07-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

There are only 65,000 visas given for regular H-1Bs and 20,000 for holders of US Master's Degree. As of July 09, only 24,800 regular petitions were filed and 10,600 US Master's petition were filed. The reason for this slow filing is two fold.

Heading into a deeper recession, the economy is definitely a factor. Unlike what most people think, Companies would rather hire US workers, and not pay the $2320/- filing fees plus attorney's fees.

However there are some professions which have a shortage in the US. That is true of computer professionals. But the computer professional market has been bruised by a poorly conceived and legally impermissible memo that CIS promulgated on January 08, 2010. The CIS is their infinite wisdom deemed that professionals need to be "controlled" directly by the petitioning company.

The IT business typically have contracts that go through tiers--- from the petitioning company to the end user. The CIS thinks that this creates "job shop" a four letter word to them.

The Jan 08 memo is startling in how unconstitutional it is---- how it totally disregards the rule of law. The class action lawsuit against it will hopefully see the end of the memo. Meanwhile software companies are outsourcing their business elsewhere.

However if there is a contract using an intermediary, control can be shown if another employee of the same H-1B employer works for the end user and actually supervises the H-1B beneficiary.

For instance if Company A, the H-1B employer has a contract with Company F and Company F has a contract with the end user, Company Bigshot. If Company A has employee X who works for Big Shot too, who supervises employee Y, who is the beneficiary, then control can be established under the January 08 memo. Of course all companies have to provide a ton of document to prove the case.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Arizona and the Justice Department on Immigration

2010-07-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

The justice Department's suit to block the restrictive law in Arizona is heralded by everyone as an "immigration issue." Both Wall Street Journal and New York Times have huge headings under "Immigration Law." But the question is not about immigration law. It is about the fundamental human right to not be judged by the color of our skin.

The proponents of the bill, like Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce say that the bill "prohibits racial profiling." But I wonder if every individual is stopped and asked for their passports. The will cripple business in the State. Will everyone, ie white, black, brown, yellow, and whatever other color or look need to take their passports, birth certificates, etc to Arizona?

I naturalized into this country and is in the highest tax bracket. I work and pay taxes. Yet I am brown and have an accent. As a practitioner of immigration law, I know say for instance white Canadian who are here, in the US, working illegally, but are white and except for a slight "oot and aboot" has no other accent. Who will the Arizona police "catch"?

The lawsuit is also about separate state and federal rights. The Conservative Supreme Court will champion State rights, but it will remain to be seen whether they champion Separation of Powers. My guess is that their judgment will be clouded by the more emotional issue of immigration.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Second Amendment

2010-06-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

In McDonald v. Chicago, The Supreme Court reasserted today that individuals have the right to retain guns at both the State and Local levels. The Majority consisting of conservative justices---- Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy based their decision on the history of the second Amendment, where militias were given the right to protect their farmlands. At that time we had no organized police force, we had no justice system in place.

Who are the militias of today? The KKK-- the uneducated people, who generally do not work, collect welfare checks, and blame all their owes on the colored people and now the "illegal immigrants."

If the Supreme Court grants the right to local levels to enact gun controls, one can only speculate for instance what kind of gun control laws Maricopa COunty in Arizona will enact.

Due Process protects every "individual"; it does not say "citizens". And just like every individual has the right to protect themselves with weapons, every individuals also have the more fundamental right to live.

Although the justices said that the Second Amendment allows for a reasonable restriction of guns, their rationale based on history of the second Amendment gives the militias a carte blanche right to bear arms. This can indeed set a dangerous precedence.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Speedy Travel at the Airport

2010-06-24T08:02:00.001-07:00

Although I am not going anywhere, as summer rolls along, visions of distant lands dance in my head. However, that vision is marred by long lines at the airports--- getting your luggage checked, getting into a plane with carry on bags and no overhead place, and finally the immigration and customs line ups.

This year, for a fee, the Government and even some airlines are helping to ease that pain.

The US Government, (and some foreign Government as well like Holland) has introduced the Global Entry Program. US Citizens over the age of 14 can pay a fee of $100/- (valid for 5 years) and enroll in the program. They have to enter their data in the following web site:

https://goes-app.cbp.dhs.gov/

After the completion of the process, there will be a one time only CBP interview.

However, once its complete, you do not need to stand in any immigration line. There are kiosks in most major airports. The traveler has to scan in their passport at airport kisoks, and zoom down to luggage claim.

Similarly, in Houston IAH, international travelers who are US Citizens and has no checked luggage, can go through the lines used by pilots and air hostesses for faster processing.

This process can be used by anyone, but because of the lengthy process to get into the program, its probably feasible for frequent business travelers only. The travelers also get expedited check in in kiosks of other participating countries as well. As more countries sign on, the price may come down. Or this may simply become a requirement for foreign travel in the future. It will save money on personnel for countries participating in this program.

Additionally, some airlines are also letting passengers cut in line for boarding the plane or for checking in for a fee. Both American and South West is going to be offering this perk for a fee ranging from $10/- to $50/- per ticket.

This will be the future of travel, in a world increasingly short for time. But then, in this world, will there even be time for vacations?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Texas Immigration

2010-06-15T13:14:00.001-07:00

If you were wondering why the Tripple G rated (Guns, God and Gays) Southern States, still under the shadows of the Jim Crow laws have not passed on their hatred for immigrants in a restrictive bill like Arizona, wonder no further. The Texas GOP convention this past week end in Dallas adopted an anti immigration stance that would bar illegal immigrants from "intentionally or knowingly" residing in Texas. Of course the GOP did not clarify if this knowledge applies to residing in Texas or being not legal. But then, we need to one up Arizona. So the GOP advocated for an "open carry" law which would allow residents of carrying fire arms in the open, without a concealed weapons permit. Of course that would in Texas terms mean shoot on sight, especially at brown people.

Take into account that we recently changed our history textbooks to reflect the right wing ideology and we are the perfect breeding ground for future KKK party members. And how many years ago was it that Texas actually belonged to Mexico? Maybe we should, as Governor Rick Perry had once suggested, secede, form our own ultra right wing country and gradually fade into oblivion.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Prima Facia Evidence for Outstanding Researcher

2010-06-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Administrative Appeals Unit (AAO) recently held that if a case does not establish the factual basis of a prima facia case, then it will be denied without a request for additional information.

The case involved an Outstanding Researcher.(OR) The AAO, quoting a Ninth Circuit case, Kazarian v. USCIS 2010 WL 725317, said that there are two prongs to establish whether the case satisfies regulatory requirements.

The first is whether the case has the requisite evidence. In an OR case, the petitioner must have the two out of six criteria set forth in the regulation.

The second is whether the evidence meets final merit. This is where the case gets interesting. Granted initially it was a poorly prepared case. But the AAO suggested a number of things, with no precedence, that seemed absurd. Here is a short list:

1. The beneficiary was on Peer review Committee of journals. The AAO suggested that most scientists do this. My understanding is that only senior scientists are given this privilege.

2. The AAO suggested that most researchers gets grants. No, labs and senior scientists gets grants, junior members don't. As a matter of fact, not so long ago there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about how it was the junior or novice scientists that came up with novel ideas that changed the world. Einstein, Newton etc were in their prime when they discovered their seminal research. Yet junior scientists are NOT given grants.

3. The AAO states that the petition requires an offer letter from the sponsor. In an OR case, the sponsor is the hiring institution. They have to sign the I-140 and the petitioning document. Why would they do that, if they did not intend to offer the beneficiary the job?

4. The Petitioner must provide documentary evidence of the employer's ability to pay. If the petitioner states (under oath) in the I-140 their gross and net; I think they meet their prima facia obligation. If Texas Service Center (TSC)(where the case got denied) does not think this is enough to establish the fact, then an RFE would be appropriate.

I know there is a huge backlash against any type of employment based immigration, and I know there is a high unemployment rate. But to stay competitive, we MUST do research. And most researchers in this country come from foreign lands. If we dont keep abreast of science and technology, most high tech jobs will be outsourced. India will do the research, have the patents. And we will only pay second fiddle.

And if the TSC adjudicators do not believe me, they need to get into their cars, drive less than 3 miles down Stemmons Freeway to Harry Hines Blvd. There is UTSW, one of the premier medical school and research institution in the US. They have three Nobel laureates and countless foreign researchers. And think, if we dont change our policy, all the Nobel prizes will go to other countries.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Griping about DOL's Prevailing Wage system

2010-06-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

Why do Governments have a wonderful capacity of taking something completely good and turning it into a nightmare? Does the very definition of democracy mean "you cannot get anything done quickly when dealing with the Government?"

The DOL launched its new Prevailing Wage System on January 01, 2010. Previous to that the State Workforce Agencies (SWA) determined the Prevailing Wage for their state. A Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) is required to determine what the wage rate should be for a job. Previously the SWAs were widely different and caused a lot of problems. So DOL wanted to centralize the process. Commendable indeed, but they introduced this whole thing with no alpha or beta testing whatsoever.

The DOL created a form, which has to be filled in by hand or typing and then snail mailed to the DOL. DOL then types it into their system. A form that we could submit electronically would have been so much easier and traceable, (like PERM), but DOL wont have that. We send ours by certified mail, and then we don't hear from one or two of them at all. They get lost in the mail. We have certified receipts to prove they reached DOL's doors, but no way to follow up.

The officers who determines the are untrained. They sometimes ask stupid questions. Some get returned if we use the major as "general" even if this is for a third preference skilled worker job. The officers do NOT have basic training. I can understand some confusion initially, but we have crossed the six month mark. And the determinations vary so widely from one adjudicator to the other, that they outdo the variance between the different SWAs. So much for a centralized system.

The PWD takes forever to get done and come back, and then it is sometimes valid for barely two months. After that the employer has to advertise for the job, wait a month and then file. And the Prevailing Wage has to be valid at the time of filing. Since advertisements are valid for 6 months only, and there is no knowing when we will get the prevailing wage from DOL, it is not advisable for employers to start advertising without the prevailing wage determination.

There are only so many combination that the PWD form can have. The simple solution would be to mechanize the whole system and have a computer determine the prevailing wage. It would make far less mistakes than humans and would be a lot cheaper. But then, that is not how the system works.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

USCIS Lock-Box

2010-05-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

In their strive to automatize, the USCIS has introduced centralized lock box system. This system mirrors the system used by private companies, like utility companies who collect money. The personnel uses machines to collect fees, look at the petition to determine prima facia sufficiency, and prepare the case for adjudicators. However they also scan the documents for retrieval. They have been doing so for several years now.

They scan all forms and supporting documents. They also take out of the package any tabs, etc that we insert to arrange documents. If the file is too large, they only scan (completely arbitrarily) the first 50 pages.

The CIS wants to have I-140s into the lockbox systems. I-140s can be very thick petitions, especially for Outstanding categories, NIW, International Managers, etc. If the lock box system takes out tabs, etc, in the very least it will make life for the adjudicators very difficult.

In a recent meeting with AILA members at the Texas Service Center Mr. David Roark, the Director of the TSC objected to the removal of the tabs.

However, CIS, being the huge government bureaucracy that it is, will probably not listen to everyone in formulating policies. So even though they make be able to generate receipt notices faster, we will have slower adjudications, and maybe even denials if papers go missing from original petitions.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

I am a eight year old girl in Mexico. My mother is working in your country illegally. My father was never in the picture. My mother had 2 other children. She had no education, she could not find a job. She had to either watch her children die from hunger, or come to the US illegally and work.

Unlike you, she works any and all jobs. She works very hard. There are no benefits, no WIC, no food stamp, no safety net. And then she send money home.

Yes, she is not following US laws, but there is a higher law, that of evolution. All species have built in survival instincts built into them, an instinct that propels a mother to do anything to save her children. And that natural law does not make earning a living a crime. When we as a species decided to live in society, we bound ourselves into law, the law of live and let live.

I know that most people who criticize my mother in your country do not believe in evolutionary or natural law. But you do believe in God. Does your religion allow you to bring a child into this world, and then not care of that child? "Refrigerator Mother" is only a coinage of the Western World. I don't know what it means. I only know that my mother is doing whats best for me. And if you have people to do the work that my mother is doing, why do you hire my mother?

Mom, I know that on this Mother's day, you will do your work, and then come home in fear, and go to sleep in your shanty apartment. I know you will not get a kiss from me, or even a gift. But I love you. Happy Mother's Day.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Bye Bye Sedona

2010-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

In July of 2010, I decided to take a road trip to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. A few days of rest, relaxation and hiking from the daily grind of my law practice in Houston, Texas seemed inviting. So I packed up my 04 Lexus and headed West.

But long before the red rocks of Sedona loomed in the horizon, I was puzzled by a huge sign saying, "Heil Brewer--- Death to Brown people." Since I'm brown, I was kind of taken aback, and decided to watch my speed and obey all traffic laws. After all, this is still America, where I am a naturalized citizen, and I would be Ok, if I did not break any rules. Wrong. Within 15 minutes I heard the sirens behind me asking me to stop. I look behind me as I stopped, and there is a police car with pictures of Ms. Brewer and Ms Palin on the dashboard. Once the officer walks up to me, I said, "but officer I was well within the speed limit."

Officer: Where did you cross the border?

Me: Texas, I am a Texas resident

Officer: Laredo?

Me: No Officer, I am from Houston

Officer: Uh huh, How do you prove it?

Me: See, my driver's license gives my Houston address. Same zip code as George H Bush

Officer: So you stole the car with the license?

Me: What.... I did not steal the car. If I was going to steal the car, why would I steal a Toyota?

Officer, You are under arrest

Me: For what?

Officer: For being an illegal and stealing a car....

Me: Are you not going to read me my miranda rights.... I want to see a lawyer, I want due process

Officer: Those are federal laws, they don't work here in Arizona

Me: But I thought states cannot curb federal laws

Officer: You want to stay in jail forever?

Me: Sorry, Sorry Officer.

The next day I see a judge who says the fine is $20,000/- If I pay it I can go back to Houston.

I told the judge that I hadn't committed any crime whatsoever.

The Judge told me, Since the Immigration bill was passed, Arizona is loosing money. That is our rate. You either pay this and leave the State, or stay jailed forever.

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock. This was thankfully a nightmare. But it was oh so real. Bye Bye Sedona, there is a thousand places outside Arizona who could use my tourist dollars.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

If you leave the US without surrendering the I-94

2010-04-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

When you entered the US, you had to fill out either a white form if you entered with a visa, or a green form if you did not need a visa. Upon leaving the US, you are supposed to surrender that I-94 form to the US government. But sometimes that does not happen. For whatever reason, the airlines or whoever it is forgets to take the form. So now the US thinks you are in the country illegally, past the date stamped in the I-94, and you will have problems.

If this happens, please mail the I-94 back (certified mail) other documents to prove that you are out of the country, to:

DHS-CBP-SBU
1084 South Laurel Road
London, KY, 40744
USA

Documents to prove that you are out of the country can include, but is not limited to the following documents:

1. Original boarding passes you used to depart another country, such as Canada, if you flew home from there;
2. Photocopies of entry or departure stamps in your passport indicating entry to another country
3. after you departed the United States (you should copy all passport pages that are not completely blank, and include the biographical page containing your photograph); and
Photocopies of other supporting evidence, such as:

4. Dated pay slips or vouchers from your employer to indicate you worked in another country after you departed the United States,
5. Dated bank records showing transactions to indicate you were in another country after you left the United States,
5. School records showing attendance at a school outside the United States to indicate you were in another country after you left the United States, and
6. Dated credit card receipts, showing your name, but, the credit card number deleted, for purchases made after you left the United States to indicate you were in another country after leaving the United States.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Akhil Amar for Supreme Court Justice

2010-04-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

I would like to see Akhil Amar as the next Supreme Court Justice. And that is not only because he knows more about Constitutional Law than most Supreme Court Justices. But as a group, Asians don't have much clout in Politics. We have small numbers. Yet, we score the highest SAT scores, we earn the highest average salaries of any other group. Yet we have negligible representation in Government.

Our children get into the best colleges through merit alone, we don't have affirmative action or legacy. And very often than not, schools discriminate against us. Princeton was sued recently by Asians because they adversely discriminated against Asians. So all other groups can get in with much lower grades than we do. That is why schools have created this "holistic" approach, so that they can tell Asians that education is not enough.

The legal profession takes this discrimination even one step further. Not many Asians are partners of big law firm. So even though Neal Katyal convinced the Bush Supreme Court to rule against Guantanamo, he was just a professor at Georgetown. Mr. Amar is a professor at Yale. But Professorships don't pay. Neither does in house counsel. So most Asians become doctors.

In the process we are loosing some brilliant minds to Law. We need to uphold the image of Asians as effective lawyers. And after all they have the brains and education to prove it.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Education and Work Experience for I-140

2010-04-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

Immigration is the only place in law where quotas are still permissible, and everybody knows that especially for India and China the quotas for employment based visas disappear very quickly. These are huge countries with many professional people and their quotas get used up resulting in lengthy wait times, especially for third preference visas. Therefore everyone wants to get into the Second Preference.

There are some caveats though:

1. The experience has to be AFTER you get the degree and BEFORE you join the Petitioning Company. The experience in the same job at the petitioning company does not work because the rationale is that if the employer can train the beneficiary, they can train an American graduate as well.

2. To get to the second preference with a Master's Degree, if that degree is not from the US, there is always a problem. If the underlying Bachelors Degree and Master's Degree does not match, then it is not usually counted as a Bachelors Degree.

3. Evaluations are advisory only, and USCIS does not have to follow them. Similarly, work experience cannot be used to substitute years of Degree as you can in H-1B.

4. H-1B standard is much less stricter in terms of Degree equivalency than I-140.

Below are some recommendation by Nebraska Service Center for Degree equivalency:

1. US master’s degree – as long as it is in the field required no additional documents would be required no additional documents would be required

2. 4 yr bachelor’s degree + 2 yr master’s degree (India) – with degrees in the same or related fields this will generally be considered the equivalent to a U.S. master’s degree with no additional documents required

3. 3 yr bachelor’s degree + 3 yr master’s degree (India) – with degrees in the same or related fields this will generally be equivalent to U.S. master’s degree with no additional documents required

4. 3 yr bachelor’s degree + 1 yr postgraduate diploma + 2 yr master’s degree (India) with degrees in the same or similar field this would generally be considered the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree plus one additional year of education so the beneficiary would also need to have 5 yrs progressive experience. If the postgraduate diploma is determined to be progressive postgraduate education that is a continuation of the 3 yr bachelor’s degree it is possible that this would be considered the equivalent to a Master’s degree and there would be no need to establish 5 yrs progressive experience.

5. 3 yr bachelor’s degree + 2 yr master’s degree (India) – generally this would be the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree + 1 year and would require 5 yrs progressive experience to qualify under the 2nd preference category.

6. 3 yr bachelor’s degree + 2 yr master’s degree (India) + 5 yrs progressive, post master’s degree experience – Generally the educational degrees would be determined to be the equivalent of a US. bachelor’s + 1 year and the beneficiary would meet the statutory requirement

7. 3 yr bachelor’s degree + 2 yr master’s degree + 1 yr postgraduate diploma (India) – generally this would be the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree + 1 year and would require 5 yrs progressive experience to qualify under the 2nd preference category. If the postgraduate education that is a continuation of the 3 yr bachelor’s degree or the 2 yr master’s degree it is possible that this would be considered the equivalent to a US Master’s degree and there would be no need to establish 5 yrs progressive experience.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

H-1B is dead

2010-04-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

The USCIS announced today (April 01, 2010) that it has killed the H-1B program. I just saw this on their web site. The press release said that the Service could not control the program, that it went through too many intermediaries and is therefore impermissible. The Spokesperson from the Vermont Service Center, Mr. New Field said that the H-1B petition originated with the employer offering the employee a job. Then the employer had to go through an intermediary, the lawyer, who then goes through the Department of Labor and then through the post office, before submitting the petition to the Vermont Service Center. The Vermont Service Center then has to collect it through the pouring rain. The mail room clerks then collects the fee, and issues the receipts. The officer who ultimately adjudicates the petition cannot control the petition because of all these intermediaries. The USCIS cited Brown Vs Board of Education as precedent in discontinuing the program.

The memo further stated if your new H-1B petition reached their offices today, you need not worry. The CIS will do what they would have done anyways, deny the petition.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Immigration Consequences of a Crime

2010-03-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court of the United States today in Padilla V Kentucky, ruled that if an immigrant is wrongly advised by his Criminal Defense Attorney about the Immigration consequences of a crime,is prejudiced and cannot be automatically deported.

Padilla was a Vietnam vet and had been a Permanent Resident for more than 40 years. He was charged with drug distribution charges in Kentucky and his Criminal Defense lawyer told him to plead guilty, and that it would have no immigration consequences. He was wrong and Padilla was sent for deportation.

What is astonishing is that this conservative Supreme Court recognized that deportation laws are extremely harsh now. "While once there was only a narrow class of deportable offenses and judges wielded broad discretionary authority to prevent deportation, immigration reforms have expanded the class of deportable offenses and limited judges’ authority to alleviate deportation’s harsh consequences. Because the drastic measure of deportation or removal is now virtually inevitable for a vast number of noncitizens convicted of crimes, the importance of accurate legal advice for noncitizens accused of crimes has never been more important. Thus, as a matter of federal law, deportation is an integral part of the penalty that may be imposed on noncitizen defendants who plead guilty to specified crimes."

Thus Criminal Defense Lawyers have an affirmative duty to learn and advise clients about the immigration consequences of a crime.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

H-1B and Control Issues in Practice

2010-03-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

On January 08, 2010, The CIS unilaterally, and through a memo banned the practice in many industries notably the IT and health care industry of assigning H-1B workers to third party sites. They said that the petitioning employer should "control" the beneficiary, and can only send beneficiaries to an end user client. Yes, its unfair, stupid, bad law, bad lawmaking. My previous blogs deals with this.

But how have these rules been implemented? We are finding that many officers are using that memo to deny cases, even when a consulting company sends the beneficiary to an end user. Government employees, unable to get into complex reasoning, has reduced the memo in practice to:
1. We see a Consulting Company
2. We have to deny (after all our bosses gave us all these beautiful write up for the denial letters based on the memo that we copy and paste to each denial)
3. Find whatever language we can find and say this shows "no control."

We had one case where the Consulting company had a contract with an end user Company. We provided all types of document, including the contract, the statement of work, documents showing payments from the end user company to the consulting company. The officer cited this one line in the contract to state that this end user company was NOT an end user: "Whereas [End user company] is in the business of providing Open Source solutions to its enterprise clients..." The end user Company creates software in house for their clients. Why would a Company create software if nobody buys that software from them?

In our case the individual was an H-1B extension, lived and worked here for 6 years and had filed the labor certification and I-140. Although you can appeal that denial, the appeal does not give him status. So he has to either convert to F-1 status or go back to India. The work of course will suffer.

His comment was, "The CIS is playing with our lives."

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Hold off on Immigration Reform

2010-03-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

The one party Health Care bill was signed into law today. Although I applaud Mr. Obama's attempt to work in a bipartisan manner, he should have slowed down the process to concede to the republican demands. He refused to compromise with the republicans, courted the democrats and rammed a bill down the throats of an unwilling population. That is NOT democracy. What will happen to that health care bill is that Republicans will file a court challenge to it. The conservative Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional. In the meantime, in October the make up of the Senate and House will change. And the health care issue will die.

Our Separation of Powers works if the legislative majority and the Executive are not of the same party. With a single party holding swing over the Executive and Legislature the checks and balances are gone.

Yet probably unlike health care, Immigration can be bipartisan. There were at least two bills jointly put forward by a Republican and a Democrat. And former president Bush wanted immigration reform as much as President Obama does. Yet the parameters are different for different parties. The democrats want to legalize the undocumented aliens who are illegally here. They do mainly manual jobs, work hard, and are necessary for the country. However the democrats frown upon the intellectual jobs being done by mostly Indian and Chinese professionals, who are here legally on H-1B visas, giving into protectionist labor organizations.The H-1B visas have been attached ever since Mr. Obama took office. First there were the workplace raids, whose main purpose was to see if businesses were following the letter of the law minutely. Then came the January 08 memo, which virtually ended consulting companies (mainly IT companies) ability to hire foreign nationals on H-1B. These people are legal, have valid visas and work in professional jobs. They too are necessary for the American economy. American colleges do not generate a high volume of Computer Professionals necessary to keep American businesses going. The Republicans support these work visas, the democrats don't.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform has to be COMPREHENSIVE. Just as health care bill did not include provisions to curb tort lawyers, an Immigration bill which only addresses the illegal immigrants supplying manual labor and not the legal immigrants supplying intellectual labor is simply unacceptable.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Why we need H-1B workers

2010-03-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

The USCIS charges a hefty ACWIA fee for each H-1B petition filed. The fee is either $1500 (for employers having more than 25 employees) or $750 (if the employer has less than 25 employees).
The rationale behind these fees is that the Government will use this money to teach American workers to do the job. But of course this money goes into that deep dark hole called the Government.

But America could easily train its students to perform at a much higher rate by spending NO money.

1. Create an atmosphere where education is held to a higher respect than sports or cheer leading. The only March madness that all other countries worry about are those big fat college acceptance letters showing up on students' mailboxes.

2. Make College acceptances more fair. The "Holistic" approach that Colleges apply to "Judge" students is arbitrary and fraudulent. I am not saying that students should be bookworms or nerds and not do extracurricular. But the main determinant for getting into colleges should be grades and SATs. There is no way to judge if a piano player is better than a violin player, or a person with XYZ community service is better than one with ABC community service. Students routinely build their resumes with fluff to satisfy the colleges, a time better spent in studying and doing something they enjoy to develop themselves, rather than conforming to a set of rules dictated by colleges. In India, Engineering and Medical School acceptances are blind, based on only scores of a very hard standardized exam. It is true that it is much harder to get into IIT than to Harvard. And if these students want to come over to the US because of higher pay, why blame them? The US ultimately profits.

3. Do away with Legacy acceptances. That is nothing short of white, privileged people (like former pres George W Bush) preserving the college acceptances for their worthless kids. Many parents of today's college age kids entered college before there was the SATs. College acceptances in those days was based on color and lineage. These people then want their kids to enter their alma mater. The legacy kids are generally academically inferior and walk around with a sense of entitlement. Yet better students do not get in. In fact Princeton was sued by an Asian male recently for discrimination. Likewise affirmative action should be means dependent rather than color dependent. The economically poor do not get the same opportunity as the richer kids in terms of college preparedness and should be given an advantage to level the plain field.

Of course there is no legal way to make private colleges fair other than to cut out their Governmental research funding and thereby diminishing their US News And World Report rank. If America cannot give the very best education to deserving students and create professional workers, we have to import them from countries like India. And how does India, a poor country produce so many professionals?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Time for New H-1B filings

2010-03-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

There are 65,000 general plus 20,000 US Master's Degree holder H-1B visa given annually. The Government's fiscal year starts on October, and they begin taking applications 6 months before that. Thus the CIS announced that for the fiscal year 2011, they will begin accepting H-1B applications from April 01, 2010.

In recent years, ie 2007 and 2008, there were more than 100,000 petitions filed on April 01. The CIS held a lottery and only the lucky 65K plus 20K got in. This created a myth amongst employers that they have to file on April 01, or they will not get in. However that is not the case. The CIS will continue to accept applications until the H-1B quota is finished. Last year, in 2009 (for the fiscal year 2010) the quota was finished on December 21, 2009. They started accepting applications on April 01, 2009. That was because the economic downturn and US unemployment reduced the need for hiring new employees, especially H-1B employees who are expensive. The high unemployment rates still continues. In addition the January 08, 2010 memo by CIS effectively killed the IT industry sponsorship, and IT was the biggest user of H-1B visas. Thus, the H-1B quota finishing on April 01 this year is extremely unlikely.

Additionally, the Labor Condition Application, a precondition to filing the H-1B application which used to be instant this time last year, is taking about 2-3 weeks, thanks to an incompetent labor department.

Also the Request for Additional Evidence from the CIS for H-1B has increased exponentially. Thus we are taking our time to gather a ton of documents and present a water tight case to the CIS, instead of rushing to file the H-1B petition on April 01, 2010.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

If only our Government had common sense

2010-03-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

In the Matter of UMG Logistics today, Balca denied the case because they felt that knowledge of Spanish is not necessary for a truck driver who will deliver goods exclusively to a small community in Mexico. Balca said that the employer merely asserted that Spanish is required without giving evidence for it. Come on Balca and DOl, we all live in the US. We have all visited Mexico. Ok, maybe you have only visited Cancun, but surely you know a Mexican person whose English is not quite great. It does not take a genius to realize that you cannot do business in interior of Mexico without knowing Spanish.

Similarly, I was given a Request for Evidence (RFE) in a National Interest Waiver Case, asking me to prove that breast cancer research is National in scope and not local. We had to actually give National Statistics to prove that breast cancer is National.

But then, we never hired Federal workers for their ability to think and rationalize.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Piece by Piece Legislation

2010-02-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Republicans seem to think that a piece by piece, instead of a Comprehensive Health Care bill will be better. I think that a piece by piece Immigration Bill, instead of a Comprehensive Immigration bill will also have a higher likelihood of passing. The American people and Congress are afraid of sweeping legislation that will change the face of this nation. Besides, in Immigration Law, just like it is in health care, the issues are completely different for Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans are friendlier towards Employment issues, the Democrats want to legalize the illegal people.

Yet there are certain things that both party agree on, like the Dream Act, legalizing illegal American College grads. To not pass this bill unless you can have a Comprehensive Immigration bill does no good to anyone.

The best chance of a Comprehensive Immigration bill to have passed Congress, was the McCain (R)-Kennedy (late senator Ted Kennedy, D)in the Bush Administration. Even that bill died. If it is impossible to do a complete overhaul, lets attempt it piece by piece.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Jan 8th H-1B Memo Revisited

2010-02-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

After that devastating H-1B Neufield Memo of January 08, 2010, today the USCIS had a stakeholder's meeting for comments on that memo. (For details on this memo, please see my Jan 21 blog). Effectively this memo paralyzed certain types of H-1B cases specially the IT Consulting Services and staffing agencies. The rationale behind the memo is that these parties do not have control over their employees, and thus are not employers in the H-1B context.

The justification cited by the USCIS was that they wanted to maintain consistency of adjudications between the different service centers. After being told though that they have opened a pandora's box and their memo might be interpreted differently. The Service Center said that every denial will receive "supervisory review." Lets hope that CIS "CONTROLS" these supervisors.

Congressman Morrison, who wrote the H-1B legislation specifically stated in the meeting that Congress did not intend to exclude staffing companies (and IT consulting Companies) from H-1B jobs and that this memo is wrong and will have devastating policy consequences.

Others including Crystal Williams of AILA pointed out that since both the Supreme Court cases (Darden-Clakcamas) were not on point, and this memo created new rules for employer-employee relationship that it amounted to impermissible rule making by a Governmental agency. By law, an Agency has to publish a rule and have a notice and comment period, and consider all comments before making a rule. Thus this memo should be withdrawn. Interestingly a caller even said that the Darden-Clakcamas cases refer to the EEOC manual, where the IT staffing Companies are used as examples of valid Employer-Employee relationship. Thus the CIS' citations actually contradict their position. The caller asked whether anyone actulayy read the cases before citing them as authority.

Others made policy statements, like cutting down H-1B jobs will effectively outsource those jobs. Also prohibition of investors will hurt USA in these dire economic times.

Then there were some CIS supporters. There was a PhD from some anti immigration group who said he was a PhD in some type of radio Physics, was out of a job because employers want younger employees. Well, if H-1B was stopped, employers would still hire new grads, only they would be American grads, and those at the bottom of their classes who had no hope of getting another job. Look at the Nobel laureate list for 2010 for USA. All those medals would simply go to other countries.

The CIS did notice that there were numerous blogs criticizing their memo.

The question remains as to what it will take for USCIS to reverse its stance. It took the election of a Republican senator to change the health care debate. The CIS noted that even Capital Hill is commenting about their Jan 08 memo.

This memo according to them took years to make. Even then, the policy making personnel at CIS did not read the entire Supreme Court cases. To undo this memo may take the same time. Maybe their employer, Mr. Obama, should control them tightly against such arbitrary rule making.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Degree Equivalency for I-140

2010-02-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that the CIS is in a denying mode and will deny every Employment based petition that it possibly can. Add that to the equation that for India and China the Employment based Third Preference petitions for India is currently being processed for people who filed in July of 2001. A lot of client want to get onto the second preference category. But the requirements for EB-2 are very strict. The minimum qualification for an EB-2 job is at least a Master's Degree or a Bachelor's Degree plus 5 years of experience. The Experience has to be obtained after the degree is obtained and before starting the job with the sponsor. (The rationale being that if the sponsor provided the beneficiary with the experience, it can provide an Us Citizen with the same experience opportunity).

However, the CIS is extremely harsh with Indian degrees.

A three year Bachelors Degree from India is not equivalent to a Bachelor's degree here.

A three year Bachelors degree in a general field and a one (or sometimes two year) Masters degree in a particular field from India is not equivalent to a Bachelors degree in the US

A Bachelors degree in some field and a Masters in another specific field is not equivalent to a Masters even if the time frame for both studies is 6 years.

A Four year Bachelor's Degree and 1 year Masters is not equivalent to a Masters

The waters are more muddied by the fact that all these cases are decided on a "case by case basis." There is no consistency between cases even in the same service center.

I realize that there are some institutions in India that are not good, but so are many institutions in the US. India has 1 billion people and the competition to get into Universities is far higher than in the US. Yet, the US looks favorably to a degree from say England, than it does to a degree from India. As they say in India, if you cannot get into IIT, apply to MIT or Harvard.

And for the record, Obama did not get into Columbia as an undergraduate in the freshman year. He transferred from Occidental College. And Bush could not have gotten into any college based on merit. Saint John's School in Houston refused him admission as a kid.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

CIS Cover UP

2010-02-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

By Law the Citizenship and Immigration Service has to adjudicate the Employment Authorization Document (EAD Card) within 90 days of filing. However in many instances they do not. When the Applicant calls the CIS, they simply make up reasons which are not plausible. Below is a list of excuses that CIS has given to my clients:

1. The case was closed because no one replied to an RFE. (Interestingly enough no one received an RFE, neither the attorney nor the Applicant) both of who has correct address in the CIS database. When we ask to reopen the case, the resulting RFE that is issued contains a laundry list of documents already submitted

2. Card returned as sent to wrong address. The Applicant does not have any problems receiving any other document or notices from the CIS and has not changed their address. Additionally the Attorney does not receive an approval notice either.

3. Officers are rude. I am copying something written to me by a client in an E mail when an USC had to call for the EAD card for her husband: "Immigrations is not fair, we pay, we file, we follow up, and when I called they weren't going to talk with me again, and then I said that is what I was told last time, but my attorney and case worker said no that I had a right to call as the petitioner, and she still refused to help me so I ask for her supervisor and she started saying real loud, if you raise your voice again I will hang up, I never raised my voice ever and ask her what she was talking about and then she hung up, after my being on hold and transferred for about an hour, she never gave me her badge number or name, and when I called back the other girl who did help me tried to find out who she was but couldn't. This is tiresome and they treat you like you have no rights."

There is no oversight of the USCIS. Immigrants denied the right to stay or work, are too scared to question. I suspect these officers do not want to work, and then the whole system works as a cover up.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

What triggers H-1B audits

2010-01-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

In July of 2010, the CIS decided to use the $500/- fraud fee and conduct sweeping raids of many H-1B sponsoring companies. They conducted a study which revealed that a lot of H-1B Sponsors were not following the rules. The following are some of the criteria that was recently released by ICE as to what factors were used to determine what businesses to raid.

1. Unknown or unusual addresses or email addresses--- who determines what is unusual? Are officers familiar with every type of business in America. They then have more brain than Einstein.

2. Skill/age/salary/ education does not match job requirements- If this happens, why not simply deny the petition?

3. No record of correspondence with parent company-This is for L-1 cases, and is understandable.

4. Zoning inconsistent with business-The CIS does not believe that businesses can be conducted from homes, so they frown upon any address that does not look like an office address. I doubt the officers actually look at specific zoning requirements of any subdivision.

5. Unusual data in quarterly reports

6. Labor certification right before sunset of 245i (April 30, 2001)

7. Multiple filings by petitioner is inconsistent with company size- Company's Size is the big no no for CIS. Small businesses are not allowed to thrive under the democratic rule.

8. Location on ETA 750A or ETA 9035 differs from place of employment

9. No record of providing goods or services

10. Boilerplate documents that are in more than one petition- This can be problematic especially when the Companies file H-1B by themselves and use the same job description for every petition.

As anyone can see a lot of these are subjective criteria, leaving much room for discrimination. Thus overwhelmingly, small Companies are raided rather than big ones. This puts an undue burden on small companies who don't have resources to fight the Government.

Moreover the officers used in the raids are often new and untrained in the Complexities of Immigration Law. So rather than some job creation, the only purpose of the H-1B raids is to hassle employers and H-1B beneficiaries.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Consulting Companies as Employers for H-1B

2010-01-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

In the Computer Consulting business a company (Lets say Company A) might place an employee with one vendor (Lest say Vendor B) and the company itself may not have a contract with the end user. (Let say Enduser C) However, according to Citizenship and Immigration Service the Company A cannot be a sponsor for that beneficiary’s H-1B visa.

The regulations say that “a United States employer” can file for H-1B for the beneficiary. The Citizenship and Immigration Service looks to Common Law to determine the “Employer-Employee Relationship” whereby the employer has to have CONTROL of the Employee. If Company A does not have the contract with End user C, then Company A cannot control the work product of the beneficiary. Enduser C, at whose premises Beneficiary will work, has no dealing with Employer A, but goes through Vendor B. In this scenario, Vendor B has to be the sponsor.

Control depends on a combination of factors listed below, but the control has to be Actual Control. So Employer A not only should have the right to hire, fire and pay the employee, but also to supervise the employee. In the scenario above Vendor B is liable to Enduser C for the work quality. Enduser C will hold Vendor B liable if anything goes wrong. Company A cannot enter the premises of Enduser C to check how the employee is working. Company A must have the right to control WHEN, WHERE and HOW the employee will work, and cannot do that, simply because there is no contractual relationship between Company A and Enduser C.

The Citizenship and Immigration Service look into the totality of the following factors in deciding whether the employee-employer relationship exists in an H-1B situation:

1. Does the petitioner supervise the beneficiary and is such supervision off-site or on-site?
2. If the supervision is off-site, how does the petitioner maintain such supervision, weekly calls, reporting back to main office routine, or site visits by the petitioner?
3. Does the petitioner have the right to control the work of the beneficiary on a day-to-day basis if such control is required?
4. Does the petitioner provide the tools or instrumentalities needed for the beneficiary to perform the duties of employment?
5. Does the petitioner evaluate the work-product of the beneficiary, i.e. progress/performance reviews?
6. Does the beneficiary use proprietary information of the petitioner in order to perform the duties of employment?
7. Does the beneficiary produce an end-product that is directly linked to the petitioner’s line of business?
8. Does the petitioner have the ability to control the manner and means in which the work product of the beneficiary is accomplished?
9. Does the petitioner hire, pay, and have the ability to fire the beneficiary?
10. Does the petitioner claim the beneficiary for tax purposes?
11. Does the petitioner provide the beneficiary any type of employee benefits

However simply complying with the last three things above is not enough.

These rules were established by Common Law, invented at a time when the only ‘professions’ were probably priests. There were few if any universities. Why would the modern employer have to “Control” someone with a Bachelor’s Degree, and in some cases does the employer even have the education and ability to “control” the beneficiary in the 21st Century? Unfortunately immigration law is filled with archaic laws which a vastly divided Congress does not even care to address. But businesses and America’s ability to compete in this global world suffers.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Is DOL becoming Socialist?

2010-01-08T14:07:00.001-08:00

The DOL introduced a new Prevailing Wage system which will centralize everything. Previously each State's Workforce Agency gave those Prevailing Wage. Obviously there were discrepancies in how each SWA operated causing problems with DOL filings.

However, DOL introduced this new system of centralized Prevailing Wage determination with no computerized system of filing. We have to mail in our request to the DOL. Then the DOL will take forever to come up with a Prevailing Wage. The DOL has advised employers to file the Prevailing Wage 60 days prior to advertising for a PERM, since the ads expire in 6 months. This is strange because the DOL went computerized much earlier than the CIS did. Why could they not have a faster computerized process BEFORE centralizing the whole process? Was this then intentional?

This will slow down businesses, and filing of immigration. Similarly in July of 2009 the DOL significantly slowed down the LCA filings for H-1Bs. Which makes me wonder if DOL is slowing down things as a protectionist measure which caters to socialism? Is this the death of free enterprise, and business at the speed of 21 Century? It was another Democratic President and Congress that passed the AC 21 to speed the process up about a decade ago.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Airport Searches

2010-01-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Christmas day incident about the attempted Airplane bombing reveal that we are not safe and terrorism can happen, even with the security system in place. The US yesterday revealed a list of 10 countries whose citizens will face added searches, including padding down. The countries are: Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba. While there is little doubt that these countries have terrorist cells, patting down a 70 year old grandmother from Pakistan will not achieve anything. It will simply be a waste of time, because the terrorists will recruit persons from non listed countries, or get passports and visas from some of these countries. So we will simply have to add countries to this list.

Israel does a behavior recognition system which works wonderfully. They do added searches to people looking nervous. But Israel is a small country and can take its time with all passengers. It is impossible to train TSA personnel to operate fast and look for behavior issues for the volume of traveler we have in the US.

The best thing to do is to have body scanners in all airports. Yes, its expensive to install, but in the long run its much cheaper. And those who feel like their privacy will be violated, maybe should not travel.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The decade in Immigration Law-2000-2009

2009-12-30T08:28:00.000-08:00

If this decade started with a bang for immigration law, it is definitely ending with a whimper. The two influences in immigration law are economy and politics. The decade started with the dot com boom and the signing of the AC-21 bill easing numerous provisions of business immigration law, including the ability to port petitions from different employers, the increase of H-1B numbers to 195,000. Yet even before the ink dried on that bill 9-11 happened, followed by the dot com bust. The H-1B quota, although always filled before the end of the CIS fiscal year, reverted back to the original 65,000; never to be increased again.

The Bush years saw NO immigration bills being passed. We, immigration attorneys did not need to learn any new things, except for a procedure change in the filing of the PERM. The Labor filings got better, best and now its back to being late again. We have traveled a full cycle there.

For the last couple of years the buzz words "comprehensive immigration reforms" created numerous bills all dying on the floors of either the senate or the house. Amongst the earlier ones with promise and somewhat of a bi-partisan support was the McCain-Kennedy. Ted Kennedy has since died, and John McCain unsuccessfully ran for President. Also dead on the floors are the 'Dream Acts" legalizing college grads who were brought to the United States as little children by their parents illegally. These promising students are illegal through no fault of their own, studied here, went to college here, but cannot work legally.

The economic recession of 2009 saw a rise in anti immigration feelings, along with raids by Government agencies to businesses hiring illegal immigrants. This was followed by the Obama administration on the H-1B raids. Small businesses, the backbone of the American economy is seeing their H-1B petitions denied in record numbers because the CIS believes that employers want to commit fraud. Which small employer can afford to pay $1570/- filing fees for each H-1B employee just to commit fraud?

Can the two parties with their divergent political views ever be able to pass one "comprehensive" immigration bill in the next decade? The Republican with people like
Joe "you lie" Wilson conservatives want to make life harder for illegal immigrants who work as day laborers or gardeners. Amnesty is a bad word for these "religious" right wing conservatives. The Democrats don't want business immigration, and cracks down on H-1B and other programs. At a debate on immigration Nancy Pelosi wanted to increase further the H-1B filing fees (because the businesses have the ability to pay)to account for the illegal immigrants which are hired by non H-1B employers.

Can these conflicting factions ever come to together and pass a comprehensive immigration bill? Unlike the health care bill the impetus to cut deals with senators to get their vote will not be there, because the bill will benefit a non voting section of society. Hopefully we will have a brave new decade.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B and the CIS

2009-12-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

In a letter to Senator Grassley, the CIS defended their H-1B adjudication practices and their everything under the kitchen sink Request for Evidences.

The CIS is looking into revising the form I-129 to have Petitioner and beneficiary both attest that:

The beneficiary has been advised of the offsite placement and accepts the terms of the H-IB employment, including the job location and possible relocation;

Really? Does anyone working for the software industry not know that they have to work off site. These people are always traveling, the beneficiary KNOWS they have to work off site. Same with Oil Company Engineers. Its the nature of their work. Does CIS seriously think the beneficiary does not know?

2. Placement of the beneficiary offsite during the period of employment will be in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the H-IB nonimmigrant classification;
3. The beneficiary will be paid the prevailing rate of pay at any offsite
location; and,

This is in line with the question on the I-94 application on the plane, "Are you a terrorist." Has anyone ever answered yes to that question? Similarly, will anyone filing an H-1B petition ever say they will not comply with the law?

4. The work itinerary is attached.

The H-1B is given for 3 years. It is difficult to predict the itinerary for all those 3 years. If the work itinerary is for less than 3 years, then the employer has to file the whole H-1B again, with the high fees. And even if they have the work itinerary, the job may be canceled, etc. So what is the point of private employers filing job itineraries with the Government?

All of this simply penalizes the small employers who form the backbone of the American economy.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

State Dinner for India

2009-11-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

President Obama is holding a State dinner for India and this is getting a lot of media coverage in the mean stream media. This is his first State dinner. Even Fox news mentioned that GOP leader John McCain was not invited. Yes, Fox news, but Mr. Conservative Bobby Jindal (who is surprisingly very Anti Indian) is invited.

Whats important is that India is rising as a Nation, and friendship ties between India (and China) and the US will strengthen both economies.

A lot of Hollywood personalities were invited, including Stephen Spielberg. And of course AR Rahman of Jai Ho fame.

What surprises me though is that meat is not being served, but prawns are. When I left India vegetarians did not eat meat, fish or eggs. They did drink milk. And some people did eat eggs. And we have some great national meat dishes, including the Tandoori Chicken and the British National dish of Chicken tikka masala. Well, at least they were pared the tasteless, no matter how you cook it turkey.

Happy feasting Mr. Obama and Mr. Singh!

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B site raids revisited

2009-11-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Computerworld is reporting that USCIS will conduct 25000 H-1B raids up from 5191 last year.

For more details on what the CIS is looking for in these raids please refer to two of my previous blogs.

Two of my clients were "raided" and another one had somebody visit the beneficiary's job site.

In all these cases the officer did not ask for any documents. They seemed satisfied that the job location site actually existed, and that the beneficiary actually worked there. Beneficiaries were not questioned extensively at all.

According to the Computerworld article the USCIS found "various problems including fraud" in nearly one in five H-1B applications last year.

Yes it is important to combat fraud. But much of the fraud is because the USCIS (as does the DOL) does not accept the reality of workplace situations. In the IT business the end user usually contracts with someone, who then contracts with someone else to get the employee. For instance, Computer consulting Company A has an individual ready to work. Computer Consulting Company A has a contract with Consulting Company B. Consulting Company B has an agreement with say Megacorp C to perform the work. So A contracts the employee to B who then place him at C. The CIS holds that Company A cannot petition for the beneficiary, since Company A will not control the beneficiary and hence is not the proper employer. Company B is.

Why should control of a professional matter? Do professionals with at least a Bachelor's Degree need control? Why cant the CIS look into the reality of workplace situations?

Instead the Government is using the $500 fraud fee that it collects from Employers filing for H-1b to hire workers who does not understand the complexities of the problem to act as policeman and visit sites.

Also in keeping with this fraud finding, the CIS gives out ridiculous "requests for evidence" (RFE) to small employers. They need everything under the kitchen sink. The Company's taxes, wage report, pictures, type of toilet tissue they use, coffee maker's name. I only wish I was kidding.

All this only discourages small businesses, the backbone of the US economy from filing H-1B petitions. Yet look at this year. From April 01 to November 13, only 55,600 applications have been filed. Is this not proof that the marketplace takes care of the filings, and that most employers do not file false petitions?

And lets face it, no small employer can afford just the government fees of $1570/- per H-1B candidate, not to mention attorney's fees unless they really want the foreign employee. So these employees are NOT taking US jobs, much as the democrats like to think. And true to the democratic principal, there are no more fraud investigations on family based immigration like "paper marriages", which are far more dangerous than simply not allowing H-1Bs who don't have contracts with end users not to file.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Lou Dobbs Exits CNN

2009-11-12T09:02:00.001-08:00

Howdy,

I am Lou Dobbs. You probably heard by now, I am forced out of CNN.

And CNN claims they lost viewership because of me. Bull shit! See you popular Rush is.
Every reasonable person with an IQ of less than 100 listens to us. We along with Sarah Palin is the new face for the Republican party. Believe me, we will take down those democrats soon. If it means that every dog and cow in this country has to vote for us, we will see to it that it does. Not like Acorn, allowing illegal immigrants to vote. The dogs and cows have to be born in America and so do their parents and grandparents.

The liberal media has just gone out of hand! And I am sure that that illegal Obama personally requested CNN to throw me out. Folks, he is waging war against me, against Fox news. We are in a dictatorship folks, we are the same as Kim Jong IL. Face it, George Bush spent his time ,( when he wasn't hunting or sleeping,) working. Obama spends his time waging war against me. We are indeed in very dark days. And he is an illegal, holding the top job in this country!!!

When we take over America again, we will gather all the illegal immigrants and gas them. Yes, Hitler had the right idea. In fact, we should consider denying rights to non white people born in the US. They have no rights, their fathers and grandfathers were not born here.

Folks, rise up against that illegal bastard, Obama!

And keep listening to me.

Yours forever,

LOU DOBBS!

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Health Care bill hinges on Immigration Issue

2009-11-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

The Health care bill needs 40 democrats to vote to pass the House. According to Washington Post, 20 Hispanic democrats may not vote if the immigration language in the bill is taken out.

The Bill states that illegal immigrants cannot buy private insurance plans with their own money under the new plan.

Yes, the Obama administration is bending over backwards to pacify the anti immigrant Republicans. But these republicans, and yes, even Mr. Joe "You lie" Wilson of South Carolina have to have some amount of pragmatism.

These illegal immigrants are working here, making money. Many don't pay taxes. And guess what, they do fall sick. So they end up at Hospital Emergencies all across the United States and then we tax payers foot the bill for them. So in essence we are giving them free health care, and will continue to do so under the Republican "You lie" health care scheme.

Come on Republicans, do you want to give these hated illegal immigrants free health care? Let them buy their own out of the money they make in America.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Quotas in Immigration Law

2009-10-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today's Wall Street Journal has their main front page article on how H-1B quotas have not been used up yet and argues that the market should dictate the numbers rather than Government quotas.

Arbitrary quotas have been ruled unconstitutional by all courts in every domestic affairs except for immigration law. You cannot have quotas for segregation or desegregation, for diversity in public education. You cannot have quotas at workplace. We read in Law School that quotas inherently violate due process. But I had to throw my constitution down my office window when I started practicing immigration law.

When the colonists came to America, there was no problem, no quotas. White Anglo Saxon Protestants could simply come and work. Then as more and more Italians and Chinese came in, restrictions began to be put in from 1875 onwards. Chinese were banned because they were "Coolie labor" for lewd and immoral purposes. After World War 1, the Congress restricted immigration to 2% of their nationality already settled in America. Since there were no non white people in the US at that time, most of Asia and Africa was shut out from the US. This was done to preserve the racial mix in the United States. Since then a lot of restrictive immigration Acts establishing arbitrary quotas were enacted and still valid today. The Permanent Residency Process has quotas in both Employment based and Family Immigration. So does the H-1B program for bringing in the brightest and the best.

These quotas have risen from anti Immigration and Xenophobic attitudes prevalent in America. As the Wall Street Journal points out, why should a very bright person from say India or China come to the US to be treated as a second class citizen, at the bottom of the social ladder? They would rather stay in their own country which are emerging economies. Yet, as the WSJ articles point out, 35% of Microsoft patents were developed by immigrants, and the person who developed Google News was an H-1B from India.

Those patents will just go to India, and someday the children or grandchildren of these anti immigration forces will seek immigration to India.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Foreign Labor Divison should only hire ROBOTS

2009-10-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

In a number of recent cases the DOL has proved again that it values form over matter. It has set up rigid rules and follows the rules rather than understanding the rationale behind it. Thus it runs contrary to the philosophy of Common Law, which gave birth to our legal system. By taking out reasonableness and a humane case by case approach, the labor certification process has been reduced to at best a farce, and at worst hurting both American employers and American labor force.

The rules dictate that the PERM application be filed within 180 days of the first advertisement. In Matter of Spires Restaurant, The Board Of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) ruled that the PERM application filed 187 days later will be denied. The 180 days is meant to be a current test of the labor market, and anything more than 180 days would be considered too old. But 7 days is de minimis and penalizing an employer for just seven days is ridiculous. There should not be a hard line rule, and each application should be judged on a reasonable standard in a case by case basis.

In another case, the DOL rules that the prevailing wage request exceeded the job requirement mentioned in the PERM form. If anything, that would generate a higher Prevailing Wage. The DOL, whose job it is to see that Americans get the job before it is given to aliens, should not mind if the employer posts a higher wage than is required for the position. In The Matter of Florida Restaurant group, LLC

The last one is equally inane. In The matter of EDWARD J. TIERNEY the position was that of a DOMESTIC worker. This was a family. The DOL required a FEIN number instead of a Social Security Number. I wonder if the family of Bill Carlson has a FEIN, and if it does, what type of business do they conduct? With all his contacts at DOL, I would not be surprised.

Of course, the DOL continues to advocate publishing in major Sunday newspapers. That really is a good thing for Employers seeking to hire Aliens. No one reads those anymore, and in a matter of time, the only major newspapers will only exist in NYC and LA areas. The rest of the country will be left with community newspapers. But the DOL will not change!

We have now a ton of personnel working at Foreign Labor division of the DOL. These people will never loose their job. Why then are they doing the work that a computer system will do just as well. I say, replace them, from Bill Carlson down to the lowest level with ROBOTS. Lets use that money for health care instead.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B Auditers, what they have to fill out

2009-10-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

The following is a simplified version of the instruction sheet that the H-1B Audit inspectors have to fill out:

1. Does the facility visually appear to be that of the organization? (Take pictures if possible of the building with Number of building.

Include in narrative box:
1) Description of the location:
• Commercial office unit;
• Apartment or condominium complex;
• Single family residence;
• Mail center/postal location; or
• Virtual office (a business with multiple small workstations leased to numerous entities).
indicate if any other businesses are sharing the site location and the names

2. Was an organizational representative authority present?

In cases where contact cannot be made
Inquire with neighboring businesses and/or residents to determine:
• . If the business actively engaged in business activities.
• The business' normal hours of operations.
• It they are familiar with the benefic1ary and/or petitioner.

3. Did results of site visit suggest the presence of a legitimate organization?

Include In narrative:
1) Indicate the product end/gr service the company provides.
2) Number of employees.
3) Number of H1B employees that work full time.
4) Number of H1B employees that work part time.
5) Number 01 employees working on-site at this location, verses off site.
6) Number of clients the company has where their H1B employees are working.
7) Number of employees how that are non immigrant aliens.
8} Number of employees that are lawful permanent residents.
9) Length of time the organization has been in business.
10) Number of other locations the organization is located. List other.locations.

4. Did the organization have knowledge of the beneficiary and the petition filed on Please note that even if the employer's secretary has knowledge of who the beneficiary is, and the signatory of the petition is not present, the secretary should only state that, and not try and guess on answers that the Auditors are asking

5. Was the beneficiary working for the organization
behalf of the beneficiary?

Include in the narrative:
1) Whether or not the beneficiary is employed by the organization and what supporting documentation was reviewed (i.e., recent pay stubs, business cards, Employee ID).
2) If the beneficiary is not currently employed by the organization:
• Indicate where the beneficiary is currently working; and
• Why the beneficiary Is not employed by the organization.
3) The hours the beneficiary works.
• Full-time or part-time position.
4) If the beneficiary Is employed somewhere else:
• Where?
• What type of work?

6: Were you able to identify and speak to the beneficiary

7. Was the beneficiary knowledgeable, cooperative, and forthcoming with questions

8. Was the beneficiary being paid the salary as indicated?
posed?

9. Was the beneficiary performing the duties as indicated

10. Do you recommend further inquiry?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Mojave Cross, Scalia and Religion

2009-10-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Justice Scalia,

How can you say that the Cross is not a religious symbol? Is it really the "most common symbol of the resting place of the dead? "

How many Christian die in ratio of the addition of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and all other religions?

You have not lived your life as a non Christian, especially in the South. When I first came into this country, I came with a commodity lacking in the US, a brain. My children were enrolled in River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, Texas.(ROBS) There, they were probably the best students (they subsequently went on to Yale and Duke while the majority of ROBS students have IQs like Mr. G W Bush), they were severely discriminated against because of their race and religion. They were given bad evaluations, put in lower level classes, and constantly put down.

Once when we were seeing a Japanese dance, my six year old daughter commented that "mom can I paint my face white when I go to school." When I asked why, she replied that , "then kids would play with me, and teachers will love me."

She was told to expand on a bible verse that said that people who believe in images are like dogs. We are Hindus.

When I went to law school at South Texas College of Law quite a few teachers thought that I was not smart because of my skin color or ethnic origin. I graduated third highest from that school. I also studied on a full academic scholarship. Oh yes, grades were blind, profs did not know whose papers they were grading.

When I go to Court, the many judges do the same thing, look at me as if I don't know anything. And yes, in Texas Courts, the Judges have bibles on their desk. Its a chilling reminder to me that me and my faith are outsiders to this country.

We have to decide, whether we will be the open country for all religions, like we were when the pilgrims came, or be pro one religion, like Iran.

Look at the list of Nobel Laureates in Science in 2009. How many of them are American Citizens? All but one. How many of them were born in America? None but one.

Justice Scalia, unless we create a tolerant society, we will loose our standing in the world. Do you really want to go back to the 50s America?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B raids increase

2009-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Office of Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS)is conducting raids to H-1B business in an effort to detect and deter immigration fraud. The following blog is borrowed from an article by American Immigration Lawyer's Program, and is meant to advise employers as to what to expect.

Employers should right now have the public access files for their H-1B employees ready. This file should contain the wage determination, the LCA, and a note on when the LCA was posted. It should also contain a copy of the H-1B petition.

The Government raids are conducted without warrants, and without prior notice. The Officer usually carries a copy of the H-1B petition. The officer then inspects the premises (and can take pictures). They will request to speak to the person signing the petition, but since the visits are unannounced, the officers are fine if the person who signed is unavailable. They may ask for copies of the beneficiary's pay records, W-2 and also the employer's tax records, quarterly wages, etc to prove that business is being conducted.

Then they also interview the beneficiary. They may ask details about the job description, employment dates, position, dependents etc. After this they might also want to speak with the beneficiary's supervisor or colleague.

Here are some suggestions from AILA if the Government shows up:

1. Call your attorney, they can be present over the phone while the raids are being conducted.

2. If there is no designated official in the Company at that time, who is knowledgeable about the petitions, the officials should be told about that. Company Employees should not guess and say answers if they don't know about the petition. Also if your company has strict policies against photographing, etc, please advise the officials accordingly.

2. File amended petitions, LCAs as necessary to keep files updated with changing situations. Wrong information could lead to a denial of the H-1B, even though the initial adjudication was an approval.

3. Request the name, title, and contact information for the site investigator. Ask for a business card and phone number. Multiple agencies are doing these visits, and it is important to determine which one is doing the site visit.

4. Don't speak to the investigator without a witness present. Make notes of what transpired as soon as the meeting ends. Keep a list of all documents submitted.

5 If the beneficiary has been placed at a client site not controlled by the client, the client should notify the end user about the current FDNS H-1B assessment program and the possibility of a site visit. If there are multiple companies between the H-1B employer and the end user, the end user should be made aware of the identity of the H-1B employer and review the terms of the assignment. The employer should request that the end user company contact the employer at the beginning of an FDNS site visit so that the employer and/or its representative may be present either in person or by telephone during the site visit at the end user’s location.

Vermont Service Center has sent about 20,000 companies to be audited, and California would also send about the same.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Health Care and Immigrants

2009-09-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last night during Pres. Obama's speech on health care to the joint session of Congress, when President Obama said that the new plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Republican Senator Joe Wilson fro South Carolina could not hold back and shouted "You lie." Without going into the fact that this was totally disrespectful, and not the way any US Congressman should behave, and reminiscent of those town hall meetings where conservatives just wanted to shout down any debate, we can safely assume that Mr. Joe Wilson hates illegal immigrants.

For the record, Obama's administration is much harder on illegal immigrants than Bush'.

The E verify program has been extended in Obama's time to encompass ALL federal contractors. The ICE crackdowns on illegal workers are much harder and frequent than the previous regime. For the first time, the money used to prevent fraud on H-1B categories is being utilized to see if any employer is violating the terms of the H-1B visa. And the health care bill in Congress now SPECIFICALLY prohibits illegal immigrants from the bill.

Yes, illegal immigrants are here. They work for us. Many pay taxes and get sick. Most of them wind up in emergencies when they have something serious. The price tag for that is staggering? So what does Republicans like Joe Wilson want to do? Make the illlegal workers work in out kitchens, our gardens, and as soon as they become sick, deport them post haste? Are we becoming Nazis ?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Killing the Innocents in Texas

2009-09-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today I am ashamed to be a lawyer from Texas. The recent issue of the New Yorker had a story about one confirmed case where the State of Texas put an innocent man to death. Mostly because the Texas Board of Parole and Pardon did not READ a forensic report in the man's file!

Cameron Todd Willingham woke up one December morning in 1991 to his house burning in fire. He was found by a neighbor in the porch with soot on his chest, screaming, "My babies are burning up." Even though by fireman's accounts, he tried disparately to run into the burning house and save his three children, he could not. The fire was too intense and the firemen restrained him. His children died. The forensic report from Texas said that the fire was intentionally caused by Mr. Willingham. The Defense Attorney wanted him to plead guilty for a life sentence, but Mr. Willingham said he would not plead guilty to a crime he did not commit. This was taken by the Court to be a sign of unrepentance, and he was, like so many others in Texas put on death row.

However the forensic report was based on witchcraft and had NO scientific merit. Dr. Gerald Hurst, a Nationally acclaimed forensic expert studied his file pro bono and concluded that there was NO WAY the fire could have been started intentionally. He concluded that the forensic evidence in Wigginham's trial was based on "junk Science." But the members on the Texas Board of Pardon and Parole did not even bother to read the Hurst report!

Texas has the highest death penalty rate than any other democracy. We put God knows how many innocent people to death. How are we different from North Korea, Iran or China? And if we are the same, how can we morally criticize those countries?

From all over the world people come to the United States as a beckon of freedom and liberty. We don't hesitate to lecture to other countries whenever we see any breach of freedom. Yet we put innocent people to death! Shame on Texas and shame on all the lawyers who are licensed to practice in this State. And that includes me.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Due Process at Consular Posts

2009-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Stories of unfair US Consular Decisions abound. People meet all the requirements of getting a particular visa, and the consulate officer denies the visa based on his or her innate prejudices. The denied applicant can almost always do nothing.

The petitioning entity in the US can usually appeal to a Congressman or Senator, who can demand the reason for the denial. However previously the Consulate did not have to give a reason for that denial under the Consular non reviewability doctrine. Under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, The Government cannot deny any person in the United States any rights without due process. This usually means a hearing from the applicant and a right of the applicant to defend himself. This due process was denied to individuals who were not "in" the United States. Furthermore, a Consulate decision, no matter how egregious, was not reviewable by a Federal Court in the United States.

The Appellate Court in New York (2nd Circuit) changed that in Ramadan v Napolitano. The Court held that Federal Courts have the right to review Consulate decisions, and that Consulate posts need to provide an opportunity for individuals to explain their case. This case involved a Muslim Scholar, Mr. Ramadan who was denied a visitor's visa on the basis of the fact that he contributed money to a terrorist group that had ties to Hamas. However the contributions were made between 1998 and 2002. The US did not designate this group as a terrorist group until August 2003. Therefore Mr. Ramadan could not have known that he was making contributions to a terrorist group.

It is yet to be seen what influence this case will have in Consulates such as Chennai, which has the distinction of having the highest visa denials. Will they provide the applicants with a hearing, and if so, is this hearing going to be of any length of time to be meaningful? Additionally, many people applying for visas all over the world have limited English knowledge, and may be made to sign papers which does not state the truth.

The Rule of Law is a high ideal and although most consulate officers follow it, many are still governed by innate prejudices against little people, little corporations. Yet these are the very people that the Constitution seeks to protect. Additionally these little individuals will not have the resources to appeal their case in an US Court of Law. At the very least, maybe the documents required to prove that an applicant has the "facially legitimate and bona fide" rights to a visa, will be the same for employees of big Corporations and little start up corporations. At least this is a step in the right direction.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

icert gripe

2009-08-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

Employer: I got this contract to start work in 1 week. I have the perfect H-1B guy. Can you have the petition to me by tomorrow?

Attorney: No can do

Employer: Why? You always do that.

Attorney: That was before July 1. iCert will prevent me from doing that now.

Employer: iCert?

Attorney: Yes, the new LCA system. We file it, then wait 4-5 days. Then hopefully if the DOL can identify your FEIN, we may get an approval. If not, you submit FEIN documents to DOL, wait 4-5 days. DOL verifies it, then you need to file again. Then wait 4-5 days again...... This is a song that never ends, it goes on and on my friend

Employer: Stop singing, you have no tonal sense. So wait, wasn't the purpose of AC-21 to increase competitiveness in the workplace with Employers being able to hire and get work done more quickly? Has Obama changed the century on us as well? Do we have a new AC-18?

Attorney: Ummm, the only thing that Obama wants fast is that health care reform. He said immigration has to wait. Besides the DOL is terrified that we are all trying to pull one over them. All of us trying to file fraudulent LCAs, our Government doubts everything we do

Employer: Thats bullshit! This is not fucking North Korea. This country was built on trust, where we elect our Government and have mutual trust. Besides illegal people don't file H-1B. H-1Bs are professionals who will go back to their country if they don't have a job. So this Computer program that DOL has, was it even beta tested?

Attorney: Calm down Sir. You just have to be patient. I quote from DOL's stakeholder's meeting on 07/31:"iCERT Program has only been operational for 3 months at this time, so bugs are to be expected at this point." Also Sir, If we file an LCA, and it is denied, the notice will only go to you, not us. Can you kindly forward it to us?

Employer: I am not dealing with this. I'll just outsource the work. Maybe the DOL should have hired H-1B professionals to design a better program.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Obama Administration and Immigration Enforcement

2009-08-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

In an article published on August 3, in the New York Times, the Obama Administration, contrary to their campaign promise is pursuing the same policy as its predecessor, President Bush on Immigration Enforcement. They are increasing the I-9 audits, the E Verify program, and has introduced a program to check the immigration status of every person held for any crime. While these policies are meant to deter illegal immigration, the potential for civil rights violation especially of Hispanic Americans in any one of these programs is very great. In any of these programs racial profiling occurs routinely.

The New York Times article quotes Senator Charles Schumer (D NY) as saying that this stance is in preparation for the immigration legislation to be introduced later in the legislature. "Democrats have to “convince the American people there will not be new waves of illegal immigrants” after an overhaul passes," Senator Schumer told the New York Times.

While that might be the case, a significant amount of Hispanic supporters are not happy with this policy. And Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the American population.

Additionally, no matter what the Democrats do, the hard core republican will always perceive the democrats as soft on immigration.

Immigration enforcement should be left up to the harsh realities of the marketplace. If there is a need for foreign workers, businesses will get them. No one will cross illegally into the United States, risking life and limb, leaving behind their families, if there is no jobs in the United States for them to do. That way it satisfies the Republicans in their Laissez Faire economic policy and satisfies the Democrat's pledge to restore the civil rights of every American which was taken away by the Bush Government.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The New iCert LCA

2009-07-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

This blog is not about how the DOL took something that was instantly certified, so that business could move forward, and slowed it down. Yes, there's much to gripe about there. Our H-1B process will become much slower, but then, why should the Government aid is speeding up business? We have slowed down as a nation, we are just standing and smelling the non existent roses.

No, this blog is about DOL's use of the English language in the Prevailing Wage section of the LCA. Bear in mind this form is to be used not by attorneys, but mostly by Employers when they move H-1B employees from one location to another.

The first question (G-7) is Agency which issued Prevailing Wage. Most Employers just look at the Online Wage Library which is maintained by Foreign Labor Certification Data Center. This is overseen by the Department of Labor. Agencies are little orgs inside a Department. Just because the FLC Data Center does not end with an A, an US Employer should know its not an agency, right? I don't see why the question asked in the previous LCA (ie What is the source of the prevailing wage?) is not adequate. Why ask 20 questions to get to the right answer? Wait, its probably a game.

Next (G11b) is this wonderful English crafted by the PhDs at the DOL. It says:

If “OES”, and SWA/NPC did not issue prevailing wage OR “Other” in question 11,
specify source

Yeah, this means If you used OES or Other, (AND you DID not use SWA/NPC) then write down the obvious answer FLC Data Center.

Can you use a comma before AND?

This reminds me of Lynn Truss' book Eat, Shoots and Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. The story goes like this: A panda walks into a bar. He asks the bartender for some plant shoots and leaves and a beer. He eats, shoots the bartender with a gun and leaves. The owner looks up the definition of Panda in Wikipedia. It says a Panda eats shoots and leaves. The difference between the two is a comma between eats and shoots.

What University gave Bill Carlson his PhD?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

I-9 Audit

2009-07-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Every Employer in the US has to fill out a valid I-9 form for every employee. The form addresses whether the employee has the legal authority to work in the United States. The Employer is supposed to keep copies of documents like H-1B approval, or Green card, etc in their file, and update them as it becomes necessary. It has so far been an honor driven system, and the Citizenship and Immigration Services rarely audited them.

However the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on July 01, 2009 that it will step up its audit for the employers. It has already issued 652 notices of Inspections to businesses. The Employers will have to surrender all I-9s within 3 days. For large employers there may be many instances that the I-9 has not been updated. Small employers may not even know about the requirement to keep I-9s.

The US Government has instituted the E-verify system, where the employer has to input the Social Security numbers of their new hires into the Government computers, and they will know if the employee is legal to work. However, if the employee used false IDs and SS Numbers, and the employers knew about it, they will not be immune, simply because E verify passed it.

Recently Krispy Kreme Doughnut Company was fined $40,000/- for I-9 valuation.

All Companies should do their own audits of their I-9 and update everything as soon as possible.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The Non Immigrant in this economic downturn

2009-07-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

Loosing a job is never easy. Each and every one of the 14.7 million people who lost their jobs in this economic downturn has felt the sinking feeling in their stomach, the worry of uncertainty, and the stigma of failure. But United States citizens can survive. Yes, its hard for an accountant to deliver pizza, but its some money as opposed to nothing. It’s an entirely different story with the non immigrants.

Employees in non immigrant visas like H-1b and L-1 are the first to let go off by companies. Since their visas depend on one particular employer, they cannot get any job any where. If they are not lucky in getting another Employer sponsor within a month, they have to convert to either student status, visitor status or go back. The Citizenship and Immigration Service is denying significant amount of visitor’s visa for laid off employees. And the cost can be far reaching

I had a client who worked for 25 years for an oil company in Saudi Arabia and 1 year in the United States. And then he got laid off. He is an Indian national, and his only option is to go back to India. He has a house in the US, which he will loose money on selling. But the real cost is that his teen age children had never studies in India and will be hopelessly lost in the Indian education system. He will not have money to provide for private schools.

Another client was coming back to work after visiting India for his father’s death and was informed by the Customs and Border Patrol in the airport that his employer fired him and revoked his H-1B visa. In many cases non immigrants have postponed scheduled visits to their home country for fear of being laid off. Some women are not taking maternity leaves after their babies are born for the same reason. Thus the human cost for a non immigrant who is laid off goes far beyond finances.

By law a non immigrant looses their status when they loose their jobs. However, the CIS has usually given a one month grace period. That means that if you can find another job sponsor and file the H-1B within one month, the CIS seems fine with that. They of course have to submit copies of their last pay stub with this new transfer.

If not, one should consider either filing for a visitor's visa, student’s visa or go back to their home country. A Visitor's visa may be necessary to extend their stay to be able to settle their financial affairs here. One should file the Form I-539 and explain the situation. They should also show sufficient resources in the United States to stay here. Very often the Citizenship and Immigration Service is asking for proof of ticket purchase to return. Also the reason to stay here has to be compelling. Citizenship and Immigration Service is afraid of people staying here illegally, and thus there is a high rate of denial of these change of status applications to a visitor’s visa.

The employee can also seek admission to a school and convert to a F student status. School benefit from foreign students and foreign students benefit from the education. However one has to actually study. Just registering is not sufficient.

After converting status, if one has time remaining in their H-1B status (ie, they have not used up the six years), they can go back to the H-1B status any time they find another H-1B sponsor. They do not have to enter the crazy H-1B lottery again. Even if they are back in their home country, they can file for the remaining period on their H-1B. Please see December 05, 2006 memo by Michael Aytes, Acting Director of USCIS.

By filing for a conversion to the B or F visa, or by leaving the US, they actually stop the running of the 6 year H-1B clock and preserve the remaining time. So when the economy picks up again, and trust me, it will; they do not have to enter the H-1B lottery again, and simply convert or come over on the H-1B visa.

Whatever one does though, they have to be careful not to accrue illegal presence. According to that infamous law acronymed IRAIRA, if one has a 6 month illegal presence they are barred for 3 years, and if the illegal presence is 1 year or more there is a 10 year bar.

On the plus side, there is still H-1B numbers available. As of July 03, the Citizenship and Immigration Service received 45,000 of the 65,000 per year quota for H-1B visas. Businesses are slow in hiring, and that is true especially of non immigrants. So for those lucky enough to find an employer sponsor, there is no lottery unlike previous years.

Hopefully we will all emerge from this economic downturn without too much scarring. Hopefully the US will still be looked upon as a kinder gentler nation, and will continue to draw the brightest and the best to maintain our top position in the world marketplace.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

What is a Company for Immigration Purposes?

2009-06-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

A Company is defined as its Federal Employment Identification Number (FEIN) for Immigration issues. When a Corporation seeks to hire a foreign national under a federal Immigration Law, it stands to reason that the Company should have a FEIN in order to hire that individual.

In a recent decision, In the Matter of Ornelas Inc, The Board of Immigration Appeals verified that the Company's yellow page listing, or business licenses does not establish a bona fide Company.

Additionally, if two related companies have two different FEIN numbers, and the alien has worked for one entity, and the other entity is sponsoring the alien, the alien can use that experience and it will not be counted as experience from the same Company. Usually the alien cannot use the experience from the same company for labor certification, with the rationale being that the company can easily employ and American and train that person as well. But if say XY has two FEIn numbers, and the alien has worked for a division of Company X, and the petitioner is Y, then that expiration can be counted, even though the two companies are in the same location.

Thus if the two related companies have two different FEIN numbers, the Labor Dept treats them as two separate companies. Does not make sense, but then, the Dept of Labor never lives in a real world.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Naturalization Interview In the Houston District Office

2009-06-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

In the Houston District Office this is a three step process.

First you will go with an Officer in a little cubicle and be administered the test of English and Social Science. The exam consists of about 10 written questions from the Citizenship and Immigration Service list. After that the Officer will test your English by asking you to read something, or write down a sentence or two. For a copy of the list please go to http://www.visatous.com Go to Links and click on New Naturalization test.

Provided you pass the test, you will then proceed to the next step. This is the actual interview with an Officer. The officer will go over the factual elements of the case. These include whether you had continuous residence, physical presence and whether you have good moral character (ie not convicted of a crime). They might also ask you whether you affirm the Oath Requirements of Section H on Page 9 of the N-400 Form. They are:

Do you support the Constitution and form of government of the United States?
Do you understand the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States?
Are you willing to take the full Oath of Allegiance to the United States?
If the law requires it, are you willing to bear arms on behalf of the United States?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform noncombatant services in the U.S. Armed Forces?
If the law requires it, are you willing to perform work of national importance under civilian direction?

Provided you pass the Second Step, you proceed to the third step. The Citizenship and Immigration Service will schedule you for the oath ceremony and hand you the necessary papers for the oath ceremony.

After you take the oath, you become an US Citizen.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Judge Sotomayor-Can anyone overcome heritage?

2009-06-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Mr. Obama's nominee for Supreme Court Justice Judge Sotomayor has lived the American dream, from a poor household in the Bronx, to Suma Cum Laude Graduate in Princeton, to Yale law school. Yet there has been a lot of criticism about the fact that she said that her experiences as a hispanic will lead her to have a different world view than say a white male. The conservatives have labeled her a racist. Yet, can we ever be race neutral? Stephen Colbert aptly points that out when he says he does not see color.

Sentient human beings believe in things, shaped by their experiences in life. A republican may have a pro life, pro second Amendment, anti gay views. A democrat may have the opposite. yet each individual can argue and give rational explanations for their beliefs.

Yet, someone of Sotomayor's intellectual capability can dissociate their private beliefs and look at the facts of a case. Can Scalia, Roberts or Alito ever rule for, lets say a gay couple, no matter how compelling the facts of the case are? Are they then not being prejudiced as well?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Immigration Enforcement By Local Police

2009-05-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Local Law Enforcement Agents have increasingly tried to enforce immigration laws. Everywhere from Arizona to Texas, local police routinely ask to check immigration documents, and most times do not even understand what those documents mean.

A 256 page report that came out of the Police Foundation today concludes after a year long National research that Immigration Enforcement by Local Police is detrimental to the Core Mission of Local Police.

Very often the enforcement begins as a form of discrimination. For instance when a Houston Police Officer was killed by an undocumented alien, the Police Department started working actively with ICE, to hunt for illegal immigrants. I sympathize with Policeman killed in the line of duty. They are protecting us and risking their lives, and it is indeed very unfortunate. However, the Police Department cannot single out killers based on their race, national origin, color, etc. I am sure at least one Policeman in Houston was killed by a white male. Do we now work towards vilifying all white males? Of course that ridiculous.

Then there is a perception that most crimes are committed by undocumented aliens. The Report by the Police Foundation concludes that, "These perceptions, however, are not supported empirically; in fact, they are refuted by the preponderance of scientific evidence.

The Bush Era of denigrating the US Constitution has ended. Lets return to the rule of law, where every individual has civil liberties.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Knowing stealing your identity

2009-05-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

On May 4, 2009 the Supreme Court in an unanimous decision declared that in order to be a crime for identity theft, the person must know that he is stealing the identity of another person. Flores Figueroa V United States No. 08-108.

Mr. Ignacio Flores Figueroa entered the US illegally from Mexico and presented his employer with a false social security card, and green card bearing his name. He did not know that the numbers belonged to real persons. The Government charged him with aggravated identity theft crime. But in the US, a crime must have a mental (mens rea) component to it. For instance, if a person is insane and does not know right from wrong, and commits a murder, she cannot be held criminally liable. In order to commit a crime, a person should must have the intention to commit the crime.

The Supreme Court pointed out that in most cases proving that the user knew the identity of the person stolen is not difficult. But the documents that Flores produced had his (Flores') name on it. He did not know, that the number belonged to a real person in the United States.

People who had their identity stolen will obviously be outraged. But we have a long standing tradition in this country that a crime has to have a mental component. If we let this tradition slip, we will have to jail people who unintentionally commit a crime. The State has no moral authority to take away the liberty of people for their unintentional act. Stolen identity can be restored, although this may be a painful process. But taking away the liberty of a person violates the very principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that the United States was founded upon. I applaud this unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

DOL's Emphasis of Form over Matter shot down

2009-04-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Department of Labor, Foreign Labor Certificate Division had always been emphasizing form over matter. The Perm form (and to an extent even the LCA form) is all about form, not much about substance. You have to do things just a certain way, or you get denied. Such was the case of the Kellogg language which needed to be inserted if the employee qualified for a job in an alternative capacity. For instance, if the job is for software engineer and the employer will accept software degree holders or say MIS or any combination of that; then the PERM form should have the magic language that was mandated by a case called Kellogg. As long as the employer (or attorney) put in the magic language,"“any suitable combination of education, training or experience would be acceptable", you are good to go. This requirement does not have to be in the advertisement, or anywhere except the PERM form. When it is apparent that the employer will accept alternatives, what good will sprinkling the magic language into the form achieve? Thankfully the Board of Labor Certification Appeals recently ruled that it would be fundamentally unfair to deny certification based solely on the fact that the employer did not sprinkle the magic language into the case.

Our legal tradition had always emphasized matter over form. But thats not the case in immigration law where still form is emphasized over substance of a case. Already this field of law does not attract the top law students. I think in the future immigration law (unless of course it changes)will be performed by robots.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The NEW LCA (iCERT) Portal

2009-04-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Department of Labor has just introduced a new spiffy internet portal called iCERT. http://icert.doleta.gov

Employers and Attorneys have to sign on to the new portal, and cannot file new Labor Condition Application (for filing H visas) on the old system anymore after May 15.

The new portal looks great. It has everything in one site--- wage determination, LCA, PERM, etc. But most if not all attorneys and employers have a huge database of clients who they represented over the years, and that data is stored in what they call the legacy sites. The new site has a link to the old site, but data from the old site will not transfer to the new portal. Which means a lot more unnecessary work for us. Neither does data transfer from one part of the portal like wage determination into another part, like ETA 9035, the LCA form. So why then have everything under one portal?

I don't know how much tax payer dollars went into building this new site. But I think whoever designed this just did not think and thinking is of course not part of any Governmental job.

Other minor irritations with this site is that every time you log in, a screen pops up saying ALL data will be "monitored, intercepted, recorded, read, copied, or captured and disclosed in any manner by authorized personnel." Yes, we know this is public record. We dont mind. But must we have to click it EVERY time! Why can they not have it only the first time.

The secret questions which you submit to DOL, the answer to which you have to recall if you should forget your password or have any problems, all deal with "your favorite....." I (and most users of this database) are not TWEENS. I don't have, Oh my God, my favorite food, my favorite movie, and of course those vampire books, and I'll always love Zac Efron. I didn't even know who Zac Efron was until he came on SNL last week. The DOL does not realize that the world for us has variety, and we have multiple favorites.

And yes, we cannot at present think of any other useful thing to do with tax dollars than building a new spiffy web site for the DOL.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

The Reentry Permit

2009-04-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

The Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) is for living permanently in the United States. If after getting the green card, you want to live for more than six months outside the United States, there is a presumption that you do not want to live permanently in the United States, and therefore have abandoned your Permanent Residency Status.

In order to preserve your Permanent Residency status, you need to file the Reentry Permit (Form I-131) BEFORE you leave the United States. After filing you have to have a fingerprinting done, so it’s advisable to file at least 1-2 months prior to departure. Also please include a valid reason in the cover letter as to why you are leaving. The reentry Permit can be mailed to you or be picked up at the US Consulate near the foreign country that you are in. Please note that if you have committed a crime or are otherwise excludable from the United States, you cannot use the reentry permit to enter the US.

The Reentry Permit is usually valid for 2 years, before which time you have to come back to the United States. Of course you can come back and file the reentry permit again, for another two years, but you have to have a valid excuse. Usually it is not a problem if an US business transfers you to their foreign location, or if you leave to study under any particular program of study in another country. However if you are just working for a foreign company in their office in your home country, you probably will not get the reentry permit and have to forfeit your green card.

Please also bear in mind that using the Reentry Permit may not prolong your continuous residency requirements for your citizenship. Therefore getting the citizenship will be delayed beyond the normal times.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B Numbers

2009-04-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

Please note that as of today, 42,000 H-1B new cases have been filed out of the 65,000 cases. For the Master's Cap they have received an additional 20,000 cases. So the US Master's Cap is almost full, but the ordinary quota remains. Please note that US Master's Degree holders can file under the ordinary CAP.

USCIS will continue to accept cases, until they fill the quota. On the last day, when the quota is reached, they will hold a random lottery for that day only.

So good news for people who already filed, they will get in. Of course the approval is another matter.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B numbers

2009-04-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

This year, like the last two years, we all filed the H-1B petitions by Fedex or Express Mail on March 31 to reach Vermont or California by April 01. Some were filed for the next five days. And we all know the number of filings were not as high this year. And then we waited, hoping praying that we will get in.

Its now April 07. And the CIS is totally silent as to the numbers. We presume that if there was to be a lottery, they would have announced it. The only thing they said was that a small number of Petitions were receipted in error. (I did not have any erroneous receipts).

We don't know how many numbers are remaining or when the numbers will be exhausted. The USCIS has a twitter account. At the very least they could have twitted something to the effect that the H-1B numbers are not reached yet. It was hard enough for beneficiarys this year to get a job sponsor, and its not fair that they keep wondering whether they have to face the lottery or not.

And on the twitter note, I wonder when I'll get the twit from USCIS saying that "today we are not feeling like approving any cases." Welcome to the hip and cool Obama Administration USCIS.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

My Predictions for NEW H-1B this year

2009-03-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

The Government year starts on October 01 and each year the Government dishes out 65,000 new H-1b visas . Employers can apply 6 months before the start date, so each year the first day that they can apply for new H-1Bs is April 01.

In 2007 and 2008 significantly more than the 65,000 quota applied on the first day, ie April 01. As a result the CIS held a lottery as to who could get in, and only those lucky enough to win the lottery got in.

This year will be different. This year it will probably not be a lottery. For the first time, we are seeing a significant reduction in the number of Employers seeking new H-1Bs. Many H-1B s are out of jobs, as are many Americans. Employers are not hiring. The only sector still hiring are renewable energy industries and they are mostly employing Master's Degree holders from US Universities.

So Beneficiaries lucky enough to find an Employer to sponsor them will probably get in this year.

However there will be intense scrutiny on the H-1Bs from the Government. The CIS will scrutinize the Company's ability to pay and the beneficiaries' qualifications very minutely. There probably will be significant amount of RFEs and significant amounts of denials. If the beneficiary is from a foreign country, the Consulates will provide another layer of hurdle to overcome.

Part of the reason for this is that the Government knows of the dire employment situation and does not want to permit fraud. Also the Government uncovered a lot of fraudulent practices by several small consulting companies, including falsifying beneficiaries' resume to place them in jobs they do not have skills for, not keeping LCA promises, etc.

Therefore this year's H-1B will be a mixed blessing.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Irrational Thoughts on Immigration

2009-03-05T12:09:00.001-08:00

I had been brought up to think Rationally. But the stock market has gone completely irrational. My attempt to understand it rationally has just left me confused, muffled, despairing. So in order to make sense of this crazy world, I am attempting to think irrationally. Maybe then I'll be in sync with the CIS thinking. Try calling them and asking why your case was not adjudicated, even though similar cases filed months afterward were adjudicated long before. Below are my thoughts on immigration.

Crazy Conspiracy Theory:

I think Obama is actually conspiring with Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh to expel all immigrants. Mexicans are leaving the US by hordes. Maybe they are being water tortured. Come to think of it, my neighbor's lawn sprinklers were on when their Mexican gardener was working.

Crazy Religious Theory:

God must have told the Employers to not hire immigrants. That is why it is March, and my H-1B clients are strangely silent. God must have hacked into the E verify system or something, because that system does not work. Why does God not want immigrants? Because these immigrants have to first sacrifice their first borns to the God in their home country. Or maybe that Scientology God has repossessed the souls of all immigrants.

Crazy Remedy:

Obama needs money. Immigrants want to come here. So Obama should sell lottery tickets for different positions. Kind of the same concept like the rational world's Diversity Lottery. Except here the immigrants also need to buy stocks in GM, AIG and Citi. And buy up a defaulted mortgage. This will be in lieu of their first born sacrifice.

Disclaimer: No I have not gone completely mad. This is my attempt to cheer myself from the doom and gloom since September 08. If you want my services, I can still perform rationally.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Economic Nationalism

2009-03-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

Professor Jeffrey Garten from Yale Univerisity published an article in The Wall Street Journal (The Dangers of Turning Inwards, Feb-28-Mar 01) and coined the term Economic Nationalism. With rising unemployment, Governments are understandably becoming more and more protectionist, and anti immigration when it comes to employment. The doors to trade and immigration are being closed.

We are seeing this with increased denials of employment based visas, especially treaty visas like the TN. And the US is not the only culprit. UK, Japan, Germany, France, are all becoming more protectionist starting a deglobalization trend. However this could hurt commerce massively. We need to export goods to other countries. If wee cannot export our goods to the emerging markets, we will not be able to prosper. Additionally the article argues that if markets turn inwards, we will not be able to take care of the global issues.

The we might also have what happened in the 1930s. Global nationalism led to political nationalism and the rise of the Nazi party.

The article argues for a new global banking regulator, whereby the US and European banks will take similar action and be governed by similar laws.

Similar movement should be happening to immigration. Until we get out of this financial mess, we should let the market control immigration, instead of restrictionist Governmental policies. Then and only then will we get the best talent to get out of the recession.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

To do List for H-1b employer

2009-02-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

At the time of Filing:

1. SIGN AND DISPLAY LCA IN A PROMINENT PLACE FOR 10 DAYS. THE LCAs NEEDS TO BE DISPLAYED IN THE ACTUAL JOB SITE WHERE THE ALIEN IS WORKING. IF YOU ARE A CONSULTING COMPANY, PLEASE TAKE A SPECIAL NOTE OF THIS.

2. THEN PUT THE LCAs IN THE FILE, ALONG WITH THE WAGE DATA (ie THE PREVAILING WAGE DETERMINATION). PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF WHEN AND WHERE THE LCAs HAVE BEEN POSTED IN THE FILE. THIS FILE CAN BE ACCESSED BY THE PUBLIC. ALSO PLEASE FURNISH A COPY OF THE LCA TO THE H-1B BENEFICIARY.

During the H-1Bs Employment

1. IF THE JOB LOCATION OF THE BENEFICIARY CHANGES, PLEASE FILE ANOTHER LCA AND DO THE SAME WITH THE CERTIFIED COPY AS ABOVE. YOU DO NOT NEED TO FORWARD THIS LCA TO THE USCIS.

2. IF YOU BENCH AN EMPLOYEE, YOU NEED TO PAY THAT EMPLOYEE UNLESS THE EMPLOYEE REQUESTS FOR A TIME OFF. IF AN EMPLOYEE REQUESTS FOR TIME OFF, PLEASE HAVE THE EMPLOYEE WRITE AN E MAIL OR A LETTER AND HAVE IT ON FILE

When you terminate an employee

1. PLEASE LET THE EMPLOYEE KNOW IN WRITING THAT YOU ARE TERMINATING HIM

2. PLEASE WRITE TO BOTH THE CIS AND DOL ABOUT THE TERMINATION

3. IF THE EMPLOYEE GOES BACK HOME, NEVER TO COME AGAIN, YOU WILL NEED TO PAY FOR THE EMPLOYEE'S TRAVEL BACK. (NOT THE FAMILY, JUST THE EMPLOYEE'S TRAVEL BACK).

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

H-1B visa Fraud

2009-02-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, February 11, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 11 H-1B employers in 7 states on H-1B visa fraud. These employers had produced false documents to the CIS, and violated LCA rules of filing new LCA for different locations.

The arrested individuals were primarily Indians. I hope that the Obama Government officials, in the CIS and DOS will not automatically stereotype all Indian Employers as fraud and deny legitimate visas. Lets not forget that Indians primarily come into this country to work in the software industry and has so far done a remarkable job. As Thomas Friedman pointed out in a recent New York Times Op Ed piece, restrictionist policies served only to make the Great Depression, Great. Restricting the bright brains from coming in from India will only enrich India,and make the US poor.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

When an H-1B looses his Job

2009-02-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

With the economic situation worsening, many H-1B employees are loosing their job. What should they do?

By law the H-1B status terminates the day the employee looses their job. However, the CIS has usually given a one month grace period. That means that if you can find another job sponsor and file the H-1B within one month, the CIS seems fine with that. You of course have to submit copies of your last pay stub with this new transfer.

If not, you should consider either filing for a visitor's visa or go back to your home country. A Visitor's visa may be necessary to extend your stay to be able to settle your financial affairs here. You file the Form I-539 and explain the situation.

If you have time remaining in your H-1B (ie, you have not used up the six years), you can go back to the H-1B status any time that you find another H-1B sponsor. Even if you are back in your home country, you can file for the remaining period on your H-1B, and do not have to go back on the lottery again. Please see December 05, 2006 memo by Michael Aytes, Acting Director of USCIS.

By filing for a conversion to the B visa, or by leaving the US, you actually stop the running of the clock on your H-1B and preserve the remaining time. So when the economy picks up again, and trust me, it will; you do not have to enter the H-1B lottery again, and simply convert or come over on the H-1B visa.

However be careful, B visitor's visa is NOT indefinite, and after about 6 months on the B visa, if you are still unable to find a job, you need to leave the US. You cannot accrue illegal presence. Also the visitor's visa adjudication at the CIS is in a mess. They may not adjudicate the application until 7-8 months, at which time they may deny it because it has already been 6 months. However, if you intend to stay for a little longer to take care of your financial affairs, (let the kids finish the school year) that's the best option you have.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

EAD Card Delays

2009-02-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

You filed your EAD card over 90 days ago. You still did not get the card. You cannot work. Your employer is real mad and in this economic climate is going to fire you. You call USCIS line, and the person says, "thank you for calling, we will generate a report." You get a letter in the mail saying that "we have generated a report. And then you wait....and wait.....

Although this story sounds very familiar to an Immigration Attorney, CIS claims that the delay beyond the 90 days happen to only 1.3 % of cases.

A new memo by Michael Aytes, Acting Director of USCIS, states that if your EAD card has been pending for more than 75 days, you can call the USCIS Service line at 1-800-375-5283, for a service call, and they will let the officer know of the call.

USCIS is also going to conduct sweeps to monitor and see that the EADs are issued within the 90 day period set by regulations. However that is not to say that on the 89th day you can get an RFE requesting more documents. RFEs stop the running of the clock.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Immigration in these trying times

2009-02-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are in an economic recession, and maybe even in a depression. And in situations like this, it is always easy to blame the immigrant workers. After all its natural to feel resentment when American workers are out of jobs. Thus there are a number of bills in the Congress seeking to restrict H-1B (the visa for professionals) numbers.

But lets face the reality.

1. The Citizenship and Immigration fees for an H-1B visa is $2320/- per person. Out of that, The Government collects $1500/- per visa to "train" US people. A government doling out bail money needs to collect money somehow.

2. The Employer on the other hand would not pay such an exorbitant amount if they could find American workers to do the job.

3. The H-1B allows us to get the brightest and the best brains from other countries. If we want to get out of this recession, we would need this global brains. This is a complex global problem and needs to be addressed globally.

4. We now have a global economy and need global cooperation to solve this mess. We need global talent. If we follow the 1930s restrictionist policies, we will not be able to maintian our competitiveness in the 21st Century world.

5. Market forces rather than Government quotas work best in all situations. For example last year there were 165, 000 visa petitions filed on the first day for the 65, 000 H-1B visa numbers. Obviously, this year, that number will be far less. So we should do away with artificial quotas and let the market control employment.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Lincoln, the Lawyer

2009-02-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

Not much is known about Lincoln as a lawyer. But in fact, he was a busy lawyer. He, with his partners handled at least 5173 cases. He was both a trial and appellate lawyer, though he was probably a better appellate lawyer than a trial lawyer.

In his notes for a Lecture on Law, Lincoln:

1. Discouraged litigation and looked for a peaceful solution to legal problem

2. Fee Retainers: encouraged lawyers to be reasonable and not charge abnormally. But also do charge a retainer, because then you will feel "like you are working for something"

3. Be diligent and faithful. He acknowledged that lawyers have a "vague" reputation of being dishonest.

Above all Lincoln believed in the Rule of Law, that the legal principles that bind us together to form an orderly society. However, the rule of law has to coexist with the rule of equality to create a "liberal democracy which was the realization of a morally right political order"

Now, may be another lawyer from Illinois will merge the rule of law with the rule of equality.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Ivan Fong named CIS General Counsel

2009-01-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

President Obama has named Mr. Ivan J Fong as the General Counsel of USCIS. Mr. Fong has the typical successful Asian resume----He has a Bachelor and Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from MIT, was a fullbright Scholar at Oxford and a JD from Stanford. He was recently the Chief Legal Officer for Cardinal Health. Before that he was the Deputy Associate Attorney General for the Justice Department, where he wrote a groundbreaking report on cyber crime.

He is indeed very bright, a computer geek, a nerd. But I dont see any experience with immigration law. Hopefully though he will do a good job.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Our Patchwork Heritage

2009-01-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

This is a very personal blog about what Barak's speech means to me. I came into this country in 1985, as a brown woman, one of those persons Barak referred to in his inauguration speech as the one who picked up their belongings and came to this country for "us", my children. As so, unlike the African American people who looked to this day from the perspective of the past, where they and their ancestors, survived intense discrimination, I look at it from the perspective of the future. I was lucky that my ancestors did not endure the segregation and slavery that will always cloud black heritage. But, as I said to my children, I voted in Texas for Barak, not because I think my vote will count, but because someday I can tell my grandchildren that I voted for the first black President of the United States. Sure I faced discrimination, so did my children. But we did not let that dampen us. We forged ahead and yes, we could. In today's America yes, we can, and so can everybody who is willing to work hard. And hopefully this message will spread not only in America but to the rest of the world as well. America, and particularly Texas-- in the 1980s and 1990s, you told us to not aim high, to stay below the radar of white America. We did not listen to you, and today You are better because of our defiance.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Driver's License Fiasco in Texas

2009-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

Texas, in its bid to heighten security, implemented new rules regarding producing documents when renewing or applying for a new driver's license since October 01, 2008. The Texas Department of Public Safety rationalized that since Driver's License is the primary form of ID, they would check out immigration documents before they issued driver's license. Except they created a list of immigration documents and did not realize that their workers were not hired to think.

The immigration documents should be valid for more than 6 months and should have a picture ID. In practice many immigration documents do NOT have picture ID, some do NOT have an expiry date. Of course, the DPS is not giving driver's license to any of those people. For instance, if someone's green card expired, they file I-90 and get a receipt notice. This document gives them valid status, and the right to work and travel. This document does not have a picture on it. Since their "green card" had "expired" the DPS won't renew their license.

The Texas Civil Rights Project had filed a class action lawsuit against DPS in Austin.

What blows my mind is that DPS has to look after our safety in the roads.The denied individuals will probably also not have insurance. Yet, they have to survive, and therefore drive. They HAVE the right to work, why should they not go to work? But if while they drive illegally, if anyone of them hits you or me, where are our remedies?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Scam E Mail targeted towards Immigrants

2009-01-15T14:13:00.000-08:00

There is a scam e-mail making the move which asks immigrants to complete a fraudulent “IRS Request for Recertification of Foreign Status” The form contains all information that could be used for identity theft. On their web site:

http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html?portlet=5

The IRS says:
The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail.

* The IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.
* The IRS does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details