Special Consideration for Irish in the Immigration Bill?

The history of Immigration in the USA goes right along the history of slavery, and can be described by one word: Discrimination. The Asians were not even allowed to enter, because Immigration was restricted to people "from Caucasian descent."

In 1923, when Bhagat Singh tried to get Citizenship, claiming that he was "Caucasian" (Indians are Caucasians by race), the US Supreme Court ruled that Indians could not assimilate into the "white society", that East Asians were barred from immigrating, and applied it retroactively, denaturalizing all Asians given the Citizenship previously.

Fast forward not even a 100 years and the Irish are claiming favoritism again in 2013.  They claim its "hard" for people of Europe to immigrate and estimates that as many as 50,000 Irish people are currently living ILLEGALLY in the US.  They complain because they are not included in the "Diversity" visa, a visa given by lottery to any High School graduate because there are few citizens of that country.  Note India and China never were included in the diversity visa.  People from there come on the basis of merit.

And just how will Ireland justify allowing more numbers to the Immigration quota? Because they  have "political clout" with a lot of Senators. Senator Chuck Schumer is in their pocket. John McCain "works " with them.

I have a note to Irish parents: why don't you just have your children get the Bachelor's Degree like the rest of us?  And yes, the CIS favors a British or Irish Degree over Indian or Chinese Degree anyways.

We should end country quotas, end Diversity based on country of origin, end Xenophobia, and get immigration not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our brain and character.

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

The LGBT Amendment

Sen Patrick Leahy has introduced an amendment on the Senate immigration bill introduced by the gang of 8, to allow LGBT couples in long term relationships to get immigration benefits. And even though I am a liberal, and whole heatedly support gay rights, I think this amendment should be considered if and only if the Supreme Court leaves DOMA intact. 

Gay couples are allowed to marry in many states. However, unlike heterosexual couples, who can get immigration benefits if their spouse is a Citizen of United States, gay couple cannot get the same benefit. And that is because DOMA, a federal law defines marriage as  an union between a man and a woman. This law is up in front of the Supreme Court, has no support of the Obama administration or the majority of American people, and is a discriminatory law with no purpose. If the Supreme Court does not strike down DOMA, then the Roberts Court will go down in history as a bigoted court, out of touch with the reality of the times. 

Being an optimist, I would like to think that the majority of Justices will at least think of their legacy and strike down DOMA. If that happens, gays can already marry in 11 states.  Under full faith and credit, other states have to recognize and give Immigration benefits to same sex married couples. 

The amendment says benefits to couples "in long term relationships."  Why would same sex couples have to prove "long term" when hetero couples dont? Why should the law recognize a Kardashian type Vegas marriage and not a similar same sex marriage? 

Being LGBT is an immutable characteristic, same as skin color, or hetero orientation. So why should the law create a special class for LGBT people? We need EQUALITY, not special protection. Hetero and same sex couples should be looked upon as same, couples who will build their lives together. And because this is a subjective standard, and the CIS officers will look at this with their own biases, the law should create standards for determining whether the relationship is real or not.  The same standard for EVERYONE, regardless of their sexual orientation. 

No other area of law is rife with discriminatory history as Immigration Law.  Lets end this, end country quotas, end special protections for some. 

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

Travel on H-1B

Please note that this is advisory ONLY.  Anytime you travel, whether you are let in is purely up to the discretion of the CBP officer at your port of entry.  H-1B visa stamping is difficult in India, especially for smaller software companies.  However if you are not a US Master’s Degree holder and this is your first H-1B stamping, and you are originally from India, you have to go to India for stamping.  

There is no way to predict when your regular processing H-1B will be adjudicated.  Premium is a safer bet, however upgrading it to premium sometimes incurs a Request for Evidence.

You are a US Master’s student on OPT, and you want to travel.  Your H-1B got accepted.  Can you travel in June and come back in July?

If you look at your OPT, it says not valid for travel.  So its good to have your student’s visa valid in your passport as well.  Also definitely have your H-1B on premium and approved when you go.  Have a letter from your employer that they are employing you currently on your OPT and intent to employ you on your H-1B, and recent pay stubs. .  However there is always a possibility that CBP Officer may want the H-1B visa stamped, especially if this is closer in date to October 01.  If you return after October 01, obviously you have to have the H-1B visa stamped on your passport.

You are on H-4 or L-1, applied for change of status to H-1B.  Your application got accepted. Now you want to go out of the US?

If there is a pending application with the Citizenship and Immigration Service, the CBP officers will usually not allow you to enter back.  Also, if the officer adjudicating your H-1B case finds out that you are not in the United States, then she will not give the change or extension of status.  Thus have the H-1B approval before going abroad.  However the above principles of not being let in, esp nearer to October applies.  And sometimes officers are less forgiving to people who do not have US Master’s Degree. 

On another note some L-1s try to file for H-1B just to get the quota, and want to maintain their L-1 status even after October 01.  In that case, if the applicant enters after October 01, on his L-1 status, and the I-94 clearly proves it, then yes, L-1 status is maintained.  The applicant has to file another change of status application or get the H-1B visa stamped though before he starts work on H-1B.

You are on H-1B and have applied for extension or transfer and want to go out?

The officers will not extend status if you are not physically present in the US.  So if travel is urgent, then either upgrade to Premium, or be prepared to get the visa stamped before coming in.  If you go out after the approval, if you already have a valid H-1B visa stamped in your passport, you can come in with that, even though you filed for a change of employer, and your new employer’s name is on the I-797 approval form. 

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

The merit based system

While a lot has been said about the 11 million illegal immigrants in the proposal by the Gang of 8, nothing has been said about the merit based point system.  This is business friendly, and hopefully both Republicans and Democrats can agree on this. 

It replaces the old diversity visa and other country specific visas. We can finally move away  from  the goal  to keep this nation white, and make it bright. Diversity visas were given to any one with a simple High school graduation. This at a time when our indigenous high school grads cant get work. 

Instead we move to having a merit based point system.  The points are: Doctorate degree 15 points, Master's 10 points and Bachelors get 5 points. For experience, the proposal creates job zones. (Somewhat like the old preferences)   You get 1 point for high zone employment with a total of 20. 

However the point system is not perfect. A score of 80  on the TOEFL gets 10 points. Good knowledge of English is the same as a Master's Degree?   And countries underrepresented in this country gets an extra 5 points.  And yes, community service gets 2 points. 

Looks very much like an Admissions rubric for s selective Universities.  Time to pad your resumes people. 

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

High Tech vs Low Tech

Mark Zuckerberg created a PAC for Immigration Reform. The debate on Immigration is now between high skilled workers vs the undocumented people. The tech industry vs the fruit industry.  The Republicans vs the Democrats.

Yes, we need fruit pickers. But we can easily teach the 7 % unemployed people in the US to pick grapes in 3 hours.  We cannot teach them to program a computer.

And yes, this is a political issue. The Obama Administration wants "comprehensive Immigration." it says that it wants high tech jobs. But all the administrative options that are available, seems only to apply  to  undocumented  immigrants.  That is good.  DACA is giving many kids the chance to drive legally.  But they are high school graduates, and many simply cannot find a job, even though they are getting the work permit. Similarly the procedure for I-601 waivers is made easier.  And it is helping many families stay intact.

But when it comes to the business immigration, we are simply not seeing those administrative solutions.  The "control" memo that puts a dent on the H-1B s for tech companies, introduced during the Obama administration is still here.  This year the H-1B quotas even for Master's Degree holders from US Universities got filled in the first day, with lottery.  If these Master's Degree holders don't get into the lottery, will their OPT work permit be extended? And if not, why not? These are Master's Degree (or even Bachelor's Degree holders ) from US Universities. Are they inferior to the DACA people simply because they followed the law and maintained legal status? If the DACA people are given work permits for just being high school grads, why should Bach and masters of US Universities not be given the same opportunity? And what about highly qualified spouses of H-1Bs? What wrong did they do? 

And last but not least, the Obama Administration wants a "clear path to citizenship" for everyone. And yes, these 11 million people, (most of them poorly educated) has to stand in line behind all those in line right now. But what about the next high tech inventor who is now in grade school, dabbling in programming. If this kid invents the next google, and wants to come to the US, does she have to wait in line behind the 11 million people? And if so, will we then lose our technology edge in the world, simply due to political pandering of the Democrats? 

Lets make immigration like most countries do: The more qualified you are, the simpler and faster will be your immigration. Irrespective of whether you are legal or not.  We want people for the content of their brains, not for the color of their skin. 

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

H-1B Cap

USCIS announced that it has received approximately 124,000 petitions. 

The cap is 20,000 for US Master's Degree holders and 65,000 for general. 

USCIS has received more than the amount in all categories.  Thus it will do a lottery for the 20,000 Master's Degree holders first. 

Those who are selected will get the receipt notice. 

Those who are not selected will be entered into the 65,000 general lottery 

So US Master's cap will get two chances at the lottery. 

USCIS has not announced when they will do the first lottery. 

We will update each and every one of our clients as soon as we know anything. 

If you don't get selected  the CIS will not withdraw your application fees. If you are on any other visa category, and applied for a change of status, your status won't be changed and you can continue in your current status. 

If you were a student, and are working in your OPT, and don't get selected even after 2 lotteries, you can either : (1) go back to student status, or (2) file H-1B from a non cap (non profit research) institute.

CIS also has the power to extend the cap gap or the EAD status until next year, but we cannot predict if the CIS will do so. 

If you are a student and get selected, you will need your receipt notice to apply for cap gap, if your EAD expires before October 01, 2013. 

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

The Unnatural H-1B quota

Our laws impose the completely unnatural, unrealistic, uncapitalistic quota of 65,000 (plus 20,000 for US Master's Degree holder) visas for H-1B, a visa reserved for professional skilled personnel.  Since the government year starts on October 01, and they accept visa applications 6 months before, the first day one can file the petition is April 01.  The job actually starts from October 01.

From  2006 to 2008 more than that amount was filed with the USCIS on the first day. The government resorted to a lottery.  Then came the economic downturn and the visa filings were slow.  Now again, as the service centers start counting the visas today, its expected to at least reach or exceed the quota this year.  This means that the economy looks better.

The counting starts today, on the day that the job records came out with a bleak report that hiring has slowed down in the USA. I am sure that the anti business immigration folks will scream about job preservation. Yet, the jobs lost in the US are federal government jobs and retail jobs partly seasonal and partly due to the sequestration. None of these jobs are tech jobs. If America idolized colleges for their US News and World Report rankings rather than the NCAA rankings, we would not face a shortage of tech  personnel.

However another major problem is the quota itself.  Computer consulting companies are the main users of the H-1B visas. They have to predict their usage for the year.  Once the quotas are gone, they cannot get labor to supply their clients, and have to take a major hit.

The other reason is that the educated spouses of H-1B holders, (on H-4 visas) cannot work. Dependents of L or J visas can.  But for some completely inane reason, dependents of H visas cannot work. So these H-4 visa holders approach Consulting companies for jobs. Consulting jobs are hard.  Not only do you have to know computer science, you also have to travel places with the job. Americans simply wont work that hard or travel that much.

Thus we should do away with this unnatural quota. Let the marketplace dictate needs. Yet the Obama Government simply will not handle immigration piecemeal. They want those Hispanic votes and wont do anything for the country until they get those votes.

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