Flip Flop- Bush govt style

This is the Bush Government, not John Kerry.

On June 13, they announced that every employment based applicants can file for adjustment of status (AOS)

On June 14 they said all applicants needed medical examination to file

On July 02, they said no applicants could file

On July 17 they said every applicant could file

On July 23 they said AOS applications could be filed without medical examination

NOW IF ONLY THEY FLIP FLOPED ABOUT IRAQ - OR FOR ABOUT 99% OF THEIR POLICIES!

Sound and Fury Signifying NOTHING

The DOS announced on June 15, 2007 that all employment based priority dates will become current as of July 1, and that everyone could file their adjustment of status applications. This sent a ray of hope amongst the immigrant community. Since we could not file the adjustment unless the applicants are in the country, many people cut short their vacation to their home country, changed return tickets for very high prices, and raced back to the US. They got their medical done for a lot of money, pictures taken, and applications done. For us, immigration attorneys, we worked every day for at least 10 hours, including Saturday and Sunday. Then on the morning of July 2 (July 1st was a Sunday and no one could file), the DOS announced, in an unprecedented move that it is retracting its position, and made visa unavailable for everybody, no matter what the country of birth, or what the employment based preference is. Visa numbers won't open up until Oct 1, and by then, the fees for immigration will triple.

Where were all those Govt statisticians, all those think tank employees at DOS when they announced the visa availability. Why does the Govt of a free society think that they can toy with real people, real lives?

I know that Govt employees salaries are indexed to the salary of the chief executive, the President. Does the govt employees brains also have to be indexed to the presidential brains?

H-1B

A Note to CIS, if they read my blog, which they wont. (The executive branch of our Government from its leader Mr., President down do not read).

Could you please let employers substitute their employees, ie if one employee got the lottery, and the other did not, the employer (since the petition belongs to the employer) should get to choose which employee they will bring in.

Xenophobia

Is immigration Law inherently Xenophobic? Xenophobia is defined by wikipedia as "a fear and contempt of foreigners." Immigration laws are created to include or exclude "foreigners". At its root then, immigration laws, no matter for which country it is, is necessitated by inherent xenophobia. The horrible discrimination and inequity of the history of US immigration laws clearly reveals this. A body of law that rises from prejudice and hatred towards fellow citizens of the world thus cannot ipso facto be fair.

March Madness brings April Cruelty

The H-1B visa was in many ways like the NCAA tournament. They had March Madness to Don Imus. We also worked like mad in March. My kids came home from college for March break, and I hardly got to see them. For the first time in my life I realized that the NCAA players give up their March break too, to play. And then we predicted, in April, which ones of our petitions will go through. We did the statistical probability calculations about the lottery. And then we waited and waited....... Is April going to be the cruelest month for the immigration professional?

Send me your H-1B FY 2008 stories.

Posted by Annie at 1:20 PM 0 comments

H-1B FIASCO

The USCIS has received by some estimates 200,000 H-1B applications for roughly 65,000 spots. Clearly the Vermont and California Service Centers were not equipped to deal with this volume. While I sympathize with the staff, I am hearing about a lot of irregularities. Quite a few got receipt notices before the lottery, and some got approvals after the lottery. (I am talking about non US Master's Degree holders). How can we be sure that a case was properly entered into the lottery system, with all possible cases, and given a fair chance at the lottery? Was there a higher power (besides God) who oversaw that lottery to see it was properly done? I need to see those documents along with each of my rejected cases.