Rachel Huan Kao's Archived Articles
Immigration
News
June 2004
SOLVE Act –
Pending Legislation
On May 4, 2004 Senator Kennedy (D-MA), Representative Menendez (D-NJ),
and Representative Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the SOLVE Act of 2004 (Safe,
Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004). This immigration legislation
proposes to provide relief through three avenues: earned adjustment; family
reunification and backlog reduction; and a temporary worker program. Under
the earned adjustment standard, individuals who have been in the US for
five or more years as of May 4, 2004 will be eligible for legal permanent
residence. They must have at least 2 years of employment in the US and
have paid their federal taxes. Under the family reunification and backlog
reduction standard, immediate relatives of citizens and permanent residents
will be exempt from counting towards the 480,000 ceiling for family-based
immigrant visas, and unused visas for prior years will be recaptured and
applied to future years. Individuals who have waited more than 5 years
will receive visas exclusive of the per-country visa limits, and the affidavit
of support will apply the 100% of poverty level standard instead of the
current 125% of poverty level standard, making it easier for the petitioner
to meet the affidavit of support requirements. Under the temporary worker
program standard, new visa categories H-1D and H-2B are created for workers
in low-skilled positions. These visas permit their immediate family members
to accompany, but not to work, the H-1D or H-2B visa holder. The petitioning
employer can immediately initiate permanent residence petitions, or the
visa holder could self-petition after 2 years of employment. These visa
numbers will not count against the per-country caps. This section also
includes worker protections and commissions a study of the H-2B and H-1D
programs.
This legislation is a very positive fix for our country’s immigration problems. Please contact your representative and senator to let them know you support this legislation!
I-485 Pilot Program
The Citizenship and Immigration Services Dallas District Office (analogous
to our Chicago District Office) is implementing a pilot program to test
adjudication of adjustment of status applications within a 90-day time
frame, eliminating the need to issue employment authorization documents
and advance parole documents while adjustments are pending. Eligible applicants
include: all family-based applicants, Diversity Visa lottery winners,
Special Immigrant Juveniles, and other Special Immigrants with approved
Form I-360. Asylees, Refugees, Employment-Based, and Life Act applicants
are not eligible for this program. Chicago District Office has signed
up for this program, and will be fourth to implement this 90-day program.
Please consult future articles for announcements of implementation at
the Chicago District Office.
Labor Certification
Applications
Pending labor certification applications are experiencing more scrutiny
than ever due to changes in the economy. Some cases may have additional
recruitment requirements depending on when they were filed, and the initial
recruitment results. The Department of Labor has indicated that as the
condition of the economy changes, their requirements will fluctuate. For
instance, if the economy was strong at the time of recruitment and filing,
and the recruitment requirements in existence at that time were met, but
by the time the case gets reviewed, the economy has changed, new recruitment
requirements may have been implemented and applicants will have to meet
these new requirements. Employers and employees with pending labor certification
applications should be prepared to re-advertise the jobs and interview
a new batch of applicants in order to qualify for labor certification.
Opting out of automatic
conversion from 2B to 1
Under the Child Status Protection Act, unmarried sons or daughters of
lawful permanent residents can request their classification to remain
2B (unmarried sons or daughters of lawful permanent residents) preference,
even if their parent naturalizes, which would normally change their classification
to 1 (unmarried sons or daughters of US citizens) preference. All affected
beneficiaries who want to opt out of this automatic conversion must file
a written request to the Officer in Charge, Manila. The Officer in Charge
will notify the beneficiary of the decision of their request. This decision
will come in the form of a letter on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services letterhead. If approved, the beneficiary’s eligibility
will remain unchanged, and will not have to use the 1st preference priority
date otherwise used for unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens. Only
those that were petitioned as unmarried sons and daughters of lawful permanent
residents are eligible.
Processing changes at the District Offices
District offices (ours is Chicago, 10 W. Jackson) are sending all new
family-based cases to the National Benefits Center for initial processing.
Receipt notices, employment authorization, and advance parole will be
processed at the National Benefits Center in hopes of providing more uniform
and speedy processing times to all district offices. The procedure for
applicants in our district will remain the same - send the applications
to the district office. From there, applications are boxed up and sent
to the NBC. NBC sends out receipts for filing fees, incorporating an invitation
to schedule a biometrics appointment at a designated application support
center. So far, the system has been working fairly smoothly. In the future
CIS may direct us to send all applications to the NBC directly, but until
this direction is provided applicants should continue to send cases to
the district office. Applicants will no longer go to the Chicago District
Office to pick up EAD cards or advance parole documents. After security
checks have been completed, cases will be sent to the District Offices
for interview scheduling and adjudication. Interviews and decisions will
continue to be made at the District Offices. Applications for waivers
of inadmissibility will be processed at the National Benefits Center.
Would you like to
vote for the next President? Can you vote?
In Chicago, the processing time for a naturalization application is approximately
six months. If you are eligible for naturalization, and you apply very
soon, you may be able to obtain your citizenship and register to vote
before the next Presidential election! I encourage every citizen to register
to vote. If you are not registered to vote, please do so. If you are registered,
but do not vote regularly, please consider doing so. Your voices should
be heard!!! For those of us who are naturalized citizens, remember that
we chose this country. We should exercise our rights, and the most important
right is our right to vote. If anyone has questions about where to go
to register, I will include that information in later articles. By calling
your local alderman or congressional representative, you can obtain information
on voter registration drives. In the meantime, if you need to renew your
driver’s license, you can automatically be registered to vote at
the same time. Community organizations are providing registration judges
outside naturalization oath ceremony facilities so that all interested
new citizens will be able to register to vote as soon as they finish their
oath ceremony.