UPDATE!

06/01/2009 - U.S.C.I.S. is still accepting H-1B petitions! According to the most recent figures, only 45,800 H-1B Cap petitions, of the available 65,000, have been received to date. U.S.C.I.S. will continue accepting H-1B petitions, including advanced degree cases, until the Cap is met.

You can find more information about the H-1B Cap and follow the ongoing Cap count here.

Notice! H-1B Visa Petitions 2009

As you may be aware, we are swiftly approaching an important date in the U.S. immigration calendar. On April 1, 2009, the government will begin accepting Petitions for Nonimmigrant Workers in the H-1B category for Fiscal Year 2010. There will be 65,000 visas available for new temporary workers with at least a Bachelor’s degree and another 20,000 visas for those with a Master’s degree issued in the United States. Workers approved under this visa category will be eligible to begin employment on or after 10/01/2009.

The events of last year showed that the number of visas available are insufficient to meet the demand. The USCIS will stop accepting petitions once they have met the projected “cap,” or when they think there will be no more visas available. In 2007 and 2008, the cap was met on the very first day petitions were accepted, and all of those cases were entered into a lottery to be randomly selected for processing. Cases that were not selected were forced to wait another year to submit their petitions again. The USCIS is expecting a large number of applicants on April 1st of this year.

As there will be a considerable rush to get applications filed on April 1, we are encouraging you to bring your applicants to us as soon as possible, so that we may have all paperwork complete and ready to file on March 31. If your company is contemplating any new hires that may be subject to the H-1B cap, please be aware of the upcoming deadline, and contact us as soon as possible to discuss a course of action.

Please note that this does not apply to employees needing an extension of H-1B status, or a request to change H-1B employers. The deadline is for new applicants only.

We want all of our clients to have the best opportunity for successful petitions. Let’s prepare early and get all the applications in on time.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

FRIEDBERG & TROMBI

TENACITY

By definition, immigrants are a highly dependent and vulnerable group of clients, because they are not familiar with our country’s laws, business customs, and social institutions. It is well known that all sorts of scams and unprofessional practices are foisted upon the trust of immigrants by unscrupulous “notarios” and other predatory types, including, unfortunately, some attorneys. The immigration attorney is, therefore, placed in a particularly important role when he assumes the representation of a client.

What also makes the immigration lawyer’s role more challenging is the need to navigate between a number of federal agencies in many immigration cases. More recently, state and local governments have also become increasingly involved in restricting immigrants’ rights, further complicating the matter. In addition, representing the immigration client before a federal agency requires the attorney to often face a bureaucratic fortress. When I started to practice immigration law in the 1980’s, I could pick up the phone and speak to an officer at the local immigration office or a consular officer overseas. Or I could schedule a personal meeting with the officer to discuss the case. Nowadays, access is extremely limited by procedures that are designed by the government to insulate its officers in the interests of efficiency.

While procedures do exist to appeal adverse decisions, it is the immigration lawyer’s greatest challenge to represent clients after they have received an adverse administrative decision. Nowhere is the situation more challenging than when a client has applied for a visa at an American consulate (outside the United States), and the visa has been refused.

Last year, I successfully represented two businessmen, one in Mexico and the other in Japan, whose visa applications were initially refused. Their stories will be discussed in the next installment.