Nowy Dziennik, a Polish-language newspaper published in New York launched a new online campaign to raise awareness at dropvisasforpoland.org.

David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee wrote an opinion piece for the Chicago Tribune in October refreshing American memories of all the times Poland has stood by the United States during wartime and has been a pivotal ally.

“Ask any Pole,” Harris wrote. “I have on many occasions and always received the same answer: The issue is seen as a slap in the face to Poland and its traditional friendship with the U.S.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, mentioned Poland’s eligibility for the VWP as he sponsored legislation called the Enhanced Security and Reform Act to update the program.

“Since the end of the Cold War, Poland has become one of the United States’ strongest allies, and it makes sense that we should change the law governing visa waivers to reflect the world we live in today,” Pascall said in a press release.

The Visa Waiver Program was started in 1986 as a way to cut down on administrative costs and to promote goodwill between the United States and individual countries. Citizens of the 36 countries on the list are able to travel to the United States for tourism or business without a visa for up to 90 days. To get on the VWP and to remain on it, countries must have advanced passport security technology and a low non-immigrant refusal rate.

Poland misses out on the VWP because its refusal rate is too high, which means the consular officers there believed that many of the visa applicants would overstay their 90-day trip. Some advocates of reform have suggested using actual overstay numbers instead of refusal rates to determine eligibility.

Citizens of countries that must go through the visa process to visit the United States on vacation or business must wait longer, fill out more forms, pay more fees and sit through interviews with their consulate. Advocates of keeping the VWP list short say the consular interviews and forms help keep the United States safe. All moves to open the borders for tourists or businesspeople no matter where they are from is going to be met with caution from the Department of Homeland Security.

Poland is on the short list of “road map” countries being considered for inclusion in the VWP.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.

The high court is scheduled to begin hearing the case on April 25. One day earlier, Schumer will have the state bill’s original author at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship. Schumer is the chairman of that committee.

Schumer asked Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to come before the subcommittee hearing on immigration to speak about the law. She will already be in Washington, D.C., to testify before the Supreme Court. She declined his invitation, calling it a publicity stunt.

Former Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce will testify before Schumer’s subcommittee despite losing a recall election last year brought about partly because of the outrage over the bill, according to the Huffington Post.

Schumer wrote a letter to Gov. Brewer asking for her participation in a dialogue about the border.

“As you frequently ask the President to visit the southern border to discuss border security, we expect that you will be eager to engage in a productive dialogue with the Congressional Committee responsible for acting upon any border security recommendations you provide,” Schumer wrote, according to the Arizona Republic.

Arizona’s SB 1070, the anti-illegal immigration law that has sparked controversy across the country, makes it a misdemeanor for an alien to be in the state without proper documents. A federal court judge in Arizona struck down the portion of the law that requires law enforcement to investigate the immigration status of people at traffic stops and make routine arrests. The Supreme Court will make a decision this year in part because other states are passing similar immigration laws.

Federal efforts have had a profound affect on border security over the past two years since the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act pushed more than $600 million to support law enforcement. Border patrol numbers are up and illegal crossings are down significantly. Seizures of guns, cash and drugs are all up as well, according to the Post.
Schumer said he would like Brewer to speak to his subcommittee to explain if she thinks the bill is still necessary since federal efforts have been so successful. He said he would like her to share whether she thinks the new law will always be necessary.
For her part, Brewer has explained the law on countless television programs, radio broadcasts and interviews with media of a variety of political leanings.
With the spotlight on illegal immigration, it has been difficult for those who want progress on reforming the legal immigration laws to be heard. Efforts to reform the visa program are moving through Congress, but with significantly less press attention than Arizona’s law.

Annie Banerjee is an immigration lawyer in Houston, Texas, who helps legal immigrants come to this country to seek permanent citizenship or for travel or work.

Contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their web site at http://www.visatous.com.

And the Board of Alien Labor Certification (BALCA)  over the years has upheld some and denied some of those rules. BALCA has said that if you advertise on a Sunday and by mistake put down a Monday date, that is fine. The court has said its not required to put in “magic language” if you want alternative qualifications. Now the case, World Agape Mission Church has done away with 2 other inane requirements.

The Employer had advertised in the website of the State Workforce Agency. (SWA) But did not have the documentation to prove that during the audit. The Board of Alien Labor Certification (Balca) said that the regulations does not require the Employer to keep such documentation. Most SWAs have crappy websites. I wonder which American would go looking for a job in the SWA database rather than going to Monster or other such engines.

The Employer also does not need to print its name if they advertise in Private Employment Firm.

Other inane requirements still in force: advertise in Sunday newspaper. This is DOL’s way of preserving this dinosaur we have called newspapers.  At the rate that newspapers are closing, and at the rate that DOL changes their regulations, the DOL will have that regulations at least 2 years after the last newspaper closes.

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

Computer Consulting Companies specialize in recruiting and placing consultants in bigger companies. Many times one consulting company has contract with another who then in turn has a contract with a big company. This is the nature of their business.  In 2010, the Government in a memo created a new law that the employers should have “Direct control” over their employees. The Government then said that where there are intermediates between the employer and the end user of the employee, the employer does not have control.  The government requires a huge amount of proof and often letters from the end user saying that they don’t control the employee. The end users often refuses to bother with such things. After all, if they wanted the hassle of an employee-employer relationship, they would recruit themselves.

The burden on small consulting companies is onerous.  In a recent memo, the Government has said that they don’t require any particular type of document, including letters from the end user, but the companies have to prove by a preponderance of evidence that they control the employee. And the Government of course gets to decide whether there is preponderance of evidence. This is like the fox guarding the hen house.  Also very often contracts are given for a short duration, and is thereby extended. But letters from the end user that the contract may be extended is not enough. The Government will make the duration of the H-1B for a few months for the duration of the contract. Then the petitioner has to file again.

If the Government denies an H-1, the beneficiary has to leave the country. An appeal takes forever and is simply not cost efficient for the Petitioner to do.  So the government gets away with whatever they want. So very few of these cases make it to the Judiciary.  In a recent case, Residential Financial Corporation, 2:12-cv00008, the Government challenged whether the Court has jurisdiction since the plaintiff did not ask specifically to get the beneficiary back. The federal Court (Southern District of Ohio) said that the Government did not provide the Employer and employee , “A Bare minimum level of professionalism, diligence and reasoning.”


And that is how the H-1B petitions are being adjudicated. Of course getting the visa form a consulate in India is harder and more capricious, but that will take pages and another blog.

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

L-1 visas were especially tough to obtain at U.S. posts in India during fiscal year 2011 as 28 percent fewer applications were accepted than were in FY 2010, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. The numbers dropped from 35,896 to 25,898.

Meanwhile, the number of L-1 visas granted in the rest of the world went up by about 15 percent.

“The denial rates at some of the U.S. posts in India are going to become a serious problem for American companies,” said Houston immigration attorney Annie Banerjee. “This will hurt productivity for American companies who need to transfer their Indian employees. This should be an easy process – especially in a down economy.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents many of the large corporations that use L-1 visas to transfer executives and managers from around the globe to the United States for work. The official statement from the chamber indicated frustration with the data and a desire to improve the approval rates.

Corporations fear a change in policy will continue to make it difficult to bring Indian employees to the United States and that could slow down business, according to the NFAP report.

“I hope the State Department resolves this discrepancy quickly because it is American companies that will suffer if they cannot continue to look to India for skilled executives and managers in technology and other fields,” Banerjee said. “Some of these industries could have to change their business model.”

Annie Banerjee is an immigration attorney with experience helping companies get L-1 visas for their employees.

To learn more, visit http://www.visatous.com.

The summit was a long-awaited breakthrough for critics of U.S. immigration law ¨C particularly as it pertains to visas for post-graduate professionals.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started the Entrepreneurs in Residence program last October to gather industry expertise from both the private and the public sector in an attempt to spur job growth through the employment based visa program.

“USCIS gained invaluable insights from prominent entrepreneurs and industry leaders on immigration issues critical to our nation’s economic prosperity,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas after the Feb. 22 summit.

More than 150 representatives of the business community, government agencies and academia attended the summit to help USCIS use immigration law reform as a tool to promote entrepreneurship and bolster American prosperity, according to a press release from USCIS.

“The introduction of expert views from the private and public sectors will help us ensure that our policies and processes fully realize the immigration laws’ potential to grow our economy and create American jobs,” Mayorkas said in the release.

The summit was organized to give some direction to the Entrepreneurs in Residence’s new tactical team. The tactical team is made up of USCIS employees and business experts working to create clear, consistent immigration pathways for foreign entrepreneurs. All of this is being done to align visa policy with current business realities, according to the release.

The team is designed to streamline USCIS policy across all of the non-immigrant visa categories that entrepreneurs use in business.

The slowdown of the U.S. economy since the financial and housing market crash of 2008 has inspired the USCIS to begin thinking of ways to affect economic growth through smart visa policy. This inspiration has happened, in part, because of the chorus of voices from the technology industry begging for reform.

USCIS announced the Entrepreneurs in Residence initiative during President Barak Obama’s Council of Jobs and Competitiveness in Pittsburgh in October of 2011.

At the February summit, Mayorkas recognized five entrepreneurs who are American immigrants as Outstanding Americans by Choice. Those five entrepreneurs, who are now naturalized citizens, are researcher and writer Vivek Wadhwa; Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital; Christopher Che, president and CEO of the Che International Group; Shervin Pishervar, managing partner at Menlo Ventures; and Ping Fu, president and CEO of Geomagic.

The Outstanding American by Choice is an honor given to naturalized citizens for achievements in professional achievement, civic participation and responsible citizenship.

Mayorkas also performed a naturalization ceremony, welcoming 20 Silicon Valley residents to become U.S. citizens.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.

The Visa Waiver Program allows foreign nationals from certain countries to visit the United States for business or leisure for 90 days or less without going through the hassle of obtaining a travel visa.

There are a number of criteria a country must meet to participate in the program. At least one of the program’s requirements is being reviewed by Congress.

Here are some of the criteria participating countries must meet to be a part of the program.
• Must have a reciprocal program with the United States
• Must issue secure, machine-readable passports
• Must be on track to include biometric identifiers in passports
• Must report theft of blank passports to the U.S. Department of State
• Must have a low nonimmigrant refusal rate.

Refusal rates are used as a measure of the likelihood a foreign national would overstay his or her trip to the United States.

Critics argue that the overstay rates themselves would be a better measure of the propensity of a person on a business trip or vacation to stay beyond his or her allotted 90 days.

Refusal rates can be skewed if the same person is refused several times, for example. By comparison, nationals from a country with a high overstay rate likely need a visa from the State Department before visiting the United States.

There are bills before the U.S. House and Senate that would replace refusal rates with overstay rates among other tweaks to the program.

There are 36 countries in the Visa Waiver Program. About 40 million people visit the United States every year for business or vacation. Among those, almost half enter the United States from countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The State Department has been under some pressure during the down economy to loosen restrictions on business and leisure travel to the United States. Travel and tourism can be a big boost on a struggling economy.

But the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have a responsibility to keep people out of the country who pose a threat to law and order or national security. There also is political pressure to keep foreign nationals out of the country who intend to stay here illegally.

There also is a movement to expand the number of countries who participate in the Visa Waiver Program. Adding countries to the list would increase the number of visitors from those countries for both business and recreation. An expanded list might also be better for security.

The United States gets more information and more useful data about counterterrorism and criminal enforcement from member nations than it does from non-member nations.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled website at http://www.visatous.com.

If the Government wants to make it easier for Computer Science Graduates from US Universities, it certainly does not look so. Since January 2010, the CIS issued a memo, which introduced an element stating that Employers should have direct control over H-1B employees. That effectively killed the H-1B visa for Computer Consulting industry.

And recently, the Department of Labor has taken to auditing a lot of labor certifications (PERMS) . I can understand the auditing of Perms for jobs not requiring a highly skilled degree. But these audits are done in random and effects everybody.  So we have one hand of the Government stating that we need to keep our tech graduates, and the other hand doing everything to make it harder for them. Maybe someday the Government will work as a cohesive unit.

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

The new forms will deter fraud and strengthen security, according to USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “These enhanced documents are more secure than ever,” he said in a press release. “They advance our efforts to safeguard against fraud and protect the integrity of the immigration system.”

The application process for these forms is unchanged. But the look and feel of the documents is radically different.

The forensic laboratory at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement helped USCIS develop the new EAD card. It uses new technology and tactile elements in order to help with easy card authentication, according to the release.

The new card, which looks similar to a driver’s license, has a photo of the cardholder as well as his or her fingerprint – and are both laser engraved. The card number and the case number are now both published on the front of the card.

The ICE forensic laboratory, which has been around since 1978, is the country’s authority on document authentication.

The old cards are still valid until they expire and will be replaced with new ones as people apply for renewal.

The agency hopes the new card will help law enforcement and employers more quickly identify the card and recognize the holder as being authorized to work in the country, according to the release.

USCIS also redesigned the N-560 Form, or the Certificate of Citizenship. This document goes to people who became citizens while living in the United States or people who were born outside the country to American citizens and applied for U.S. citizenship.

The agency has applied more tamper-proof printing methods to the new documents (which look similar to a birth certificate). It has a multi-colored background and a watermark to discourage fraud. It also has a digitized approval signature.

Previously issued Certificates of Citizenship are valid indefinitely, according to the release.

The new certificate does not make the list of accepted I-9 documents. Until 2007, the certificate was usable for proof of employment eligibility and identity under list A. The certificate is still on I-9’s list C that establishes employment authorization.

The agency is in an ongoing effort to update more secure and fraud-resistant documentation. USCIS created new Permanent Residency Cards in 2010 and redesigned the N-550 Certificate of Naturalization adding a photo and a signature.

A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at http://www.visatous.com.