Bills, Rules & Politics

[srimurthy]

Status-quo is continuing. No surprises - positive or otherwise.

Has any one read these:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eA...&RIN=1615-AC15

USCIS Rule Making agendas for 2018
Rescission of International Entrepreneur Rule
Removing H-4 EAD Rule
H-1B Program and Processing Reform Rules:
Heightened Screening and Vetting of Immigration Programs Regulations.
EB-5 Rule Reform

Any thoughts of these becoming rules and how long it may take?

[EB3Iwaiting]

Has any one read these:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eA...&RIN=1615-AC15

USCIS Rule Making agendas for 2018
Rescission of International Entrepreneur Rule
Removing H-4 EAD Rule
H-1B Program and Processing Reform Rules:
Heightened Screening and Vetting of Immigration Programs Regulations.
EB-5 Rule Reform

Any thoughts of these becoming rules and how long it may take?

Systematic purge has started. The anti-immigrants have been waiting a long time for this opportunity. Now that they finally have the policy making positions in this administration, they are wasting no time. All the desis who were rejoicing when Trump came to power thinking he will kick out the undocumented (primary reason for hating HRC) and help the high skilled legal people get a shot of reality.

[iatiam]

Systematic purge has started. The anti-immigrants have been waiting a long time for this opportunity. Now that they finally have the policy making positions in this administration, they are wasting no time. All the desis who were rejoicing when Trump came to power thinking he will kick out the undocumented (primary reason for hating HRC) and help the high skilled legal people get a shot of reality.

I would argue that a lot of these are actually needed and should have been implemented long ago. H1B is a visa that's been long abused by the likes of Indian outsourcing companies and the so-called Desi consultants. Back in 2005 before the introduction of PERM, everyone was buying the pre-adjucated PERMS and significantly expediting the GC process if you were with these Desi consultants. Most of my friends went right to these companies and managed to get GCs in no time. Those of us who played it nice, got full-time jobs had to suffer through the backlog.

And I don't even need to talk about EB1C abuse. I personally know of at least six cases of whom none was really eligible for a multi-national manager position. One guy was working in a grocery shop making 35,000 dollars per year and managed to get a GC in less than an year.

Let's not turn this in to a political issue.

[immigration-winter]

While it is irrefutable that Indian outsourcing companies are abusing the H-1B system by paying employees at least 20-30 % below market rates, I would argue that one of the main indirect beneficiaries are American Fortune 500 Corporations who would rather save a pretty by contracting to the outsourcers than pay people fair market wages. Without the massive multi-million dollar contracts these Fortune 500 corporations provide, the Indian outsourcers would be out of business in no time. Too bad the whole system is flawed.

[HarepathekaIntezar]

And I don't even need to talk about EB1C abuse. I personally know of at least six cases of whom none was really eligible for a multi-national manager position. One guy was working in a grocery shop making 35,000 dollars per year and managed to get a GC in less than an year.

Can you detail how this person got into the EB1C que? Maybe you know more than any of us on this forum.

[iatiam]

Can you detail how this person got into the EB1C que? Maybe you know more than any of us on this forum.

The owner of the grocery shop has another shop in India where he worked for an year and that made him eligible for L1A.

[HarepathekaIntezar]

The owner of the grocery shop has another shop in India where he worked for an year and that made him eligible for L1A.

That sounds way out of the realm of possibility bro. I am not aware Desi grocers are that well organized or incorporated suitably to be able to take advantage (abuse as you would put it) of the L1 Visa regulations and the EB1C regulations!!

[iatiam]

That sounds way out of the realm of possibility bro. I am not aware Desi grocers are that well organized or incorporated suitably to be able to take advantage (abuse as you would put it) of the L1 Visa regulations and the EB1C regulations!!

Feel free to believe/disbelieve this story. I don't have any problem with that. Also, like I mentioned, there are several other cases where I know first hand that the system has been stretched beyond it's limits. Here is another example, a friend of mine who has a diploma in engineering and he worked in a factory in India. He was transferred to the US and he moved here with his wife and two kids and was paid 35,000 dollars an year. They filed for GC and he got in less than an year. There are no wage restrictions on EB1C and that works in their favor.

Want more, here goes.

Those of who do not have the "luxury" of working for India based companies are resorting to apply for O1 visa nowadays. Again, I personally know of at least three cases where the applicants were I would call run-of-mill US graduate. Masters degree from a US university but managed to convince USCIS that they have extra ordinary ability. I wasn't surprised when Grassley contacted USCIS about misuse of O1 visa.

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news...a-applications

[rock581]

Feel free to believe/disbelieve this story. I don't have any problem with that. Also, like I mentioned, there are several other cases where I know first hand that the system has been stretched beyond it's limits. Here is another example, a friend of mine who has a diploma in engineering and he worked in a factory in India. He was transferred to the US and he moved here with his wife and two kids and was paid 35,000 dollars an year. They filed for GC and he got in less than an year. There are no wage restrictions on EB1C and that works in their favor.

Want more, here goes.

Those of who do not have the "luxury" of working for India based companies are resorting to apply for O1 visa nowadays. Again, I personally know of at least three cases where the applicants were I would call run-of-mill US graduate. Masters degree from a US university but managed to convince USCIS that they have extra ordinary ability. I wasn't surprised when Grassley contacted USCIS about misuse of O1 visa.

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news...a-applications

Historically, India and Indians had one problem. They fight among themselves.

Case in point: Have you ever heard of even 1 Hispanic opposing the undocumented. Trump is not even touching them because they are united. Trump is attacking us because he knows these guys wont oppose anything they will fight amongst themselves.

[iatiam]

Historically, India and Indians had one problem. They fight among themselves.

Case in point: Have you ever heard of even 1 Hispanic opposing the undocumented. Trump is not even touching them because they are united. Trump is attacking us because he knows these guys wont oppose anything they will fight amongst themselves.

We are also the first to abuse the system. Case in point - Desi consultants, fake resumes and fake multinational managers.

[murali83]

Historically, India and Indians had one problem. They fight among themselves.

Case in point: Have you ever heard of even 1 Hispanic opposing the undocumented. Trump is not even touching them because they are united. Trump is attacking us because he knows these guys wont oppose anything they will fight amongst themselves.

Who said he is not touching illegals. He is lobbying really hard for everify. Everify will single handedly force most illegals to self deport.

32% latinos voted for trump , surely not a sign of a united voting bloc

[rock581]

We are also the first to abuse the system. Case in point - Desi consultants, fake resumes and fake multinational managers.

Exactly my point. No Latino ever says we jump the borders.

[rock581]

Who said he is not touching illegals. He is lobbying really hard for everify. Everify will single handedly force most illegals to self deport.

Well, most of the undocumented work on cash basis, eVerify would hardly matter. Even if it is true have you seen eVerify made mandatory. With DACA too, Trump has given a grace period of 6 months and is willing to extend it if Senate/House don't act. Do you see Trump giving any grace period to us?

32% latinos voted for trump , surely not a sign of a united voting bloc

True. Most of them would flee next time if he touches the undocumented or Dreamers.

Point is he has done nothing to harm the undocumented as a bloc although that was his big promise.

[murali83]

Well, most of the undocumented work on cash basis, eVerify would hardly matter. Even if it is true have you seen eVerify made mandatory. With DACA too, Trump has given a grace period of 6 months and is willing to extend it if Senate/House don't act. Do you see Trump giving any grace period to us?




True. Most of them would flee next time if he touches the undocumented or Dreamers.

Point is he has done nothing to harm the undocumented as a bloc although that was his big promise.

That 32% will not move an inch against him. During campaign, he talked about removing daca day1, stripping citizenship from anchor babies. Still they voted for him. Giving them grace period is huge. No way they will desert him. Those 32% are citizens who are traditional gop voters and will keep voting gop even if it is trump

[srimurthy]

He was transferred to the US and he moved here with his wife and two kids and was paid 35,000 dollars an year. They filed for GC and he got in less than an year. There are no wage restrictions on EB1C and that works in their favor.

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news...a-applications

Surprising the EB1 is a very high skilled and nationally / internationally acclaimed or recognized person and they still being paid 35K did not trigger a red flag while getting approved.

[iatiam]

Surprising the EB1 is a very high skilled and nationally / internationally acclaimed or recognized person and they still being paid 35K did not trigger a red flag while getting approved.

This guy is a friend of mine and in a conversation he confided this to me. EB1C does not have any wage restrictions and so it does not matter. So if they are not checking the wage, it should not be a problem.

[immigration-winter]

Not sure if anyone has heard about this, but in yesterday's Immigration Voice public call, it was mentioned that based on insider information, the administration is planning to block H-1B extensions beyond 6 years by re-interpreting certain existing rules.

In my opinion, 2 things give credence to this piece of information :
1. It turns out they were right about the H4-EAD repeal for about a year now based on insider information. Them getting involved in the lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA forced the administration to avoid an early settlement and delay the H4-EAD rescission. All of this was confirmed by Leon who was working behind the scenes for H4-EAD.
2. Leon Fresco who is a Washington insider with deep connections in the Immigration world was present in the call and currently advises Immigration Voice. Leon was the individual who scored the first victory against the H4-EAD challenge when he was representing the Goverment during the Obama administration.

Possibly, a instrument to get such things in would be the proposed rule "Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program" (https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eA...&RIN=1615-AC13).

If anyone want to listen to the details of yesterday's call, it is available on Sound Cloud. https://soundcloud.com/immivoice

I want to add a caveat that there is no public source of information to back this up but I personally believe this to be very likely.

[suninphx]

Hi Spec,

There seems to be lot of stir around DHS may be planning to revoke AC-21. (This discussion started with *** conference call over the weekend.). My understanding is AC21 is a law and can't be revoked by DHS just by rule making. So I wanted to know your take on this?

(Obviously, this is not urgent at all...if you get time after holidays and feel like replying to this...please do so.)

Thanks.

[Jonty Rhodes]

Hi Spec,

There seems to be lot of stir around DHS may be planning to revoke AC-21. (This discussion started with *** conference call over the weekend.). My understanding is AC21 is a law and can't be revoked by DHS just by rule making. So I wanted to know your take on this?

(Obviously, this is not urgent at all...if you get time after holidays and feel like replying to this...please do so.)

Thanks.

I read that too in the email from ** this morning. I didn't know how they came up with that when no other immigration forums or website has talked about it. I think they are just fear mongering. I don't know what they really want to achieve but people are understandably panicking on trackitt. Could this be really true? If true, who does it impact? I am a physician (Internal Medicine) with a Masters in Public Health from US university. My PD is EB2I May, 2011. I am on H1B and has never been current to file I-485 and don't have EAD or AP. Had H1B in 2007-2010 where I was trained in Internal Medicine. Since training hospitals don't file for green card, I took up a job in 2010 after my residency and my hospital filed my green card in 2011 and have approved I-140. I am still on H1B since 2010 and had my 3rd extension approved and stamped in 2016 and valid till 2019. Would that impact me or is it only for new H1B filings?

[srimurthy]

Not sure if anyone has heard about this, but in yesterday's Immigration Voice public call, it was mentioned that based on insider information, the administration is planning to block H-1B extensions beyond 6 years by re-interpreting certain existing rules.

In my opinion, 2 things give credence to this piece of information :
1. It turns out they were right about the H4-EAD repeal for about a year now based on insider information. Them getting involved in the lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA forced the administration to avoid an early settlement and delay the H4-EAD rescission. All of this was confirmed by Leon who was working behind the scenes for H4-EAD.
2. Leon Fresco who is a Washington insider with deep connections in the Immigration world was present in the call and currently advises Immigration Voice. Leon was the individual who scored the first victory against the H4-EAD challenge when he was representing the Goverment during the Obama administration.

Possibly, a instrument to get such things in would be the proposed rule "Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program" (https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eA...&RIN=1615-AC13).

If anyone want to listen to the details of yesterday's call, it is available on Sound Cloud. https://soundcloud.com/immivoice

I want to add a caveat that there is no public source of information to back this up but I personally believe this to be very likely.

WOW... this is only going to impact the backlogged countries, that is India and China (to some extent), but I guess finally at some point there won't be any backlogs after everyone goes back.
Looks like 2018 is going to be very interesting in the rule making process.

[qesehmk]

None of these actions should surprise Indians. Trump is just a small piece of the bigger movement that Bannon is leading. Bannon is anti globalist and there is a huge movement behind him that is bent upon making US more and more protectionist.

I am not a fan of **. But you must understand they are the only ones who are doing something / anything. To be honest what they are doing is absolutely inconsequential. They should have focused on suing US government / USCIS for discrimination based on nationality.

Enough said ...

[tatikonda]

I read that too in the email from ** this morning. I didn't know how they came up with that when no other immigration forums or website has talked about it. I think they are just fear mongering. I don't know what they really want to achieve but people are understandably panicking on trackitt. Could this be really true? If true, who does it impact? I am a physician (Internal Medicine) with a Masters in Public Health from US university. My PD is EB2I May, 2011. I am on H1B and has never been current to file I-485 and don't have EAD or AP. Had H1B in 2007-2010 where I was trained in Internal Medicine. Since training hospitals don't file for green card, I took up a job in 2010 after my residency and my hospital filed my green card in 2011 and have approved I-140. I am still on H1B since 2010 and had my 3rd extension approved and stamped in 2016 and valid till 2019. Would that impact me or is it only for new H1B filings?

Jonty, I am surprised to know that physician are filing under EB2. I always thought doctors are in EB1 Category. my cousin got GC in 2 years after his residency.
Are you saying that doctors are also in same boat as IT folks ? My cousin completed his Ph.D in 2015 and filed in EB2 then but now converting it to EB1.

[Jonty Rhodes]

Jonty, I am surprised to know that physician are filing under EB2. I always thought doctors are in EB1 Category. my cousin got GC in 2 years after his residency.
Are you saying that doctors are also in same boat as IT folks ? My cousin completed his Ph.D in 2015 and filed in EB2 then but now converting it to EB1.

Not everyone can file under EB1. I matched into a community residency program and didn't have any opportunity for research or publications. So I couldn't file for EB1. There are thousands of physicians like me who are on H1B for the same reason. We can't control where we match since it is a software that matches the program with the interviewed candidates. You can read about NRMP residency matching program. Your cousin must had lot of publications or may have done subspecialty or may have done residency from a University program and not a community program. I had interviews from University programs but I ended up matching in a community program hence EB2. I have a colleague of mine who is also in EB2 just like me. There are many more physicians like me. I know some PhDs who are also under EB2. Not all of them can covert to EB2. A friend of mine is an Oncologist. Guess what - stuck on EB2. Another one, Pediatric Intensivist, Infectious Disease Specialist, Nephrologist, Psychiatrist, Pulmonary/Critical Care specialist, Gatroenterologist, Cardiologist. All of them are my classmates - stuck on EB2. It's unfortunate but true.


I recently accepted a position of Chief Medical Information Officer for my hospital. So there is no problem with career growth itself but you still can't upgrade to EB1A unless you have lots of publications or EB1B unless you are in academic setting with publications as a professor. If you are working in a community hospital setting, you can't do anything.

[Airbender]

Not everyone can file under EB1. I matched into a community residency program and didn't have any opportunity for research or publications. So I couldn't file for EB1. There are thousands of physicians like me who are on H1B for the same reason. We can't control where we match since it is a software that matches the program with the interviewed candidates. You can read about NRMP residency matching program. Your cousin must had lot of publications or may have done subspecialty or may have done residency from a University program and not a community program. I had interviews from University programs but I ended up matching in a community program hence EB2. I have a colleague of mine who is also in EB2 just like me. There are many more physicians like me. I know some PhDs who are also under EB2. Not all of them can covert to EB2. A friend of mine is an Oncologist. Guess what - stuck on EB2. Another one, Pediatric Intensivist, Infectious Disease Specialist, Nephrologist, Psychiatrist, Pulmonary/Critical Care specialist, Gatroenterologist, Cardiologist. All of them are my classmates - stuck on EB2. It's unfortunate but true.


I recently accepted a position of Chief Medical Information Officer for my hospital. So there is no problem with career growth itself but you still can't upgrade to EB1A unless you have lots of publications or EB1B unless you are in academic setting with publications as a professor. If you are working in a community hospital setting, you can't do anything.

+1

I have a PhD, currently working with a Fortune top 3 company. I don't have significant number of publications as I didn't spent too much time in academics. I have been on H1b for last 10+ years with PD of July2009. Due to some awfully bad luck never got a chance to file for EAD. With current political climate , now I am thinking of liquidating stock equity and apply for EB5. Anybody else here working on EB5 filling ?

[Immigo]

+1

I have a PhD, currently working with a Fortune top 3 company. I don't have significant number of publications as I didn't spent too much time in academics. I have been on H1b for last 10+ years with PD of July2009. Due to some awfully bad luck never got a chance to file for EAD. With current political climate , now I am thinking of liquidating stock equity and apply for EB5. Anybody else here working on EB5 filling ?

Be wary of applying via the EB5 program. I-526 applications are taking on an average around 16 months for approval. If you decide to use regional center - there is a lot of fraud where you can lose all of your investments and end up without a green card at the end. Additionally, in general regional centers have a fee north of 50K USD in addition to lawyers fee, which is close to 20K USD (Sample fee for your reference: https://www.hooyou.com/eb-5/fee.html ). There are other things to consider:

1) Even after I-526 is approved you will only end up with a conditional GC valid for 2 years. The conditions will be removed if you / regional center create 10 jobs (hence if there is fraud, you will be impacted). By the time you get your permanent GC, you are easily looking at close to 4-5 years (16 months for I-526 + 2 years conditional GC + I-824 to remove conditions - This is assuming no RFEs).

2) Considering you have a priority date of 2009, you may want to consult a lawyer regarding what happens if your date gets current while you are on a conditional GC i.e. can you apply for a permanent GC while on conditional GC ? Perhaps, someone on this forum can clarify

3) Having seen how H1B / EB2-I / EB3-I has played out in the past, I am circumspect that the goal post will be changed while you are in the EB-5 process (its worth keeping this risk while evaluating).

Good luck whatever route you choose!