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NEWS BYTES
Three of the four candidates for the Republican nomination to the US Senate from Nebraska called for easing immigration laws to admit more foreign workers.  Nebraska has been experiencing shortages in workers willing to work at regional meat processing plants, leading many in the area to support expanded immigration.  
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The American Immigration Lawyers Association has released a letter written by INS Business and Trade Services Branch Chief Thomas Simmons to immigration lawyer Richard Steel.  The letter states that employers have no specific obligation to notify the INS when they terminate employees for whom they have filed employment-based immigrant visa petitions. 
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At a recent meeting of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the US Department of Labor, a number of important issues involving labor certifications, H-1B visas and H-2B visas were discussed. Among the highlights: 
- various higher volume state and US Labor Department offices have been granted additional funds to assist in backlog reduction on labor certifications. 
- a regulation allowing for the conversion of regular labor certification cases to RIR cases could be in effect as early as July. The focus of the regulation will be on cases awaiting a SESA action. 
- the H-1B regulation tied to the 1998 H-1B legislation is being held up pending approval of new legislation regarding the H-1B cap and the H-1B visa program. 
- the DOL admitted that in H-2B cases, any applications seeking more than 9 months of work authorization are undergoing close scrutiny even though the statute defines “temporary” as one year or less and that the DOL has been working with the INS on a regulation to cover this issue. 
- The DOL is considering a plan to use web-based technology for the filing of LCAs in H-1B cases. Under the potential plan, an attorney would get a form from the web, complete it and then e-mail it off to the employer for “signature.” The signature would be the use of a password assigned by the DOL for use in all of the employer’s filings. The DOL is seeking input from AILA on the feasibility of the plan.