USCIS is reminding customers that the USCIS immigration benefit fees have increased, effective April 30.  All applications postmarked on or before Thursday, April 29, 2004, will be subject to the previous fees.

The new USCIS immigration benefit application fees are available at:

http://uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/newsrels/USCISFeeStructure.pdf

*****

The Texas Service Center has acknowledged that the numerous rejections of cap-subject H1-B visas filed after April 1, 2004 were in error.  TSC is urging people to re-file immediately, as the TSC mailroom is now under instructions not to reject an H1-B filing that has a start date on the I-129 of October 1st or later, provided it is not more than 6 months from the date of filing.

*****

Service centers have been instructed by a procedural guidance memo from the Director of Service Center Operations to concurrently adjudicate concurrently filed I-140s and I-485s.  Only if the fingerprints and name checks have cleared on the I-485 will the agency adjudicate previously filed concurrent packages.

The memo is located at http://www.aila.org/infonet/fileViewer.aspx?docID=12802.

*****

Instructions on how to apply for a waiver of special registration requirements at both the New York and Los Angeles field offices have been provided by the respective offices.  Instructions on how to file in New York are located at http://www.aila.org/infonet/fileViewer.aspx?docID=12846 and instructions on how to file in Los Angeles are located at http://www.aila.org/infonet/fileViewer.aspx?docID=12845.  

*****

Malik Jarno, an orphaned teenager from Guinea who is mentally disabled, appeared for his asylum hearing on April 22, 2004.  Jarno could qualify for asylum on several grounds - a Guinean mental health expert has submitted written testimony attesting to the persecution a mentally retarded orphan could face in Guinea; his home was destroyed and his father, a religious leader, was imprisoned and later killed by the Guinean government in 1998; Guinean officials have also stated their intention to persecute Jarno upon his return to Guinea because of the embarrassment his case has caused for the country.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Amnesty International and a group of over 70 lawmakers have been urging the Department of Homeland Security to agree to grant Jarno political asylum.

*****

Immigration and Customs (ICE) officials told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that the agency is investigating Bear Creek Country Kitchens, a Heber food company for possibly employing undocumented immigrants.  An audit revealed that up to 46 workers provided fraudulent paperwork, including alien registration, proof of citizenship and Social Security numbers.

Initiating the probe were former employees of Bear Creek who called ICE to complain that they were losing their jobs to undocumented immigrants.  Spokespeople for Bear Creek said only seven of the people in question were full-time employees.  ICE officials said they plan on tracking each worker whose documents look suspicious.