Dear Readers:  

The doldrums of August continue on Capitol Hill. Congress is out of session and so there is little visible progress to report on the immigration bill. But that doesn’t mean that there is no news at all. We are still getting indications that the Senate and the House are engaged in quiet negotiations over the framework for a compromise and there were news reports this week that the White House has also been working to encourage a deal. It still appears that the "triggers" concept could be the answer. The idea that has been promoted by several in the GOP is that the legalization provisions in the immigration bill would be delayed until after border security measures are put in place. Expect things to heat up in September.  

*****  

There was major news in immigrant visa processing this week. USCIS announced that beginning Monday, employment-based I-140 immigrant visa petitions in the EB-3 category will be eligible for premium processing. I-140s are the forms submitted in green card cases filed by employers on behalf of skilled, unskilled and bachelors level professional workers. In a few months, USCIS is expected to do away with "concurrent" filing which allows people to submit the I-140 together with the adjustment of status part of the green card application process.  

The ability to file the adjustment is important because that is when people get the right to request a work card for themselves and family members, request a travel document and, after six months, have some rights to switch employers. Previously, one could only file the adjustment after the I-140 was approved. But for the last few years I-140s and adjustment applications could be filed together. Now we’re going back to the old system, but with the ability to speed up the I-140 processing by paying the $1000 fee. Presumably, one of the motivations for USCIS is to ensure that people want to use the premium processing system and the ability to concurrently file adjustment applications would be a major disincentive to paying the extra money.  

Of course, the attraction of premium processing an I-140 case will be greatly diminished as long as green card retrogression remains a serious problem. In the EB-3 case, you cannot concurrently file adjustments because the quota for green cards is so backed up that you need to wait about five years before an adjustment application can be submitted. Why rush getting the I-140 approved when you’re going to be waiting years anyway. So don’t expect a lot of these applications to be filed until either Congress makes more green card numbers available or USCIS extends the program to the EB-2 and EB-1 categories.  

*****  

We are getting word that the 50,000 green cards allotted last year by Congress for the Schedule A EB-3 category (used mainly for nurses), is about to run out. We expect the numbers will remain current in October and that a few may be left in November, but they will probably run out during that month. So expect to hear more on that looming crisis in the coming weeks.  

*****  

We have a very interesting and informative guest article by my friend Gary Endelman this week on H-1B visa reform. Gary is one of the most creative thinkers in immigration law and his articles are always thought-provoking.  

*****  

Finally, as always, we remind readers that they are welcome to call us at 901-682-6455 or 800-748-3819 to set up phone appointments and they are welcome to contact me directly as well at gsiskind@visalaw.com.  

Kind regards,    

Greg Siskind