Uncategorized Archives | Page 79 of 107

November 8, 2012
Uncategorized

DECEMBER 2012 VISA BULLETIN

The Department of State has just released the December 2012 Visa Bulletin.

Overall, the news was disappointing. India EB-2 remained at September 1, 2004. MU Law expects the India EB-2 number to move forward, although we are surprised that the progression did not happen with this Visa Bulletin. The Philippine EB-3 date was equally disappointing, progressing by only one week.

On the bright side, the All Other and Philippine EB-2 date remained Current. We expect this number to remain Current or near Current until Spring/Summer 2013, when it should become unavailable as it does most Summers.

December 2012 Visa Bulletin
	All Other Countries	China	India	Philippines
EB-2	Current	22OCT07	01SEP04	Current
EB-3	22DEC06	01JUL06	01NOV02	15AUG06

November 7, 2012
Uncategorized

NOW WHAT?

President Obama has been re-elected for a second four year term. The Senate and House of Representatives largely have been kept in tact As usual, immigration reform is expected to be hotly debated. Republicans may be willing to cede from their traditional anti-immigration positions, in light of post-election analysis saying that their position is really hurting them with the Latino vote. It was President George W. Bush’s relative success with the immigrant community that propelled him to his two victories.

The obvious place to start would be with employment-based immigration, specifically with immigration for workers in occupational zones that are unfilled by American labor. Professional nurses and Physical Therapists have been listed on the Department of Labor’s Schedule A since 1980. Schedule A is limited to those occupations that the Department has “determined there are not sufficient United States workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available for the occupations.”

In spite of this obvious shortage, it still takes Physical Therapists several years to obtain US green cards. For nurses, it’s much, much worse. A fully qualified nurse who has passed an English fluency examination and the relevant state’s licensing examination must wait approximately seven years to obtain the green card. If the nurse is Indian, the wait is ten years. This is ridiculous.

The President ought to be able to get the votes to end these delays, which hurt US patients and make intending immigrants question America’s desire for their badly needed talent.

November 1, 2012
Uncategorized

EB-2 FOR PHYSICAL THERAPISTS

As we have bloggedabout in the past, the USCIS’ inconsistently adjudicates EB-2 petitionsfor Physical Therapists. The law is straightforward. Ifthe position requires an Advanced Degree, then EB-2 Petition should beapproved. An Advanced Degree is a US Master’s Degree, the foreign equivalent ofa US Master Degree, or a Bachelors Degree and five years of progressive workexperience.

If the FCCPT or another credible educational evaluator findsthat the Beneficiary’s foreign education is equal to a US Masters Degree, thenthe EB-2 Petition should be approved, since all US employers effectivelyrequire an Advanced degree as their minimum requirement for entry into thepetition.

The USCIS recently addressed the applicability of FCCPTeducational evaluations:

Response: USCISconsiders FCCPT evaluations. However, these evaluations are not binding onUSCIS. USCIS will continue adjudicating these filings on a case by case basis.Whether the physical therapists are indeed eligible for EB-2 classificationdepends on the individual facts of each case.

MU Law has been working with AILA on this issue for about oneyear, helping AILA frame the issue for the USCIS. While the specific language ofthis Reply is less than ideal, we’re optimistic that the USCIS is beginning to understandthe value and credibility of an FCCPT evaluation. We expect to see more favorable evaluations forproperly prepared I-140 EB2 Petitions in the future.

October 30, 2012
Uncategorized

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MU hopes that its clients and friends enjoy a Happy Halloween from “Boo-Sillo” Unkenholt.

*Note – this is what our lobby actually looks like right now!

October 25, 2012
Uncategorized

CONFERENCE SEASON

Reader of this Blog may want to participate in two upcomingConferences.

The NBCOT will be holding their 18th Annual Conference inAlexandria, Virginia on October 26-27. The Annual Conference will focus on Contemporary Issues impactingOccupational State Therapy Regulation. Thisyear’s conference features speakers covering a variety of topics, including: NBCOTCertification Examinations –A Defensible Measure of OT Knowledge, and adiscussion on Social Media.

The AAIHR’s Annual Meeting is designed for individuals thatrecruit foreign trained RNs, PTs, OTs, SLPs, and other healthcare professionalsand are interested in the regulation of nursing and allied health professions,and other information relating to the challenges and opportunities in theindustry. The Annual Meeting willinclude speakers such as Franklin A. Shaffer, EdD, RN, FAAN; current CEO ofCGFNS International and a representative from the Philippine Embassy in the UnitedStates. The AAIHR Annual Meeting is set for Friday November 2, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia.

October 22, 2012
Uncategorized

FSBPT DEFERS RATE INCREASE

The FSBPT, which had announced an NPTE rate increase would take place on January 1, 2013, has delayed the implementation of the rate increase until January 1, 2014. The NPTE fee was to be increased to $400. It will now stay at $370 for one more year.

The FSBPT gave several reasons for delaying the fee increase. Most interesting was their projection that NPTE filings would decrease in the upcoming years. FSBPT predicts that the increase in NPTE volume will shrink to 3% per year. FSBPT previously expected a 5% annual increase in NPTE volume.

October 12, 2012
Uncategorized

NOVEMBER 2012 VISA BULLETIN

The Department of State has just released the November 2012 Visa Bulletin. The news was a mixed bag. For EB2s (except India and China) visa numbers are current, meaning that there is immediate visa eligibility for these applicants

The India EB-2 number has remained back to September 2004. MU still believes that this is a very conservative visa number and we would expect the number to move forward in the next few months. As a point of reference, the November 2010 Visa Bulletin was May 2006 and there simply cannot be that many EB-2 immigrant visas pending from 2004-2006, in spite of a likely uptick in EB-2 conversions from EB-3 priority dates. Applicants with India EB-2 priority dates from 2004-2006 have been able to apply for their Adjustments of Status without much impediment for two years. China EB-2 moved ahead by two months.

The EB-3 numbers continue their very slow progressions. These numbers are only noteworthy by their consistency. MU Law expects this trend to continue into the future.

November 2012 Visa Bulletin
	All Other Countries	China	India	Philippines
EB-2	Current	01SEP07	01SEP04	Current
EB-3	22NOV06	15APR06	22OCT02	08AUG06

October 8, 2012
Uncategorized

H-1B VISAS AND THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

The US Department of Labor reported on Friday that the unemployment rate fell to7.8%, which is the lowest rate since the recession started. This rate is still historicallyquite high. The unemployment rate never exceeded 8 % between 1984-2009.

Many question why the US should allow H-1B visas if many US workers are out of work. The answer is that H-1B visa usage is a microeconomic phenomenon, not amacroeconomic one.

H-1B visas are used by industriesin short supply. These industriesinclude IT, science, engineering, and healthcare. Not coincidentally, these industries are expected to havecontinued demand for future workers.

The Brookings Institute says that the occupations with the largest supplyvacancies are:

1. Computer Occupations

2. Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners

3. Other Management Occupations

4. Financial Specialists

5. Business Operations Specialists

6. Sales Representatives, Services

7. Engineers

8. Information and Record Clerks

9. Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations, andSales Managers

10. Supervisors of Sales Workers

US high school students ought to be preparing for these jobs if they want to be adequately employed when they reach adulthood. Until then, Americancompanies will search around the world for talented workers to fill thesesupply shortages.

One bogeyman in the H-1B debate has always been that H-1Bworkers are only used to tamp down US wages and supplant American jobs. As we have arguedmany times in the past, there is little evidence that this is actually thecase for at least two reasons.

For one, if the H-1B program was being used to reduce wagesand displace American workers, we would see H-1B workers spread across manyindustries, instead of concentrated in just a few industries. But we don’t see that. We see H-1B workers concentrated in just a few industries

Also, we would see more consistent annual H-1B usage by USemployers. The incentive to reduceworkers’ salaries is likely greater in a recessed economy, not less. However, when the economy was in its weakeststate, there were many fewer H-1B visa petitions filed by US businesses.

Critics of the H-1B system should acknowledge that the H-1Bsystem does what was designed to do. Itprovides needed workers in industries where workers are needed. It is not a macroeconomic policy, but amicroeconomic one. The nationalunemployment rate has little relevance.

October 3, 2012
Uncategorized

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Tonight is the firstof the three Presidential debates between incumbent President Obama andchallenger Mitt Romney. The conventionalwisdom is that Mr. Romney has to score some points in the debate in order toclose Mr. Obama’s increasing lead in the polls.

The debate will take place in Colorado, a state that hasseen very highlevels of immigration in recent years. Mitt Romney has endorsed President Obama’s Deferred Action for ChildhoodArrivals (DACA). DACA allows foreignnationals who entered the US prior to their 16^th birthday to obtainworking and traveling authorization, provided that they do not have a felony conviction(or three misdemeanors) and are high school graduates or armed forces veteran. President Obama recently said that thefailure to pass positive immigration legislation may have been the biggestfailing of his first term in office.

Readers of this blog will be keen to see if the Presidentialcandidates discuss employment-based immigration. House Republicans and Democrats have offered competingversions of a similar STEM visa bill. The STEM bill allows foreign-national graduates to have their greencards on a fast-track.

There is a deal to be made between Democrats and Republicansduring the upcoming lame duck session. The technology industry continues to put pressure on Congress to passthe bill, which is generally popular with the public. If one of the candidates can show leadershipon this issue and raise it during the debate, it may foreshadow a serious andcredible candidate on immigration.

October 1, 2012
Uncategorized

AILA TELECONFERENCE ON 3RD PARTY PLACEMENT

MU’sChris Musillo has been selected as the Discussion Leader on Thursday’s AILATeleconference, Third Party-Site Placement: Hs and Ls. AILA members can registeron AILA’s website. The Teleconferencewill focus on the legal issues incumbent in staffing company businesses:Healthcare staffing, IT staffing, and Hospitalist organizations.

Date: Thursday, October4, 2012 @ 2:00 pm (EDT)

Title: ThirdParty-Site Placement: Hs and Ls

This panel will discusshow to deal with situations where an H-1B or L-1 sponsor places a beneficiaryat a third party location. The panel will discuss the key issues in third partysite placement including how to determine if the beneficiary is actually anemployee of the sponsoring entity sufficient for H-1B or L-1 approval.Panelists will also discuss practical ways to demonstrate the employer-employeerelationship in the petition and recent trends by USCIS and FDNS.

What Is Third Party Site Placement? CommonDefinition and Every Day Examples

Is the Third Party Site Placement ScenarioContemplated/Mentioned in the H and L Regulations and How Do Hs and Ls Differ?

The 2010 Third Party Site Placement NeufeldMemorandum with 2012 Q&A Update

The Employer-Employee Relationship: How Does thePetitioner Establish Control? Evidence, Support Letter, Any Magic Language?

The LCA, Confirming Third Party Placement, andFDNS Treatment: Preparing for Site Visits!

Faculty:

Christopher T. Musillo(dl), Cincinnati, OH

Elahe Najfabadi, LosAngeles, CA

Nataliya Rymer,Philadelphia, PA

Archive for Uncategorized