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Tel: 631-588-4040
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E-mail: mczwaik@zwaik.com
 
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Brooklyn, NY 11235
Tel: 718-891-0007
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Contents
    •  Mitchell's Message
    •  Employer News
    •  Immigration News

MITCHELL'S MESSAGE
  This month's newsletter contains important information for employers. Effective December 26, 2007, ALL employers will be required to use the revised I-9 form for all new or "re-verified" employees or face possible fines and sanctions. The changes should cause little concern, however. The revised form is the same as the old form, except that the list of acceptable documents under "List A" has been significantly reduced. We have made the transition easy for you but providing a quick link to the new form below in the newsletter.

In other news, USCIS continues to report backlogs for recently filed applications. Receipts are just now being issued for certain application filed in late July and early August and processing delays for citizenship applications have grown from six to eighteen months. Also, the DHS has appealed the "no-match" injuction, the DV-2008 visa lottery results have been announced, the FBI's name check process has been changed, and a record number of visas have been issued to students to study in the U.S. Read more about these issues in the Immigration News and Employer News sections below.

If you have comments or suggestions about this newsletter, call me at
631-588-4040 or e-mail me at mczwaik@zwaik.com.   Thanks.

Mitchell Zwaik

EMPLOYER NEWS
 
New I-9 Form Mandatory on December 26th
DHS announced in November that employers will be required to use the new I-9 form effective December 26, 2007 or face possible fines or sanctions. Employers are required to use the Form I-9 to verify the identity and employment authorization of newly hired employees. The amended Form I-9 contains an updated list of acceptable identity and employment authorization documents that reflect the current regulations. As of November 7, 2007, the amended Form I-9 is the only valid version of the form.

The most significant change to the revised Form I-9 is the elimination of five documents from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents." These five documents are as follows:
  • Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
  • Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
  • Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
  • Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
  • Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)
In addition, the following was added to the list of acceptable List A documents:
  • Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)
There are no changes to List B (Identity Documents) or List C (Documents Establishing Employment Authorization). Also, employees are no longer required to provide a Social Security Number in Section 1 of the I-9 form unless their employer is participating in the government's "E-Verify" (formerly "Basic Pilot") program.

These new requirements must be followed for all new hires and for existing employees whose I-9s are being reverified. We link to the new I-9 form from our "Immigration Forms" page at http://www.uscis.gov/i-9

DHS Appeals No-Match Injunction
On December 5th, the Justice Department announced it had filed an appeal of the injunction issued by the federal court in San Francisco that had halted the implementation of new regulations that would have required employers to investigate "no-match" letters issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The no-match letters are issued by SSA when the employee's name in their data base does not match the name and social security number provided to it by the employer.

In September, a temporary restraining order had been granted against the DHS ruling to issue "no-match" letters to employers as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In October, a federal judge delayed implementation of the rule indefinitely, explaining that ". . if allowed to proceed, the mailing of no-match letters, accompanied by DHS's guidance letter, would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers."

The "no match" letters have been advisory only and largely ignored by employers until the DHS announced the rules that would add another letter informing employers they had 90 days to fire workers whose identifications couldn't be verified, or face punishment including fines and prosecution.

The proposed regulations would require employers to investigate the no match notice and ultimately terminate employees who cannot resolve the discrepancies within 90 days. The move is widely seen as an effort by administration officials to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants with fake social security number. Critics, however, claim that the inaccuracy of SSA records will result in many legal workers being unfairly terminated from employment.

The injunction remains in effect pending the outcome of the appeal.

IMMIGRATION NEWS
 
USCIS Overwhelmed by Millions of New Applications
A Perfect Storm of events that occurred this past summer has found the USCIS overwhelmed with applications, resulting in backlogs for a wide array of applications -- including citizenship processing delays that have found the average processing times grow from less than six months to more than eighteen months. The USCIS received approximately 2.5 million applications of all types in July and August of 2007, more than double the number that they received in July and August of 2006.

The simple act of mailing out receipts has become a major headache. Usually, the government mails out a receipt within a week of receiving an application. However, as of mid-November, the USCIS' Texas Service Center reported that it was issuing receipts for immigration applications filed on July 26, a delay of almost four months!

Many applicants who applied for naturalization in June and July of 2007 may find that they will not receive their papers in time to vote in the 2008 elections. Because of the July 30th fee increases, over 780,000 persons applied for naturalization in the first seven months of 2007, a 71% increase over the previous year.

"Were we caught off guard by the volume? Let's just say it was anticipated it would increase. It was not anticipated it would increase by that much," said Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. Although the agency is in the process of hiring 1,500 additional examiners to cope with the additional workload, government employers (like applicants for immigration benefits) must undergo lengthy FBI security checks.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) stated that "for waves of would-be citizens, bureaucratic incompetence is turning the American Dream into a dream deferred." He is urging the USCIS to rehire retirees to help process pending applications for naturalization.

Results of DV-2008 Visa Lottery
The State Department, through its offices at the Kentucky Consular Center, has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2008 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 96,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that many of the first 50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure is intended to insure that all DV-2008 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 until September 30, 2008).

Applicants registered for the DV-2008 program were selected at random from over 6.4 million qualified entries received during the 60-day application period that ran from 12:00 AM on October 4, 2006, until midnight, December 3, 2006. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Selected applicants must receive visas by September 30, 2008 in order to benefit from the program.

The application period for the DV-2009 lottery ended at 12:00 pm Eastern time on December 2, 2007. Applicants must apply electronically through the form available at www.dvlottery.state.gov. Results will be announced in the fall of 2008. Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2008: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R. and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

Secretary Chertoff Advises of Changes in
FBI Name Check Clearance Process
In a meeting with members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and other organizations, DHS Secretary Chertoff indicated that USCIS and the FBI are changing parts of the name check process, with the expected result that a large proportion of the backlog should be cleared within six months. The changes are consistent with Secretary Chertoff's risk management approach. The Secretary hopes that, in addition to clearing the backlog, a large percentage of the kinds of applications and situations that have previously been caught in name check delays will, in the future, be cleared quickly. However, he cautions that some checks still will be delayed by investigations, but that that number should represent a small proportion of the numbers previously delayed.

Department of State Issues Record Number of Visas to
Students to Study in the United States
The State Department announced in November that it has issued a record number of visas to students to study in the United States, exceeding pre-9/11 levels. During Fiscal Year 2007, the Department issued more than 651,000 student and exchange visitor visas -- 10 percent more than last year and 90,000 more than were issued in Fiscal Year 2001.

The announcement is the result of an increased effort by State Department officials abroad to encourage foreign students to attend U.S. universities. Embassy and consular officials meet with prospective foreign students to explain the student visa application requirements and process and they participate in overseas college fairs providing information about education opportunities available in the United States. All consulates offer special appointments in an effort to ensure that foreign students do not miss their classes in the United States while waiting for a visa interview. International students have heard us and are choosing the United States as a premier destination for higher education.

Delays Seen For Working Visas At Consulates
Applicants for temporary working visas abroad can expect increased delays. In the past, applicants for H, L, O, P and Q visas could simply present form I-797 Notice of Approval, and apply for a visa abroad. Now consular posts must confirm the approval of each nonimmigrant petition with the new Petition Information Management Service (PIMS) of DOS' Kentucky Consular Center before a visa can be issued. In order to avoid delays, it is recommended that applicants e-mail their Notices of Approval to consulates in advance of their visa appointments so that the PIMS report may be obtained prior to the visa interview.