WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2011.  USCIS is notifying the public that yesterday, Jan. 26, 2011, is the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY2011.

The final receipt date is the date on which USCIS determines that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 65,000.  Properly filed cases will be considered received on the date that USCIS physically receives the petition; not the date that the petition was postmarked.  USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY2011 that arrive after Jan. 26, 2011.

USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on Jan. 26, 2011. USCIS will use this process to select petitions needed to meet the cap.  USCIS will reject all remaining cap-subject petitions not randomly selected and will return the accompanying fee.

On Dec. 22, 2010, USCIS had also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the ‘advanced degree’ exemption. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.  Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally-mandated FY2011 H-1B cap.  Accordingly, USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

• extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.;
• change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
• allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, visit www.uscis.gov.

 

The diversity visa lottery application period will soon be open again on October 5th for those who are eligible and interested in applying for a green card. For the eighth year, applications will only be accepted online via the U.S. Department of State official website at www.dvlottery.state.gov.  There is no fee to submit an entry for the lottery.

Emerald Isle Immigration Center is once again appealing to potential applicants to apply early this year. The official DV Lottery website can get frozen the closer we get to the deadline of noon on Wednesday, November 3rd. Regretfully, we will be unable to accommodate last minute walk-ins during the final week of the DV Lottery. So please call either of our offices if you need assistance with your application.

Each year, 50,000 green cards are made available through a lottery system to individuals who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The State Department’s Kentucky Consular Center holds the annual lottery and chooses winners randomly from about 8 to 13 million qualified entries. About 100,000 entries are selected and given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. If permanent residence is granted, then the individual, their spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States.

Only natives of certain countries are eligible to apply for the green card lottery. Those born in the following countries are not eligible to apply for the DV-2012 lottery because a total of more than 50,000 immigrants came from these countries to the U.S. in the previous five years: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom and its dependent territories (except Northern Ireland) and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible. An applicant may, however, claim the country of birth of their spouse, if eligible, or of either parent if they were born in a country of which neither of their parents was a native or a resident at the time of their birth.

All applicants also must have a high school diploma or the equivalent, defined in the United States as the successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education or they must have two years of work experience within the last five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.

Entries for the DV-2012 diversity visa lottery must be submitted electronically from noon on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 through noon on November 3, 2010. Applicants may access the electronic diversity visa entry form at www.dvlottery.state.gov only during the 30-day registration period beginning October 5th. Paper entries will not be accepted. All entries by an applicant will be disqualified if more than one entry for the applicant is received, regardless of who submitted the entry. Applicants may prepare and submit their own entries, or have someone submit the entry for them. The Department of State will issue DV lottery entrants an electronic confirmation number and notice upon receipt of a correctly completed Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.

Applicants must also attach separate digital photographs of themselves, their spouses and unmarried children less than 21 years of age (except children who are already permanent residents or U.S. citizens). The photographs must be in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format and meet specific resolutions (600 pixels high by 600 pixels wide), color depths (24-bit color) and kilobytes (maximum 240 KB) requirements. If a photograph print is scanned, the print must be two inches square and be scanned at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) and with specific color depths. If the digital image does not conform to the specifications, the application will be automatically disqualified.

Applicants will be selected at random by computer from among all qualified entries. All applicants will be required to go back to the website to find out whether their entry has been selected in the DV-2012 lottery or to find out they have not been selected. Selectees will be notified of their selection through the “entry status check” available starting May 1, 2011 at the website www.dvlottery.state.gov. The online entry status check will be the only means by which selectees will be notified of their selection for DV-2012. The Kentucky Consular Center will not be mailing out notification letters. Those selected in the random drawing are not notified of their selection by e-mail. Those individuals not selected will be notified of their non-selection through the web-based “entry status check.”

No fee is charged to enter the annual DV program. The U.S. Government employs no outside consultants or private services to operate the DV program. Any intermediaries or others who offer assistance to prepare submissions for applicants do so without the authority or consent of the U.S. Government. Use of any outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV entry is entirely at the applicant’s discretion. A qualified entry submitted electronically directly by an applicant has an equal chance of being selected by the computer at the Kentucky Consular Center as does an entry submitted electronically through a paid intermediary who completes the entry for the applicant.

The new immigration laws carry heavy penalties for visa overstays.  Those who have overstayed their visa by 6 months, may face a 3 year bar upon their departure from the United States, if they have overstayed for one year or more, they may face a 10 year bar. Successful lottery applicants who are undocumented in the US must be processed for a visa at a US Consulate abroad under current laws. Departing the US will trigger the 3 or 10 year bars making them ineligible for a visa. Undocumented lottery winners with a relative petition or an employer labor certification pending before April 30, 2001, may be eligible to be interviewed in the United States under Section 245(i), provided they have not triggered the 3/10 year bars by leaving the US.

Inquiries may be made to the EIIC at their Woodside, Queens’s office at (718) 478-5502 or at their Woodlawn, Bronx office at (718) 324-3039 or on the EIIC website www.eiic.org.  Both centers along with the Aisling Center on McLean Avenue (914) 237-5121 in Yonkers are currently scheduling DV applications.

EIIC PUBLIC IMMIGRATION INFORMATIONAL SEMINARS

Wednesday, October 13, 2010                       7:00 – 8:30 pm

             QUEENS                   Emerald Isle Immigration Center, Woodside office

                                                    59-26 Woodside Avenue, Woodside, NY

Thursday, October 14, 2010                           7:00 – 8:30pm                          

             BRONX                     Emerald Isle Immigration Center, Woodlawn office

                                                4275 Katonah Avenue, Bronx, NY

Tuesday, October 26^th                                     7:00 – 8:30pm                          

             BROOKLYN        St. Patrick’s Church, Archway Room

                                                9511 4^th Avenue, Bayridge, NY

All winners for the Diversity Visa Lottery (DV-2011) that were selected for further processing have been notified by regular mail to the mailing address provided on their online application. The DV-2011 Diversity Visa lottery entry registration period was between October 2, 2009 and November 30, 2009. A breakdown by each country of the number of people selected can be found online at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_5073.html.

There were over 12.1 million applicants worldwide and only 100,600 winners were notified for further processing out of which 50,000 will actually get green cards.

DV-2011 applicants can also verify the status of their application online to see if they were chosen if they did not receive notice by mail. Until June 30, 2011, entrants are able to check the status of their entry through the E-DV website at http://dvlottery.state.gov/ESC . Entrants need to use their own confirmation page information from the time of their entry. Applicants will need to enter their last name, year of birth and confirmation number from their receipt.

The 30-day online registration period for the DV-2012 Lottery begins on October 5, 2010 and ends November 3, 2010. All entries must be submitted electronically during the registration period, when applicants may access the Electronic DV Entry Form at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov. Paper entries will not be accepted.  Applicants are strongly encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter.  Heavy demand may result in website delays.  No entries will be accepted after noon, EST, on November 3, 2010. For more information go to the official governmnet website or contact our offices.

Printer Friendly Version Of: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/national/08062010_2.xml

DHS, CBP Announce Interim Final Rule For ESTA Fee
08/06/2010

Washington — U.S. Customs and Border Protection today announced an interim final rule that amends Department of Homeland Security regulations to require travelers from Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries to pay operational and travel promotion fees when applying for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) beginning September 8.

A fee of $4 will recover the costs incurred by CBP of providing and administering the ESTA system and is in addition to the mandatory $10 travel promotion fee established by the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, enacted as Section 9 of Public Law 111-145, the United States Capitol Police Administrative Technical Corrections Act of 2009. The total fee for a new or renewed ESTA will be $14.

All payments for electronic travel authorization applications must be made by credit card or debit card when applying for or renewing an ESTA. ( ESTA – the Official U.S. Government Web Site ) The ESTA system currently accepts only the following credit/debit cards: MasterCard, VISA, American Express, and Discover. Your application will not be submitted for processing until all payment information is received.

DHS published a notice of the interim final rule in the Federal Register today and will accept comments through October 8. Collection of the fees will begin for ESTA applications filed on or after September 8.

ESTA is an electronic travel authorization that all nationals of VWP countries must obtain prior to boarding a carrier to travel by air or sea to the United States under the VWP. This travel authorization has been mandatory since Jan. 12, 2009.

ESTA applications may be submitted at any time prior to travel. Once approved, authorizations are generally valid for multiple entries into the U.S. for up to two years or until the applicant’s passport expires or other specific circumstances give rise to a need to reapply, whichever comes first. Under the new interim final rule, travelers with an approved ESTA will not need to pay the ESTA fees when updating an ESTA application. However, travelers with new passports and re-applying for an ESTA will need to pay the ESTA fees.

Citizens interested in commenting on this rulemaking—identified by docket number USCBP-2010-0025—may submit written comments by visiting the Federal eRulemaking Portal and following the instructions for submitting comments or by mail at: Border Security Regulations Branch, Office of International Trade, Customs and Border Protection, (Mint Annex), Washington, D.C. 20229. ( Regulations.gov )

The VWP is administered by DHS and enables eligible nationals of 36 designated countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa. Additional information regarding the VWP is available on CBP.gov. ( Visa Waiver Program ) For more information about ESTA, please visit CBP.gov. ( Electronic System for Travel Authorization )

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.