Immigration News & Updates
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eNewsletter POSTING DATE: AUGUST 22, 2016
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Immigration
Questions & Answers
Question: I have a question for you about my soon to be husband sponsoring me for my immigration papers. I was told that the law changed a few years back and now a green card holder can’t sponsor a spouse who’s I-94 card is expired. I came to the U.S. in 2010 on a tourist visa, but let my I-94 expire and didn’t go back home. My boyfriend is a resident and can file for his citizenship in September (next month). We want to get married now, before he has his citizenship and then get started on my immigration case early so I can get my residency. My question is, can we get married now and file for my papers and work permit and can I get my social security card while we are waiting for his citizenship since its only a short time before he gets it?
Answer: Current Immigration regulations do not provide any immigration benefits for spouses or minor children of U.S. Residents (green card holders) who are inside the U.S. with an expired I-94 card. You would need to wait until your husband becomes a naturalized U.S. Citizen, then file your Residency petition to adjust status inside the U.S. and request for permission to work. It usually takes 60-90 days for the work permit to be approved once the case is filed. If you file for residency before your husband become a Citizen, your adjustment of status and work authorization request will be denied and you will lose your USCIS filing fees.
This Week's Immigration News
Government Releases Foreign Labor Recruiter List
For The H2B Work Visa Program
The H-2B Work Visa program allows U.S. companies to bring foreign nationals from abroad to work in the U.S. in certain temporary, seasonal jobs across America. Jobs include those in the hospitality industry, theme parks, cruise ships, restaurants, resorts, ski lodges, construction, landscaping, etc..
Like most employment work visas, the U.S. Company must file the sponsorship application with the government to obtain approval to allow workers to obtain H-2B work visas at the U.S. Consulate and enter the U.S. to work temporarily.
Commonly, recruiters in various countries recruit workers on behalf of U.S. companies, who then sponsor the workers.
Helpful Immigration Tips You Can Use
Tips On Contacting the National Visa Center
Once the USCIS approves a family petition (form I-130), it forwards the case to the National Visa Center (NVC), which handles processing of cases for relatives outside the U.S., by preparing the case for the U.S. Consulate in your family member’s home country. After the sponsor receives the I-130 Approval Notice from the USCIS, the NVC generally sends out a notification that it has received the case from the USCIS.
If the family member is in a “preference category”,(for all relatives who are not the Spouse, Parent or minor child of a U.S. Citizen), the letter will also state that there are no visas presently available for the foreign family member and that he or she should not make any plans to immigrate to the U.S. until a visa becomes available (which can be many years down the road).
There has been some abuse in this visa area, with recruiting companies charging foreign workers recruitment fees for non-existent jobs in the U.S., promising higher wages than those actually paid and sometimes even holding a worker’s passport hostage once they enter the U.S. to work. These are all bad practices which should not be tolerated in the industry, but nevertheless happen to innocent foreign workers. The Department of Labor provides an H-2B Employee Rights publication and telephone number for workers who have suffered abuse: 1-866-487-9243. Among their rights, H-2B workers are entitled to received written information from the employer about their wages, hours, working conditions, and benefits in their own language and are required to be paid at least every two weeks at the rate indicated in the job order for all hours worked and receive a pay stub for each pay period.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a list of foreign labor recruiters which are recognized by the agency, but it does not vouch for any specific recruiter. The DOL believes that publication of the list will allow foreign workers to identify, legitimate H-2B job opportunities in the U.S. and help to reduce recruitment violations so that foreign workers can better be protected against fraudulent recruiting schemes.
View the DOL H-2B Foreign Recruiter list:
And during the long wait for an Immigrant Visa, family circumstances may change and addresses need to be updated in order for the NVC to have current contact information for the U.S. Citizen or U.S. Resident sponsor. Similarly, when a U.S. Resident becomes a U.S. Citizen, or a married child divorces the process for immigrating family members may speed up, but the NVC may not be aware of the change unless they receive a copy of the new Citizen’s Naturalization Certificate or the child’s divorce certificate.
To contact the NVC, call: (603) 334-0700. Be sure to give them the case number on the correspondence provided to you by the NVC or mail documentation or correspondence to them at: National Visa Center, Attn: DR, 31 Rochester Ave. Suite 100, Portsmouth, NH 03801-2914. Make sure that all correspondence includes a letter containing the NVC case number, your name/ birth date and the same for your relative.
USCIS Immigration Application Filing Tips
The USCIS recently issued a reminder for Applicants and Petitioners to include an Apartment Number with the address on the forms, according to its requirements. Each year hundreds of packages, notices and even Green Cards to Applicants by the USCIS are returned as undeliverable.
Frequently, this is due to the fact that the Applicant or Petitioner did not include the apartment number correctly on the forms. And of course, you should always keep your address up-to-date and file a change of address within 30 days of moving to a new location.
You can get more filing tips and make your address change online by clicking on the link below:
Immigration How To:
How Do I Know If I Need To Register For Selective Service?
Selective Service Registration Requirement
For Certain Immigrant Men
All men in the U.S. who are between the ages of 18 through 25 are required to register for military “Selective Service”, which is also often referred to as the "draft."
The draft is a procedural measure which could be used by the U.S. government to gather military forces in times of war. The only time in the history of the U.S. that the draft was actually used was during the Viet Nam conflict. However, the requirement for registration under Selective Service remains.
This requirement applies to Immigrants as well, including U.S. Residents (Green Card holders), Refugees, Asylees, Special Agricultural workers, and under recent policy changes in the past few years, even to undocumented foreign nationals who are in the U.S. in one of these categories between the ages of 18 and 25. The Selective Service registration requirement does not apply to nonimmigrants in a temporary status in the U.S. such as, diplomats, tourists, H1B workers, J-1 visitors, students, etc.
Failure to register for Selective Service has serious consequences for U.S. Citizens and immigrants as well. U.S. Citizens can be denied certain federal benefits including federal employment, while immigrant have an additional penalty which can result in denial of U.S. Citizenship.
During the Naturalization process to become a U.S. citizen, U.S. Resident men who immigrated to the U.S. or were in one of the above categories during the ages of 18 to 25 must prove that they registered for Selective Service. Failure to register can result in denial of U.S. Citizenship if the U.S. Resident makes the Naturalization application within five years of the failure (age 30), although there are exceptions applied for those who can show that they did not “knowingly and willingly” fail to register. Naturalization applications after age 30 will generally not be denied solely due to failure to register, however applicants will often be asked to explain why they failed to register and should be prepared to give a reasonable explanation.
You can find out more about Selective Service registration:
