Bender’s Immigration Bulletin – September 15, 2010

Higher Fees on Certain H and L Visas

President Obama signed into law Public Law Number 111-230 on August 13, requiring the submission of an additional $2000 for certain H-1B petitions and $2250 for certain L-1A and L-1B petitions filed after August 14. The additional fees remain in effect until September 30, 2014.

These additional fees apply to petitioners who employ fifty or more employees in the United States in H-1B or L (including L-1A, L-1B, and L-2) nonimmigrant status. Petitioners meeting these criteria must submit the fee when such a petition is filed initially or to obtain authorization for an alien in such status to change employers.

Until USCIS revises the Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker (Form I-129) and its instructions, USCIS recommends that petitioners, as part of the filing packet, include the new fee or a statement of other evidence outlining why this new fee does not apply. Petitioners should include a notation of whether the fee is required in bold capital letters at the top of the cover letter. If USCIS does not receive the fee or explanation it may issue a Request for Evidence to determine whether the new law covers the petition. An RFE may be issued in any case if USCIS questions the evidence.

This additional fee is on top of the base processing fee, the existing Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee, and any applicable American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 fee, as well as any premium-processing fee.

ICE Announces Arrests, Sentencing

ICE has announced that a Miami woman was sentenced to fifteen months in prison for student-visa fraud after the agency’s largest such investigation, which also produced 116 administrative arrests of student violators. Lydia Menocal also was put on two years of probation and will forfeit about $600,000. The ICE press release, from August 30, is reprinted as Appendix A.

A few days earlier, ICE announced that it had arrested “370 convicted criminal aliens and immigration fugitives” in a three-day operation in the Midwest. Sixteen convicted sex offenders were among the 347 criminal aliens. Fifty-one of the aliens were “immigration fugitives.” That press release is reprinted as Appendix B.

Enforcement Statistics Bring Kudos from Former ICE Head

Former head of ICE Julie Myers Wood has pointed out (securitydebrief.adfero.com, under “Immigration Report Shows Continued DHS Enforcement Successes,” dated August 20) that the government’s several years of increased removals should get DHS more credit. Speaking of DHS’s report Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2009, she said that “these results demonstrate some progress and a bipartisan commitment to starting to secure our borders.… DHS should use the FY 2009 report to help convey all that has been done.”

Two Challenges to Arizona Law Dismissed

Judge Susan R. Bolton has dismissed two of the cases that challenged Arizona’s controversial immigration law, S.B. 1070. On August 24, she dismissed a claim by Roberto Frisancho, who claimed that the law would keep him from traveling to Arizona for research. On August 31, she ruled that Tucson police officer Martin Escobar lacked standing to pursue his claims.

[This is an excerpt from the September 15, 2010, issue of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin.]