News Update - August 11, 2007News NuggetsAn advance copy of the final regulation by U.S.I.C.E. for a crackdown on employers receiving mismatch letters from Social Security or DHS letters that the employment authorization document or immigration status of the employee is not his or hers reveals that the agency will look at the totality of circumstances to determine if the employer had constructive knowledge of illegal employment including that knowledge can be imputed by an employer's sponsorship of an immigrant visa or labor certification, and that a safe harbor for employers includes attempts to resolve the mismatch and if not resolvable within a certain period time, for the employer to verify the employee's identification and employment authorization through a specific process; The Service Center Operations/American Immigration Lawyers Association biweekly conference of early July revealed that the U.S.C.I.S. will not provide guidance or advice on the merits of filing multiple I-485 adjustment of status applications to permanent residence for the same person; and that where the wife was filed as an I-485 derivative and later obtained I-140 preference petition approval under the employment based first category, she could not flip her pending I-485 application to become the principal but would have to withdraw and refile. The Nebraska Service Center "Other" product line conference
call in late July revealed that the U.S.C.I.S. will expedite I-765
employment authorization applications for L-2's, E-1/E-2 dependents,
J-2's or F-1 OPT (optional practical training) applicants if they
have a job offer with an immediate start date; that a reentry permit
application requires the original former reentry permit to be attached;
that permanent residents can apply for either reentry permits or
refugee travel documents; and that the Nebraska Service Center will
not reject an I-485 application where a J exchange visitor waiver
is required and the applicant only has a recommendation from the
Department of State.
† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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