News Update - June 4, 2008

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

6/2/08 AILA New York Chapter Liaison Meeting with Vermont Service Center - Keith Canney, VSC Adjudications Manager, Discusses H-1B Cap Cases

Keith Canney, VSC Adjudications Manager, spoke on the present handling procedures involving H-1B cap cases at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) New York Chapter/Vermont Service Center meeting on June 2, 2008. He related that - at that point -Vermont had already issued all the receipt notices. Everyone who was selected should have had receipts in hand by June 2d, the goal set by U.S.C.I.S. As of June 2d, however, there was still the possibility that individuals might be selected in the future as the waiting list had still to be determined and that a number of cases which were not selected might be wait-listed. He stated that no determination had been made as to whether to wait-list any case or how many wait listed cases would be needed; that cases which were not selected went into a different system, and they would see whether they were on course to meet the cap of 65,000 cases with the cases already in the pipeline.

On the procedure following receipt, Mr. Canney said that the Center's goal was to perform initial reviews by mid-August and to send out Requests For Evidence (RFE's) by August 15, 2008.

† 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 © 2008 Alan Lee, Esq.

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