News Update - February 16, 2010
By Alan Lee, Esq.†‡
Undocumented Immigrants Population Down / U.S.C.I.S. Updating Forms
DHS has announced that the population of undocumented immigrants fell from 11.6 million in January 2008 to 10.8 million in January 2009. Further that that population grew 2.7% from the years 2000 to 2009. With economic conditions for jobs being difficult, many undocumented immigrants like U.S. workers are dropping out of the job market. Many are returning home. This statistic should soothe those who believe that U.S. workers are being discriminated against by employers in favor of undocumented immigrants with cheaper wages.
U.S.C.I.S. recently posted revisions of January 6, 2010, to forms I-140, I-129S, I-751,
I-601, and N-470, and alarmed members of the legal community and public in saying that prior versions of the forms would no longer be accepted. However, in subsequent clarifications with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), U.S.C.I.S. stated that the prior edition of form I-140 (immigrant petition for alien worker) will be accepted if postmarked by March 2, 2010 and that prior versions of Form I-129S (non-immigrant petition based on blanket L petition) and Form I-751 (petition to remove conditions on residence) will continue to be accepted as the change in designation was in error. On the acceptability of prior editions of Form I-601 (application for waiver of grounds of inadmissibility) and N-470 (application to preserve residence for naturalization purposes), AILA is awaiting further clarification from Service Center Operations (SCOPS) of U.S.C.I.S. Until such word, the 1/6/10 versions of both forms should be used.
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