bradley emmanuel

I got it correct yesterday .
Thanks for the advice.


For the sake of others who may search this forum in future, could you tell how you got it corrected? Thanks!

Thank you for your prompt response

1. Since company did not send me to USA after getting h1b visa 32 months back. Can he take legal action to pay liquidated charges? as mentioned below in the agreement.

I don't know the details about the contract. Just complain to DOL. Your "employer" will be so busy defending themselves, they won't have any time left to come after you.

Extract from Agreement: If the employee terminates the agreement prior to the minimum period of 18 months, the employee will pay company liquidated charges of 4000 USD.

Liquidated damages ? Not sure how they have incurred some damages because of you. Since they claim to be your employer , they are supposed to pay you the salary all these years. Have they paid you all these years ?

2.Can New Jersy laws applicable in India to send a legal notice to me?

I am not a lawyer or one knowledgeable in law. Discuss with a lawyer in India and see whether your employer can do anything to you in India depending on the contract you signed. As for US side, you have nothing to worry.

3. Since I have not travelled to USA on H1B, Can I be called an Employee of that company who processed my H1B.


4. Can I take any legal action against him as he did not send me to USA despite the fact that I renewed the Bank Guarantee twice.

As for US, complaint to DOL. DOL will do the needful without you spending a paisa. For India, discuss with an Indian lawyer.

Pls answer the above 3 questions.

I think you will not be able to apply for Visa renewal. You will be applying for H1 stamp for the first time hence it is a new visa applicaiton. this is per my understanding, please check with your lawyer. You can also send an email to the consulate (email address on VFS website). They will answer withing 3 business days...Goodluck
VFS website for booking H1B stamping appointments in India seems to have added a new question when booking a H1B appointment.
The question is "Are you applying for same visa class that expired in the last 12 months?*" and they have defined the Visa renewal criteria (which I have pasted below) in order to answer this question. Yes- means you are seeking a appointment for visa renewal and No - means your appt is NOT for visa renewal.

Can somebody advice if me and my wife would fall under the visa renewal category. The last US visa on my passport is F1. My H1b status started in May 2004 and I am now in my 4rth year of H1B. In between I changed employer and my H1 is now valid upto October 2008. But I have NOT travelled outside the country after my H1B status began in May 2004. Hence I am going to get my H1B stamped for the first time. In my wife's case also her last stamp is F1 and she went from F1 to H4 this year so she is also going to get her H4 stamped for the first time. Do we answer YES (appt for visa renewal) or NO(appt not for visa renewal). We are booking a appointment at the Mumbai consulate.

The below is the visa renewal criteria as defined on the website:
Visa renewal appointments are available to visa applicants who:
have a U.S. visa that has expired less than 12 months ago.
wish to apply for the same category visa (work, business, tourist, etc.)
are Indian nationals (hold Indian passports)
are resident in the New Delhi, Chennai, or Mumbai consular districts (this category is not available to Kolkata based applicants).

The following applicants do NOT qualify for appointments in the visa renewal category:
Applicants who have never had a US visa.
Applicants who have a U.S. visa that expired more than 12 months ago.
Applicants applying for a different category visa (e.g. had a student visa, now applying for a work visa).
Non Indian passport holders
Applicants applying at the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata.
First time H4 or L2 applicants under 18 years of age. (If you have recently married a H1b or L1 visa holder but have never had a visa interview for a visa in the H/L category, you may not schedule in the renewal category.)
Applicants applying for more than one visa at the same time (e.g. F and B1/B2).
Applicants applying for entertainment/performance visas(P3 category).
Applicants applying for unskilled worker visas (H2b category).

All visa renewal applicants should bring the following documents to the Embassy/Consulate Consular Section on the day of their appointment:
Current, valid passport
Passports containing previously issued U.S. visas
As applicable, I-797 (H and L), I-20 (F & M students), DS-2019 (J visa applicants)

RFE for I-140

I had applied for I-140 Dec last year(2006) EB3 and was checking for update and found that an RFE has been sent on Dec 12. To whom is RFE sent....My company had done all the paperwork...is it to our company lawyer or me....Please advise

Do I need recent salary slips for transfer ?

Yes you need paystubs. What your employer says when you ask the same question you are asking here on the forum. That your H1 expires 2009, your project gets over in Mar 09, how he will u give paystubs? what does he say?

As such residency on h1b is extremely in recent times so I guess same is with fellowship.



You meant, getting residency on h1b is extremely 'difficult' in recent times? Anyways, if your wife has once got a residency on H1, getting a fellowship on H1 should not be that difficult. Hospitals are much easier on physicians that are already on a H1 status...its the same as its the case with IT employers...once on a H1, its easier to move around on a H1..

Just like my wife, your wife too now has sufficent H1 years to get through both residency and fellowship, I guess, so running out of time is not a problem either.

Only thing, people like you and me need to worry about is what if the residency is pursued at a non-profit (quota exempt H1) and wife decides to pursue fellowship at a for-profit (quota H1).

In that scenerio, fellowship on a H1 might be a bit of a problem...

I suggest, if your wife has already started residency on H1, avoid thinking of getting onto a J1 ever.

You will unnecessarily complicate her immigration profile...

steve,

I know a person who applied two H1s with two different employers A and B. He got reciept numbers for both H1s' After that he hot a ref asking about which company he is going to join with.

He replied as he is going to work for company A. USCIS again send a ref asking him , why he applied for H1 with two companies when he knows that he is going to work for company A. That issues is still going on.
I wish more of this wud happen to run these cheats out of business.

Immigration Voice is healthy and kicking. No flowers Please. Contribute instead !

I personally know some individuals who read IV and never registered/contributed. Please encourage those bystanders around you to be part of this movement.

Now that H.R 5582 has cleared Judiciary sub - commitee and moves to Judiciary Full Commitee, I think we all need to focus our "Call/Fax" campaign and overwhelm the fence sitters with calls etc .

1. At Full judiciary commitee the list of congressman would be more than 10-15 .Probably 30-40??. Size wise it might be prohibitive.

2 No point in 1000 of us calling Steve Kings ....He will never change his mind . Spare this effort to convince fence sitters instead. No point in calling the one who we know already support either.

This leaves us with plenty of time to repeatedly call the fence sitters and force them to jump our way
Hi chmur,

Yes the Full commitee had 40 members, 23 democrats and 17 Republicans including Congressman Sensenbrenner who is a co sponsor.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/committee.xpd?id=HSJU

I got a hold of 5 of my friends at work who are in the same GC boat as I and spent 20 mins explaining the whole process and got them to make the calls. Afterwards they were all surprised to notice it took up just 15-20 mins. Now seeing the result they are further motivated to participate in forthcoming action items....maybe this is one way we can get others to participate....

All the best IV!!

It is not illegal to sell applications. It is illegal to work without authorization. Please note the semantics and the technicality.

If you create an app for the iPhone, you should be able to put it on the apple store and derive income from it, as long as you have not worked for someone (or yourself) deriving compensation financially, without authorization.

In short ... go ahead and do it. As sac-r-ten says go ahead and live your dream .. develop your apps, create wealth and dont worry about stupid man-made rules to encumber people ... :-)

PS : Please recommend a good objective - C / Cocoa book for Mac/iPhone programming..

If you could customize it to let people tell their own life stories, that would be great. I am mailing my letter tonight.


To

Mr. John Beverly
Director, Foreign Labor Certification Program
200 Constitution Ave NW, room C4312
Washington, DC 20210

Mr. Beverly,

[Block A: Filler] with model text by the side ....
[Model text:
I am a ------ in one of the Fortune --- companies, with expertise in ---- field. I have about --- years of experience in the ------- field. I came to USA in ---- on a --- Visa. I hold ------ degree in --- from a premier Institute. My employer applied for -----(RIR/non-RIR), ---- (EB*), permanent labor certification in ---from ----- state. It reached ------ regional office in ------. My case is shipped to ----- (Dallas/Philadelphia) Backlog Center later and it is waiting for adjudication for the past ----- (one year). I have been waiting to apply for the green card for almost ---- (one-to-five) years now.]

Block B:
Based on information received from friends who received approvals at BEC, I see that the processing at the Backlog Elimination Centers has several problems.
 Dallas and Philadelphia follow different procedures (RIR versus TR, Regional versus SWA cases)
 FIFO has not been implemented correctly, as promised at the beginning of setting up these centers. For example, Dallas is approving cases from late 2004, while Philadelphia is approving random cases from 2002; the very reason for the creation of the BECs was to implement true nationwide FIFO order for labor certifications.
 There is a complete lack of transparency and answerability from a public agency like BEC.
 The BECs refuse to disclose how many people work in adjudication, how many cases have been adjudicated so far, how many cases are pending data entry, why certain states have more cases processed than others in random order, etc�
 The BECs refuse to implement a simple application on the internet where applicants could check their statuses online.
 The BECs refuse to disclose any future timeline, keeping 350,000 people in the dark as to what to expect and how long to wait.

All I am expecting from the BECs is little bit of transparency and respect which I truly deserve. I really would like to know the happenings at BECs. I appreciate if you could answer these questions below.
 Why FIFO has not been implemented?
 How many people are working on adjudications?
 What are the criteria for picking up a case for processing?
 Why are there differences in procedures between Dallas and Philadelphia BECs?
 How many cases have been adjudicated so far?

Block C:[Filler]
[Model Text: Lack of information, long wait and continued slump in the career are creating lot of stress in my life. I can not change jobs. Any information from you would go a long way in assuaging these worries.]

Respectfully,

------------------------------------------------
xxxx

ashkam - Thanks alot for the info....my case is "If your job (description, location and salary) remains same or similar under the new company"...still i don't understand why my attorney says to start all over again.

I feel like packing up and go back home ...this country's immi system is all messed up...not sure i can mentally handle it anymore :(

I am glad that the Admins have deleted it. It really was a stupid question about a specific race...

u are a rasam drinking gulty, right?
:eek:

check your facts again. racism is considered sexy these days ;)

My friend went to Boston Airport ->Immigration/custom Office next day for correction. His father came on B1 visa but they put wrong month on I-94. That office corrected that immediatly. There must be something at every international airport.

Here is the extract from Immigration and naturalization act. It is as clear as mud.. But most lawyers interpret the way we said in my previous post at least for kids born in USA.

http://www.uscis.gov/propub/ProPubVAP.jsp?dockey=c9fef57852dc066cfe16a4cb81683 8a4


(b) Rules for Chargeability. - Each independent country, self-governing dominion, mandated territory, and territory under the international trusteeship system of the United Nations, other than the United States and its outlying possessions, shall be treated as a separate foreign state for the purposes of a numerical level established under subsection (a)(2) when approved by the Secretary of State. All other inhabited lands shall be attributed to a foreign state specified by the Secretary of State. F or the purposes of this Act the foreign state to which an immigrant is chargeable shall be determined by birth within such foreign state except that-


(1) an alien child, when accompanied by or following to join his alien parent or parents, may be charged to the foreign state of either parent if such parent has received or would be qualified for an immigrant visa, if necessary to prevent the separation of the child from the parent or parents, and if immigration charged to the foreign state to which such parent has been or would be chargeable has not reached a numerical level established under subsection (a)(2) for that fiscal year;


(2) if an alien is chargeable to a different foreign state from that of his spouse, the foreign state to which such alien is chargeable may, if necessary to prevent the separation of husband and wife, be determined by the foreign state of the spouse he is accompanying or following to join, if such spouse has received or would be qualified for an immigrant visa and if immigration charged to the foreign state to which such spouse has been or would be chargeable has not reached a numerical level estab lished under subsection (a)(2) for that fiscal year; (3) an alien born in the United States shall be considered as having been born in the country of which he is a citizen or subject, or, if he is not a citizen or subject of any country, in the last foreign country in which he had his residence as determined by the consular officer; and (4) an alien born within any foreign state in which neither of his parents was born and in which neither of his parents had a residence at the time of such alien's birth may be charged to the foreign state of either parent.

I dont think that is the case, i am a direct employee and i have experienced tremendous delays, infact every application from my company (which is a large multinational) has been delayed, so i am guessing its more to do with the lawyers(large, high cost firm) or just good old luck. Infact all of my friends/batch mates who were consultants have their green cards and some have their citizenships too. My theory was that if a company is sponsoring(paying all the money) you are relaxed and initially dont worry about the delays, if its coming out of your pocket you doublecheck everything and are proactive...just a thought

This is just my theory. When you don't have much information, you get to think of many theories and here is mine. I believe USCIS is approving direct employees of an organization. For example, they may be giving preference to Microsoft employee, rather than an employee of Patel and Patel INC. I know I may be wrong, but I am just pondering. How can someone explain a person with PD 05/03/2006 with RD 08/01/2007 has much preference over a person with PD 05/03/2006 with RD 07/20/2007? Am I missing something here? :confused::confused:

People may post their answers, proving that I am wrong.

One a 485 is applied and is pending, it is possible to replace the underlying 140, even if it is from a different employer.

Reasons why one would do this -

1. Moved away from sponsored employer within 180 days and a job offer from this employer is no longer available

2. Job Role changed significantly enough to warrant a new Labor.

3. AN old Labor with an earlier PD suddenly got approved. Get a 140 approved for this Labor and replace the earlier 140 with this one.

4. Upgrade from eb3 to eb2.

My case is like this:I have applied for eb3 with priority date feb2004.But my attorney is telling why dont we go forward with eb2 perm & I-140 and once it is done send a letter to the uscis asking interfiling with the alreadyfiled eb3 so if everything turnsout well it will be eb2 with eb3's priority date.Whether is it a good option?any advices friends..i'm fearing whether uscis gets confused & close the eb3 case then my priority would become eb2 2007 :(.can anybody throw some light on this

UPS issued same tracking number for 2 different packages from same place of origin lastweek.

http://murthyforum.atinfopop.com/4/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1024039761&f=2994050912&m=6611023531&r=6611023531#6611023531

Attorney_8
posted August 11, 2006 11:29 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The employee must sign the 9089 once it is approved in order to get the I-140 approved.


http://murthyforum.atinfopop.com/4/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1024039761&f=2994050912&m=7431057041&r=7431057041#7431057041

Attorney_13
Attorney posted December 02, 2006 10:55 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Beneficiary of the LC is required to sign the original, certified LC. There are no other documents that the Beneficiary will need to sign associated with the filing of the I-140. All other forms/letters are signed by the company.

I was born on December 26, 1968, will it be Gemini?
Are you a gemini? If this is also an yes I will go further to predict more

good find. I added this link in the personal message section of my IM. within minutes 2 sent IMs indicating that they had no idea it was so complicated for legals. :)

Thanks Ramba, Thats greatly appreciated.

In b/w as anyone heard of USCICS picking up 485 from later date and processing it or am i trying to be too pessimistic...???

Just want to make sure I analyze all pros/cons before making a decision.

Thanks ...

Hi,

Unfortunately, I have recently been laid off by my employer on Jan 09. Still I could not transfer my H1B, but I am in process to doing that. One of friend told me told me that I need to transfer my H1B with 2 months. My H1B visa is valid till 2011.

I already requested my ex-employer not to revoke my H1B.

My questions are �

1. How much time I will get to transfer my H1B ?
2. What about my families H4 visa status ?
3. If it is out of status issue , then what should me my immediate action ?

Thanks in advance!

There is no hard and fast rule on number of days allowed for transfer after layoff, generally as long as you have pay stubs for last 1 /2 months there are no problems.

Now since you have already applied for transfer, it makes more sense to wait for result/approval.

you family's h4 status is tied with your h1 status.

IMO since you have now applied for transfer, you are not out of status. So nothing else to do other than wait for USCIS response.

HTH and sorry to hear about layoff. Hope it will work out for you.

Yes, as long as you are working for the same employer that had filed your I-140 then you can maintain your H1B status with them. I had confirmed the same with my attorney. You should confirm the same by your attorney too. I beleive there was a thread at a point of time discussing the same on IV too. Maybe some member might be able to point it to you.

I am now with a different employer and using my EAD since May this year.

Hope this helps......

To get a copy of your I-140, you need to apply to USCIS using G-639 form. Please read the instruction of the form and you will know more. You need to mention your employer's info and I-140 receipt # etc.
Now a days it takes time. Almost 3 months.

URL: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/foia/foiatoc.html
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. � 552, was enacted in 1966 and generally provides that :

-Any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information.
-All agencies of the U.S. Government are required to disclose records upon receiving a written request for them.
-There are nine exemptions to the FOIA that protect certain records from disclosure.

I agree, the email response is no help.
Can you please elaborate on how to request copy I-140 using G-639 form under FOIA?

I work for a very small start-up American firm. The company has been in business since 1 year. Even I have been with the company (full-time) for approximately the same amount of time. Unfortunately, the company has not been able to make any revenues in this 1 year. I am planning to visit India in May and if I do, I will have to get my H1 restamped, since my old visa has expired. In this forum, I have seen some instances of rejection/hold on H1B stamping. Taking that into account and given the situation of my company (although genuine and still having enough funds to run), is it worth taking the risk? I will be appearing for an interview in Mumbai. Any info in this regard will be really helpful to me. Thanks in advance.

I say EB3 India will move to Jan 1st 2002.

yawn.

someone just woke up after 8 months, now asking the agenda, not willing to spare a penny or bring in energy, but wants an "update" about the date & time he will get his GC in mail. Is that something new, NO, its been a consistent behavior, that's why I never liked gjoe.



.
I didn't want an update. I know what is going on and also when we will get our GC. I just wanted to make you realize that your goals and actions are not in sync. I hope you understand what that means.
My penny and energy are invested in the right place were the returns are in propotion :)

Good luck to you and all.

my sis watches that

nsnriv,

The idea of the IV forums is to discuss our agenda, and activities.

Individual cases and problems are best discussed on forums like Immigration Portal. You are sure to find help and advice there.

Good luck,
Berkeleybee

I totally agree that we must channelize all our frustration into positive energy. But, sometimes I get a feeling that I don't belong in the US anymore and why should I fight for something that is never going to happen. :(

Check this out....
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Gandhigiri_works_US_to_give_more_Green_Cards/articleshow/2215001.cms

My case is totally different. We applied on July 2nd and my wife got her EAD last week but my EAD not yet approved. Is it normal?

Hello,

I seemed to have fixed the problem, my father has a Nikon D40x and we read his manual on cleaning, since the D40 and the "X" are very similar.

We cleaned the low pass filter I believe, by using the mirror lock-up option in the camera.

I am now very very happy there is no dirt :)

This thread can be locked or deleted.

It seems that the bill S 1085 (the Reuniting Families Act (RFA) has become active again. I received e-mails from Senator Menedez and Senator Lautenberg talking about the bill. Senator Menendex mentioned the recapture employment-based visas that haven't been used in past years so that they may be used in future years. Among other things, he also mentioned that he will continue to address the concerns of employment-based visas in the context of comprehensive immigration reform. He is the sponsor of the S 1085 bill.

Senetor Lautenberg mentioned "Under current immigration law, employment-based immigration is limited to 140,000 visas, or green cards, per year. The process for obtaining employment-based visas can take years to complete, causing many of these visas to go unused. There is also an annual per-country limit that caps at seven percent the number of employment-based immigrants that can come from any one country. In some instances, this per-country cap causes employers to consider country of origin, not talent, when hiring foreign workers.

A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would address some of these delays and caps. The “Reuniting American Families Act” (S. 1085) would recapture unused employment-based visas from prior years. This bill would allow the Department of Homeland Security to issue any unused visas from Fiscal Years 1992-2007 and in the future roll over any unused visas from one year to the next. It would also increase the per-country cap for employment-based visas to ten percent of the annual total."

It seems that Senator Menendez is doing a lot of work to bring relief to all immigrants including employment based. It may be brought in the lame-duck session in December.

Please call your Senators to co-sponsor/support this bill.

Senator Menendez in charge of this...looks like Fox guarding the hen house. I suspect he is more interested in hostage taking "employment-based immigrants " for his
"comprehensive immigration reform". Dream act advocates know this and are openly attacking the "frenemies" or "two-faced" pro-immigrant politicians and Senetor Reid in the democratic party.

Thank you all for giving me confidence. I have updated my profile. I do not remember dates of some information. I will update them later.

One last question is if worst thing to happen would my adv. parole be useful for reentry?

USCIS has deliberately created circumstances for 7.5 million applications. For eg. why can 485 receipt not act as an Advance Parole and EAD ? It looks like they want more applications and then claim that they are very busy.

EAD, AP has time limits, your 485 receipt does not. USCIS needs to constantly monitor the applicants to make sure that anyone denied is leaving the country or turns into illegal. Otherwise, lawyers will be very happy to say that "their" client did not receive the denial notice and had therefore continued to live in the US legally.

Hi Gurus,

I have a question regarding the Labour and I 140, I have joined company A with a promise of approved labour.

My company has filed for my I140 and it got approved.

I have asked for a copy of my Labour and I 140, the company representative says, these documents are Employer Centric, so they cannot give me those documents.

I am really shocked to hear this, As these documents are related to my GC, I thought they should be with me,or alteast a copy of it, but that i snto the case.

I would like to know if any of you guys had faced this problem, or is the reason given by the representative a genuine one.

Thanks

On what basis does I-485 get processed?
Is it based on Labor application (Priority Date) or by date of receipt of I-485 application? :confused:

Or by luck of the draw?:cool:


The applications themselves are processed by receipt date but the approval still depends on your PD.Someone correct me if I am wrong...

"Processing Date" means thay have touched all the files before that - from approval point of view (this is not just FP or Name Checks). This could be like - officer has seen every page of application and put his remarks related to approval.

They also continue to work beyond Processing Dates - our experience with EAD proves that.

Thanks for your reply. If the processing date is July 17, on what basis they are selecting files which has reciept date July 30, Is there any exception for Current cases? If the case is current, they can pick that file regardless of receipt date (not considering processing date)?

I'm not sure that the comment "once you use EAD, you cannot go back to H1B" is correct. True, once you use EAD, you don't have an H1 status, but I understood you could always go back to the H1 status (with a new filing/transfer). Any one has more info/reference?