Immigration
Administration Promises Fixes to Immigration System in Lieu of Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The Obama administration has conceded that comprehensive immigration reform will not be enacted in the foreseeable future and thus has promised to use executive authority through regulatory reform and other mechanisms to address some of the urgent problems facing our immigration system. While the president announced that such measures would be initiated by the end of August, more recently the Administration decided that any executive actions will have to wait until after the Nov. 6 mid-term elections for fear that pro-immigration candidates as well as Democrats in general would be penalized at the polls for his actions.
Under already-existing authority, the president can pursue a number of actions that could help families and businesses that rely on foreign personnel. Some of these measures could include (1) extending DACA relief to parents of those young adults who have already received DACA relief; (2) granting work authorization and “Deferred Action” to undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children; and (3) counting only principal visa applicants against visa quotas (rather than counting both principals and their derivative family members) in an effort to clear up extreme backlogs for green cards that stretch into decades for certain categories.
In a new study released by the American Immigration Council, the authors of Executive Grants of Temporary Immigration Relief, 1956–Present, found that since at least 1956, every U.S. president has granted temporary immigration relief to one or more groups in need of assistance. The publication includes a chart of 39 examples that span actions large and small, taken over many years, sometimes by multiple administrations. Some presidents announced programs while legislation was pending. Other presidents responded to humanitarian crises. Still others made compelling choices to assist individuals in need when the law failed to address their needs or changes in circumstance.
Stay tuned.
Visa Bulletin - Current Trends and Future Visa Number Prognostications
The new fiscal year began on Oct. 1, and with it came the annual infusion of visa numbers allocated to the various preference categories that comprise the system for immigrant visa availability under U.S. immigration law. Recently, Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the State Department’s Visa Control and Reporting Division, provided his analysis of current trends and future projections beyond the basic visa availability updates provided in the monthly Visa Bulletin.
On the employment-based preference side, where there are 140,000 visas allocated annually, backlogs have plagued the system for years and years, in part because not only is the principal foreign national counted against the numbers of visas allocated but also dependent family members. (About 45 percent of the overall numbers are used by principals). Oppenheim reports that the worldwide employment-based third preference (EB-3) (for skilled workers, professionals, and other workers) will move faster in the coming months, as will EB-3 India. But, retrogression for Indian nationals who are eligible for EB-2 (members of professions holding advanced degrees or persons of exceptional ability) appears to be imminent, and could happen as early as November with a cut-off date in 2005. Once this happens, EB-2 India is not likely to advance again until June 2015. A major factor in this anticipated retrogression is the large volume of EB-3 to EB-2 upgrades for Indian-born applicants. The wait for employment-based immigrant visas for India continues to be long — five to eleven years. The Philippines, another severely backlogged country, is however experiencing lower demand. The cut-off date for the EB-3 and “Other Worker” categories is now the same as it is worldwide, 10/01/2011.
Oppenheim also reports that the EB-4 preference category, used by Special Immigrants — which includes G-4s applying for green cards, special juvenile immigrants, religious workers, certain Iraqis, and broadcasters, among others — could have a cut-off date of August or September of each year going forward. In practice, this will mean that these intending immigrants will have to wait one to two months to file their cases if they wait to the end of the fiscal year.
EB-5 immigrant investor visas, which have become increasingly popular, for the first time, became “unavailable” for Chinese nationals in the final month of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The category is now current. This marked the first time since 1990, when the EB-5 category was first established, that EB-5 visas were unavailable for any country and the first time for the Chinese. No other country was affected by the backlog.
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