Letters to USCIS Ombudsman

Woman With Back Pain[Blogger’s Note:  This post is submitted as a necessarily-lengthy formal comment to the November 20, 2015  draft guidance of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, PM-602-0122, interpreting the phrase, “the same or [a] similar occupational classification” as used in the “increased job flexibility” provisions of Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §§ 204(j) and 212(a)(5)(A)(iv). This

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Tool Belt.jpgThe dog days of August are behind us, yet the economic doldrums persist.  Unemployment remains unchanged and unacceptably high at 9.1%. The White House forecasts that it will stay there through the New Year and then likely drop only a tenth of a percentage point for all of 2012. 

Congress returns this week to Washington. Vituperation

Guest Column by Julie Soininen
Copyrighted by, and reproduced with permission of ILW.COM.

I am writing to seek your assistance on behalf of several dozen clients of my firm. As you know, a recent Board of Immigration Appeals decision, In re Perez Vargas (23 I&N Dec 829 (BIA 2005), held that Immigration Judges have no authority to determine whether the validity of an alien’s approved employment-based visa petition is preserved under section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1154(j) (2000), after the alien’s change in jobs or employers. The Board stated that “ it is incumbent upon the DHS to determine whether the respondent’s visa petition remains valid pursuant to section 204(j) of the Act” but offered no practical guidance as to how to actually obtain this determination.

Under INA §204(j) and the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (“AC21”), an applicant for employment based adjustment of status based on an immigrant petition shall remain valid with respect to a new job if the individual changes jobs or employers if the new job is in the same or a similar occupational classification as the job for which the petition was filed. I trust that you are aware that USCIS officers routinely make determinations on this issue in adjudicating clients’ 485 applications throughout the country. Quite frankly, although our firm advises clients conservatively on this issue, in practice such adjudications have been extremely straightforward.
Continue Reading An Open Letter To USCIS Ombudsman: AC21 In Court

Hon. Prakash Khatri Ombudsman Office of the Ombudsman U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20528

Re: End the Government’s Immigration Bias against America’s Small Businesses

Dear Mr. Khatri:

This is the third in a series of open letters outlining suggested changes in the practices of United States Citizenship & Immigration