Articles Posted in Top Immigration Stories

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru has reassured that the Nigeria Consulate in San Francisco, California will be reopened next year. Ashiru gave the assurance on Wednesday night at a town hall meeting with Nigerians in the Diaspora during his first official visit to the Nigeria embassy in Washington D.C.

“By next year we will reopen the consulate in San Francisco; lucky enough we have a building there owned by the federal government. I have already told the ambassador to renovate the property in time for reopening of the consulate,’’ he said.

The consulate in San Francisco was closed in the 80s because of rationalisation of foreign missions carried out by the then government. The Minister also informed the gathering that foreign mission and consulates are being repositioned for effective service.

He stressed the need for Foreign Service officers to spend “more time with investors’’ with a view to attracting more investment to Nigeria. “The first priority is to take care of Nigerians resident in their host country, we believe that Nigerians deserve the best and they should be so treated,’’ he said, adding that “foreign policy must be relevant to the ordinary people.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko predicts that, with the current momentum of dialogue and constant demands, Ukraine’s visa-free regime with the European Union is possible in 2-3 years.

Responding to a question about when Ukraine will be able to get visa-free regime with the EU, Hryshchenko noted that this could happen “in 2-3 years if the current dynamics of dialogue is maintained and the requirements that are put forward for visa-free regime do not materially change.”

The visa processing time for Chinese, Brazilians and Indians may be shortened to 30 days, said a U.S. tourism official on Monday.

“The U.S. Senate just introduced a legislation last week to bring the waiting time (for a visa) to under 30 days,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association (USTA), told Xinhua at an annual China-U.S. tourism leadership summit on Big Island, Hawaii.

“Specifically they are looking at China and taking a look at the feasibility of not having a face-to-face interview,” Dow said.

Reports said the Senate held a meeting on Wednesday to consider a State Department funding bill that would require the department to hire sufficient staff in China, Brazil and India to allow visa applications to be processed in no more than 30 days.

Shao Qiwei, chairman of China’s National Tourism Administration, said China and the United States are working together to improve the efficiency of visa issuance.

Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in 2007 that aimed to bring more customers to the U.S. tourism industry by facilitating group leisure travel from China to the United States and permit U.S. destinations to market themselves in China, the two countries have seen significant growth in this market, Shao said.

The three-day summit opening Monday is designed to build business through creating relationships and knowledge of both the Chinese and U.S. markets. Members of USTA and the China National Tourism Association, including more than 70 regional tourism officials from the United States and China, attended the meeting.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) seeks public comments on a proposed rule published in the Federal Register today that would enable USCIS to process certain applications approved between 1995 and 1998 by immigrant investors under the fifth preference employment-based immigrant visa classification, also known as EB-5.

The proposed rule would implement provisions of the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act. These provisions apply to a group of immigrant investors who had a Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, approved between Jan. 1, 1995, and Aug. 31, 1998.

Specifically, the rule would enable USCIS to process cases for approximately 580 principal immigrant investors and their dependents whose Forms I-526 were approved during the period described above and who, prior to Nov. 2, 2002, sought to:
Register for permanent residence or adjust their status (using Form I-485); or
Remove conditions on permanent residence obtained as an alien entrepreneur (using Form I-829).

The processes outlined in the proposed rule would provide an additional two-year period for most of these immigrant investors to meet the EB-5 investment and job-creation requirements. This rule would not impact any other applications or petitions filed under the EB-5 program.

EB-5 visas are available to immigrants seeking to enter the United States to invest capital in a commercial enterprise that will create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers. The public has 60 days—from Sept. 28 to Nov. 28, 2011—to submit comments on this proposal, which is available for review at www.regulations.gov.

The U.S. immigration agency is enforcing a new set of rules that can make life harder for Americans and their non-citizen spouses living overseas.

The new process of obtaining an immigrant visa increased from three months to a minimum of five. Sometimes it may take as long as three years, The New York Times reported on Aug. 14.

Ukraine is no exception. Americans married to Ukrainians residing in their home country will have to go through a long and complicated visa process if they decide to leave. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine estimates that the rule will affect approximately 5,000 Americans internationally.

In an effort to centralize the process, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security now requires applicants abroad to mail the visa document called I-130 to a central immigration office in Chicago, whereas before it was enough to contact a local consulate.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration today announced a 60-day postponement of the effective date for the final rule concerning the wage methodology for the temporary nonagricultural employment H-2B program. The delay will permit the various courts involved in ongoing litigation surrounding the implementation of the rule to determine the appropriate venue for the resolution of all claims and allow the department to avoid the possibility of administering the H-2B program under potentially conflicting court orders.

In consideration of these pending challenges, the department determined under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act that the interest of justice would be served by postponing the effective date of the rule from Sept. 30, 2011, until Nov. 30, 2011. A Federal Register notice to that effect will be published next week.

The H-2B program allows the entry of foreign workers into the U.S. when qualified U.S. workers are not available and the employment of foreign workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The H-2B program is limited by law to a cap of 66,000 visas per year.

The department published a final rule on Jan. 19, 2011, that revised the wage methodology for the H-2B program and set the effective date of the wage rule as Jan. 1, 2012. On June 16, 2011, in response to a challenge, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania invalidated that date and ordered the department to announce a new effective date within 45 days.

In response to that court’s order, the department issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on June 28, 2011, which proposed that the wage rule take effect 60 days from the date of publication of a final rule. After a period of public comment, the department published a final rule on Aug. 1, 2011, which set the new effective date for the wage rule as Sept. 30, 2011, without altering the substance of the rule.

Britain could be the first country in the European Union that will introduce passports which do not contain details of the holder’s sex. The move has been proposed because some people have not yet decided whether they are male or female. This is a cause for worry for them at the airports’ border control.

The Liberal Democrats party that has lost its supporters is seems to have invented a method to leave its trace in the country’s history. The coalition government decided to introduce amendments to the passports of Britons on the initiative of the Liberal Democrats.

The citizens of Britain are issued dark red passports, which are like the Russian ones in colour, to travel abroad. Like in passports of all European states, it also has notification of the holder’s sex. Politicians insist on abolishing this information. The column “sex” will remain but instead of M for male and F for female there will be simply a cross. The Liberal Democrats believe this move will defend the rights of people who are undergoing a sex change operation or who have both male and female sexual organs. These people have to inscribe all these intimate details to border guards, who sometimes cannot grasp how this is possible when a woman is standing before them and hands over her passport with a photograph of a male. Although the number of such people is not so high, the Liberal Democrats suggest introducing a gender-free passport for all citizens unexceptionally.

Some officials of the Home Office oppose the move saying that the British border guards, who are working under constant tension owing to terrorist threats in the country, will have to do additional work with the identification of the personality. However, the supporters of the new move insist that details of the passport holder’s sex are not important at all. They point to the identity card issued to all British servicemen, which contains all details of its holder but no information about the holder’s gender.

According to the Home Office officials, no final decision has been taken yet about the amendments to the passport.

In fact, they will have an opportunity to study how this innovation has materialized in the former British colony, Australia. The holder of an Australian passport can write x – unidentified gender on the column of sex or ordinary identification male or female. This is a responsibility of a citizen and his physician because surgery to change the sex is unnecessary to make amendments to passport details. According to the clergy, the innovation not only defies Divine law but also commonsense.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), marking a significant milestone in its efforts to provide relief to victims of crimes, has for the second straight year approved 10,000 petitions for U nonimmigrant status, also referred to as the U-visa.

On an annual basis, 10,000 U-visas are set aside for victims of crime who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse and are willing to help law enforcement authorities investigate or prosecute crime.

“Providing immigration protection to victims of crime and their families while aiding law enforcement efforts to bring criminals to justice is of the utmost importance to the Agency and the public we serve,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas.

Due in large part to public education and partnerships forged with law enforcement agencies and service providers, USCIS reached the statutory maximum of 10,000 U-visas per fiscal year for the second year in a row since it began approving petitions for them in 2008. It is a significant milestone for the program created by Congress to strengthen law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and other crimes while at the same time offering protection to victims of such crimes. More than 45,000 victims and their immediate family members have received U-visas since the implementation of this program.

As part of this effort, USCIS adjudications officers have traveled to 30 cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles to train federal, state and local law enforcement and immigrant-serving organizations on immigration protections available to immigrants who are victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and other crimes.

USCIS will continue to accept and adjudicate new U-visa petitions, and will resume issuing U-visas on Oct. 1, 2011, the first day of fiscal year 2012.

In recognition of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day on Sept. 17, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will welcome more than 27,000 new American citizens during 285 naturalization ceremonies held across the country and around the world during the week of Sept. 15. As part of this celebration, USCIS is again partnering with the National Park Service (NPS) to hold naturalization ceremonies at 14 national park sites across the country.

“Each year on Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, we commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and what it means to be a citizen of this great nation,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “We continue to be enriched by our diversity and united by our shared respect for the foundational rights and responsibilities enshrined in the Constitution.”
To introduce our newest citizens to the natural wonders and treasured historic sites across our great country, USCIS and NPS have partnered again this year to hold naturalization ceremonies at NPS sites across the country.

The capstone ceremony will take place on Sept. 23 at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. In addition, this year’s celebration includes a ceremony at Federal Hall in New York City, where George Washington took his oath of office as the first President of the United States, and at Yosemite National Park in California, one of America’s first wilderness parks. Other national park ceremonies will include Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Washington state, the Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence, R.I., and Point Reyes National Seashore in California.

“I can’t think of places more appropriate to welcome our newest citizens than national parks,” said NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis. “National parks preserve significant natural resources and cultural heritage sites, and are places where one can learn about and reflect on the American identity and the responsibilities of citizenship.”
USCIS will also host ceremonies at Golden Hall in San Diego, the National Archives in Atlanta and Boston, and the Campbell Heritage Theater in California, in addition to a military naturalization ceremony on the USS North Carolina in Wilmington, N.C.

The Immigration Minister Damian Green has reaffirmed the importance of tackling abuse of the family migration route, and promoting better community integration for those who come to live permanently in the UK.

In a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies on the 15 September, the Minister highlighted research that supports the government’s proposals on family migration. The proposals which are currently being consulted on, will prevent the family route being used to bypass our immigration laws, while welcoming those who want to make a life here with their family and contribute to their local community.

Reports on family migration to the UK show:
two-thirds of a sample of those granted a marriage visa in 2009 had never visited the UK before deciding to move here permanently; the proportion of people entering on family visas who settle here permanently varies hugely by nationality – of the family migrants granted a visa in 2004, 8 out of 10 from Bangladesh and Pakistan had settled here permanently within 5 years, compared with just 10 per cent of Australians; 20 per cent of a sample of sponsors of marriage visa applicants were either unemployed or had an income below the national minimum wage; 37 per cent of sponsors from the sample were living with family members or friends; and in 2009-10, the Department for Work and Pensions spent £2.6 million on telephone interpreting services and nearly £400,000 on document translation. Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
‘These are sensitive issues which have been ignored for far too long but ones we are determined to tackle.

‘We want a system that lets everyone know where they stand and what their responsibilities are. If your marriage is not genuine, if you have no interest in this country and its way of life, if you are coming here to live off benefits, don’t come in the first place.

‘That is why our focus is on delivering better family migration – better for migrants, for communities and for the UK as a whole.’
Plans to reform family migration are outlined in an ongoing consultation which includes proposals to:
– define more clearly what constitutes a genuine marriage for the purposes of the immigration rules to help identify sham and forced marriages;
– introduce a minimum income threshold for those sponsoring family migrants to ensure they are supported at a level that helps integration;
– extend the probationary period before spouses and partners can apply for settlement in the UK from 2 years to 5 years to test the genuineness of relationships and to encourage integration into British life before settlement is granted; and
– require spouses, partners and adult dependants aged under 65 applying for settlement to be able to demonstrate that they can understand everyday English.

In 2010, family migration accounted for around 18 per cent of all non-EU immigration to the UK. In 2010, 48,900 visas were granted to spouses, partners and dependants of British citizens and those with permanent residence in the UK.

Early findings from the consultation launched in July 2011 show broad public support for many of the changes the government has proposed. The great majority back the proposed requirement that spouses and partners must have to understand everyday English before being allowed to settle here permanently.