Thanksgiving

I wonder if this Thanksgiving, somewhere a little child in Mexico will have food because his father works very hard, day in day out as an illegal worker here

I wonder if somewhere in India a dying father will get medical treatment because his son is working at an H-1B job, staying far longer than other US workers, and after work going home and saving the money

I wonder if somewhere in US, a first generation parent will be offering thanks because her child got into the ivy league in early decision

I wonder if somewhere in the US, a wife of an immigrant soldier will heave a sigh of relief that her husband is still alive trying to defend this country

I wonder if somewhere in the US, a foreign student will graciously pick at his turkey, when his friends invite him to Thanksgiving dinner, even though the meat does not appeal to his taste buds

I wonder how many families will infuse their turkey with masala, vodka, chorizo, or dashi


To all the hard working people of this country, Thank You

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Request for Evidence in Immigration Cases

Generally in an Immigration Petition, the burden of proof is on the applicant or the Petitioner. The petition is filed usually with the forms, supporting letters/briefs and copies of documents to prove the elements of law. Unless there is some evidence in the petition that prima facie negates the elements of the law in a case, the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) cannot deny the petition without due process. Thus they issue "request for Evidence" or RFEs. Although RFEs are supposed to give the applicant due process rights to prove their cases, the CIS Officers use it for anything and everything, and the RFEs vary in intelligent quotient with the IQs of the officers. Here are some weird reasons for the RFEs:

Officers need more time

Some Officers use it for additional time, and give a template with an exhaustive list of things way beyond what would be normally necessary for the petition. They know that the applicant will take time gathering all these thousands of documents and meanwhile its not the officer's fault that the petition has not been adjudicated

Officers are Either Stupid or Lazy or Both

These are the DUH RFEs. I have been asked by the Texas Service Center to prove that Breast Cancer research is National vs Local in scope for a National Interest Waiver Case. Does Dallas have those little pink ribbons for Susan Komen Foundation every October? An Immigration Attorney friend of mine was asked, "whats the difference between Cylon and Sri Lanka?"

Officers are Plain Lazy

There are ample instances where if the petition is little thick, the officers will simply ask for documents that are already in the original petition.

Officers have not met their denial quota

I don't know if there is such a quota, but some RFEs are so lengthy, you can tell that the officer is fishing for any reason to deny the case.

Currently the standards for RFEs vary enormously. However the CIS is looking into standardizing RFEs, if that is they can be standardized. But standardizing RFEs is just one equation, inputting common sense into the officers are easier said that done.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

When life, liberty and property goes by Government mistake

The purpose of modern democratic Government is to look at the welfare of the Public. It is not to hang people, it is not to deport people, it is to protect people. Yes, the Government should enforce the law, but they do not have the right to restrict the life and liberty of innocent people. Yet very often that's what happens.

Recently, the Innocence project of New York uncovered that a man executed in Texas in 2000 by a proof of a single strand of hair was a mistake. The hair did not match DNA evidence. The New Yorker Magazine last summer also uncovered how a Texas man was put to death for a fire that killed his children, a fire he did not set. Not only did he loose his children, but he also lost his life falsely at the hands of the Government.

Similarly TRAC came out with a report that of all the persons that ICE seeks to deport, the judges have found 33% were wrongly held. Many people born here cannot speak the language, and are assumed to be illegal. If ICE is doing such a poor job, I shudder to think what Arizona will do.

Yet when the country was founded, it was founded to ensure that the Citizen's life liberty and property were protected. The founding fathers guaranteed that in our Constitution. Yet more and more we are moving away from a benevolent state to one were laws are enforced sometimes unfairly.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Elections and Immigration

The elections are over, and voters have chosen overwhelmingly Republican candidates. Steve King would probably become the next chairman of the House committee on Immigration.

He is fervently anti immigrant. He believes that illegal immigrants are all terrorists, and that they have killed more Americans than Iraq and Afganistan combined. He hates Muslims. And yes, he loves the Arizona Immigration Act. A model Republican.

Will he change? Will he attempt any Comprehensive Immigration Reform? That all depends on what the voting climate is, about a year from now. If the Republicans maintain their "just say no" policy, voters may get frustrated. Also if the economy improves, the general public may want to have immigration reforms. Then he will certainly change colors.


For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The Image Program

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a program called IMAGE (ICE mutual Agreement between Government and Employers.) The program is designed to prevent employers from hiring illegal workers.

It is a voluntary program whereby the employers participate in E verify and Social Security Verification Service and train their personnel in "Image Best Practices."

There is a report out that two Houston Area businesses joined IMAGE. One is a Maintainance and Costruction Company which does exclusively federal Government services, and the other is a staffing agency which provides high level jobs. Obviosuly both these businesses cannot hire illegal workers. So its easy for them to sign on.

But the businesses that cannot find workers--- restaurants, poultry, general construction, etc, will not sign on. They prefer to have American workers, but those workers dont work hard, and charge too much.

If there were no jobs in the US for the illegal people, they would not be here. But there is. They do the jobs that American people would rather collect welfare than do.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Secure Communities

I seldom have reason to praise the Department of Homeland Security, but I think that the Secure Communities Program will work. The program will automatically check fingerprints of prisoners, convicted of crimes, and if they are found to be illegal, they will be deported. Whats neat about this program is that since it will be done by an automated fingerprint check, there will be no violations of innocent people's rights as it is in Arizona. No one will deport anyone simply because they look Hispanic. All deportees under this program will be convicted criminals. This program started in Texas, and is scheduled to take place all over the US by 2013.

Yet no one is happy. Jim Harrington, the head of Texas Civil Rights Project told Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that people who have committed minor crimes will also be deported. It seems that Immigration activists don't want ANY deportation--- period. While the anti immigrant groups praise this saying that illegal immigrants make up all murderers, and violent criminals. That is simply not true. Most crimes are committed by US Citizens, so the program will not "secure" our communities. Yet, it will send a message to the illegal communities that if you get convicted, you will be deported.

The division shows how the left and the right just cannot see eye to eye and compromise on anything. I have no problems with law abiding illegal workers who earn a living simply because Americans will not do the work at their price. The price that the illegal people set for a job is the market price--- not the artificially inflated prices of labor unions. But Americans will rather collect food stamps than work hard jobs at competitive prices. However illegals are here illegally, and should be deported even if they commit minor crimes like possession of drugs. And that is why I think this is a great compromise between the right and the left wing, and laud the DHS for introducing this program.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Memories of Durga Puja

I have immigrated more than 25 years ago, and that was the last time I saw a Kolkata Durga Pujo. Today is Ashtami, a day usually filled with work, kids and very little else in the US. I have not even visited my local Durga Pujo in Houston in years. Yet my facebook home page is filled with greetings for Durga Pujo. Memories of Pujos past come flooding back to me. Maybe facebook and social media will do what immigration or emigration could not create, a true melting pot world.

This was the Kolkata of the 1970s. The excitement started about a month before when we used to buy cloth and take it to the local tailor to make into dresses. I still remember the dark blue frilly dress (frock in Indian English) I had as a child. And then of course there were bell bottoms, and hanging earrings in the 70s. The clothes would arrive from the tailor, but we could not wear it until Shasti. But before that came Mahalaya--- the start of the festivities. On a new moon day, we would set our alarm clocks to 4 am. We would get up and turn the radio on for the Mahalaya program, inviting Devi Durga into our world. We would fight to stay up. I would not understand the Sanskrit chants, but just as I would be dozing off a well known song would come on and wake me up. After the radio program, people would go to the Ganga to offer prayers for their forefathers.

On the sixth day after that came Shasti. This was the start of the five day festival. We would break out one of the new clothes and go see the richly decorated images and their elaborate, lighted bases called "pandals." Kolkata, the city with limited power supply would illuminate into thousands of lights and elaborate decorations the likes of which I have yet to see in the Western world. And of course as with anything else in Kolkata, the pujos were in direct competition with each other. There were awards for the best "pandal", best lighting, best sound effects, best image. Nothing like capitalist competition to spruce up religion.

Ashtami was the biggest day. We would reserve our best clothes for that day. After coming back from viewing the images (pratimas) we would have the same supper every year--- luchi (puri) which is fried dough and goat curry. And then of course sweets. We Bengalis covered all our food groups: fat, carbs and spices.

Then came Bijoya Dashami. The pujo was over, the pratimas were dismantled. People formed huge procession, with light and band playing and carried their pratima to the Ganges to be thrown into the water. Art to us is dynamic, to be enjoyed fleetingly in this transient world and then destroyed to be rebuild again next year. We also went to all our relatives houses to touch the feet of elders and seek their blessings. They gave us sweets and fried samosas, nimkins, etc. No supper, just desserts and junk food, that one day of the year.

I wonder how many of these traditions have survived today. My older relatives do not go to see images any more, its too crowded. Many would not be able to digest goat and puri in their health condition. Yet the sounds of the drums (dhak) come drifting through the air from the pandals, the crisp new saris of people walking on the streets, the sound of the band after dashami will never be lost. Neither will the competition to build a bigger, better pandal for a prettier image die from people to whom cultural expression is greater than the need to make money. It is this spirit of Kolkata that I miss.


For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Reference Letters for National Interest Waiver Cases

Reference letters are key to proving many research based immigration cases. However the reference that Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) likes is not the same type one would get to obtain a job. The major thing that CIS is interested in, is the opinion of scientists in the field.

The CIS does not care about big names in the field. The Government would be barred by 14th amendment, to give more credence to someone from say Harvard, rather than say Podunkhollow University. Yet scientist very often want to get so so references from big names in the field, rather than good reference from not so well known scientist. CIS officers are NOT scientists. They just want a scientist in the field. Their credentials are meant to just qualify them to speak on the issue. It is more important what they say, rather than who they are.

The CIS does not care if you are hard working, diligent, easy to get along with. They are not paying you to work, nor are they working with you. The referees must prove the points of the law.

The referees need to say:

1. Why your work is important in their field
2. Why you are better than the average researchers in your field
3. How your research will help the US as a whole

Usually disinterested referees are the best, those people who are not your friends, or co-workers, but know you only professionally and are familiar with your work, rather than with you.

There is no magic number of references, but I usually go for 10.

Conclude by saying why the referee thinks that labor certification will be a laborious process that might hinder the research progress.



For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Assylum Cases

Three attorneys in California has been indicted of filing false Asylum cases. Judge Damrell said that while there were flaws in the asylum system that "doesn't give license to lawyers to take advantage of it." The lawyers apparently filed fraudulent applications.

Yes, the Asylum system is riddled with flaws. Full disclosure first: I do NOT practice Asylum, and my knowledge is limited. However I do practice immigration law.

Asylum is granted to individuals who, if they were to return to their home country would be persecuted. While it is true that many people all over the world are persecuted, I believe only very few can come to the US. All countries are basically economic entities. So even though different races fight, basically it is the poor who gets persecuted. Whether its between different political parties, between Hutus or Tutsis, between Shias and Sunnis, between blacks and whites, between different drug factions, it is seldom that the rich suffer. They have resources to hide or bribe the opposing party. It is usually the poor who gets persecuted and they usually do not have the resources to come to America.

I had once taken a pro bono asylum case from the Catholic Charities. This person was from Africa. When I first heard his story, he sounded very authentic. His story moved my heart. He also convinced a doctor to write about psychological implications for him. I wrote a fantastic brief.

The story was that both him and his girl friend were persecuted. Horrible acts of atrocities. As time went on, the guy asked me that he had changed girl friends, and can we substitute the new name. Gradually I became convinced that he was scamming us. He knew the story of someone, and just substituted himself. He had the Catholic Charities, the doctor and me fooled. I withdrew and so did Catholic Charities. I have no idea if this person is still in the US, probably he paid some lawyer to represent him.

That was my one and only asylum case. I am not saying all asylum cases are bogus, but my guess is that a substantial majority are. However the State Bar of Texas wants you to take certain of these cases BEFORE you can even sit the exam for Board Certification.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Immigration and Stephen Colbert

I loved Stephen Colbert's Republican solutions for alternatives to legalizing the illegal farm workers. No American will work in farms, and we wont legalize the Mexicans who actually work there. So:

1. We should grow fruits and vegetables that pick themselves--- with the help of Fruit of the Loom Scientists
2. Stop eating fruits and vegetables--- Which Americans have started doing already

In the same vein, I would like to add some Democratic Solutions to Professional Employment based visas, where it seems they have a vendetta againt Indian Computer Professionals.

1. Make the average Permanent Visa wait times for Indian and Chinese people to be 150 years. Dont extend their H-1B, they just need to go back to India or China and come back in 150 years

2. Stop programming office Computers----- go work in the farms instead. Kill two birds with one stone--- no more Indian Computer professional, and no more illegal Mexicans either. Immigration problem solved.

3. Raise the taxes of the Indian and Chinese H-1B professionals to 200% of their income. Not only will we take care of border security (which we are now doing with the $4000/- per H-1B fees from Indian Companies), but we will also take care of the budget deficit with the Indian and Chinese money. Then we can give Cadillac health care to all those people who had stopped eating fruits and vegetables following Mr. Colbert.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The Pledge to America---- We will keep it White and Christian

This blog is for humor purposes, there is no truth to it.

Read our lips, No new taxes whatsoever----- yeah the deficit, who cares, we just increase it and then blame it on Obama. As long as our white constituents don't have to pay for the poor blacks and the Hispanics.

We will cut everything---- public education, food stamps, etc. But not the military. Need to keep fighting, "to keep America safe."

Oh, I forgot, the other way to do this is to prevent the rise of Muslims. No new mosques. Actually we should infuse this fear of Muslims into our children too----- lets do a reverse jihad on the Muslims. Lets follow Texas' lead and rewrite the history of the 11 to 15th Century. During this period the Christians were regrouping and making a grass roots revolution. We did not trade with the world to prevent the growth of those Muslims. We cut our spending and prayed in our monasteries instead.
Just like we should do now.

And of course one way to do this is to cut out the illegals. We should not spend on them. Follow Arizona. Those slimes will not vote for us if we grant them citizenship. Yeah, and kill those anchor babies as well. Then we don't have to bother with changing our constitution to divest them of citizenship.



Written by Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Should your lawyer have more empathy than brains?

My son recently joined medical school, and was given his first "patient" to diagnose. The students are graded not only on the correct medical diagnosis, but also on bed side manners. His "patient" (these are actually actors that med schools hire) presented herself with chest pain. After this experience my son asked me, whether if I was having chest pain, I wanted the doctor to say "everything will be alright" even though the doctor knows I may not. ie do I want a doctor to be sympathetic or do I want to hear the truth?

My answer to my son was that even though I don't need the hand holding, because I am a very strong person, I'm sure most people do. ie, Hold their hand and break the bed news as gently as you can, but don't hide the news.

Which is what a lot of unscrupulous lawyers do not do. I know many lawyers will promise clients the moon. Since I practice immigration law, I will keep my examples to immigration issues only.

When a client goes to a lawyer, a lot of lawyers lie---- no surprises here. "yes we can get that done", "yes, we have done thousands of these." These lawyers are very friendly, have the greatest bed side manners. Yet when they get the denials, they sound very sincere when they say, "i don't know why CIS denied your case." Any good lawyer knows what case is going to be approved and what case is going to be denied. Yet they do not refuse to take the case knowing they will get money to work for it.

Also just because a case can be filed, does not mean it should be filed. For instance, you can file a labor certification (PERM) for almost anyone. But if the next step, ie the I-140 does not go through, the PERM is useless. Same is true for certain family filings. Yet unscrupulous lawyers take the case, and the money to file the case.

Same is true for doctors. Both can be equally sweet and equally deceptive.

Yet clients, (and patients) choose doctors and lawyers by asking their friends, and by their professional's bed side manner rather than objectively by their education and wisdom. If you want someone to hold your hands and cry with you, get a friend. If you want your doctor and lawyer to represent your interest, choose one who went to a good school, does not have any disciplinary violations, and is sincere in his efforts. Generally foreign doctors and lawyers are less qualified simply because its easy to get into law schools and med schools in most countries. In India for instance the top students are engineers. Lawyers and most people in Humanities are at the bottom of the IQ heap.

In the end you are a consumer, and you have to do your due diligence or be duped.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

The American Dream

Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act better known for its acronym, the dream Act, is again going to be debated as early as next week. The Democrats are going to append it to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill. The Dream Act is aimed at legalizing those children bought over illegally by their parents, have graduated high school and plan to attend at least a two year college or join the military. We educate these children, they are here illegally through no fault of their own, they studied, graduated high school, and in many instances college, and yet cannot work here legally. I know several Masters Degree holders who are illegal. They work illegally as clerks in convenient stores, no where realizing their potential. You would think that their plight will have non partisan support in the Congress. Yet this bill has not passed since 2001.

We pay for their education, yet we don't employ them, so that they can pay taxes and be productive members of society. What's tragic is that even though they fall in love and marry US Citizens, they still cannot get residency, because they "entered illegally."

I really hope that the Senate and Congress will come together on this issue. But with the current Republican strategy of "just say no" and with certain members introducing such terms as anchor babies, I doubt anything will get passed. Another time their dreams will be shattered.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

One Nation, Under God

Are we becoming more and more intolerant or was the fire of religious intolerance always burning? The pilgrims, the very first immigrants to this nation came to seek religious freedom. I cant help but wonder what they would do if the Native Americans burned their bibles, did not allow them to build churches or tried to kill their horse drivers. Most immigrant come to America for this freedom, religious, social, economic.

Yet, when we immigrated to Texas, and enrolled my kids at River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, we met with increasing religious intolerance. We were brown, and Hindu, wrong color, wrong religion. They had bible as a class. I was perfectly happy with that, since a knowledge of bible is essential to the understanding of the Western Culture. But the bible teacher used it to discriminate against my children. They were asked to expound on a passage that said that people who worshiped idols are like dogs. Incidentally that bible teacher always dressed in real tight and real low cut clothes.

My children were treated like subhumans. Other children would not play with them, and pushed them in playgrounds, with the encouragement of teachers. The teachers would mark them down for little things. We were told not to expect much from our children. We were told to see a psychiatrist at the med center, a professional from Houston Baptist University, who said my son had low IQ. I doubt his own IQ was above 100. To prove to myself that my children were smart, I made them sit the Mensa exams and they became members of Mensa at second grade. They subsequently made it to Duke and Yale, while the average River Oaks Baptist kids graduate from those southern religious colleges ranked as lowest in education by US News and World Report.

Religion is a business which thrives on putting down and converting other religions. By nature we humans are sectarians. We are divided into color, gender, etc which are hard to change. But religion is not immutable. And religion fosters hatred for other religions. At River Oaks Baptist school, the Baptist hated even the Catholics. I guess there are layers of hatred, with Muslim being the lowest on the totem pole. Religion propagates blind acceptance without questioning that fuels this intense hate.

And to those kindly souls who told our kids that they felt "sorry" that my kids would not go to Heaven, I say, my kids are going to that other H--- Harvard.


For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

To kill a Mockingbird---- Arizona Style

Arizona, (or at least the Maricopa County) wants to do away with the US Constitution altogether. The feds have sued the county because they engaged in willful discrimination, illegal searches and seizures and English only policy in their jails. The feds asked for documents 15 months ago, and Maricopa county has not complied.

Obviously Maricopa is hiding something. I am willing to bet that many of those Hispanics or brown people (and I'm sure they are legal or else Sheriff Arpaio would have either killed or have them deported already) is being detained for no legal reasons whatsoever. If the Sheriff is a confirmed racist, the jury will not be any different.

Meanwhile the Pew Research Center released a study saying that most illegals have left Arizona and the number coming into the US has declined.


Arizona does not want to follow the principles of the US Constitution. Yet it wants to be a part of the US? Why get the benefits of the federal dollars, if you cannot maintain the tolerance that is the hallmark of the US. And even John McCain, who with Senator Kennedy had once introduced the best comprehensive immigration bill in the Country ever, is now anti immigrant. He even said that most accidents are caused by illegal immigrants! What a Republican can do for votes.

Wonder if what Sheriff Arpaio's forefathers would do if the Native Americans tried to deport them.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Prevailing Wage and H-1B

The Department of Labor (DOL) just penalized a Company in Atlanta (Smartsoft International Inc) one million dollars for not paying 135 of its H-1B employees the prevailing wage. In this blog I am NOT defending Smartsoft. If they promised the DOL that they would pay a certain amount to their employees, they should do it. And many Indian run companies operate as they do in India, abusing employees. They forget that employees here have recourse that they would not in India.

However this blog is about fairness where prevailing wage is concerned on the part of the DOL. They just came out with a new prevailing wage system, where most wages are higher than the previous prevailing wage. We are in the midst of a recession, the rate of employment now is higher than it has been in at least a decade. Soon deflation is going to be the reality in the USA, but not in the world of the DOL's Prevailing Wage. Thus if Smartsoft was paying its H-1B workers the same as their other US Citizen workers,(and I don't know if they were or not) would that be a crime? After all isn't Prevailing Wage the Wage that is "prevalent" at a particular place? And why would an employer pay more when there are 50 people who will do the same job for less?

I think the US has realized that they have a cash cow in employment based immigration. H-1B and L-1 fees for certain Companies (mainly Indian Computer based companies) were raised to pay for US border security. Companies don't have compelling stories, and the democrats don't like them. But these small companies will simply outsource the jobs to India. And can the US afford a retaliatory price increase if the Indian Government wishes to implement that to secure its borders as well?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Chop Shops and Job Shops the four letter H-1B words

The Senate passed a $600 million border security bill last Thursday, and tucked inside that bill was a provision that would raise the H-1B filing fees. For companies which employs more than 50% of its employees on H-1B, the filing fees for each application would be $4820/- (currently it is $2320/). The bill is now being debated in the House and if passed, will head to President for signature.

This would impact big Indian IT companies like Infosys, but not the US companies like Microsoft or Google. This is of course discriminatory. Borrowing a word that has been used by the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) for Indian IT firms, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Infosys a "chop Shop." The CIS seems convinced that all Indian IT firms are filing "false petitions." The Government of India has protested this. The US needs India in the war against Al Qaeda and to keep China in check. Can it afford a bad relationship with any of the BRIC nations?


The President and his party in their socialist type agenda want to "preserve" US jobs. Getting rid of the free market economy in this deep recession will only hurt the US economy more. Infosys and other companies are already paying $2320/- per H-1B beneficiary. $1500/- of that is supposed to educate the US public. I have yet to see an education program funded by that money. The Companies will simply cease to do business in the US. And yes, today the US market is the biggest. But Asia and the BRIC countries are coming up , and together with Europe and Canada, will have more clout than the US.

The history of Immigration Law is ripe with untold discrimination against "colored people". It is time to end this discrimination. However I cannot forget that Nancy Polosi had once said that if she gave amnesty to the illegal immigrants, she would not make them pay. She would raise the fee on H-1B, because these "legal"employers had the money to pay, which the illegal immigrants did not. So my hopes for the House not passing this bill is slim indeed.

The new N word for Indian Companies have indeed become "job shop" or "chop shop" and this time its our Government who is using these words.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Leaked CIS Memo

On Sunday, July 29, a memo written by 4 chief personnel (including Mr. Neufeld of the now infamous January 8 H-1B memo) wrote a proposal to Director Mayorkas about strategies that the CIS can provide to individuals, to " promote family unity, foster economic growth ....... and reduce the threat of removal of certain individuals." Of course the Republicans immediately decried the memo as providing "backdoor amnesty." However, as the Republicans fail to realize, these are remedies that will make America economically stronger, and promises no one the Permanent Residency.

Amongst the business immigration proposals, is extending the 10 day grace period usually given at the end of a visa before a foreign national has to return to her home country to 45-90 days. In this economy many H-1Bs have lost their jobs. They have homes, their children have schools, etc. Clearly 10 days is not enough to pack up and leave a place that someone called home for years.

The agency might also grant work permits to H-4 non immigrant spouses of H-1B workers. H-1Bs are given to Specialized Professionals. The visa is initially given for 3 yrs and a total of 6 yrs. The spouses cannot work. Human nature demands that people be productive. I have seen marriages break up because spouses cannot work. Letting someone stay in the country for 6 years and beyond, and not granting them the right to work is a violation of a fundamental right.


The third proposal is to grant "dual intent" ie intent to have Permanent Residency to F (students) O (Outstanding category) TN (Nafta treaty visas), P (athletes and Performers) and E (Treaty trader) visa holders. This dual intent is available for H and L visa holders, but not for the above mentioned professionals. However it is in the US National interest to grant Permanent Residency to retain these professionals.

All of these above proposals are for legal non immigrants doing jobs which the majority of Republican and Tea Party supporters cannot do; jobs that require education, training and a brain. However, since this memo was leaked to the media, and there is tremendous Republican backlash, I doubt that any of these proposals will come to fruition.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Xenophobia and Immigration in Arizona

At the heart of any Immigration Law in any country is Xenophobia. No matter how you look at it, its one group, who established themselves in a place trying to keep others out. Even if this means handing a carrot to any group, its still based on the idea that a certain group of people have sovereign rights to a certain place. And it is this territorial and supremacist ideas that lead to acts of war and terrorism. Imagine if Al-Qaeda did not care if other people were different from them.

In passing SB 1070, Gov. Jan Brewer and other Fox news types, tried to justify their Xenophobia by saying that since the federal government wont do anything about immigration, their state will take it on. Probably they thought that restricting immigration will mean more jobs for their citizen. Yet, sadly its the Republican's philosophy (which I think is correct) that the economy should not be manipulated by the Government. Laissez Faire and Capitalism were hardly swear words to Republicans.

Any employer, whether they are individuals wanting their lawns cut, or construction companies, or restaurants, will hire legal immigrants if the legal immigrants do a good job at a right price. But they cant find one. American workers would rather sit on their a** and collect food stamps than work in difficult jobs. And if they do work, they will charge phenomenal amounts. I will not pay more to my grass cutter than to my doctor, simply because grass cutting does not require the same level of knowledge as cutting the heart.

Of course hiding under this SB-1070 is the fact that this will give the likes of Sarah Palin the license to go "hunting" in Arizona.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Extraordinary Ability

The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) ruled in a recent case that first authorship in articles are not always necessary to establish Extraordinary Ability. The alien had a lot of papers published and "hundreds of citations." However not all papers were first authorship. The Texas Service Center refused to consider those papers.

The AAO wrote:"As modern scientific research endeavors routinely involve collaborative efforts, we find no statutory, regulatory, precedential, or evidentiary basis to conclude that USCIS should not assign weight to collaborative scientific research such as the petitioner's. It could be argued that the director was simply seeking stronger evidence of the petitioner's prominent role in his research studies. However, statements from the petitioner's first-author collaborators submitted on appeal
confirm that he played an integral role in their jointly published research."

Of course, the alien has to have the three criteria out of ten enumerated in the Statute.

The Texas Service Center is out of touch with reality. They had asked me to PROVE that breast cencer research is "National in Scope" for a National Interest Waiver case.

Mr. Roark, I suggest a field trip for your officers. UT Southwestern Medical School, which has four nobel laureates and does tons of research is just a hop skip and jump away from your Stemmons Freeway location. These Officers should probably go and check out how exactly research is done. Also adjudicating officers dealing with "research" based petition should complete an undergraduate degree with some amount of research in College. And maybe a BSC degree will help adjudicators judging Science based petitions, rather than say a major in dance. Where do these officers go to College anyways?

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Obama, Secrecy and Rule of Law in the H-1B visa

The Obama Government ran on a promise to make Government more transparent, more accountable and promised to restore the Rule of Law so blatantly flouted by the previous administration. Yet,  in most immigration cases, and certainly in the H-1B context, all those principles are simply baseless and unfulfilled campaign promises.

AILA has just filed a lawsuit against USCIS on the issue of transparency. The administration beginning last summer conducted  hundreds of raids on H-1B sponsoring businesses. Yet the rules and guidance of this whole process is guarded in secrecy. Requests by AILA to divulge this review process under the Freedom of Information Act were denied.

These are PROFESSIONAL employees--- Computer professionals, Engineers, Doctors, teachers. The Government shows up at their Company door step, demand to see their records, with no notice, and many times with no uniform procedure. The Officers ask to see anything and everything. The businesses are all sizes, but all professional service providers.

In a separate class action lawsuit the USCIS is being challenged on the January 08, 2010 memo,  which "created" additional requirements in respect of direct control of employee by the employer.  This has virtually eliminated the computer consulting business from sponsoring H-1B visa holders. This requirement was no where in the plain language of the H-1B law.  Also the the senator who introduced the H-1B legislation  in the Congress  verified that this was Never Congressional intent.  Moreover an agency cannot rulemake without  publishing a notice and giving the public a chance to comment. No such notice and comment was done for this memo. This clearly violates the Rule of Law that Obama championed. In terms of immigration law the old Government's policies are not only being followed, but in many instances further deviating from the Rule of Law.


For more information contact http://www.visatous.com"> Houston Immigration Lawyer or http://www.visatous.com">Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee