USCIS and VIBE

Mainly for the I-140 the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) is now doing a new internet based check. It’s called Validation Instruments for Business Enterprise or VIBE. Through an Independent Service Provider, the USCIS can check the following information :



Business activities, such as type of business (North American Industry Classification System code), trade payment information and status (active or inactive)
Financial standing, including sales volume and credit standing
Number of employees, including onsite and globally
Relationships with other entities, including foreign affiliates
Status, for example whether it is a single entity, branch, subsidiary or headquarters
Ownership and legal status, such as LLC, partnership or corporation
Company executives
Date of establishment as a business entity
Current physical address
The USCIS is using Dun and Bradstreet to check this information. It is resulting in irritating Request for Information (RFE) about the location of the Company. D & B uses data from incorporation etc to maintain its database about companies. And they don’t update this information. Thus even though we submit tax documents etc which has verifiable information like addresses which match the I-140, the RFEs are still being sent out. In some cases the RFE refers to addresses that the Company has never used. D & B denies ever putting up the information. In another case, we had an RFE that basically had nothing to do with the D&B report of the Company, yet the RFE started with the D&B language. I guess the officers are using that template so often, that it crops up in almost all RFEs. And officers are just dong the checks and hitting the RFE button, instead of actually looking at the petition submitted.



The RFEs are also saying, “ USCIS does not require you update your record with D&&B” But yeah, do so now. Businesses may not want their information to go public, and give their competitors access to their information. Yet it seems if you sponsor a foreigner, you might have to. Big Brother dictating? You bet. Mr. Obama, aren’t you a constitution expert? What about the rule of law?



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

Employment Based Category 1

This week the USCIS published a Statistics of its denial rates for Employment Based First Preference (EB-1) categories of Aliens with Extraordinary Ability and Outstanding Researchers categories. Extraordinary Ability is a self petition and has a higher standard than Outstanding Researcher which is petitioned by Universities and Research Institutions. The denial rate for Extraoridnary Ability has gone down. In 2010 for Extraordinary Ability was 38%, as opposed to 2008 when it was 53%. In 2009 it was 41%

However the denial rate for Outstanding Researcher has gone up. In 2010 it was 9% as opposed to an all time high in 2007 of 10%. In 2009 it was 7%

This is just statistics. It does not mean that Extraordinary Ability has become any easier. What's astounding is the very high rate of denials. Many researchers who are young and thus haven't risen to the level of Extraordinary Researchers, but were born in India or China, where an EB-2 National Interest Waiver takes forever; choose to file under Extraordinary Ability and gets denied. Their institutions do not want to sponsor them, so they self petition under Extraordinary Ability. Unless a researcher has discovered something extremely novel, which will help mankind, a post doc usually does not qualify under Extraordinary Ability.

Similarly I don't think that Outstanding Researcher has gotten any more difficult. Many of those petitions are done by the International Affairs divisons of Universities, where they are not attorneys and produce poorly written petitions.

But as with grants for researchers, immigration law does not have the ability to see the young mind thinking of novel ideas. And going back to statistics again, most extraordinary research was done when the researcher was in their prime. (Think relativity) Young minds can challenge assumptions, and rebel against established thought to produce revolutionary new discoveries. Yet lots of them were squashed because of lack of funding and some leave for greener pastures in other countries, because the immigration process under EB-2 takes too long.

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

Why we need H-1B; Because of NCAA

There is a quota of 65,000 for regular H-1B and 20,000 for holders of Master's Degree or Higher in a fiscal year. This year the USCIS has received appx 5,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap, and approximately 4,500 petitions toward the 20,000 cap exemption for individuals with advanced degrees so far.

But the March Madness which recently ended, embodies why we need H-1Bs. Our colleges spend way more on sports than on education. I had not heard of Butler until last year. And most people supported Butler over Duke. Cinderalla team? Sure. But we did not know about the existence of this educational institution unless there was NCAA Basketball. Same with VCU this year. There is nothing wrong with cheering for the underdog, until you realize that these are actually educational institutions. And the Coach at Butler or VCU gets paid far higher than any professor or researcher in those institutions.

In other countries there are no colege sports. College sports are not big businesses. Instead the money goes towards education. Thus we have serious, and more productive students who in turn make better workers, and hence the H-1B program.

Note to Butler, You had two turns, and still could not win. Next year funnell more money into research, so that your US Nwes and World Report ranking rises.

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

A New way for the Government to make money---Deemed export rule

Certain technology is controlled by our Government and restricted for importing to other countries. The Commerce and State Depratments issue licenses for such exports. This rule has long been in the books, but was not really enforced. Suddenly in December of 2010, the new I-129 form came in, and the form included questions about deemed export for H-1B, H1B1,L-1 and O-1A.

The employer has to first ascertain what the beneficiary's citizenship country is. Then ascertain what technology the beneficiary has access to. If the employer needs a license from the Department of commerce/State to export that technology to that person's country, then the employer has to first get the license before filing the H-1B, or deny access to the person until such license is obtained.

For large Computers Systems, usually source code is controlled, not onject code. Also sophisticated networking systems and encryptions are usually controled.


There are two types of Deemed Export regulations: the Export Adnimistration Regulations administered by the Department of Commerce, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, administered by the Department of State. More information on these can be found at:

http://www.bis.doc.gov/licensing/exportingbasics.htm



To get the license for nationals from countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, China and Libya is very difficult.

The penalties for violation of this law is severe. And ICE will audit employers. Civil penalties range is either $250,000 or twice the gain from the particular technology. Criminal pelalties range from upto 1 million USD, and upto 20 years prison term.

There is of course no prior evidence that anyone on H-1B ever exported any technology back home. But, Immigration is fast becoming a huge cash cow for the Government. We love to hate immigrants, and make employers who hire immigrants pay severe penalties. And in the process we will loose our competitive edge to other countries.



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

Xenophobia failing in Arizona

We formed society and weaved laws to regulate our lives so that we can live and let live. Laws need to be for common good. Thus any law based on hatred for any group, usually fails. The tough immigration law of Arizona, based on xenophobia is failing. Arizona has been shunned by businesses across the nation. Phoenix dropped from being one of the top four destinations in the US for conventions, to being the 23rd. And Governor Jan Brewer's tough anti immigration stance has been tempered.

Arizona businesses are now strongly protesting the anti immigration law. Bowing down to business pressures, the Arizona Senate recently voted down 5 bills which included amongst other things that hospitals report police of immigration status of emergency care patients, and do away with birthright citizenship. Other conservative states like Utah are not going the Arizona way. The whole reason behind the unpopularity of the Arizona law was that it was based on xenophobia about Mexican immigrants. The hatred for them was embodied in the denial of basic services to them. And hatred for a targeted group got no one no where.

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

Immigrant Children

In the official American Immigration Lawyer's Blog, Ms. Crystal Williams disputes a "study" for the Center for Immigration Studies, an Anti Immigration group, which states that in 2009, 200,000 people were born in the US to immigrant women here who were "lawfully admitted as temporary visitor" and they are all growing up to become terrorists. Both the claims are of course preposterous. Ms. Williams reasons why the number (200,000) is impossible in her blog. http://ailaleadershipblog.org/2011/03/15/msu-on-steroids/

In this blog, I want to make a case that first generation immigrant children achieve much more than their peers who are not. I was one of those who had a child born in the US, when my husband was on a J visa at Harvard Medical School, and this is my story too.

In her book, "Battlehymn of the Tiger Mother" Ms. Amy Chua, a Yale law professor argues about how, we immigrant mothers do not have the softer way of parenting as does native American mothers. We are not concerned about hurting the feelings and self confidence of our children. We feel that if our children achieve, they gain the self confidence through admiration from teachers and other students, rather than from parents. I have "American" (I will use this term to mean US born) mother friends who say "wow" when their children get Bs and Cs. If my children got a 95, I would ask why they did not get a perfect score. The result? Both my happy healthy kids went to the ivy leagues, and are now both in med school. In both their graduations, about 95% of cum laude students were first generation Americans. My kids loved the education they got, and have already given back numerous hours in social service. They will continue to do so, because they feel for Americans. (Not to mention the high taxes they will pay as future doctors).

Would they have done this, if birthright Citizenship was not granted to them? Would these high achieveing ivy educated kids love a country that did not care for them? We would be back to the America of the 50s, with a generation of Willy Lomans if we followed the dictates of Center for Immigration Studies.

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

Peter King, Muslims, the Hysteria

Today, the Chairman of the Department Of Homeland Security in the House, a Republican from New York, Peter King testified before the House about the "growing radicaliszation of American Muslims." He has previously said more than 80% of mosques were tainted by radicalism. I wonder where he got that figure. There were two people who testified that they their relatives, (a son and a nephew) turned radical. Two out of how many muslims in this nation? Two is a trend for Mr. King. Enough to scrutinize every Muslim in America and deprive them of their fundamental right to privacy. Not to mention the humiliation.
Interestingly where were these republicans when Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma. Or during the KKK ralies? Unfortunately its so easy to target and demonize an identifiable minority group. And if America does this, can it really champion Freedom and Democracy to the rest of the world?

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