Immigration newsletter 16 Nov 2009

Gallup the opinion poll company has done a survey from 2007 to 2009 in 135 Countries to find out what people's intentions are. 16 percent of the World's population would like to, if possible, move permanently to another Country. This is about 700 million people worldwide.

If selected for the Green Card Lottery you will be able to apply for US immigration.  As an US lawful permanent resident you will be able to live and work in the US on a permanent basis. Please note that you only have until 30 November 2009.

USCIS announced on 30 October 2009 that approximately 53,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions had been filed.  USCIS has also approved sufficient H-1B petitions for applicants with advanced degrees for the 20,000 visas that are exempt from the general cap.  This means that new applications for aliens with advanced degrees will count towards the general H-1B cap of 65,000.

Normally the US H-1B visa quota is fully used as soon as the quota becomes available.  It is only because of the economic downturn in the US and Worldwide that visas are still available. There are currently only about 10,000 visas left. It is quite likely that by the end of the year there will be no H-1B visas left.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that for a 120-day period they will accept H-1B petitions filed without Department of Labor certified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs). 
This is following a request from people affected by DOL delays in certifying LCAs.  There are processing delays due to implementation of the “iCERT” system which mean that LCAs take longer than 7 days to process.  DOL says that the current processing delays are a temporary problem.

On 3 November 2009 the UK Government announced that restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK will continue until the end of 2011. In 2004 when a number of other former Eastern Bloc Countries joined the EU, their nationals could work freely in the UK.  The UK was the only major EU Country to allow nationals of these Countries free access to the UK Labour market.  However, in 2007 restrictions were placed on nationals of Bulgaria and Romania working in the UK when they joined the EU.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently made available a video about the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE).

USCIS hopes that the SAVE program will make it easier for federal, state, and local benefit-granting agencies to verify an immigrant’s immigration status and right to benefits and licenses.

The Australian Government has introduced a new educational resource kit on citizenship to enable teachers to provide more detailed lessons on Australian citizenship and civics to upper primary and lower secondary school students.