US IMMIGRATION LAW BLOG

A priority date is a person’s place in line for obtaining a permanent residency through family or employment category in most cases.  Thus, it is important to those who are seeking permanent residency to obtain a priority date.   Under the family based category, the date when a United States relative files a petition for the alien relative (form I-130), that date becomes the priority date.  Under the employment based categories, the date when an employer either files an application for labor certification or if no labor certification is required, when the employer files an application for the alien worker (form I-140), that date become the priority date.

Once the judge issues the voluntary departure order, you have 90 days from the date of the order to depart the United States.  The time incurred between the voluntary departure date and the date you choose to depart does not count towards your unlawful presence.  It is advisable though to depart before that period runs out because if you do not leave within 90 days, you will accrue unlawful presence and that unlawful presence will bar you from returning to the United States in the future.

Please note if you want to remain in the United States because you are seeking review from the BIA of the removal order, voluntary departure period will not run while the BIA appeal is pending.  However, that is not the case if you appeal to the court of appeals.

E-Verify (Employment Eligibility Verification Program) is an Internet-based system that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. The system is designed to confirm employment eligibility with Social Security Administration and check for work visas with Department of Homeland Security. The participation in this program is voluntary and it is free. However, a number of states do require certain employers such federal contractors to participate and comply with federal work authorization verification program. The program also allows employers to compare photos of new hire’s employer authorization documents (EAD) or permanent resident (Greed Card) against nearly 15 million images stored in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases. In addition, USCIS has improved contact services to obtain program information and assistance. To learn more about the program visit: www.dhs.gov/E-Verify. Finally, employers can learn about the program and training in Atlanta, visit http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/gc_1177436339963.shtm

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Georgia legislators are considering several bills that are anti-immigrant, which severely impact illegal immigrants.  These bills are designed either to limit their movement on our roads or limit their ability to function here.  One of those bills is House Bill (HB) 978, which allows the police to seize cars driven by illegal immigrant who violate traffic laws when involved in an accident regardless of who owns the vehicle.   Another House Bill 971 makes it a misdemeanor for an illegal immigrant to drive in Georgia with an out-of-state license and a Senate Bill (SB) 25 makes it a felony if an applicant or his/her agent was to lie about the applicant’s citizenship to renew a driver’s license or tag.  In addition, Senate Bill (SB) 350 makes it a felony to drive without a Georgia license on the fourth conviction within 5 years. 
Similarly, there are several other bills pending that limit illegal immigrant’s ability to function here by doing away with birthright citizenship or promoting English-only policies.  For example, House Bill (HB) 127 urges Congress to deny automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrant mothers.  Another example is Senate Bill (SB) 335, which prohibits state agencies from requiring or giving preferences to those applicants with other language skills for a particular position.  Lastly, House Bill (HB) 1028 allows a 2% fee on wire transfers, and allows the transfer company to keep up to 20% of that fee to cover collection and record-keeping costs. 
Some of these bills have passed the Senate.  Others are still pending.  Many are working to stop this anti-immigrant pieces of legislation from moving forward since it not only impacts illegal immigrants but it also affects legal immigrants as well as potential immigrants.

Based on the testimony prepared for the Director of USCIS, Emilio T. Gonzalez, the cause of processing delay is increase in naturalization filing before the filing fees increased on July 31, 2007.  According to this testimony, in the summer of 2007, USCIS received in excess of three million applications.  Such an increase in filing within a couple of months is unprecedented for the Service, which represented increase of almost 350 percent compared to the previous year increase in workload.  Although the general talks such as naturalization filing increase contemporaneous with the opening of the employment-based visa window does help to understand the current backlog, it does not explain the delays that have existed prior to the rate increase.  In other words, the director did not provide any concrete answers as to why increase in applications and petitions alone ought to cause such delays.  He admitted that the processing time for the naturalization applications has increased from seven months to eighteen months and for family-based adjustment-of-status applications from six months to twelve months.