Comprehensive Immigration Reform - Pathway to U.S. Immigration Status and Citizenship!

In conferences and radio interview held in August 2009, President Obama has reaffirmed his position in pursuing legislative action on comprehensive immigration reform, in 2010, of the currently broken U.S. immigration systems, after attending to more critical issues such as U.S. healthcare and financial reform.

Comprehensive immigration reform is a highly advocated proposal by the U.S. government to create immigration systems to provide immigration status and citizenship to millions of undocumented foreign nationals who are currently in the U.S., as well as providing opportunities for other foreign nationals to work and live in the U.S. under efficient and regulated processes.

Foreign nationals are vital to the U.S. economy, especially during this international economic crisis. Foreign nationals often bring with them diverse skill sets to fill the labor shortages for work which could not be completely filled by U.S. citizens. In addition, the diverse cultures and backgrounds of foreign nationals generate new and increased demands and services in the U.S., which in turn, will positively stimulate the economy and create additional jobs. The U.S. has been a country which has historically thrived on the contributions of immigrants and U.S. natives, and will continue to be so.

As a former immigrant and an immigration attorney, I have experienced the U.S. immigration systems on both personal and professional levels. After years of good faith efforts by the U.S. government to implement piecemeal immigration law (which often do not work in harmony with the other immigration law) to address immigration issues, the execution of the U.S. immigration law has become cumbersome and extremely difficult. A comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. is crucial to a well-regulated society, workforce and economy.

It is not possible to halt illegal immigration into the U.S. The only way to implement fully functioning immigration systems for a well-regulated nation in the U.S. would be to allow legal entries of foreign nationals in orderly, systematic and regulated manners under harmonious comprehensive immigration systems.

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For more information, please contact Aik Wan Kok, Immigration Attorney, at koka@tiyalaw.com, 703-772-8224 or http://www.tiyalaw.com/. Ms. Kok at Tiya PLC represents companies and foreign nationals in the areas of immigration law (e.g. work authorization, green card and I-9 compliance). With more than a decade of professional immigration law experience with excellent results, we are your best source of professional U.S. immigration law services.

This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on as a legal advice or an attorney-client relationship.

H-1B Visa Numbers Are Still Available for Foreign Nationals Who Want to Acquire Immigration Status to Work and Live in the U.S.!

Based on the calculation conducted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on August 14, 2009, visa numbers are still available for filing new H-1B Petitions. H-1B status provides immigration and work status for foreign nationals to work and live, temporarily, in the U.S.

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For more information, please contact Aik Wan Kok, Immigration Attorney, at koka@tiyalaw.com, 703-772-8224 or http://www.tiyalaw.com/. Ms. Kok at Tiya PLC represents companies and foreign nationals in the areas of immigration law (e.g. work authorization, green card and I-9 compliance). With more than a decade of professional immigration law experience with excellent results, we are your best source of professional U.S. immigration law services.

This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on as a legal advice or an attorney-client relationship.

Tiya Immigration Law Services

Tiya Law
With more than a decade of professional, full-service immigration law experience with excellent results, we are your best source of professional U.S. immigration law services at excellent prices.
Services:

A. Employment-Based Permanent Residence Cases:
1. Employment-Based Preference 1 category (EB-1)
• Extraordinary Ability Alien• Outstanding Researcher
• Intracompany Managers/Executive Transfer
2. Employment-based preference 2 category (EB-2)
• National Interest Waiver
• PERM

3. Employment-Based Preference 3 category (EB-3)
• PERM

B. Employment-Based Nonimmigrant Cases:
B-1/B-2 Extension
F-1 Student Status
E-1 Treaty Trader
E-2 Investor Visa
H-1B Nonimmigrant Worker
H-2B
H-3 Trainee Program
J Status
L-1 Intra-company Transfer
O-1 Extraordinary Ability
TN Treaty National

B.1. Family-Based Nonimmigrant Cases:
K-1 Fiancé Visa
K-3 Spouse Visa

C. Family Green Card Cases:
Immigrant Petition for Alien Relatives (Spouse, Children, Parents and Siblings)

D. Other Green Card Cases:
Renewal of Green Card
Replacement of Green Card
Absence from the U.S.

E. Citizenship Cases:
Naturalization Application
Replacement of Naturalization Certificate

F. Outbound Immigration Cases:
Immigration cases to foreign countries

G. Corporate immigration employment compliance

A Smooth Sail for Employers? Immigration Worksite Enforcement

As Congress continues to appropriate more money to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employers in the U.S. will see an increase in immigration worksite enforcement in all industries, and industries involving critical infrastructure, according to officials of ICE who presided in a conference on May 28, 2009, held in affiliation with the immigration bar association.

Immigration worksite enforcement (worksite enforcement) is a process whereby the U.S. federal government, through ICE, enforces the law against the employers in the U.S. in the hope of effectively, including but not limiting to, reducing the demand for illegal employment, and protecting the employment opportunities in the U.S. for the U.S. lawful workforce. All employees must be authorized to work in the U.S., either automatically (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident) or by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Among other things, ICE agents are encouraged to conduct more investigation on employers’ compliance with the employment verification system on Form I-9. ICE’s new policy is to increase the number of fines levied on sanctioned employers, and to adopt more uniformity in the level of fines across the U.S. In addition to fines, ICE may also debar certain companies, found in violation of worksite enforcement, from accepting contracts from the U.S. federal government.

Much of the worksite enforcement policy was developed only two or three years ago and they continue to evolve rapidly because it was only in 2005 that the U.S. government started to increase its focus on worksite enforcement. ICE continues to provide training to their ICE agents on worksite enforcement policy to increase their agents’ expertise in executing the law on worksite enforcement.

Due to the continuous evolution of worksite enforcement policy, upon worksite enforcement from ICE agents, the employers, when appropriate, should not be afraid to respectfully challenge the ICE agents’ interpretation of the worksite enforcement law.

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For more information, please contact Aik Wan Kok, Immigration Attorney, at koka@tiyalaw.com, 703-772-8224 or www.tiyalaw.com. Ms. Kok at Tiya PLC represents companies and foreign nationals in the areas of immigration law (e.g. work authorization, green card and I-9 compliance). With more than a decade of professional immigration law experience with excellent results, we are your best source of professional U.S. immigration law services.

This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on as a legal advice or an attorney-client relationship.

Will the Long-Awaited Proposed Legislation on Providing Green Card/Permanent Imigration Status to, & Uniting Families from Abroad Finally Becomes Law?

An important proposed legislation that seeks to promote timely unification of, and legal permanent residence status (also known as green card) to relatives abroad with their families in the U.S. has been reintroduced to the U.S. Senate. The Uniting American Families Act would help legal immigrants unite with and confer legal permanent residence (green card) status to their families from abroad and end the decade-long waiting periods for legal immigrant visas by, among other things, recapturing unused immigrant visas and eliminating the tragically long family immigration backlogs. The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing on "The Uniting American Families Act: Addressing Inequality in Federal Immigration Law" on June 3, 2009.

All Rights Reserved.

For more information, please contact Aik Wan Kok, Immigration Attorney, at koka@tiyalaw.com, 703-772-8224 or www.tiyalaw.com. Ms. Kok at Tiya PLC represents companies and foreign nationals in the areas of immigration law (e.g. work authorization, green card and I-9 compliance). With more than a decade of professional immigration law experience with excellent results, we are your best source of professional U.S. immigration law services.

This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on as a legal advice or an attorney-client relationship.