USWorkVisa.com News Archive
for July, 2008

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has signed a joint agreement with the government of the United Kingdom to develop a bilateral pilot program to facilitate travel between the two nations. The International Expedited Traveler Initiative will integrate CBP’s Global Entry program with the British registered traveler program.

CBP announced the Global Entry pilot program April 11 to build upon other CBP trusted traveler programs, such as NEXUS and SENTRI, designed to facilitate and expedite the entry process for pre-registered low-risk international travelers into the U.S. NEXUS is a joint program with the Canada Border Services Agency that allows expedited processing into the U.S. and Canada at the land border and at Canadian pre-clearance airports. SENTRI provides for dedicated processing at the U.S.-Mexico land border.

The Global Entry pilot kicked off for U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents on June 6 at three airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York; George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas; and Washington Dulles International Airport. CBP began accepting online applications on May 12. CBP expects that citizens of the United Kingdom will be invited to apply as soon as late this year. CBP signed a similar agreement with the government of the Netherlands on May 19.

Jay Cohen, the Department of Homeland Security Department’s undersecretary for science and technology, warned during his keynote address at a recent University of Maryland global security summit that the U.S. workforce is “in crisis” because of insufficient numbers of students going into math and science fields. Mr. Cohen said students view those topics as too difficult.

The Department of Labor has decided to conduct an audit of all permanent labor certification applications filed by Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP (Fragomen). The Department alleged that it “has information indicating that in at least some cases the firm improperly instructed clients who filed permanent labor certification applications to contact their attorney before hiring apparently qualified U.S. workers.” The audits will determine which, if any, applications should be denied or placed into department-supervised recruitment “because of improper attorney involvement in the consideration of U.S. worker applicants,” the Department said.

A federal court ruled that Fresh Del Monte Produce Southeast, Inc., is liable for worker wage violations by a labor contractor. The lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in April 2006 on behalf of up to 500 field and factory H-2A agricultural workers working in Georgia on planting, harvesting, and packaging onions.

Mary Bauer, director of the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, said the decision was particularly significant “because it provides a roadblock to a disturbing trend by large corporate growers that import workers. Increasingly, those corporations attempt to evade responsibility for their workers by having middlemen — generally penniless crew leaders — submit the applications for H-2A workers, instead of the wealthy corporations doing so themselves.”

The Department of State has issued a final rule, effective April 29, 2008, to offer a completely electronic application procedure for nonimmigrant visas as an alternative to submission of the Form DS-156.

The Department has developed and introduced an electronic application process for nonimmigrant visas to eventually replace the current application process, which depends on a paper form (the DS-156, and other forms when required, such as the DS-157 and DS-158). The first step in paper reduction efforts was to offer an electronic visa application form (EVAF) as a voluntary alternative way of obtaining and preparing the DS-156. While a nonimmigrant visa applicant could obtain and prepare the DS-156 electronically, he or she was required to sign the DS-156 manually.

On October 1, 2006, the EVAF was made mandatory worldwide wherever possible. Now, although the Department will continue to accept the EVAF where necessary, it plans to eventually eliminate the DS-156 entirely and replace it with the DS-160, an electronic form designed to be completed and signed electronically. The procedure is the same for the nonimmigrant visa applicant except that he or she will not be required to print and sign a form to take to the visa interview. All information entered into the DS-160 will be available to the consular officer at the time of the interview. The applicant is required to “sign” the DS-160 electronically.