BAGON LAW FIRM

U.S. government says, China sent 16,000 more immigrants to the United States in 2011 than in 2010. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s latest yearbook, updated on April 15, 2012, said the country granted green cards to more than 1.06 million immigrants in 2011, and 87,000 of them were Chinese. The statistics were taken from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. In terms of the numbers of Immigrants they sent to the US, Mexico, China and India were still on the top three. China’s increase in immigrants to the United States was the largest of all countries. In 2011, Chinese accounted for 8.2% of the total number of the immigrants to the United States, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over 2010. China, Cuba and Vietnam were the only countries to see an increase in the number of immigrants to the U.S.  As always, the proportion of female immigrants was significantly higher than males. In 2011, there were 580,000 female migrants compared to 480,...

FY 2013 H-1B Cap Count   Cap Type  Cap Amount  Cap Eligible Petitions   Date of Last Count H-1B Regular Cap  65,000  25,000 04/20/2012 H-1B Master’s Degree Exemption  20,000 10,900 04/20/2012 Cap Eligible Petitions This is the number of petitions that USCIS has accepted for this particular type of cap.  It includes cases that have been approved or are still pending.  It does not include petitions that have been denied. Cap Amounts The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. Not all H-1B non immigrants are subject to this annual cap. Please note that up to 6,800 visas are set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year. Source: USCIS If you have any questions or nee...

Recent changes to Canadian immigration program has forced Chinese investors to look into the U.S. EB-5 investors program. Canadian investment program became a dominant program among Chinese emigration agents for the last 15 years. Since the 90's Canada has been a major destination for Wealthy Chinese investors. But to qualify, the investors has to own at least $1,000,000 assets and unconditional permanent residence can be obtained if the investors deposits $800,000 for 5 years with the Canadian Federal Government or  by the Province of Quebec. The majority of 600+ licensed Chinese emigration agencies are now beginning to explore EB-5 program and investor program in European countries. The most recent development that dramatically has changed the emigration industry in China is that the Canadian program reached its allocated quota in 2011 and is now “closed for renovation” leaving most China’s emigration agents with less profitable products they can choose to offer ...

As for April 9, 2012, USCIS has accepted the below number for petitions for the 2013 H-1B cap. FY 2013 H-1B Cap Count Cap Type  Cap Amount  Cap Eligible Petitions   Date of Last Count H-1B Regular Cap  65,000  17,400 04/09/2012 H-1B Master’s Degree Exemption  20,000 8,200 04/09/2012 Cap Eligible Petitions This is the number of petitions that USCIS has accepted for this particular type of cap.  It includes cases that have been approved or are still pending.  It does not include petitions that have been denied. Cap Amounts The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. Not all H-1B non immigrants are subject to this annual cap. Please note that up to 6,800 visas are set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B ...

Visa Bulletin for May 2012 The Department of State had recently released the Visa Bulletin for May 2012. Unfortunately, for many EB-2 applicants from China and India waiting for their priority dates to be current, the wait will be longer. Visa retrogression is to take place in May 2012 for the EB-2 category from 01 May 2010 back to 15 Aug 2007. FAMILY – SPONSORED PREFERENCES F1 : A good movement for all chargeability areas, China and India  (01 Apr to 01 May 2005). A week of forward movement to Mexico (08 May to15 May 1993) a good movement to Philippines (22 Jun to 01 Jul 1997). F2A:  A progress move to all chargeability areas, China, India and Philippines (08 Oct  to 15 Nov 2009). A good leap of progress for Mexico (01 Sept to 15 Oct 2009). F2B: A positive movement for all chargeability areas, China and India (15 Jan to 22 Feb 2004). For Mexico and Philippines no movement at all.        F3: Again, a good movement for all charg...

Effective April 13, 2012, the Department of State will adjust visa processing fees. The fees for most nonimmigrant visa applications and Border Crossing Cards will increase, while all immigrant visa processing fees will decrease. The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing visas through the collection of application fees. For a number of reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. The nonimmigrant visa fee increase will support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities, as well as additional staffing required to meet increased visa demand. Although most categories of nonimmigrant visa processing fees will increase, the fee for E visas (treaty-traders and treaty-investors) and K visas (for fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens) will decrease. Nonimmigrant Visa Processing Fees Type of Visa Previous Fee New Fee Tourist, Business, Transit,...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has established an expedited process for reviewing and correcting decisions resulting from certain administrative errors. This process enables customers to request an expedited review of their case and correction of the decision where data entry and/or an administrative error resulted in a denial or rejection of their petition or application. A customer or his or her authorized representative may contact the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-800-375-5283 to request that an expedited service request be created if he or she believes that an adverse adjudicative action fits within the criteria listed below: Administrative Error Categories IF AND 1.  USCIS issued an adverse decision based solely on a customer’s failure to respond to a Request for Evidence (RFE), Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), or Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) there is documentary evidence that the cust...

Over the past six years hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have paid $977 million in bail bonds to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for them to go free until their deportation cases are decided. Since 2006  at  least 209,163 potential deportees to avoid detention and go on with their lives as they await their legal fate. For the $977 million amount paid since 2006, the federal government has seized at least $167 million in breached bail bonds from thousands who either failed to appear for legal proceedings or voluntarily left the country. ICE collected almost $287 million in bail bonds last year – $107 million more than in 2010, and the highest amount in six years. By the end of 2011, the agency had returned almost $86.5 million to immigrants who had satisfied the conditions of their bonds. Illegal immigrants forfeited nearly $27.5 million in breached bonds in 2011 – $5 million more than the year before. ICE’s cash bond account balance as of February 1 wa...