The Law Firm of
James Bonn
4450 Arapahoe Ave.,
Suite 100
Boulder, CO 80303
Phone: 303.415.0007
44 Cook St. Suite 100
Denver, CO 80206
Phone: 303.415.0007
San Diego, California
Phone: 619-232-4007
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June 24, 2008 issue
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DHS to Provide Grants to Help States Prepare for REAL ID Act
June 24, 2008: Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they will offer nearly $80 million in grant funding to help states improve the security of state-issued driver’s licenses and identification documents, as part of the new REAL ID requirements. Every state that requested funding for Fiscal Year 2008 will receive a portion of the grant funding.
The funding will help support projects such as improving the security of licenses, upgrading the security of facilities and updating document imaging and storing capacities. In addition, the funding will provide support for the development and testing of a verification hub that will let states send query requests to federal and non-federal institutions that issue identification documents to verify applicant source documents. -
Modern Day Immigrants Assimilate Faster than Immigrants of Previous Generations
June 23, 2008: A new study sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank, shows that immigrants of the past 25 years have assimilated in the U.S. at a much faster rate than immigrants of previous generations. According to the report, current immigrants come to the U.S. with less ability to speak English and lower earning power than their immigrant forbearers, take on native-born traits at a greater speed than seen previously.
The study, which measured assimilation by investigating rates of U.S. citizenship and military service, economic factors such as salary rates and home ownership, and cultural factors such as the ability to speak English and intermarrying rates, shows that the level of immigration has consistently increased, with a distinct raise in assimilation rates seen since the early 1990s.
Study investigators purport that this increase in assimilation rates may be due to the economic expansion of the 1990s that created more job opportunities at all economic levels. Many new immigrants started economically at a very low level, enabling a faster increase in assimilation as they improved their personal economies. However, the investigators do note that assimilation rates seen in ethnic populations with high levels of undocumented residents, such as Mexicans, are much lower than those of ethnic populations with lower levels of undocumented residents; this, the investigators state, is most likely due to the fact that a large portion of the ways to assimilate are cut off and unavailable to those that are in the country illegally. -
USCIS Will Close Field Offices in Tijuana and Hong Kong
June 18, 2008: On June 18, USCIS announced that it will close its field offices in Tijuana, Mexico and Hong Kong. The Tijuana office will close on July 3 and the Hong Kong office will close on August 29. In preparation of these closings, each field office will stop accepting the following applications and transfer responsibility for these forms on the dates here listed:
Tijuana
Form I-130, the Petition to Classify Alien as an Immediate Relative: June 20. Applications will be forwarded to the Mexico City District office for processing.
Form I-407, the Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status: July 1. Applications will be processed by the U.S. State Departments and the form and documents will be forwarded to the Mexico City District office for destruction and system updates.
Form I-600, the Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative: June 20. Applications will be forwarded to the Ciudad Juarez Field office for processing.
Form I-600A/I-800A, the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition: June 20. Applications will be forwarded to the Ciudad Juarez Field office for processing.
Hong Kong
Form I-130, the Petition to Classify Alien as an Immediate Relative: September 2. Applications will be managed and processed by the U.S. State Department Consular Section.
Form I-407, the Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status: June 23. Applications will be managed and processed by the U.S. State Department Consular Section.
Form I-600, the Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative: September 2. Applications will be managed and processed by the U.S. State Department Consular Section.
Form I-600A/I-800A, the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition: September 2. Applications will be received by the U.S. State Department Consular Section and forwarded to the USCIS Bangkok District office for processing.
Re-Entry Permits sent to Hong Kong for Collection: September 2. Permits will be distributed by the U.S. State Department Consular Section.
Application for Boarding Letters (also known as Transportation Letters): September 2. These documents will be processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. -
USCIS Update on FY 2009 H-1B Visa Selection
June 17, 2008: USCIS has informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the leading association for immigration lawyers, about various issues related to the Fiscal Year 2009 H-1B visa cap. According to a USCIS representative, with the exception of cases currently being reviewed as possible duplicate filings, all receipts have been issued for applications selected in the random H-1B lottery. Data entry was completed on May 23 and all receipts were mailed on May 24. Potential duplicate entry cases are current being reviewed by USCIS. There are currently 500 cases classified as potential duplicates. Each of these cases will be reviewed and decisions will be made on their status and classification. Finally, USCIS has commented that the number of petitions they selected during the random selection process was enough to reach the cap limit. USCIS will not need to use any reserves to reach the FY 2009 cap. Rejection letters are being mailed out this week.
