USCIS Announces List of Countries Eligible for Participation in H-2A and H-2B Visa Programs.

Jan 16, 2011: USCIS announced last week that the Departments of Homeland Security and State have identified a total of 53 countries whose citizens may be eligible to participate in the United States' H-2A and H-2B visa entry programs. The H-2A program enables U.S. employers to offer employment to foreign nationals for temporary agricultural positions. The H-2B program enables U.S. employers to offer employment to foreign nationals for temporary nonagricultural positions. With just a few exceptions, USCIS will approve visa petitions for people from countries designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security as eligible to participate in these two visa programs.

Effective January 18, 2011, people from the following countries may be eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visas programs:

Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Nauru, The Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Samoa, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Vanuatu. Of these countries, the following were designated for the first time this year: Barbados, Estonia, Fiji, Hungary, Kiribati, Latvia, Macedonia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Please note that Indonesia is no longer a country applicable for these two visa programs. This new list will not affect the immigration status of any individuals currently in the U.S. with valid H-2A or H-2B visas.

Latest Updates on H-1B and H-2B Visa Counts.

Jan 11, 2011: USCIS has just released the latest numbers for the amount of petitions received for the cap-subject H-1B and H-2B visa programs. According to USCIS, as of January 7, 2011, roughly 58,700 H-1B cap-subject petitions have been receipted by the federal agency. A total of 65,000 H-1B visas are available each year, according to current federal regulations. USCIS has also receipted 20,000 H-1B petitions for foreign workers with advanced degrees, leaving no additional available visa under that exemption.

USCIS also noted that it has receipted 2,129 H-2B petitions for the first half of the fiscal year, including 1,452 approved petitions and 677 pending petitions. A total of 33,000 H-2B cap-subject visas are available for each 6-month period.

USCIS Implements Help HAITI Act of 2010.

Jan 05, 2011: USCIS has officially implemented the Help HAITI Act of 2010. This new law will give USCIS the power to grant lawful permanent resident status to certain orphaned children from Haiti, who came to the U.S. under the Haitian Orphan Parole Program after Haiti's devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. The public is invited to comment on interim guidance until January 14, 2011.

The Haitian Orphan Parole Program, introduced on January 18, 2010, was a humanitarian policy that allowed orphaned children from Haiti to temporarily enter the U.S. to ensure they received the care they needed. Children legally confirmed as orphans eligible for intercountry adoption by the Haitian government and in the process of being adopted by Americans prior to the earthquake and those that were matched to prospective American adoptive parents were allowed to apply for the parole program, as long as other eligibility requirements were met.

Record Number of Undocumented Aliens Deported in 2010.

Dec 30, 2010: According to public records, a record number of immigrants were deported from the U.S. this year. In addition, this year marked the pronounced expansion of the USCIS Secure Communities program, a program aimed at identifying undocumented aliens imprisoned in the U.S.

According to ICE, nearly 400,000 undocumented aliens were deported in 2010. Of those, over 195,000 were convicted criminals. Much of this increase came from the Secure Communities program, which uses biometric data to compare the fingerprints of people imprisoned in local jails to those in ICE and FBI databases. The Secure Communities program is currently in place in 891 jails in 35 states across the U.S.

USCIS Announces Transformation to Web-based Environment.

Dec 27, 2010: Earlier this month, USCIS announced that it is undertaking an agency-wide effort to shift their immigration services from a paper-based system to an electronic system. This effort, known as USCIS Transformation, will utilize a simplified, web-based system for applicants to submit and track their applications online.

The new system, which will be account-based, will improve customer service and will enable USCIS to process cases with more precision, security and timeliness.

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