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BREAKING NEWS

11-3-06

USCIS Launches New Web Site: On November 1, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the launch of a new Web Portal that has replaced its old website. The Web Portal is available at the same address, . The announcement was accompanied by a USCIS Fact Sheet about the new website. See the announcement at: . Read the USCIS Fact Sheet at:

DOJ Fact Sheet on IDENT and IAFIS Interoperability: The Department of Justice (DOJ) Fact Sheet explains the US-VISIT program's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) and the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The goal of IDENT and IAFIS interoperability is to allow the real-time exchange of biometric and biographic information between agencies. See this AILA Document in the Public Domain section of the AILA website at:

USCIS Announces Changes to I-539 Student Reinstatement Processing: USCIS announced that beginning October 30, 2006 local USCIS offices will forward new filings for Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, for F-1 and M-1 student reinstatement, to the California Service Center or the Vermont Service Center, depending on where the student is engaged in study.

Urge Congress to Provide H-1B and Employment Based (EB) Immigrant Visa Relief during the Lame Duck Session: Write to your Senators and Representative and ask them to provide urgently needed H-1B visa and EB green card relief in the post-election lame duck session. The lame duck period offers the last chance this year to fix this growing crisis! See this AILA Document on the public domain area of their website at:

Update on New BEC Public Disclosure System, Processing Dates and RIR Conversion: The status can be checked on If you discover a problem with the status of a case (e.g. case erroneously closed or withdrawn), you can email info@dal.dflc.us or info@phi.dflc.us with information/documentation establishing why the case should be active. In addition, if an employer or its attorney has received a response to their "nobeccontact" inquiry stating that their case was closed and they believe that the case was closed in error, they can respond to the email with information/documentation explaining why the case should be reopened.

RIR Conversion: Beginning in November 2006, USDOL will be publishing BEC traditional (TR) case processing dates. Updated monthly, DOL will list for each BEC the date by month and year what TR filing dates the respective BECs are working. This is being done to help employers know when they can expect to receive recruitment instructions on their pending traditional cases and inform the decision to whether or not to pursue an RIR conversion request. DOL indicated that they are working on April 2001 and do not expect to advance the date for some time due to the volume of 245(i) applications filed then.

With respect to RIR conversion, DOL will not accept a conversion request once the job order has been placed for the traditional case. However, if an RIR conversion request is submitted to the DOL with a postmark or express courier shipping date that is before the date that DOL places a job order, DOL will accept and process the RIR request and cancel the TR job order.

Traditional Recruitment Process: On traditional cases, DOL is aware that members are finding that there is sometimes a lengthy delay from the date the job order is closed and the time that applications and resumes are being sent to attorneys for candidate review. They are looking into the issue.

DOL to Notify Attorneys of Each Stage in the E-mail Sponsorship Verification Process: In response to the AILA-DOL Liaison Committee’s request, beginning October 20, 2006, DOL National Processing Center (for PERM cases) will be notifying attorneys of each stage in the e-mail sponsorship verification process

DOL Notice on Foreign Labor Cert. RIR Conversion and Extension of the RIR Eligibility Date: The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) issued a notice to extend the eligibility date the Department of Labor (DOL) uses to determine whether Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) re-application requests are timely. The notice was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 6, 2006.

CRS Report on Foreign Students in the United States – October 2006: The Congressional Research Service issues a comprehensive report on foreign students in the United States. According to the report, regarding foreign student visas, competitiveness concerns are now replacing security concerns, reversing a trend started soon after 9/11. This report appears at:

Visa Bulletin – November 2006: This is posted at:

EMPLOYMENT BASED NOVEMBER 2006 IMMIGRANT VISA AVAILABILITY TABLE

|  |All Chargeability Areas |CHINA-mainland born |INDIA |MEXICO |PHILIPPINES |

| |Except Those Listed | | | | |

|Employment Based |  |  |  |  |  |

|1st |C |C |C |C |C |

|2nd |C |15APR05 |01JAN03 |C |C |

|3rd |01JUL02 |01JUL02 |22APR01 |08MAY01 |01JUL02 |

|Schedule A Workers |01OCT05 |01OCT05 |01OCT05 |01OCT05 |01OCT05 |

|Other Workers |01MAY01 |01MAY01 |01MAY01 |01MAY01 |01MAY01 |

|4th |C |C |C |C |C |

|Certain Religious Workers |C |C |C |C |C |

|5th |C |C |C |C |C |

|Targeted Employment |C |C |C |C |C |

|Areas/Regional Centers | | | | | |

PERM and RIR Approvals for Alien Labor Certification (1st step in the 3 step Green Card processing through employer sponsorship) – Latest update: This law office has received a total of 23 PERM and RIR approvals (10 PERM and 13 RIR approvals) from the USDOL in the past 4-week period from 10-04-06 to 10-31-06. The PDF files with the scans of these certified Alien Labor Certification approvals is viewable by clicking at: for the PERM cases, and at for the RIR cases, or

These 23 PERM and RIR approvals for the 4-week period 10-04-06 to 10-31-06 have come for the following positions in approximately the following time frame:

(Note: If a case has taken longer than 100 days to process, we are indicating in parenthesis next to the Processing Center, whether the case underwent an “Audit” or “No Audit”, for accuracy in reporting and understanding. Also if the approval was through a conversion from RIR to PERM and the old priority date was retained, that is also indicated)

Position EB2/EB3 Date Filed Date Certified Approval Time USDOL Center

PERM – 10 cases approved

Market Research Analyst EB2 10/13/2006 10/24/2006 11 days Chicago

Mechanical Engineer EB2 10/19/2006 10/23/2006 4 days Chicago

Software Engineer EB2 10/19/2006 10/23/2006 4 days Chicago

Mechanical Engineer EB2 10/03/2006 10/17/2006 14 days Chicago

Mechanical Engineer EB2 08/18/2006 10/17/2006 60 days Chicago

Software Engineer EB2 09/30/2006 10/04/2006 4 days Chicago

Software Engineer EB3 08/31/2006 10/20/2006 50 days Atlanta

Software Engineer EB3 08/12/2006 10/20/2006 68 days Atlanta

Design Engineer EB2 04/21/2006 10/03/2006 165 days Atlanta (No Audit)

RF Engineer EB2 09/05/2006 09/29/2006 24 days Atlanta

Average Time = 40 days High: 165 days Low: 4 days

Position EB2/EB3 Date Filed Date Certified Approval Time USDOL Center

RIR – 13 cases approved

Computer Programmer EB3 05/28/2004 10/14/2006 29 months Dallas

Industrial Engineer EB2 12/30/2002 09/29/2006 45 months Dallas

Management Analyst EB2 10/20/2004 09/28/2006 23 months Dallas

GIS Systems Analyst EB2 03/25/2005 09/27/2006 18 months Dallas

Civil Engineer EB2 02/27/2004 09/27/2006 31 months Dallas

Financial Analyst EB3 12/17/2003 09/26/2006 33 months Dallas

Database Administrator EB3 08/09/2004 09/20/2006 25 months Dallas

Programmer Analyst EB3 02/11/2004 10/12/2006 32 months Philadelphia

Programmer Analyst EB3 01/29/2004 10/10/2006 32 months Philadelphia

Accountant EB3 01/09/2004 10/09/2006 33 months Philadelphia

Chemist EB3 01/02/2004 10/04/2006 33 months Philadelphia

Chemist EB3 01/02/2004 10/04/2006 33 months Philadelphia

Software Engineer EB2 11/08/2002 09/05/2006 46 months Philadelphia

Average Time = 26 months High: 50 months Low: 17 months

I-140 approvals – Latest Update: We have received 21 (twenty one) I-140 approvals recently for the past 4-week period from 10-04-06 to 10-31-06. The PDF file with the scans of these I-140 approvals is viewable by clicking at: (Note: this is a 1.27 MB PDF document) or

CSC = California Service Center

NSC = Nebraska Service Center

TSC = Texas Service Center

VSC = Vermont Service Center

Position EB2/EB3 Date Filed Date Approved Approval Time USCIS Prem/Reg (*) State

I-140 (Labor Certification based)

Software Engineer EB2 05/23/2006 10/25/2006 21 weeks NSC Regular CA

Programmer Analyst EB3 10/16/2006 10/24/2006 1 week TSC Premium DE

Software Engineer EB2 10/18/2006 10/23/2006 1 week NSC Premium CA

Chiropractor EB2 05/23/2006 10/19/2006 20 weeks NSC Regular OH

Software Engineer EB3 09/22/2006 10/18/2006 4 weeks TSC Regular VA

Mechanical Engineer EB2 10/10/2006 10/17/2006 1 week TSC Premium IL

Financial Analyst EB2 05/24/2006 10/16/2006 20 weeks NSC Regular OH

Mechanical Engineer EB2 10/11/2006 10/13/2006 0.3 weeks NSC Premium IL

Mechanical Engineer EB2 08/24/2006 10/13/2006 6 weeks TSC Regular IL

Mechanical Engineer EB2 06/26/2006 10/11/2006 14 weeks NSC Regular IL

Mechanical Engineer EB2 09/21/2006 10/10/2006 3 weeks NSC Regular IL

Software Engineer EB2 10/03/2006 10/06/2006 0.5 weeks TSC Premium CA

Project Engineering Mgr. EB2 06/12/2006 10/04/2006 15 weeks TSC Regular CA

Software Engineer EB2 06/16/2006 10/04/2006 15 weeks NSC Regular IL

Software Engineer EB2 03/14/2006 10/03/2006 22 weeks NSC Regular IL

Endocrinologist EB2 05/16/2006 10/02/2006 18 weeks NSC Regular IL

Business Analyst EB2 09/13/2006 10/02/2006 3 weeks TSC Regular CA

Software Engineer EB2 09/01/2006 09/27/2006 4 weeks TSC Regular PA

Financial Analyst EB2 05/16/2006 09/26/2006 18 weeks NSC Regular OH

Mechanical Engineer EB2 08/31/2006 09/26/2006 4 weeks TSC Regular IL

Mechanical Engineer EB2 08/31/2006 09/22/2006 3 weeks TSC Regular IL

(*) Note: The last column reflects the State where the Petitioner is located.

Average Time for 1-140 approvals: TSC = 4.1 weeks NSC = 13.8 weeks

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