Kama Of Kingstone

Just to keep the ideas about entrepreneurship and the group activity floating at a central place, a file has been created in the group. Any one who feels their ideas, thoughts and proposals are worth and benefit the VI entrepreneur community, please add them below. The team will review them frequently and try to implement as many as feasible in the best interests of the IV and the group.

Compilation of some of the ideas/thoughts already proposed by the entrepreneurship group members:

1. Create a Charter which describes our activities,what we want to do,
roles, responsibilities, How to address issues and conflicts among
members etc.

2. Establish a core team/board who will report to a chair and is
ultimately responsible for policies, actions etc.

3.Identify and assign responsibility to individual members

4.Clearly identify the chain of command (whose responsible for what
and who does final decision)

5. Also assign the charter/board to come up with a business plan, do
investment analysis etc for the group.

6. Chalk out any short term and long term initiatives such as
attracting and retaining folks, managing day to day affairs, sharing
the wealth of knowledge and profits.

7. Should we register a ivstartup.org domain?
its 9.99/yr at godaddy, so that we can move from an informal setup
like yahoo groups to a more formal setup...with our own forum and
all..

8.Also to meet the cost...lets have a $1 as a yearly fee (or 50
cent/month) or 10$ life long membership....that will cover the cost
of hosting.

9. Like the one proposed on IV about Housing Crisis and speedy green card approval for buying houses, why not we propose an agenda for speedy green card process for I 485 pending and aspiring/existing entrepreneurs?

10. Create a shared repository for the all the startup related information specifically targeting IV audience.

Please add in your thoughts to the above or visit

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ivstartup/files/

It is surprising why your case is among the unfortunate ones in such background checks. There was a memo few years ago after IV's efforts that eliminated FBI name checks. Read http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=61

I am also unable to understand why you are getting conflicting information from congressional inquiries.

If you think there might be a lot of people stuck in namecheck issue these days, please collect everyone on this thread to see how widespread this problem is. You can ask on IV and other websites and have them assemble here. The numbers will help us understand the extent of the problem. I personally do not think there are any such namecheck problems beyond the 6 month period as stated in the 2008 memo. Have not seen anyone reporting on IV except your thread. Some effort may be needed by you to explore the extent of the problem. In terms of resolving it, looks like you are doing what people do to get status.

For getting the Copy of my Labor Certificate, Do I still need to submit the FOIA form to USCIS or should it be submitted to different department. Please advise.

May be he or she has a spouse whose birth country is non retrogressed .. :)


Even THEN it is not possible. Coz the June 2007 bulletin says that even ROW has to be atlest June 2005. His PD was Dec 2005 so there is NO way he could have applied.

25,000 members, every day request to raise $30,000.

Why not happening? Even every member contribute $2, it becomes $50,000.

The question comes to whom contribute? This web site does not belong to me. If some question is in my mind, I can't start a thread. Which individual/group it belongs to? Who can start a thread? For the last 2-3 days, I am trying to find answers.

How many members are active? Is it or the orders of tengths or hundreds or thousands?

If with 25,000 members, raising $30,000 is difficult, there is some problem. One of the problem defenetly it is not open - even I asked, how can I start a thread, I did not get answer.

I think, core team to get into action to motivate people - as an example I am now so much demotivatied that thinking not visiting this site.

I had a conference call with the leading law firm.

He confirmed that, as long as the first two numbers falls under the same category/domain, the job changes is good for AC21. The sub-categorical numbers do not matter.

I guess the officer did the right thing. In my opinion you don't have to worry about this. Tear the i-94 from your 797 and send it to lawyer along with your original i-94.

Are you advertising your Law Office on the message board...????

A number of members have reported this and other posts as advertisements. However, since the post does not contain any mention of the law firm or its details and is related to immigration issues, the posts will be allowed to remain. In fact, if bzuccaro is indeed a lawyer, then I (in my personal capacity) thank him for taking the time to post informative and educational updates on this forum as long as he does not use the forum to advertise his firm. Members are, of course, more than welcome to contact bzuccaro individually if they wish to talk with him one-to-one. But IV is in no way recommending this lawyer or liable for any issues or disputes arising if members were to establish an attorney-client relationship with bzuccaro or his firm.

I sincerely think that the reason why various immigration agencies are getting away with 'doing nothing' for Legal immigrants is because media does not discuss the backlogs in the immigration system. If we can focus on some really shocking statistics....data...and request some reasonable media personnel to discuss and take up as a story...it would be more helpful than all flower campaigns...and other forms of protests. I wrote to Fareed Zakaria today and you can do so as well. We can try other famous personalities on CNN such as Soledad O�Brien. If you know anybody on the Fox News side who might sympathize and investigate the issue, try them as well. Every media and politicians bracket us in the same group as illegals or fraud H1Bs...that image needs to change before something can happen...its absolutely bizarre and immoral in my opinion when the head of DHS cannot go to congress and say that there is an unfair situation for Legal Immigrants from India/China in the immigration system and she needs temporary assistance in fixing the system. Sec of State and Head of DHS surely have the authority to refer an unfair situation in the congress for a temporary legislative solution until the CIR is addressed.

You are missing the actual thing here. Backlogs are there in family based too - so this backlog is not "THEIR" problem - backlog is there because supply is more than demand. The Visa cap was congressionally mandated and when politcians question DHS - they only say - we will improve our efficiency and process applications efficiently - now without a visa number DHS really cannot issue you a green card. All they can do is process your application and keep. Visa number is the last thing in the process and they have to obtain visa numbers from DOS.

Now - the issue for EB applicants being tied up to employer throughout the process is what is creating a difficult situation for us. Over the past 3 years IV has done a lot of lobbying to the effect of doing rallies, admin fixes, grass root lobbying, media drives and helping people in all sorts of issues.

Look - it is not easy to convince people to change laws - because people on the other side do not see things the way we see it. It is all politics and one has to understand how get things done effectively. When you raise voice - the other side comes back with their POV talking about jjob losses, wage depression, fraud etc..

I see people crying and cribbing and blaming everything and everyone for their situation.

What I intend to say is "No one will help you" - YOU HAVE TO HELP YOURSELF

Now, that's a good idea. How about Cutting Permanent Residency Delays.

18 months is too long for citizenship applicants, and 6 years not too long for permanent residency applicants.


===

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/us/12citizen.html

Agency Acts to Cut Delay in Gaining Citizenship

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: January 12, 2008
Federal officials said Friday that they had agreed on an emergency plan to hire back about 700 retired government employees in an effort to pare an immense backlog in applications for citizenship by legal immigrants.

Under the plan, first proposed by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, retired workers could return to the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency without sacrificing any part of their pensions. The agency will be authorized to hire former employees who have long since passed training programs and could be on the job quickly to help handle the more than one million citizenship applications filed in the first 10 months of last year, Mr. Schumer said.

The required waiver was approved in a letter on Thursday to immigration officials from Linda M. Springer, the director of the Office of Personnel Management.

The rehiring program is one step to help the immigration agency overcome an embarrassing backlog. Legal immigrants, saying they were spurred by a fee increase that took effect July 30 and by worries raised in the fierce political debate over immigration, applied in huge numbers last summer to become citizens. They were aided by a nationwide drive led by Hispanic groups and Univision, the Spanish-language television network.

According to its Web site, the immigration agency is projecting that it could take up to 18 months to process citizenship applications received after June 1. Hispanic groups have protested that hundreds of thousands of applicants would be unable to vote in the presidential election.

“It’s a problem of their own making,” William Ramos, director of the Washington office of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, said of the agency. “We kept telling them, there is going to be a surge.”

In recent days, the immigration agency confirmed that it received 1,026,951 citizenship applications from last January to October, nearly double the number in that period in 2006.

The agency also received a deluge of other immigration petitions.

Hispanic groups have demanded that the agency complete by July 4 the naturalizations of all immigrants who applied in the 2007 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Mr. Ramos said.

Normally, when retired federal employers return to work, their salaries are reduced by the amount of their pension payments. Under the new waiver, retired workers who return to the immigration agency will receive full salary as well as their regular pension payments.

Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency was also reorganizing its work force and imposing mandatory overtime on current workers.

The immigration agency plans to hire at least 1,500 new regular employees by the end of this year, Mr. Bentley said.


Read the people and organizations marked in bold above. They seem to be behind it. It is all about how much you can highlight the cause and lobby for it.

If we want something like this we will have to work for it too. Each one of us needs to participate it in.

Thanks for the link. That clarifies that the new package fee of $1010 encompasses the EAD/AP renewal for the life of 485. If one had used the old fee structure then the new fee for I 765 (EAD) - $ 340 and I 131 Advance Parole - $ 305.

I would think that if you pay $645 (EAD and AP) for the renewal that would also be good for the life of the 485, though the link doesn't explicitly state that. Does anyone have any more info on that?

Thanks.
Can someone confirm that if you file I-485 with old fee system and pay for the new fee when you renew EAD and AP, do you still need to pay again on your 2nd time renewal ?

Check the directory of occupational titles and ensure the new and old jobs have the same / very close occupational code. You can find it on the DOL website. Duties is one thing, but the code is also important.

I did check, job code is 13-1111.00. the two titles used in labor cert are principal management consultant -system analysis - this is primary
and system analysis - mentioned in related occupation

the approval job code is 13-1111.00 - the new title i am getting is system analyst.

Guys, I was just laid off and have efiled i539 3 days after the termination date for a status change to F2. Now working on the application letter. Do you think I should mention the layoff in the letter?

If I do mention it:

Con: The layoff might quickly catch the eyes of the immigration officer and if he want to check my status, he could find out the 3 days OOS.

Pro: My previous job was well paid. By mentioning it, I give the reason that why I want to stay at home as F2 instead of keeping the well paid job.


I guess I will mention it in the letter to explain the whole situation and hope everything will be all right. Let me know if anybody disagrees asap, I will mail out the stuff with in next two days.

Yes. Travelling through Europe has become a big hassle these days. Avoid the London route. It is the worst. I have travelled via Frankfurt (Lufthansa) several times. But Lufthansa is getting troublesome too these days.

The South Asian route via Singapore is the best. SIA In- flight service is excellent and you will notice a marked difference in their "attitudes". I have heard about China Airlines too. You might want to check that out as well.

You are "legally" eligible to take any job or start your own business.

Some good job search websites are:
www.monster.com
www.dice.com
www.hotjobs.com
www.careerbuilder.com

My I-140 is stuck at NSC from more than 750 days. I had 2 RFE's and last one was answered 4+ months ago. Last Friday my attorney had raised SR for my case after we answered our RFE. Can anyone share how long it takes for USCIS to answer on SR in case of I-140 application? :confused:

Your input is appreciated.

Thansk

Any enquiry on 140 can only be done by the company or the lawyer. You have no other option except being nice with them:mad:

Hi desi9333, let me answer your question in general and note that this is not a speculation on the OP's case. A common reason for L1 denial could be that the USCIS determines that the petitioner isn't really in a 'specialty' occupation. For example, if his job description mentions java programmer, then he is more likely to get denied since we know there is a surplus of java programmers in this country (US citizens, LPRs and our favorite H1Bs). Since I was on an L1 visa, I know the purpose was really 'specialty' occupation which means you need to be an expert on something that's not easily available in the U.S.

To gchodhry, hope you get clarification and solution on your case soon, if you haven't broken any rules. Good luck.
L1 is intracompany transfer. Means you worked for a foriegn company in some other country and you are expert in their technology(in-house) or products. And they require you at their office in US. That's where they should apply for L1 Visa.

Can soneone help me with this question.....please....

My husband is on H1B and I'm on Ead.....both of us have expired I-94 stamps.....we are planing to go to our home country this year...we want to apply for advance parole......my question is.....can we enter U.S both of us with AD?
I read on Uscis website that you need to have personal reason in order to go to your country while I-485 is pending....and you have to prove your personal reason.....is that true....we want only to visit our parents.

Thanks in advance!
I came back last year December, no issues, No questions asked. The entire process was very smooth.
Just remember to carry all your documents.

gcformeornot, I don't see what's incorrect in my post. The point about intra-company transfer was implicit in my post since everyone knows L1 is for such transfers. So that should have been understood without being mentioned. My point was that the denial for extension could have been due to the USCIS looking carefully at the job description again and determining that it wasn't really a specialty occupation. So I was particularly pointing out the 'job description' that goes with an L1 visa. I was also saying the same thing as you i.e. the job should be that of an expert in a particular domain which is not readily available. For example, why would a company transfer a java programmer instead of directly hiring one in the U.S?

It's another thing that TCS, Infosys and the likes of those have abused this visa and destroyed its credibility. That issue needs to be looked at by the lawmakers and it is in genuine employers/employees' interests.

is you need to be expert in Companie's processes, practices, products and inhouse software......

Hello All,
My labor for the perm processing has been rejected (after 2 years) due to an incorrect field in the ETA form. This was lawyer's mistake and negligence in paying diligence in filling the form. Can I sue the lawyer? My options would be either to restart the processing or look for another law firm to file my application.
Please let me know if anyone has encountered the same problem? Can I file a legal case against the law firm?

Thank you
Ravi

And ask many Indians,Chinese etc about their namecheck experience :-)

But this won't be easy "Do you want us to compromise on national security", will be the first question asked . They will acknowledge the applicants pain and won't budge . "We know thousands like you are getting screwed for many years, but national security is foremost'.

I really hope they rely on electronic documents and don't push paper from one office to another.

First, I would like to congratulate each and every member of IV for having an effect on USCIS and successfully able to submit the 485 in July. The things that mattered were the unity and direction / advise from the core team. Its a victory by any standard.

The next big problem will be the delay in FBI name check. With the very little workload they have there are backlogged cases from 2003. It is again like a black box (Hope you remember philly BEC). You can do anything you want but FBI wont budge. And with this extra 200K + applications, the situation would get worse and worse. You really do not want to get stuck here for years. The only thing that works is WOM, and thats not an easy thing to do.

I would strongly urge the core team to consider this as an agenda along with ongoing effort of legislative solution of retrogression (Increasing the number of GCs). I would also ask all the members who were able to file 485 to read some of the forums (Yahoo namecheck tracker, immigration.com etc), and prepare yourself of what is coming. Right now, if you are unlucky, you get stuck, but later if you are lucky, you will get through.

We will win at the end, because we have not done anything wrong. Just keep unity.
Thanks

I contributed $150