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Editor's Notes

• #3: U.S. immigration law flowchart recently published in the Washington Post showing the complexity of the current law.
• #4: I- Squared¡¯s provisions impact on EB ¨C IV¡¯s:No limits on certain EB IV¡¯s which we will discuss in some depth.Elimination of per country limitations for EB IV cases (current law limits to 7% of overall IV#s available).Proposed law designed to benefit certain very high-skilled workers.
• #5: I-Squared seeks to reduce the current delays in green card issuance by exempting the following:Dependents of employment-based immigrant visa applicantsHolders of U.S.-issued advanced degrees in STEM disciplinesExtraordinary Ability FNsFNs who qualify as Outstanding Professors and Researchers
• #6: Looking at each exemption ¨C the elimination of dependent family members from the IV # count will greatly reduce backlogs by ¨C perhaps ¨C more than 50%.
• #7: To qualify for IV cap exemption under the advanced STEM degree provisions you must:Hold an advance degreeFrom a U.S. school; In STEM.These are typically EB-2 cases.
• #8: Also exempt are the following EB-1 preference cases:Extraordinary Ability cases in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics through sustained national or international acclaim. Outstanding Researchers/Professors ¨C requiring demonstrated international recognition for outstanding achievements in a particular academic field + 3 years experience in teaching/research + job offerNOT EXEMPT in EB-1 ¨C are Multinational Executives/Managers.
• #9: This is the monthly Visa Bulletin showing the EB IV # oversubscription backlogs for March 2013. An EB-2 applicant born in Mainland China may apply for a green card on March 1st if s/he had started the EB green immigration process on or before Feb 15, 2008 (the date the process began is called a ¡°priority date¡±).A similar EB-2 applicant born in India may apply if the priority date is on or before Sept. 1, 2004.Applicants in EB-3 from anywhere in the world not otherwise listed would need a priority date of May 1, 2007 or earlier. And look at EB-3 India: Nov. 22, 2002!
• #10: If I-Squared is implemented,the per-country limits will be eliminatedFor ChinaIndiaMexico; andThe Philippines - Making a single global pool of applicants. And again, the ones exempted from the IV caps limits would be as follows:Extraordinary Ability and Outstanding Researchers/ProfessorsGraduates of U.S. universities with STEM degrees (mostly EB-2 cases)And of course, family members will be exempt ¨C resulting in a much smaller pool of IV applicants with a homogenized backlog (if any).
• #11: How might this play out? IV applicants from India and China will no longer be subject to per country backlogs. So, IV cases for Indian applicants will automatically advance substantially; As will cases for applicants from China; butApplicants from the rest of world - since now part of the same homogenized pool ¨C will potentially experience greater delays than they saw before. The group impacted by this most visibly would be applicants in EB-2 (advanced degrees) who currently have little or no wait at all.
• #12: This slide shows the 3 typical steps to get an EB green card through the PERM labor cert process. First the employer determines the minimum requirements for the position it seeks to fill with the FN. Then, the DOL looks at these requirements and determines whether ¨C by DOL¡¯s standards ¨C the requirements are ¡°normal¡± to the occupation. And finally, the IV petition is filed with USCIS. If there is an IV # available, then the USCIS may process and issue the FN a green card. The potential problem we see is this middle step.
• #13: I-Squared¡¯s elimination of U.S. issued advanced STEM degrees from the IV cap will 1) induce FNs to get U.S. issued advanced STEM degrees.2) U.S. employers will then have a richer pool of well-qualified candidates. But¡­. 3) If I-Squared does nothing to address DOL¡¯s processes (and there is no indication that it will), there is great potential for a bureaucratic bottleneck which will have the effect of nullifying I-Squared¡¯s fixes to this part of the immigration law.
• #14: It all depends on the definition of ¡°normal.¡± The DOL finds a large segment of EB-2 advanced degree positions as ¡°normally¡± requiring at a minimum a Bachelor¡¯s degree and no more than 2 years of experience. Or, alternatively, a Master¡¯s degree and zero experience. Employers who consider minimum requirements as exceeding these education and experience levels will be met with opposition by the DOL in the form of an Audit. In the case of such an audit, the employer must painstakingly prove that their minimum requirements exceeding what the DOL thinks is ¡°normal¡± are required by business necessity. Successfully proving this for many positions can be very difficult to do. Statistically, 45% of all PERM cases filed with DOL are audited. Of those, perhaps half are denied. So ¨C even if I-Squared reduces or eliminates the EB-2 advanced degree backlog, if the DOL¡¯s processes are not similarly amended to accommodate the influx of this very rich talent pool, a large percentage of this valuable foreign national talent may have great difficulty getting green cards.