Mentol Blog's

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain

I am also from MN. Living in Minnetonka. Willing to know anyone going for Rally.

Wandmaker, do you know what are the odds of getting approval for COS to B2 from H1B?

I'm about to submit an application for work visa in New Zealand and I want to stay here in the US and wait for my NZ visa approval here. I'm a Filipino national. I'm currently working on some document requirements and my guess-timate is that I'll get my NZ work visa by late January or even February. I do have an employer waiting for me in NZ and I signed an employment contract already. Will all these info be enough to support my application to stay for a few months and leave when I get all my affairs in order (NZ visa,etc)?

Thanks!

As long as your (immigration) records are clean, I do not see any issues in COSing to B2 from H1B. You do not have to go into greater detail about your future employment. You just need to mention that you have some personal closing tasks and site seeing to do before leaving the US for good, it should fetch you 6 months.

please post the names and email adddresses of the authors....so we can all contact them.

Clearly, legal, skilled immigrants from countires like India, China, Mexico and Phillipines are already facing 5-7 years backlogs and this bill, by reducing quotes from 140K to only 90K, is going to make this problem worse!!! To relieve this problem, they should've expanded quotas (atlteast temporarily), made soft countrycaps, and exempted dependents, but they are going in the totally opposite direction.

I read the bill posted for IV, and on page 259 it says for first 5 years after enactment, level of EB immigrants will be at 2005 levels (which was 246K)
90K will for for pending EB applicants, while ATLEAST 10K will for exceptional aliens in nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y). This means that these "exceptional aliens" will have a new quota of 246K-90K= 156K a year, while the qouta for existing EB immigrants will be reduced by 50K, thereby accentuating the horrific backlog that already
exists...

Question is, who are these "exceptional aliens" under section 101(a)(15)(Y)??

What exactly does "OP" stand for?

Om Prakash

Recently, I made my own PP photos using http://www.epassportphoto.com/

This is a great service - It creates a jpeg file from a picture that you upload, and you can choose the "free" option in which you can save the jpeg file with 4-6 pictures in one frame (A 4" x 6" photo can yield 6 pp photos of 2" x 2"), and take it to Walgreens/Costco/Kinkos for a printout for $0.25 each. Otherwise you pay about $8-$12 for 2 photos at the same stores!!

For a family of 4, this equates to savings of ~ $40!!!

The site has all the tools for meeting various types of visa/pp/etc photo requirements for various countries.

Wow that is so Great!!!!!! You saved $40.
Now how about contributing it to IV?

EB3-I, PD Nov 2002, 485 filed 2004. Have EAD and also have approved H1 (year 9 -12), but not stamped on passport. With about 7000 people ahead of me, wait time for my GC is estimated to be 2-3 years.

Have been with employer who filed GC for over 10 years now. There is a job opportunity with another employer, but the job description may be different from what was filed on my original GC. Pay will be similar, but travel will substantially reduced, allowing me to be home more.

What should I be careful of if pursuing this new opportunity? Is there anything I should be asking the new employer for related to the job description filing? Should I be asking them to file H1 transfer or use my EAD? Should I ask them to file EB2-I and port my PD over?

Thanks - just want to make sure I am not jeopardizing my 10 year wait for this opportunity.

1. Make sure that your new company's HR and lawyer are comfortable in supporting the fact that new job is same or similar to old job. It is a grey area and you can be the best judge on it.

2. When you join the new employer ask their attorney to send AC-21 letter to USCIS indicating that you have moved to a same or similar job based on AC-21 porting.

3. Filing for H1 or EAD is a personal choice - as far as GC processing goes I don't see a difference in using either.

4. If they are willing and and the position qualifies you to file EB-2 and port PD- sure go ahead.

I checked my online status online. It only shows the application is recieved but not the name. If I create my profile would I be able to see my name when I check status online. I haven't created my profile yet.

As far as I know, one is only required to file taxes on foreign accounts if they have $10000 or more in their accounts at any time during the financial year. Please correct me if I am wrong. Also, check: Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=148849,00.html)

Sorry forgot to put the confirmation number in 86FWC-M9PFC

how do you all intend to do that? A lot of larger clients I've seen have the preferred vendor policy and if the desi company is the preferred vendor, how do you eliminate them?

If you want to stay with the current client and eliminate the layer - It is completely depends on what kind of contract you signed with a preferred vendor or employer. There is no general how-to. If i were you, I will look for a new client with high billing rate.

Hi,

I just checked online.. my status is showing follwoing message:
(This I-485 was a denied case earlier. But suddenly they Transferred my case in last month and now I see this status today).

Application Type: I485, APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Case reopened or reconsidered based on USCIS determination, and the case is now pending.

We reopened this I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS on June 29, 2009, and are now reviewing our earlier decision. We also mailed you a notice describing the next steps in the process. Please follow any instructions on this notice. Our review should be completed within 30 days. We will notify you by mail when we make a decision or if we need something from you. If you move while this case is pending, call customer service.

Can someone please shed some light on this.

The reason why they are not talking about EB is there is nothing to talk.

The solution is straight and simple. to recapture and has been discussed enough. I am positive that should CIR happen EB reform will happen too.

Wrong. The DS-160 is just part of the process. Consulates all over the world cannot issue visa until they can verify through PIMS. I was asked a lot of questions in the interview because my name did not appear in PIMS. At the end, the consulate said, I qualify for the VISA but their hands are tied. Consulates have no control over PIMS and according to the consulate, they send an inquiry to KCC and have to wait for them to update.

My interview was in June so I don't know if things have changed since but please consult your attorney.

To celebrate the success :D

Success of ???

yes, i did receive my ead card for 2 years renewed. here is the part that every one will be surprised and will like is that, this time, they gave my ead renewal starting from the date that it will expire this year. it usually used to be from the date they process the ead renewal application, in which case, we usually use some months since we will apply 2-3 months earlier. atleast this time, we are getting the bang for the buck, since i am reasonably confident that, i have atleast full 2 years of wait to receive my GC (my pd is jan 2003). keep in mind i am a highly optimistic person for the above confidence. though the reality is i may need to wait atleast 5-6 years before i get my GC. i am not kidding and i am serious abt this.

This is good news. When did you apply and where did you apply for EAD? Are you considering to going to DC on June 7 and 8?

I am sure there are many guys in this forum as frustrated as I am and we all have been wondering what our other options are. I also know that lot of people have started to think very seriously about immigration to other countries.

Based on our current circumstances, I have been wondering if it will be worth making a collective effort. In other words, how about if wrote an open and collective letter to leaders of the other immigrant friendly countries about our interest in immigration to their country for the mutual economic and professional benefits. I know this sounds a little silly but if USA is not ready to recognize and appreciate the benefits of legal immigrant community then I am sure there will be several other countries willing to benefit from this situation and gain competitive excellence. After all, we are all professionals and we all have lot to offer to the economy of today's competitive world. I believe we deserve a little better than we got right now.

Any thoughts?

may be they just throw files around... too many on my desk, move 'em to TSC :D

If you are out of status you may have to go India to get Visa. Canada and Mexico may not give Visa You were out of status for couple of months. So it should not be an issue in getting Visa
[
QUOTE=pradeepd;1400834]Hi,

I work as a full time employee (h1b) for a company abc in CA. In Oct 09 they laid off a couple of people and the attorney instead of revoking a laid off persons h1b sent a note to USCIS to revoke my h1b while im still employed. They informed USCIS to ignore the note they sent but USCIS ignored and cancelled my H1. In the meantime attorney files another h1b and got h1b approval (without i94 stub)

I was getting paystub till now and today they called me and said I was out of status due to the mistake they did. They didn't inform me about the out of status from Nov 07 2009. They basically wanted to cover their mistakes. Now yhey are asking me to go to Canada or Mexico to get H1B stamped. Here are my concerns

1) What will be implication in the embassy for such situations where I'm totally unaware of our of status situation
2) Is there chances of my H1B getting rejected in Canada or mexico due to out of status and would they ask me to go to India from Canada/Mexico ( i don't mind going to india but I have 5 month old baby and woudn't want to risk the travel from US to Canada/mexico to India)
3) Or is it advisable to go to india and get it stamped

My company has given a letter stating that it was their error to USICS and agreed to bear all the expenses for travel.

I need your urgent help and all of your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sudha[/QUOTE]

Its hard to gauge what they are trying to do here by mentioning that the processing dates are accurate only as of July 31, 2008. But just attempting to make a few guesses. I might be totally wrong though

- May be they are trying to cover up their silly, non-backable acts of swinging Processing Dates back and forth as a pendulum. And hence keep the web posting data perpetually at a older date, so that if some official corners them they can say "Oh, forget the web data, it is out of date. Here's the more updated *internal* info" . But at the same time to the general public , they can point to "Go look at the web data, I can't open a service request for you based on where the processing dates are at" and thus avoid all accountability and head aches of opening service requests etc.

- May be they are going to fast forward the dates now that the PDs are retrogressed and people can't file service requests left and right based on processing dates outside normal processing times.

Dude, you reasoning does makes sense in this thread and in the other thread where people are talking about asking for accountability.

On a side note, I notice that your PD is in 2001 and your id is optimistic. Hope you keep the optimism alive�

Take an infopass appointment to know if your name check is cleared. I did the same, I couldn�t find out what was happening to my case, but I did find out that my background is cleared.

That's the spirit guys/gals :), Enjoy to the hilt. News will follow :D
loved the song.. heard so many times.. without knowing the detailed meaning :-)

I think we all gather here for dancing munna bhai style.. and we'll find our individual reason soon :-)