Archive for April 29th, 2011

DHS Announces Elimination of List of Countries Subject to NSEERS

Henry Chang | April 29, 2011 in United States Immigration | Comments (0)

On April 27, 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced the elimination of the list of countries whose nationals have been subject to registration under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (“NSEERS”), effectively ending the NSEERS registration process through the publication of a notice in the Federal Register.

NSEERS was first implemented in 2002 as a temporary measure in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was designed to record the arrival, stay, and departure of certain individuals from countries chosen based on an analysis of possible national security threats. For further information regarding the history of NSEERS, please refer to my NSEERS article.

According to the DHS notice, the NSEERS registration required approximately 30 minutes in secondary inspection, per person, per arrival. NSEERS registrants were also required to register upon departure at one of the 118 designated ports of departure, limiting travel flexibility. It was possible for frequent travellers to seek a one-year waiver of NSEERS requirements but the process was discretionary and inconvenient.

According to the recent DHS notice, it has since implemented several automated systems that capture arrival and/or exit information, making the manual entry of this data via the NSEERS registration process redundant, inefficient and unnecessary. Improved and expanded DHS and Department of State systems now apparently capture the same information for visitors, regardless of nationality.

For this reason, the NSEERS program is being discontinued. However, because the Secretary of Homeland Security’s authority under the NSEERS regulations is broader than the manual information flow based on country designation that has now ended, the underlying NSEERS regulation will remain in place in the event a special registration program is again needed.


USCIS Updates H-1B Cap as of April 22, 2011

Henry Chang | in United States Immigration | Comments (0)

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has updated its H-1B cap count for the current fiscal year. As of April 22, 2011, approximately 8,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 5,900 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced (master’s or higher) degrees from the United States.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers. The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000. However, some petitions are exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption provided to the first 20,000 petitions filed for a beneficiary who has obtained a U.S. master’s degree or higher. Others are completely exempt from the numerical limits.

Please note that up to 6,800 H-1B numbers may be set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year.

For further information regarding the H-1B category, please review our H-1B article, which is available here.