We Give the New USCIS Website a "B-"

The newly revamped USCIS website went online on September 22.

It is definitely an improvement over the prior website.

For example, it is geared to the person who needs information about immigration. On the left side of the screen appear the words "Where to Start". This allows you to click the arrow next to the words "I am..." and provides you with 21 choices ranging from "U.S. citizen" and ending with "Educator or Volunteer". Below are the words "I want to..." Depending on which of the 21 categories you choose under "I am...", the choices under "I want to..." will vary accordingly.

If you choose "I am a visitor/nonimmigrant", you will be given seven choices in the "I want to..." category. Some of these categories allow you to learn more about becoming a permanent resident through investment, employment, the lottery or as a religious worker, but nothing about becoming a permanent resident through a family member. This is obviously an oversight which we hope will be quickly corrected.

Suppose you choose "I want to find out about becoming a permanent resident (green card holder) through employment". You must click the green button which states "Get Results". This brings you to a page entitled "Green Card Through a Job". A short article about employment-based immigration appears in the middle of the page. Over to the left, there are links to web pages on the following topics: "Green Card Through a Job Offer", "Green Card Through Investment", "Green Card Through Self-Petition" and "Green Card Through Special Categories of Jobs" as well as links to other ways to obtain a green card and green card processes and procedures.

The right side of the screen contains a column entitled "More Information" with the following subtopics: "Forms", "Tools - Before I File", "Tools - After I File", "Other Cases Services", "Other USCIS Links" and "External Links".

All in all, the new USCIS website appears to contain more information than did the old website. Further, it is arranged in a fashion that is much more user-friendly. We link to the new website from our "USCIS" page at

http://shusterman.com/ins.html#1
Another significant improvement to the new website is that there is a Spanish-language version of the site. It is plain to see, however, that many pages which are available in English are not available in Spanish. For example, the Spanish "Soy..." option only contains four possibilities as opposed to the 21 choices for the English "I am...". Hopefully, this will change over time. We link to the Spanish version of the website from

http://shusterman.com/cis_espanol.html

The website allows users to get e-mail updates, text messages on their smart phones regarding the status of their cases, has an RSS feed and multimedia. I watched a video entitled "Becoming a U.S. Citizen: An Overview of the Naturalization Process". As a former INS Citizenship Attorney (1976-82), I was impressed by the quality of the information presented.

We link to the page which allows persons to create an account in order to check their case status and to learn the current processing times from our "USCIS" page at

http://shusterman.com/ins.html#2

Not everyone is impressed with the new website. When I requested a short evaluation of the site from a member of my staff, I received the following:

"The main change to the USCIS website is the layout. The contrast in colors is pleasing to the eye and adds the illusion that the site is that much more organized. What is much more organized is the homepage. The topics that seem to be of main interest to visitors are nicely laid out. However once you click on the topic, you are connected to a page with basic information and on each side there are links that might confuse the visitor at first. After touring around the redesigned site, the visitor realizes that the same links practically exist on every page with minimal change. I don’t think USCIS is providing its visitors with more information, it’s just that the same information has moved!"

I don't know that my evaluation of the new website is as harsh. However, I do have some problems with the new website.

On August 15, a few weeks before the new website went online, we wrote "USCIS' Redesigned Website: Our Suggestions". See

http://carlshusterman.blogspot.com/2009/08/uscis-redesigned-website-our-suggetions.html
Did the new website adopt any of our suggestions? Read on.


* Suggestion # 1 - Please do Something to Improve the Search Engine

As a trial, we typed in the words "L status" into the search engine and got ten results. However, none of the results led us to a page discussing what L status is and how to obtain it. Is there such a page on the USCIS website? Perhaps the search engine still needs some work. Until USCIS improves its website and search engine, feel free to go to our "Intracompany Transferees L-1 Status" page at

http://shusterman.com/l-vsa.html


* Suggestion # 2 - Make the Website Easier to Navigate

Failing to find any information about L status by clicking "Resources" near the top of the new website, we typed "Nonimmigrant Categories" in the search engine, and with a bit more effort, found the following 162-page PDF file about nonimmigrant status:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Nonimmigrant_Services.pdf

Was this information available on the old website? We don't know. However, why not simply add an easy-to-locate "Nonimmigrant" section on the new website?


* Suggestion # 3 - Make the New Website as Good as the 1999 Website

Here, we searched for the four Nationality Charts. The term "Nationality Charts" yields no results in the search engine. Similarly, opening "Citizenship & Naturalization Based Resources" on the left side of the screen fails to reveal any information regarding obtaining U.S. citizenship through one's parents, through derivation or acquisition. However, a google search revealed that the Nationality Charts are still on the USCIS website located in the Adjudicators' Field Manual. But why torture yourself? We link to all four Nationality Charts on our "Citizenship" page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-usc.html#6


* Suggestion # 4 - What's with the Long URLs?

On the new website, the URL for "Information for Employers and Employees" is


http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=838e2f8b69583210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=838e2f8b69583210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Need we say more?


* Suggestion # 5 - Help Immigrants and Their Employers Find Good Legal Advice

Under the heading "Humanitarian Benefits Based Resources" on the left side of the screen is the listing "Finding Legal Advice". The new website, like the old, still links to the EOIR "List of Free (sic) Legal Service Providers". As we explained in our blog, this is both misleading and untrue.

Does the new website link to the list of "Certified Specialists in Immigration and Nationality Law" as they promised me in 2006? See

http://shusterman.com/pdf/certsp1106.pdf
Of course not!

All in all, the new USCIS website is an improvement over the old website, but much more remains to be done.

We give the new USCIS website a "B-"

Hopefully, the new website is a work-in-progress. Send your comments to

uscis.webmaster@dhs.gov

California Snake Oil

Here in my home state, the budget is over $25 billion in the red. One group is trying to find someone to blame, but not the Governor nor the legislature who got us into this mess. It's far easier to pick on a group with little or no political power.

This group consists of "undocumented workers" or "illegal aliens", take your pick, or to be more precise, their U.S. citizen children.

The plan is to put a proposition on the California ballot which, if passed, would cut off welfare payments to these children. Will this solve the budget crisis? Hardly, since the cuts would be less than 4% of the budget deficit. Would such a move be challenged in court? Certainly. There is no getting around the fact that under the 14th amendment to the Constitution, these children are U.S. citizens and cannot have their legal rights abridged, no matter what the status of their parents. Will it make a lot of voters enraged against "Mexicans" and "wetbacks"? But of course...

History tends to repeat itself, and this is no exception. Back in 1994, a bunch of zealots put anti-immigrant Proposition 187 on the ballot. The proposition would have cut health, welfare and educational benefits for illegals and, in some cases, for their U.S. citizen children. Sound familiar?

I wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about Proposition 187, warning that the ballot initiative was clearly unconstitutional. The proponents of 187 dubbed it "SOS", short for "Save Our State". My article was entitled "Snake Oil Salesmen".

Proposition 187 was passed by an overwhelming majority of voters. Republican Governor Pete Wilson endorsed the proposition and went on to win the election.

Did Proposition 187 accomplish its stated goals? Hardly. The Courts declared the proposition unconstitutional. What's more, the campaign jolted the state's large Hispanic population into action. Millions of immigrants naturalized as American citizens and registered to vote. The Republican presence in the California State Legislature shrunk to about one-third.

Hopefully, the latest attempt to demonize immigrants from Mexico and their U.S. citizen children will fail at the ballot box. In any case, it will be a colossal waste of time and money since U.S. citizens cannot legally be deprived of benefits due to the immigration status of their parents.

One can only hope that the comprehensive immigration reform bill supported by the Obama Administration will pass Congress and be signed into law this fall. Let's get every worker in this country on the tax rolls, and handle this matter in an intelligent fashion.

We link to the latest legislative proposals from our "Immigration Legislation" page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#3

President Obama and Immigration Reform

On June 25, President Obama met with a bipartisan group of 30 key legislators beginning a dialogue that he hopes will lead to comprehensive immigration reform in 2009 or early in 2010.

Among the topics discussed were border security, family reunification and reform of the outdated quota system.

Following the meeting, the President stated, “but what I’m encouraged by is that after all the overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue, we’ve got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now.”

With regard to the USCIS, the President stated:

“Today I'm pleased to announce a new collaboration between my Chief Information Officer, my Chief Performance Officer, my Chief Technologies Officer and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office to make the agency much more efficient, much more transparent, much more user-friendly than it has been in the past.

In the next 90 days, USCIS will launch a vastly improved Web site that will, for the first time ever, allow applicants to get updates on their status of their applications via e-mail and text message and online. And anybody who's dealt with families who are trying to deal with -- navigate the immigration system, this is going to save them huge amounts of time standing in line, waiting around, making phone calls, being put on hold. It's an example of some things that we can do administratively even as we're working through difficult issues surrounding comprehensive immigration.

And the idea is very simple here: We're going to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce the unnecessary paperwork, backlogs, and the lack of transparency that's caused so many people so much heartache.”

President Obama also announced that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano will chair a working group composed of Representatives and Senators to hash out some of thorniest issues. Among these issues are how to legalize 12 million undocumented persons, border security, cracking down on unscrupulous employers, creation of a “guest worker” program and whether a governmental commission should be established to decide the future immigration of temporary and permanent workers based on labor market needs.

Unions are opposed to a guest worker program and in favor of a commission while business groups would like to see a guest worker program but are opposed to a governmental commission.

Senator McCain (R-AZ), a key player stated that “we don’t need a commission” and called on the President to stand up to labor unions and support a guest worker program.

Several persons close to President Obama including his Press Secretary and his Chief of Staff have asserted that there are not enough votes in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. And at least one strong proponent of immigration reform, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), agrees. “If we had the votes, we wouldn’t be calling you”, Gutierrez told the Wall Street Journal.

However, in the Senate, both the Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) believe that there are enough votes in their chamber to pass the legislation. The Senate passed the bipartisan Kennedy-McCain immigration bill in 2006. However, the House did not take up the measure.

“We’ve got one more chance to do this,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “If we fail this time around, no politician is going to take this up in a generation.”

President Obama stated, “It’s going to require some heavy lifting.”

We link to a video of President Obama’s remarks at the conclusion of the June 25th meeting as well as to the transcript of his remarks from our “Immigration Legislation” page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#4

Grim Outlook for EB Visa Numbers

Why do we punish people who play by the rules?

Charles Oppenheim, Guru of the Visa Office in the State Department, has confirmed what we warned employment-based (EB) immigrants about in our June 2009 newsletter.

Not only are EB-3 numbers unavailable for the rest of the fiscal year and EB-2 numbers for persons born in China and India oversubscribed, but the situation is going to get worse, much worse.

Mr. Oppenheim states that the EB-1, EB-4 and EB-5 categories are all experiencing greatly increased demand, so much so that the EB-4 category (religious workers and special immigrants) may retrogress this summer. This is very significant since unused visa numbers in these categories are typically given to those in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories. Without these extra numbers, the retrogression in the EB-2 and EB-3
categories will be that much worse.

How much worse, you ask?

Because the Labor Department has cleared its backlog of old cases, during the past year the USCIS processed many thousands of I-140 visa petitions with priority dates prior to 2005. Mr. Oppenheim states that because of this, the worldwide EB-3 cut-off date will be March 1, 2003 come October 1st. Things will be worse for those born in India where the EB-3 cut-off date will be November 1, 2001.

Expect EB-2 visa numbers for Indians to become unavailable either in August or September. What will happen to EB-2 India in the coming fiscal year? We wouldn't be surprised if the category retrogressed up to 10 years or more. Ditto for EB-2 China.

Just like the automakers, the immigration SUV is about to go over a cliff. With European countries and Canada making it easier for talented scientists, engineers, programmers and health care workers to immigrate, our restrictive immigration laws and policies are driving highly-educated immigrants away. We educate foreign students in our best universities, and then say "Happy Graduation, Now Go Home!" As a result of this short-sighted policy, our country's position as the world leader in science and technology is threatened.

Only if Congress acts to pass pending legislation like the Reuniting Families Act which would allow for the recapture of 400,000 lost visa numbers could disaster be averted.

We link to this bill and to a host of other pending bills which address our broken legal immigration system from our "Immigration Legislation" page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#3