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News Release September 14, 2007 WASHINGTON – More than 23,000 men and women across the country will become United States citizens next week during naturalization ceremonies hosted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to commemorate Citizenship Day and Constitution Week.

“Citizenship Day honors the brave act of 39 patriots who, on September 17, 1787, signed the Constitution of the United States and charted the course of our nation that has continued for 220 years,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez. “With the words, ‘We the People,’ they established the basic purposes of our government, forming a country that protects the rights and secures the liberties for all citizens – both native born and naturalized.” (more…)

The process for a foreign citizen to legally acquire a green card and eventually become a legal naturalized citizen of the U.S. is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Many critics of the system maintain that if the process was simpler there would be far fewer foreign citizens entering and remaining in the U.S. illegally.

When a foreign citizen visits the U.S. as a tourist, a medical patient, a student, or for business purposes, they generally need to present only a valid national passport, a photo ID card or birth certificate, and sometimes an entry visa. A visa is simply an endorsement on a document that shows authenticity and conveys permission to travel to and to enter a foreign country. This type of visa is also known as a nonimmigrant visa. Fees for a passport, a nonimmigrant visa, and a border crossing card total about $300.

However, when a foreign citizen wishes to reside and work in the U.S., they need to present an immigrant visa, also known as a green card. The green card was originally called the Alien Registration Receipt Card, but it has recently been renamed the Permanent Resident Card. Originally the card was green in color but now the card is white with some green printing on the back. It is still known generally as the green card. Recipients of the green card must carry it with them at all times. The green card is valid for a period of 10 years.

The green card is issued to a foreign citizen as a response to a petition by an employer or a relative who is a U.S. citizen. The petition by the employer or relative allows the foreign citizen to enter the U.S. for the purposes of being employed and residing permanently in the country.

The process for acquiring the green card generally follows three steps. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) issues the green card. This service used to be known as the INS or Immigration and Naturalization Service. USCIS is often referred to as simply the Immigration Service and is now part of the Department of Homeland Security. The first step is for the USCIS to review all of the paperwork and approve the petition from the qualifying relative or employer. The second step is to send the approved paperwork to the National Visa Center (NVC) where the petition waits for a visa number to become available. Only a limited number of visa numbers are available each year. Once a visa number becomes available, then the third step is for the petition to be forwarded to the appropriate U.S. embassy or consulate in the foreign citizen’s home city or country. (more…)

What is a Visa? A “Visa” is simply a stamp in a passport that gives the passport holder authorization to enter the United States. The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) handles most matters involving visas. You may find an immigration lawyer to help you with your H1 visa or any other visa on this site. What is the H1-B Visa? The H1-B visa is also commonly called a “work visa” or “work permit.” This is the most common form of temporary work visa. It enables the foreign worker to enter the United States to work temporarily in a professional capacity.

H1B Employment opportunities in the state of Minnesota, which reflect the national trend, are abundant, so abundant that employers are seeking out the assistance of foreign workers to fill the gaps in the workplace. To locate an H1B job in the U.S. use the links at the right to draft and post your resume.

The government requires at least five agencies to certify a foreign employee for H1B work in the United States, often a long process in itself. But the government recently made this process even more arduous by reducing its funding to one key player in the certification process, the State Economic Security Department. This cut in funding has had a grave impact on this state’s, as well as this country’s, ability to recruit and retain foreign professionals for employment, especially those H1B professionals with technical experience and in the field of health care.

How Do I Qualify? (more…)

The lure of riches in a foreign land, the potential of awesome new opportunities, dreams of what might be � all these sometimes entice people to immigrate to a different country. Being reunited with a loved one or just longing for adventure are also strong reasons for immigrating. Sometimes, rather than being drawn to a new country, one is pushed: religious persecution, starvation when the crops have failed, escaping unbearable family situations.

Certainly wars, revolutions and political unrest have caused thousands to try to find a peaceful existence elsewhere. And decades ago, many were forced against their will to live in a new country as slaves or as prisoners.

For all who move on, pulling up roots from their homeland can be traumatic. It truly is not an easy decision to make, and today about 15% of those who leave their native country choose to return, finding that adjusting to a new society is too difficult. (more…)

By: Paul Babs The lure of riches in a foreign land, the potential of awesome new opportunities, dreams of what might be � all these sometimes entice people to immigrate to a different country. Being reunited with a loved one or just longing for adventure are also strong reasons for immigrating. Sometimes, rather than being drawn to a new country, one is pushed: religious persecution, starvation when the crops have failed, escaping unbearable family situations. Certainly wars, revolutions and political unrest have caused thousands to try to find a peaceful existence elsewhere. And decades ago, many were forced against their will to live in a new country as slaves or as prisoners.

For all who move on, pulling up roots from their homeland can be traumatic. It truly is not an easy decision to make, and today about 15% of those who leave their native country choose to return, finding that adjusting to a new society is too difficult. (more…)

LOS ANGELES –Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants hope that nationwide marches will spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape. Though this year’s turnout will likely be lower, organizers say immigrants feel a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections. “If we don’t act, then both the Democratic and Republican parties can go back to their comfort zones and do nothing,” said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “They won’t have the courage to resolve a major situation for millions of people.”.

In Miami, Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean was scheduled to speak to a coalition of immigrant groups, while Ricardo Chavez, the brother of famed agricultural labor leader Cesar Chavez, was expected address crowds in Milwaukee. (more…)

A group of conservative Republicans has sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid, asking the majority leader to let Americans see what’s in the Democrats’ immigration reform bill before it comes up for debate and a vote. “We understand that you are committed to working to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation, and that you plan to bring a bill to the Senate floor in the next few weeks,” the letter said.

“Due to the seriousness and complexity of the issue, we ask that you make any comprehensive immigration reform legislation publicly available online at least one week prior to moving it on the Senate floor.” (more…)

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States faces a severe worker shortage in the near future, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday in advocating better education for Americans and changes in immigration law to allow in more foreign workers. Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue, at a news conference outlining business prospects in 2006, said the country is ill-prepared to deal with the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers.

‘We have yet to secure an adequate supply of working taxpayers to run a growing economy and support an explosion of retirees,’ he said in his organization’s report on the state of U.S. business. (more…)

EAGLE PASS, TX – A pilot program that jails all illegal immigrants crossing into this Texas border town from Mexico has led to a dramatic fall in numbers attempting the journey, the U.S. Office of Border Patrol said on Friday. A program known as Operation Streamline II, instituted on December 12, is aimed mostly at non-Mexican illegal immigrants who were arrested and released because Border Patrol agents did not have sufficient space to jail them.

The blanket crackdown is also being applied to undocumented Mexicans who were previously subject to criminal background checks and released back over the Rio Grande without charges. (more…)

DETROIT, MI – Robert Johnson was down on his luck and short on cash last month when a man named Hunt offered him $800 to smuggle two Chinese immigrants in the trunk of his car into the United States through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. But what looked like easy money quickly turned into a legal nightmare for the laid-off Windsor auto mechanic, 29, who joined the growing ranks of Canadian and U.S. citizens arrested at the border recently, accused of smuggling Chinese and other Asian immigrants into the United States.

Since May, about a dozen otherwise law-abiding citizens, including a Wayne County juvenile detention officer, have been arrested at the tunnel or Ambassador Bridge and charged with smuggling Asian nationals into the country. (more…)

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