USCIS Proposes Changes to Religious Worker Visa Requirements
As previously reported in Immigration Newswire,USCIS has been conducting fraudinvestigations on all religious worker visa petitions,including for R-1 nonimmigrantreligious workers and for special immigrant religious workers because a recentgovernment audit found a high rate of fraud in these petitions.In a further effort tocombat that fraud,USCIS has proposed several changes to the filing of religious workervisa petitions,including requiring USCIS approve an I-129 petition on behalf of anyreligious worker seeking admission in R-1 nonimmigrant status.Currently,R-1applicants may apply for an R-1 visa directly at a U.S. Consulate abroad and USCIS neednot approve an I-129 petition first; and Canadian citizens,who are visa exempt,maycurrently apply for R-1 admission directly at a port of entry without applying for an R-1visa or filing an I-129 petition.Current law only requires that an I-129 petition be filedfor a foreign national seeking an extension of R-1 nonimmigrant status or a change ofstatus to R-1 within the U.S.By requiring the filing of an I-129 petition in all cases underthe proposed rule,USCIS hopes to be able to pre-screen R-1 beneficiaries and petitionersfor any fraud.
The proposed rule would also make on-site inspections a routine part of the R-1nonimmigrant and I-360 immigrant petition adjudication process.USCIS has beenconducting on-site inspections before adjudicating any I-360 or R-1 petitions as part of itsfraud investigations over the past several months and the proposed rule would formalize the site inspection process.
In addition,the proposed rule would limit the initial R-1 admission period to one year.Current R-1 regulations permit an R-1 nonimmigrant to enter the U.S. for an initial three-year period and to extend his stay for an additional two-year period,for a total of fiveyears in R-1 status.Under the proposed rule,initial admission would be for one year,with two two-year extensions permitted.This is intended to allow USCIS to review eachR-1 petition for fraud after one year.
Additional information about the proposed changes,which have not yet beenimplemented,is available at:http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease /RvisaFactSheet19Apr07.pdf and http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/RvisaRelease19Apr07.pdf.
USCIS announced that as of April 18,2007,they had received approximately 18,000 H-1B petitions to be counted against the Masters Cap Exemption.The Immigration andNationality Act provides that the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf ofbeneficiaries who possess a Masters Degree or higher from a U.S. institution of highereducation are exempt from the H-1B cap.Thus the Masters Cap has almost beenreached. USCIS will provide updates on its website at www.uscis.gov.
Department of Homeland Security Amends Regulations Governing RFE and NOID Response Times
The Department of Homeland Security has published a Final Rule in the Federal Registerthat will amend USCIS regulations governing response times on Requests for Evidence(RFE) and Notices of Intent to Deny (NOID).The Rule will go into effect on June 18,2007.Current USCIS regulations provide petitioners and applicants 12 weeks to respondto an RFE requesting additional information or evidence needed to favorably adjudicate arequest for an immigration benefit; and 30 days to respond to a NOID.
Under the Final Rule,USCIS adjudicators will be able to set a shorter response period forevidence they deem easy to obtain, and no extensions of that time are permitted for anyreason. Twelve weeks will be the maximum period allowed to respond to RFEs and 30days will be the maximum period allowed to respond to NOIDs.However,the timepermitted could be much shorter.Failure to timely respond to one of these notices willresult in denial of the application or petition,either because the evidence originallysubmitted is not sufficient or because it is considered abandoned for failure to respond.
