National Interest Waivers: The Untold Story!

Heller Immigration Law Group, LLP (http://greencard1.com), and our staff, are extremely adept and highly successful at expeditiously putting together and then filing EB2/NIW cases for advanced degreed professionals, or those who possess exceptional abilitiy in the sciences, arts, or business.

There is some confusion about eligibility under this category, and this is the reason for the blog, here it is:

1/ Contrary to what is often said, an applicant does not need international fame, or renown; we have many I-140 approvals of individuals whose recognition is limited to their own home country; that is, it is perfectly OK and acceptable that one's fame does not extend beyond one's own border!

Of course, HILG - on behalf of the client - must still convince the USCIS that giving such an individual a green card will benefit the United States and will truly be in the U.S. "National Interest".

2/ Letters of reference and advisory opinions that we receive (and often redraft) attesting to the applicant's exceptional ability do not need to come from U.S. sources at all. Each and every one can be from individuals or entities that are within the applicants own country - and even written in one's own language!

As stated, HILG can file these NIW cases for those that are presently here in the United States, and except for Indian and Chinese citizens (who have a backlog in the EB2 category), we may proceed directly to filing an adjustment of status of the principal and all dependent family members through concurrent filing procedures.

The entire family will be eligible for work authorization and be given authority to travel abroad (EAD and AP).

FOR THOSE WISHING TO IMMIGRATE FROM ABROAD:

If the individual is outside of the United States, please notify us and we will ask you for certain documentation, including completing a Questionnaire, and sending us a CV/Resume. Once we establish eligibility, HILG will immediately send out an Engagement Package. We will then put together the case with your help, and then directly file the I-140 (NIW) petition with the USCIS.

After the Approval is received, the case will proceed to Visa Processing at the appropriate U.S. Consulate - and soon thereafter the obtaining of immigrant visas for the entire family.

It should be noted that these cases will almost always be filed with the USCIS under self-petition rules and there is no need for an immediate job offer (often a stumbling block for those living abroad with very little contact with the United States).

Even the lack of English skills is not a stumbling block. However, we caution our many NIW clients who we self-petition from abroad that within a reasonable time after entering with their green card, the individual should expect to and truly seek employment in one's specialized field.

For more information, please contact me: heller@greencard1.com

An Incredible Article by Intel's Craig Barrett - Repost.

Dear Readers,

Below I wanted to repost an Article written by Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel Corp, published in the Washington Post. I couldn't have said it better.

The direct link is: http://tinyurl.com/3cammo

Read below:

Best,

p

_________________________________

By Craig Barrett
Sunday, December 23, 2007; B07



The European Union took a step recently that the U.S. Congress can't seem to muster the courage to take. By proposing a simple change in immigration policy, E.U. politicians served notice that they are serious about competing with the United States and Asia to attract the world's top talent to live, work and innovate in Europe. With Congress gridlocked on immigration, it's clear that the next Silicon Valley will not be in the United States.

European politicians face many of the same political pressures surrounding immigration as their U.S. counterparts, and they, too, are not immune to those pressures. Nationalist and anti-immigrant factions in several Western European countries have made political gains in recent elections and are widely viewed as mainstream. Despite the hot-button nature of immigration issues, though, E.U. politicians advanced the "Blue Card" proposal in late October.

The plan is designed to attract highly educated workers by creating a temporary but renewable two-year visa. A streamlined application process would allow qualified prospective workers to navigate the system and start working in high-need jobs within one to three months.

This contrasts starkly with the byzantine system in place in the United States, which increasingly threatens America's long-term competitiveness.

The United States relies primarily on two programs to augment its workforce with highly educated, highly skilled foreign professionals. The H-1B visa is a three-year temporary visa that can be renewed once. The employment-based (EB) green card is the program for permanent residency. Both programs serve the needs of U.S. employers seeking to fill job vacancies in highly skilled professions. Extreme shortages of visas in both these programs are well documented.

H-1B visas, which are capped at 85,000 per year, are now gone in one day, with the "winners" determined by lottery.

The EB green card program has an annual allotment of 140,000 visas; these are allocated equally across all countries around the world, regardless of population. The inflexible country quotas mean that professionals from countries such as China and India are almost always at a disadvantage, finding themselves stuck in a system -- often for five to 10 years -- in which they cannot seek promotions and raises. Spouses and children count against the quota, which has not been raised since 1990. And even though they count against the quota of foreign workers allowed to come here, spouses are inexplicably forbidden to work, no matter their level of education and skill.

The U.S. system forces thousands of valuable foreign-born professionals -- including badly needed researchers, scientists, teachers and engineers -- into legal and professional limbo for years. Not surprisingly, many are considering opportunities in competitor nations -- even those who have lived in the United States for years and have graduated from American universities.

To be competitive in the global economy, U.S. companies depend on specialized talent coming out of U.S. graduate schools. These scientists and engineers are often foreign-born, as more than half of U.S. engineering master's students and PhD recipients are international students. Yet America shuts the door on many of these highly educated graduates, forcing them to look abroad for opportunities -- and our competitors are capitalizing on our failed policies.

E.U. leaders recognize that the top minds coming out of universities in the United States and other countries can help to reinvigorate European industry and enable it to create the next wave of businesses that drive innovation and economic growth.

While its Blue Card proposal still requires approval by member countries, Europe has sent a message. It intends to aggressively pursue the professional talent necessary to compete on the global stage. The United States, on the other hand, seems intent on driving away the very same talent the European Union is rolling out the red carpet to welcome.

The writer is chairman of Intel Corp., which employs about 2,000 employees with H-1B visas among its 86,000 workers worldwide.



© 2007 The Washington Post Company