• Audits Now in the I-9 Arena.  In our October immigration news alert, we provided a heads up and best practices advice about government H-1B *unannounced* site visits occurring this fall to verify representations made in employers’ underlying H-1B visa petitions.  Now there’s more, this time dealing with I-9 forms.  On Friday, November 20, 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary, John Morton, announced that it had served audit notices, or “Notices of Inspections” (NOIs), to 1,000 businesses last week.  Employers’ hiring records, including I-9 forms, are always subject to audit to ensure the compliance of employment eligibility verification laws.   [Employers must always keep I-9 forms for existing employees.  When employees terminate, employers must keep I-9s for the later of (1) 3 years after the employee's hire date, or (2) 1 year after the employee's employment ends.]
  

The State Department’s December 2009 Visa Bulletin, published on November 10, 2009, shows no movement in visa availability, with the paltry exception of the third preference (EB-3) category for Indian nationals, which advanced 7 days to make visas available for May 1, 2001 priority dates. Visa availability remains the same for nationals of all other countries in the EB-3 category. In the EB-3 category, Chinese nationals with priority dates of June 1, 2002 and before, Mexican nationals with priority dates of June 1, 2002 and before and Filipino nationals with priority dates of June 1, 2002 and before, have visa numbers available to them. Nationals of all other countries in the EB-3 category must have priority dates of June 1, 2002 or before for visa availability.