The United States Department of State has announced its Diversity Visa lottery for 2011.  DV-2011 applications must be submitted electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Friday, October 2, 2009, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 30, 2009.  Applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) during the registration period.  Applicants are strongly encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter.  Heavy demand may result in website delays and the State Department will not accept entries submitted after noon EST on November 30, 2009.

Most significantly, the Employment-Based third preference category is finally “available” for Chinese nationals with priority dates of February 22, 2002 and Indian nationals with priority dates of April 15, 2001, and for all others (not from Mexico), June 1, 2002.  For the Employment-Based EB-2 second preference category, there has been only slight forward movement from last month:  Permanent visas are available for priority dates of March 22, 2005 for Chinese nationals and January 22, 2005 for Indian nationals.  The EB-2 category is still current for all other foreign nationals.  Please click here to access the complete October Visa bulletin.

E-Verify Effective September 8 for Federal Contractors

• Moving forward, new contracts for projects over $100,000 (and subcontracts over $3,000),  applicable contract renewals, and every new work order issued under existing affected contracts, will require federal contractors and subcontractors to enroll in E-Verify.   The USCIS has confirmed that contractors must then enroll within 30 days but it will be up to the contracting government agencies to enforce this requirement.  Businesses, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with a failed appeal last week, challenged the program on many different fronts, causing several delays from its initial January 2009 implementation date.  As we previously have advised, E-Verify is an electronic employment verification program, voluntary in many states, and required in others, which has been controversial both in implementation and reported error rates.  We continue to offer strategic planning analysis for our clients. 

• Visa Bulletin:  The State Department’s recently issued visa bulletin for September 2009 shows significant forward movement for the second month in a row in the Employment-Based second preference category for Chinese and Indian nationals.  The EB-2 classification for these individuals advanced to January 8, 2005, a jump of one year and three months over last month’s bulletin.  The Employment-Based first preference category remains “Current” for all nationalities while, unfortunately, the Employment-Based third preference category continues to be “Unavailable.”   As October marks the beginning of the government’s fiscal year, we may have additional changes to report next month.