The publicly traded company, Infosys Ltd, is set to be slapped with a fine of about $35 million dollars. The investigation came into fruition because of questions on how this Indian outsourcing company brought their employees to the US. Most of their workers came on the B-1 (tourist for business) visa and not on the H-1B work visa.

Many folks that come to the US with work visas hold an H-1B visa in particular. The US issues a maximum of 65,000 H-1B work visas per fiscal year. Infosys brought an unknown amount of employees via the B-1 visa route—a path that requires less elements to prove and does not have a cap on the amount of visas issued. Further, Infosys did not maintain complete Form I-9s for their employees. The Form I-9 is a document that employers have employees complete upon hire to demonstrate that the employee has authorization to work in the US.

The Form I-9 might seem straight forward, but it has brought many woes and thousands of dollars of fines to companies across the United States. But the Infosys $35 million dollar fine is the largest thus far.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/infosys-faces-record-us-immigration-fine-2013-10-29?mod=wsj_share_tweet

The number of immigrants dramatically increased this year from years past. In 2013 fiscal year, over 27,546 people claimed they had credible fear of returning to their home countries. That is a huge jump from 2012 when there were 10,730 cases or in 2008 when there were 3,273. Some contributing factors to the increase in asylum seekers include: tougher border security and the spreading word that seeking asylum can help a person stay in the US longer while undergoing immigration deportation proceedings. 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304795804579097473250468020

President Barack Obama signed a bill this morning to raise the debt ceiling. This is a short term fix to the problem that left the government in a partial shutdown for 16 days. 

A new budget will need to be approved by mid-January, otherwise the government will be in a similar position again.

What does this mean for immigration? Courts are slowly reopening, and will soon be hearing non-detained immigration cases. During the shutdown, judges were only holding hearings on the detained cases. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/17/senate-begins-vote-on-budget-bill-boehner-pledges-house-wont-block-it/

Clients are asking me about how their cases are affected by the government shutdown. For now, clients with appointments for fingerprints and interviews with immigration officers, should continue to present for these scheduled events. People in deportation proceedings who are not detained, will have their hearings rescheduled for a later date. Immigration judges are only adjudicating deportation cases that involve immigrants that are detained in immigration jail.

I will try to post more updates as I get them.