The Goldberg Law Office, PLLC wishes you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving and Hanukkah holiday. As our office and family continue to grow, we thank you for your loyalty and support. 

May this holiday season and year 2014 bring you and your family joy, health, and success. 

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

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/

Post 2013-election, immigration became a hot topic once again. The polls showed that more Hispanics came out to vote, and that immigration was a topic they cared about. Since then, the Gang of Eight proposed new legislation to address the current US immigration problems. This includes an attempt to resolve the fact that we have millions of people living in the country without lawful immigration status.

After approval in the Senate, the bill is now waiting for Congressional approval. In the meantime, our country and world face other issues of interest including the war in Syria and national debt.

Immigration reform activists are trying to heighten the interest and awareness about the changes needed in our immigration laws. For now, the push for change is a little stagnant. But it doesn't mean that things cannot change. I think that there is still hope, and activists are reviving the hype that immigration had earlier this year.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/outside-groups-try-to-revive-immigration-reform-96950.html

One part of immigration that many Americans have dealt with  is the Form I-9. A new employee typically completes this form when
starting a new job. The Form I-9 may look simple. However, it can bring
many woes to an employer if not handled properly. The reason is because under
the Obama administration, more employers are receiving audits inquiring into the
employee I-9 forms resuling in fines that cost employers thousands of dollars.


BeginningTODAY employers will need to start using the new Form
I-9. Below is a link with the new document. This form can get very complicated. Therefore, it is a good idea to discuss Form I-9 with an experienced attorney and learn about Best Practices in dealing with the form.


http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf

 Last year, the Obama administration spent almost $18 billion on immigration enforcement. This is more than the amount spent on all other federal enforcement agencies combined (that total is $14  billion)!
 
That is a lot of taxpayer money going towards enforcement of our
government’s immigration laws. One thing to note is that under the Obama  administration, he has deported more immigrants in his first term than  President W. Bush did in his two terms in
office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/us/huge-amounts-spent-on-immigration-study-finds.html?smid=fb-share

 According to the US State Department, the Russian government  passed a new law called the Yakovlev Act. This law ends inter-country adoptions between America and Russia. It is unknown what will happen with families that  are currently under the adoption process. Over the past 20 years, Americans  have adopted over 60,000 children from Russia.



http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=42623&utm_source=Recent%20Postings%20Alert&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RP%20Daily
 

The Goldberg Law Office PLLC wishes you a very happy 2013. At the  end of each year, we look back at big events that happened to us, our clients,  and our community. Our attorneys are proud of the work we have been able to accomplish for our clients, and we look forward to even bigger successes in 2013. This year also brought us to our new office location, which has given us more space to grow. 

We appreciate the support and loyalty of clients, friends, and our community. The Goldberg Law Office PLLC wishes each of you a happy,  successful, and great 2013! Have a nice and safe  holiday.

 House Judiciary Committee Chair, Lamar Smith, introduced a new
immigration bill this week. The focus of the bill is to replace one program with
a new program.

Currently, we have an immigration program called Diversity Lottery. The diversity lottery is basically a lottery for citizens of particular countries which are not substantially represented in the United States. Folks from that country specific list enter the lottery, and if their number is picked, they could have the opportunity of obtaining permanent residence in the U.S.  There has been some controversy regarding the diversity lottery in the past because  critics argue that it can give people a free pass of obtaining a U.S. Green Card, which can been seen as “not
fair.”

 The GOP Bill will get rid of the diversity lottery program and give more visas to people with advanced high-tech degrees. The proposed bill would allow 55,000 of these visas. My question is whether this bill will cure the immigration issues raised by others about our immigration problem.

 What do you think?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/26/gop-immigration-bill-keeps-the-well-educated/?utm_source=AILA+Mailing&utm_campaign=dfa8249839-AILA8_11_28_12&utm_medium=email

The Goldberg Law Office, PLLC wishes each of you a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. This time of the year, we are reminded of all of the wonderful opportunities we have living in the United States.

We are thankful for the clients we have and the people in our community that support our firm.

May this holiday bring you and your family a lot of joy and appreciation.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!