ImmigrationVoice.org

Updates :  Please read this important Update. 11/28/2007 | 12/14/2007 | 12/19/2007

11/27/2007 : Action Item: Join your State chapters. All members are requested to join their state chapter for important updates and to build IV communities at local levels |  Read More

9/18/2007 : Immigration Voice had its first rally in Washington DC on Sept 18th: Nearly 2000 participants joined in a rally to protest the delays in green card process for nearly 1.1 million legal skilled employment based immigrants and their families | BusinessWeek | How it makes a difference.  

Media Coverage of the Rally: New York Times | Washington Post | Houston Chronicle | Yahoo | BBC | OC Register | Paid Advertisement in Roll Call | Business Week |

10/23/2007 : Congressional Inaction and more Reverse Brain-Drain reports : It seems that the protectionists are probably aiming to eliminate competition for jobs by eliminating jobs itself from USA. While the US Senate was busy passing an amendment SA 3449 with unanimous consent to penalize foreign born skilled legal immigrants with additional filing fees and disincentives, Google was busy opening up its new innovation incubator in Bangalore, India. This comes on top of the recent reports of Microsoft opening up new offices in Vancouver Canada instead of Seattle after being frustrated with restrictions in skilled immigration. Duke University Engineering students are being advised to apply for jobs in Bangalore India, by Cisco's recruiters. 

10/12/2007 : Immigrants winning 2 Nobel prize in sciences this year draws attention to US immigration policy towards skilled legal immigration : This article in Washington Post has once again, highlighted the fact that one-third of American Nobel Laureates in last 15 years were immigrants. The article also cites Duke/Harvard/NYU study commissioned by Kaufmann Foundation and throws light on per-country limits that exacerbate the green card backlogs for skilled immigrants and how the backlogs are driving skilled immigrants out of USA to burgeoning asian economies.  

10/5/2007 : Movement on the House side in Congress : A letter from Republican Leadership of the House to Speaker Pelosi has started a new initiative to reform skilled immigration | Announcement from HTWG | Read More...

10/3/2007 : The reverse brain-drain is real and its happening: "Reverse Brain Drain" a term described in recently completed study by Harvard/Duke/NYU, commissioned by Kauffman foundation can be seen in anecdotal examples. Microsoft opened up offices outside USA after being frustrated with broken employment based immigration system and shortage of tech workers. Now, they have cricket matches and other facilities for foreign born workforce to prevent reverse brain-drain of talent out of United States and back to Asia. Will congress realize this issue in time, or wait for tech companies to move out of USA ? Microsoft is not alone, there are many other companies. Accenture has more employees in India than it has in United States.

10/1/2007 : US DOL says the backlog centers are done processing labor certs: According to the latest news from DoL, the Dallas and Philadelphia backlog centers are done processing the labor certifications and less than 1% are pending (that await employer's response). This long nightmare is over for thousands. Nonetheless the damage caused in terms of lost opportunities is irreparable | Read more...

30 September, 7:00 PM Eastern: Next Free Employment-Based Immigration Advice Conf. Call featuring Attorney Susan Henner | Read More

9/25/2007 : Rights of anonymous bloggers: Here is an important information about your rights as anonymous online blogger and Section 230. There are certain federal laws that protect Immigration Voice as hosting service provider from libel suits and defamation suits when participants on online discussion boards, often anonymous, post messages that are against any person or organization. Learn about your rights as online participants and also protection under Section 230 for Immigration Voice and such organizations | Learn More | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

7/18/2007 : Immigration Voice requests ALL members to pro-actively work on these 2 action items : The two action items are : (1) Thanking Congresswoman Lofgren, Secretary Chertoff and Director Gonzalez. (2) Creating and uploading a video message on YouTube for Congress to address the visa backlogs issue. | Read more for directions and details of 2 action items

7/17/2007 : IV core group thanks all members and contributors : Immigration Voice thanks its members for their support. | Thanks to all participants and contributors... | Next Action Items... 

7/17/2007 : DOS keeps the original July bulletin effective. USCIS to accept petitions as per July bulletin thru August 17th : ImmigrationThis is a huge victory for this group of over 500,000 skilled immigrants who can now apply for adjustment of status and its related interim benefits of EAD and AP thru August 17th | First reports from Immigration Voice (7/17/07 at 3:15 EST) - (Members only, free registration required) | BusinessWeek Report | Profile of Immigration Voice in BusinessWeek

7/15/2007 : San Jose Rally on Saturday July 14th. A huge success: This is the first successful rally held by Immigration Voice and certainly not the last. Over 350 highly skilled and legal immigrants marched in downtown San Jose, protesting the July bulletin manipulation by USCIS and DOS and the unwillingness of Congress to get to the root of a problem known to them for over 2 years. | Route and other details of the event | Press Release (PDF) | Businessweek Article  | Rally Update with Pictures | San Jose Mercury News |  

7/15/2007 : Non English Discussion on Forums will not be allowed : Please read this important message from core group.

7/12/2007 : Hugely Successful Flower Campaign (July 10-12) : Immigration Voice thanks all members who sent flowers and who showed up in front of USCIS HQ on Tuesday for flower campaign. We drew a lot of attention to both July Bulletin Fiasco and the perpetual visa backlogs | Flower Campaign | USCIS Director's response to the flower campaign | Reuters Article | Washington Post Article | New York Times Article | NPR Broadcast | Other Discussions on Flower Campaign | Complete Media Coverage with Pictures and Video

6/15/2007 : Filing I-485, EAD and AP on your own without lawyer's help (Read the disclaimer) : I-485 filing and the optional EAD and AP filing requires minimal involvement from your employer and it is possible to do it on your own without lawyer's help. If you choose to do so, please use this thread for guidance. | Disclaimer | Read More...