Canadian L-1 Applicant Admitted for Three Years with a Canadian Border Crossing Card in Lieu of an I-194 issued by the Admissibility Review Office (ARO)

Our client, a Canadian citizen seeking L-1 status, not only needed to apply for admission into the U.S. in L-1 status, but required a non-immigrant waiver to waive his inadmissibility resulting from a criminal conviction. (Unlike most foreign nationals, Canadian citizens seeking L-1 status pursuant to North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may file their petition at the Port of Entry (POE) for immediate (same-day) adjudication.) However, because he possessed a lifetime waiver vis-à-vis, a Canadian Border Crossing Card, we were able to have his L-1 petition adjudicated without first obtaining a waiver from the Admissibility Review Office (ARO), which most recently is taking over 130 days on average to adjudicated non-immigrant waiver applications.

Is DHS About to Blunder? A Cost-Beneft Analysis of Abandoning Form I-94

Claiming that abandoning Form I-94 will save $17 million dollars to the agency, the Department of Homeland Security, together with its sister government agencies, are planning to dismantle the Form I-94 record of admission as we know it today.  (Form I-94 is the little white card that is stapled into a foreign national’s passport upon entry into the U.S. to evidence the status in which they are being admitted and the authorized duration of their stay.)

The I-94 not only serves to record the entry and departure of every foreign national, it also serves as important evidence of lawful immigration status in other applications. For example:

• Employers for Form I-9 Verification
• Social Security Administration for issuance of Social Security Cards (if applicable)
• State DMV’s for issuance of driver’s license (if applicable)
• Status Identification for Law Enforcement (Police, Airport Personnel, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS)

While eliminating the I-94 sounds good in theory, the cost savings may back fire in many ways. Questions that immediately jump out are - Who will populate the information to be captured once the I-94 is eliminated? How will the information be recorded in the foreign national’s passport? How would other government agencies be trained to understand the new methodology that would be used when DHS hasn’t yet figured out how to document the foreign national once the I-94 is eliminated?

From a safety perspective, the time that is used by the officer in reviewing the information on the I-94 together with the applicant allows that officer to question the applicant, view his body language and make other assessments regarding that individual. Will that be lost by automating the I-94 process? Is this going to put our nation at a greater risk? Is $17 million dollars that important in the overall scheme and budget of DHS?

History indicates that every time DHS has tried to streamline a process, the evil forces in the world figure out a way to take advantage and circumvent the process, leaving us exposed to a greater danger.

B-1 in lieu of H-1B Approved for Canadian Corporate Executive

Earlier today, Senior Partner Bill Reich appeared at a local Port of Entry, representing a Canadian corporate executive who was seeking B-1 status for a period six (6) months, in lieu of an H-1B.  The applicant is employed by a Canadian company, which has a U.S. subsidiary who temporarily required a corporate executive to review its business operations due to difficulties that had arisen after the company discharged its president.  The applicant is being sent to the U.S. subsidiary temporarily to troubleshoot the situation and make some recommendations on behalf of the Canadian employer.

While applicants for B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status must still meet the requirements of an H-1B, they do not have to bear the burdens of a typical H-1B filing which requires an LCA, a formal filing with USCIS, and the payment of the applicable H-1B filing fees (which is a relatively high expense that the U.S. employer must bear).  The B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status was created with the intent of facilitating travel to the U.S. by those foreign nationals who would normally qualify for a H-1B visa, but who simply needed to enter the U.S. for a brief period of time.

According to the Dept. of State’s Foreign Affairs Manual, to qualify for B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status, a foreign national must qualify for H-1B status, establish non-immigrant intent (this is established by demonstrative strong ties to their home country), must be regularly employed abroad and their salary must be paid by their foreign employer.  While in the U.S. for a limited amount of time, they must continue to be paid by their foreign employer and not from the U.S. entity that they are performing services for while in the U.S. in B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status. 

See 9 FAM 41.31 N11  - Aliens Normally Classifiable as H-1 or H-3. 

Once CBP was convinced that our Client qualified for B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status, he was issued a multiple entry Form I-94, valid for six months.  The cost of this Form I-94? $6 to be paid to CBP at the Port of Entry. With this B-1 (in lieu of H-1B) status, the Client will now be able to carry out his duties as requested by his Canadian employer for their U.S. subsidiary and remain in strict compliance with U.S. immigration laws.

I-212, Application to Reapply After Removal, Approved in record time!

SRW Border Lawyers was notified last week that another I-212, Application for Permission to Reapply for Admission into the United States After Deportation or Removal, was approved! This was especially surprising due to the fact that the approval came only a month after filing the application. Recently, normal processing time for an I-212 application can take several months. 

You should file an I-212 waiver if:

• You were removed from the U.S. as an inadmissible alien through expedited removal proceedings under INA § 235(b)(1) that were initiated when you arrived at a port of entry; or
• You were removed from the U.S. as an inadmissible, arriving alien under INA §240; that is, removal proceedings were initiated upon your arrival at a port of entry in the U.S. (Note: the paperwork you received during your removal proceedings should indicate under which provision you were removed under); or
• You violated the terms of a Voluntary Departure order by not timely departing the U.S.

For more information, please visit our web page on I-212 waivers under the Border Solutions drop down menu.

If you were previously removed from the U.S. and are interested in filing an I-212 waiver, please contact our office so we can discuss the details of your case. 

By SRW BORDER LAWYERS