IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Unfair Immigration Related Employment Practices

IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Unfair Immigration Related Employment Practices: Posted by the NY Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell NY Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC www.lawchell.com An agreement was reach...

Unfair Immigration Related Employment Practices

Posted by the NY Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell

NY Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC

www.lawchell.com

An agreement was reached between the Department of Justice (DOJ), Tuscany Hotel and Casino LLC (Tuscany) in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Settling a lawsuit alleging that the company violated INA § 274 B, which bars unfair immigration-related employment practices. 

The DOJ, in a case filed in May 2012, alleged that Tuscany treated noncitizens differently from U.S. citizens during the employment eligibility verification and reverification process. The complaint alleged that Tuscany required noncitizen employees to provide more or different documents or information than it required from citizen employees during the initial employment eligibility verification process and then used the documents or information that it gathered to impose improper document requests on noncitizens during the reverification process as a condition of continued employment. 

The complaint further alleged that Tuscany subjected noncitizen employees' documents to a heightened review process by senior human resources representatives that was not applied to documents presented by U.S. citizens.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Tuscany will pay $49,000 in civil penalties to the U.S. government and full back pay to a victim. Tuscany also agreed to: 

(1) implement new employment eligibility verification policies and procedures that treat all employees equally regardless of citizenship status, 

(2) conduct training for its human resources staff on their responsibility to avoid discrimination in the employment eligibility verification process, and 

(3) be subject to reporting and monitoring requirements.

For more information on above topic, please contact our New York Office at (212) 564-1589.

IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Employee Rights Tookkit

IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Employee Rights Tookkit: Posted by the NY Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell Employee Rights Toolkit U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has an...

Employee Rights Tookkit

Posted by the NY Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell

Employee Rights Toolkit

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has released a new online “Employee Rights Toolkit” to increase awareness about employee rights during the employment eligibility verification process. This toolkit, designed for workers, worker advocates, and other stakeholders, contains a variety of educational materials, such as E-Verify employee rights videos, informative fliers, brochures, and posters. It also contains information about USCIS multilingual engagement opportunities and guidance on avoiding immigration scams or the unauthorized practice of immigration law and videos, audios, and handouts about Self Check, a free online service of E-Verify that allows workers to check their own employment eligibility status. 

Most of the materials are available in English and Spanish. The entire toolkit may be viewed online at http://1.usa.gov/PnX3XM 

IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Visa Bulletin for November 2012

IMMIGRATION AND POLICY: Visa Bulletin for November 2012: Posted by the New York Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell NY Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC www.lawschell.com             ...

Visa Bulletin for November 2012

Posted by the New York Immigration Attorney Norka M. Schell
NY Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC
www.lawschell.com

                        Visa Bulletin for November 2012

Family Priority Date 

F2A numbers EXEMPT from per-country limit are available to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than 22JUN10.

 F2A numbers SUBJECT to per-country limit are available to applicants chargeable to all countries EXCEPT MEXICO with priority dates beginning 22JUN10 and earlier than 15JUL10. 

All F2A numbers provided for MEXICO are exempt from the per-country limit; there are no F2A numbers for MEXICO subject to per-country limit.

Employment Preference Categories 

The Employment First Preference category remained current for all chargeability areas. 

The Second Preference cutoff for all areas except China mainland-born and India are now current. The cut-off for China mainland-born advanced six weeks to September 1, 2007. The cut-off for India remained at September 1, 2004.

The Employment Third Preference category for Mexico and Worldwide advanced one month to stand at November 22, 2006. The cut-off for the Philippines advanced one week to August 8, 2006. The cutoff date for India also advanced one week to stand at October 22, 2002. The cutoff for mainland-born China advanced 10 weeks to April 15, 2006. For the Third Preference Other Workers category, the Worldwide and Mexico dates advanced one month to November 22, 2006. The Philippines cutoff date advanced one week to August 8, 2006. China mainland-born advanced over one week to stand at July 1, 2003. The cutoff date for India advanced one week to October 22, 2002.

The Fourth Preference categories are now all current as is the Fifth Preference. 

Important Note:

Immigrant visa numbers in the diversity visa (DV) category are now available to qualified DV-2013 applicants chargeable to all regions and eligible countries as follows (visas are available only for applicants with DV lottery rank numbers below the cutoff number): Africa: 13,900, except Egypt: 6,600, Ethiopia: 9,100, and Nigeria: 8,500; Asia: 2,350; Europe: 7,000; North America (Bahamas): 2; Oceania: 400; South America and the Caribbean: 500. 

For  more information please view our website news and resources or contact the New York Law Offices of Norka M. Schell, LLC at (212) 564-1589.