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Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this article: “He” Josy Joseph / DNASunday, November 8, 2009 2:38 IST SNIPPET: “New Delhi: The two terror suspects arrested in the US for plotting to strike targets in Denmark and India spent significant time in Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, authoritative sources have told DNA. While one of them operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until the latter part of 2008, the other suspect spent 10 days in the city just days before the terror strike last November.” SNIPPET: “According to available information, David Coleman Headley, the...

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

The Wall Street Journal has a front page story today on that portrays a sharp decline in the number of H-1B visas. The paper reports that "only 46,700" applications had been made for 65,000 H-1B visas available. Intel's director of work-force policy and manager of the firm's immigration policies, Jenifer Verdery, proclaims that, "The fact that the 65,000-visa cap hasn't been reached this year shows that the market will temper demand when necessary" The spin here is that the worst economy since the Great Depression has caused industry to reduce its use of H-1B visa from every last visa possible...

Note: The following text is a quote: Beware of bogus websites! (30/10/2009) The UK Border Agency is the official UK Government authority providing information and guidance for visa applicants and for making decisions on visa applications for the United Kingdom. We operate through the following official websites: UK Border Agency corporate website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk UK Border Agency Visa Services website: www.ukvisas.gov.uk UK Border Agency Online Application Service (Visa4UK): www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk Local websites operated by our commercial partners, CSC Worldbridge and VFS Global, and British Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates around the world. We would advise you to avoid all other websites claiming...

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa. I spent Columbus Day in Sunnyvale, fittingly, meeting with a roomful of new arrivals. Well, relatively new. They were Indians living in Silicon Valley. The event was organized by the Think India Foundation, a think-tank that seeks to solve problems which Indians face. When introducing the topic of skilled immigration, the discussion moderator, Sand Hill Group founder M.R. Rangaswami...

Note: The following SNIPPET is a quote: Head of English Language School Sentenced to Federal Prison for Immigration Fraud Conspiracy Songwoo Shim Obtained Fraudulent Certification for School and Used School as Front to Issue Fraudulent Immigration Documents to Illegal Aliens ATLANTA, GA—SONGWOO SHIM, 48, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. to serve three years, 10 months in federal prison for conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to reside unlawfully in the United States and for manufacturing fraudulent visa documents. Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant obtained approval...

EL PASO -- José Daniel González was living the sweet life in America. He bought the $365,000 two-story Mediterranean with the tile roof and swimming pool. He started a trucking company, was raising a family. But on a Friday night in May, he was executed in his front yard -- eight shots, tight pattern, close range. According to police detectives, González knew the man who ordered his killing. He also knew the man who stood on his lawn and watched him die...A gangland-style slaying is no big news across the river in Ciudad Juarez, where more than 1,300 people have...

Diplomacy: The U.S. revoked visas of four Honduran officials, claiming that a coup occurred there. But if they could travel, the Hondurans could educate Americans otherwise. So why are we trying to silence them?Nobody pushes "dialogue" or "citizen diplomacy" more than the U.S. Department of State. So how can it justify revoking the visas on these Hondurans in what a department spokesman confirmed Tuesday as "a turning of the screw." The Hondurans targeted are the very ones whose presence would be valuable to the U.S. if it means to understand the constitutional action that necessitated the removal of President Mel...

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya rests at a shelter... Supporters of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya rest at a shelter... A supporter of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya sits under an umbrella... OCOTAL, Nicaragua (AP) - The U.S. government said Tuesday it has revoked the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials, stepping up pressure on coup-installed leaders who insist they can resist international demands to restore the ousted president. The U.S. State Department did not name the four, but a Honduran official said they included the Supreme Court magistrate who ordered the arrest of ousted President Manuel...

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- As unemployment among tech workers increases with the recession, the U.S. government is raising broad questions as part of a federal case over H-1Bs about the connection of visa fraud to the unemployment of IT workers. The government's interest in H-1B fraud-related unemployment turned up in court filings in a case in U.S. District Court in Iowa against a New Jersey IT firm, Visions Systems Group in South Plainfield, NJ, which was indicted in February on visa-related fraud charges. Visions Systems was included in a sweep that led to arrests of some 11 people in six...

Richard Lemos went to authorities to report a crime, believing he was doing the responsible thing. In return for his efforts, he was given a deportation order. Lemos, originally from Uruguay, is one of 28 undocumented immigrants living in Utah who are being deported after testifying against a woman who allegedly made tens of thousands of dollars scamming people desperate to find a legal way to stay in the country. It is a classic illustration, critics say, of one of the pernicious realities of current U.S. immigration policy: People living here without proper documentation are exploited by criminals emboldened by...

The immigration bottom line: We need more legal avenues.

"A bipartisan group of Senators have introduced S. 388, which would extend an exemption to the cap on H-2B workers for three years. The legislation was introduced by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and has 24 cosponsors. H-2B visas are given to seasonal employees in non-agricultural related fields that experience high-peak times such as amusement parks and ski resorts. The Immigration and Nationality Act limits the number of aliens on H-2B visas in the United States to 66,000 per year, but the Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act would exempt any H-2B visa holders from the...

Federal officials said this morning they have indicted an Afghan national for lying about his alleged ties to terrorists in a bid to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he

Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration. “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our...

The Senate has passed an $838 billion economic stimulus package with a vote of 61-37. The Senate bill as it stands allows for the hiring of illegal aliens. The House and Senate will now confer to come up with a unified proposal that will then need approval from both the House and Senate before being sent to the President. Both the Senate Democrats and Republicans have named their conferees, which

A citizen of India, Rajendrasinh B. Makwana attempted to sabotage the computer database at Fannie Mae. He was, according to news reports, employed as a so-called temporary foreign worker who had been authorized to work in the United States temporarily under the provisions of the H1B visa that had been issued to him. Here’s how this appalling situation can be summed up: This is the real threat to society, not the sinking of Fannie Mae. But the strange case of Makwana does bring up a number of issues. The main one is the use of H1B visa workers – and...

Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications. The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for...

- HOUSTON - A citizen of the People's Republic of China was sentenced Thursday to 6½ years in prison for distributing counterfeit and misbranded pharmaceuticals in the United States. Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson, Southern District of Texas, announced the sentence; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations ( FDA ) jointly conducted the investigation. At a hearing this afternoon, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake sentenced Kevin Xu, 36, to 78 months in federal prison without parole. This is the maximum sentence under the applicable U.S. Sentencing Commission guideline...

(CNSNews.com) – A little-known State Department program has allowed about 3,400 immigrants to come to the U.S. in 2008 from the four nations that a currently listed by the State Department as “state sponsors of terror” – Iran, Cuba, Syria and Sudan. According to a State Department report on the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, 691visas were granted to immigrants from Cuba, 1,435 to immigrants from Iran, 1,147 to immigrants from Sudan and 94 to immigrants from Syria. The program, mandated by Congress and administered by the State Department, consists of a lottery for applicants from countries with “low rates of...

McALLEN - So popular is the 7.62-caliber ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles that one store in this border city stacks shoebox-sized cases several feet high down half a row in the hunting section. Employees like Francisco Rodriguez, who works in the guns and ammo section of Academy Sports and Outdoors, tell stories about men piling shopping carts high with the $74 cases of 7.62-caliber rounds, as well as clearing shelves of 9 mm rounds and other ammunition for assault-style rifles. Several employees at other South Texas stores said customers routinely pay thousands in cash and wheel the stuff out, no...

Since Ecuador eliminated requirements for entry visas for all foreigners entering their country, growth in the arrival of Chinese from China has jumped from an average of twenty a month to over one thousand a month with goals of entering the United States illegally Saturday 12/13/08 El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador) 12/13/08 "Ecuador, stopping point in the traffic of undocumented Chinese" When officials entered a humble abode in the middle of Guayaquil in early August they found 28 Chinese citizens, the majority of them young women, crammed into two rooms awaiting travel to the United States in search of the American...

AP Exclusive: Pentagon to recruit aliens on visas Digg Facebook Newsvine del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 5 mins ago Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition Play Video Reuters – An Iraqi-like answer in Afghanistan? The Pentagon has issued a directive putting the fight … WASHINGTON – Struggling to find enough doctors, nurses and linguists for the war effort, the Pentagon will temporarily recruit foreigners who have been living in the United States on student and work visas, or with refugee or political asylum status....

The upcoming meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and his onetime rival Sen. John McCain was set in motion during a phone call over the weekend between Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain's closest friend. In an interview Friday, Graham said that Obama requested the meeting during a 20-minute phone call that the South Carolina senator described as a "pleasant" discussion about how they could work together effectively. "We just talked about the desire to find something meaningful to work on," Graham said. "He was very nice to me, said that he considered me a serious, reform-minded senator that he...

An FBI informant helped agents uncover a visa fraud and gun smuggling scheme run by two Annandale men, one of whom told the informant he could sell him a missile that “can reach the Pentagon,” according to a sworn statement unsealed Monday. The investigation started when the informant met with Amjad Hamed, a Jordanian native and legal U.S. resident since 1978, in Hamed’s Annandale home in April 2006, the affidavit said. Hamed reportedly asked the informant to obtain visas for six associates who wanted to immigrate to the U.S. from Jordan and the West Bank. Hamed reportedly told the informant...

Roberto Ventura Lazo and Jose Baltazar Gamez Rodriguez's final memories from Aug. 7 are of them lying at the bottom of a pile of people in the back of an SUV at about 5 a.m. somewhere north of Douglas. Nearly three hours later, emergency personnel found the two Salvadorans along with 17 other illegal immigrants trapped inside a smashed, overturned Chevrolet Suburban near Arizona 79 north of Tucson. Nine were pronounced dead at the scene, 10 were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, with one dying later — making it one of the deadliest vehicle crashes involving illegal immigrants in...

A new congressional study has found that more than 20 Muslim nations deny entry to American and other foreign religious workers, WND has learned, even as the U.S. State Department grants entry to hundreds of clerics from their countries each year. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and most other Middle Eastern countries still refuse to offer religious visas, they and deny entry to U.S. clergy as official policy, according to a report by the Law Library of Congress, the foreign legal research arm of the U.S. Congress. In a shocker, U.S. allies Afghanistan and Iraq also made the...

(IsraelNN.com) The American State Department has refused visas to three of seven Gaza students who were given clearance by Israel after American pressure to give them a clearance to leave Gaza to study under a Fulbright scholarship in the United States. The American consulate in Jerusalem cited unspecified security concerns as reasons for denying visas to the three students. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice originally insisted that Israel allow the students to leave Gaza, and four of them were granted visas by the U.S. The Americans balked at the Israeli warning that the other three were security risks and...

The American Embassy in Baghdad announced Thursday that it had expanded tenfold its program to help Iraqi employees of the American government here, who faced threats for their work, to obtain visas and ultimately citizenship in the United States. The decision is the latest step in the administration’s attempt to answer sharp criticism over its failure to help even those Iraqis who have made the American presence in Iraq possible by serving as translators and supervisors on embassy projects, for the American military and for the Agency for International Development. But critics in the refugee relief community noted that the...

By now we all know that a visa extension is no longer a matter of bringing the right identity photos to the Public Security Bureau. What used to be a routine process is now a dangerous lottery, made all the more confusing because different PSBs seem to be following completely different application procedures and demanding different requirements, and the rules may change again next week.

In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States. There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon. The records suggest that...

U.S. considers Tehran office to issue visas Rice 'Determined' to Reach Out to People of Iran June 24, 2008 The Washington Times Nicholas Kralev With the U.S. and Iran barely on speaking terms for nearly three decades, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dropped an eyepopping hint Monday that the U.S. is considering a visa office in Iran to draw more Iranian visitors to the United States. The opening of a U.S. interests section, similar to the one the United States maintains in Cuba, would be the first U.S. diplomatic presence in the Iranian capital since Iran freed 52 American hostages...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for some foreigners who overstay their visas to seek to remain in the United States legally. The court ruled 5-4 Monday that someone who is here illegally may withdraw his voluntarily agreement to depart and continue to try to get approval to remain in the United States. [...] Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by his four liberal colleagues. The four conservative justice dissented. Justice Antonin Scalia said, "The court lacks the authority to impose its chosen remedy."

Comprehensive immigration reform may have eluded the 110th Congress, but House Democrats are still hoping to help two groups of workers — fashion models and computer geeks — who are usually linked only in implausible online fantasies. Under current immigration policy, models coming to the United States for a photo shoot or an event — regardless of how short the stay — compete with high-tech workers for precious H-1B visas. But under a bill that cleared the Judiciary Committee last week, the models would be moved into a separate immigration category, freeing up more H-1B slots for the much-needed nerds....

iGate isn't only 'villain' hiring foreign high-tech workers By Mark Houser TRIBUNE-REVIEW A local high-tech company has put a Pittsburgh face on a national debate about hiring foreign workers. Computer consulting firm iGate Corp. of Findlay paid the Justice Department $45,000 in April to settle charges it discriminated against U.S. workers by posting online job ads seeking foreigners with special visas. The fine for favoring holders of H-1B visas, which go primarily to computer and engineering specialists, is the highest yet, said Justice Department spokeswoman Jamie Hais. Critics say cases such as iGate's are not the only problem with the...

Iraqi Christians seeking to resettle in the West should not get special treatment based on religion, said a Roman Catholic cardinal on Monday. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Oriental Churches, says Western countries should issue visas based on needs and not because the applicant is Christian or Muslim, according to Reuters. “There is a new E.U. solution to take in many Iraqi refugees, Christians and otherwise,” Sandri said to reporters during a visit to Paris. “We will continue to support such efforts.” Last month, the European Union said no specific steps should be taken...

US Ambassador Ford Fraker said in Sakaka that his country aims to double the number of student visas issued to Saudis. “Currently there are 15,000 Saudi students in the US,” he said during an event on Sunday with local business leaders to an audience at the Al-Jouf Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We aim to increase their numbers to 30,000 over the next five years.” Fraker said Saudi Arabia should bolster its English-language programs because it is generally required for Saudis seeking to pursue higher studies in the US. Fraker also stressed the need for popularizing English teaching programs because...

Thank you for contacting me to share your views on increasing the number of H-1B visas. I appreciate hearing from you. Like most countries of the world, the United States limits the type and number of foreign workers who can enter our country. As you know, H-1B visas are used by foreign nationals who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation due to their skilled knowledge. H-1B visas have several safeguards for not displacing American workers, such as requiring employers to attest to the lack of an available U.S. worker with proper skills and requiring employers to pay a...

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada on Saturday announced it would no longer require citizens of Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary to obtain temporary resident visas for a visit to Canada. "Canada enjoys strong ties with these countries," said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley. "Lifting the visa requirement will help build those relationships to the benefit of Canadians and the citizens of Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Hungary." The Canadian visa requirement remains in effect for now for citizens of two recent EU members: Bulgaria and Romania.

The extent of a person's freedom is determined by the status of their passport. For people who live outside the EU's charmed circle, travelling not only earns them the distrust of the country they wish to leave, but also the country they wish to enter, writes Nelly Bekus-Goncharova. Amsterdam is not the first city where I have had to start afresh – exploring the neighbourhood, figuring out the city's most convenient routes and its spatial logic, learning the timetable of its life, discovering its funny quirks, historical anecdotes, and customs. This is like mastering some kind of mundane ritual that...

Poles to visit Canada without visas? 13.11.2007 08:04 Reports in the Polish press are claiming that Canadian authorities have decided to abolish travel visas for the Poles, though the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw has told Polish Radio that the story is merely speculation and no firm decision has yet been taken. Poland is to be inspected by Canadian immigration officers who are to decide when to allow visa free traffic between Poland and Canada. Canada’s authorities are considering abolishing visa traffic in the first half of the next year, writes Rzeczpospolita. So far the main reason for keeping the visa...

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- A 13-year-old illegal immigrant who fled to his native Mexico amid a sex scandal with his schoolteacher could be eligible to return to the United States under a new visa the government started granting the week before he disappeared. The visa helps illegal immigrants who are victims of sex crimes. If the boy, who spent most of his life in Lexington, Nebraska, qualifies, he could stay legally in the United States for four years and eventually apply for permanent residency. It also would extend temporary residency to his parents and his unmarried siblings under 18, if...

A deeper look into Poland’s visa problems By Roy Nasstrom | Guest view Stewart Shaw’s mention of the visa requirement for ordinary Polish visitors to the United States deserves attention. Although the visa issue has not received much attention in most of the American media, Congress and the White House have taken it very seriously. It does seem unfair to exclude Poland from the visa waiver program. This program allows citizens to enter the United States for a visit with only a passport and without subjection to sometimes humiliating questions that must be answered when applying for a visa. All...

BROWNSVILLE — Alberto Peña, a former administrative analyst for the Division of Student Affairs at University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, was arrested over the summer in Houston by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents on charges of enticing an undocumented immigrant to enter the United States. He and his twin brother, Bernardo, are implicated in obtaining H-2B temporary work visas for some 88 Indian nationals through their business AMEB Business Group Inc., according to authorities. Bernardo, who has not been charged in the alleged scheme, is listed as AMEB’s registered agent, public records show. Alberto traveled to India on...

Immigration: Talk about confused. The State Department lists terror-sponsoring states, then lets immigrants from those states into the U.S. in the name of cultural diversity. In fact, the agency has welcomed to America nearly 10,000 immigrants from Iran, Syria, Sudan and other officially blacklisted terror states since just the start of this decade, and most of them since 9/11. That's the shocking finding of a new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 10,000 people from countries designated as sponsors of terrorism have entered the United States under an immigration diversity program with relatively few restrictions, a report released on Friday said. The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the State Department's inspector general warned in 2003 that the Diversity Visa Program posed a significant risk to national security and recommended it be closed to people from countries on the U.S. list of state terrorism sponsors. But four years later, the program remains open to people from those nations and little is known about what becomes of them...

TITLE: "Mexican Consulates (in USA) Refuse to Grant Visas to Central American Undocumented Immigrants" By Paula Diaz Diaro Hoy (213-237-4582) pdiaz@hoyllc.com 11 of September, 2007 (TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FROM SPANISH FOR FREEPERS. From the Original "Consulados de México niegan visas a centroamericanos indocumentados") Los Angeles -- The Consulates of Honduras and Guatemala have expressed their concern about the problems that face undocumented immigrants from Central America, in the United States, when they wish to try to transit back through Mexico to go back to lands of their origin and return home. The Central American diplomats said that the Consulates...

The Visa Barrier By Janusz Reiter Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A17 Congress's recent changes to American visa laws will be of little comfort to people in Central Europe who wish to travel to this country. Citizens of these countries will continue to undergo visa application procedures whose rules they do not understand and which they consider to be anachronistic, unjust and even humiliating. American visa policy is driven by two concerns: fear of unwanted immigrants and concern about U.S. security. These concerns are reasonable, but it's difficult to understand why they should create a barrier against people from Central...

Some US Allies Seek More Visa Waivers Aug 15, 2007 3:24 AM (14 hrs ago) By DESMOND BUTLER, AP WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Buguslaw Inderka, a Polish technician, boarded his flight from Warsaw to New Jersey with some resentment. He was leaving just days after President Bush signed a law that expands a program allowing visa-free travel to the United States for citizens from some countries, but not for Poland and other close U.S. allies. To plan a vacation, Inderka had to schedule an interview at a U.S. consulate well in advance of his trip, pay $100 and wait to...

Prague (dpa) - Daniel Novy, a spokesman for the Czech embassy in Washington, did not celebrate when US President George W Bush signed into law a bill that introduces new rules for visa-free travel to the United States. "It is the way it is," Novy tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa matter-of-factly. "It is neither a complete victory nor a complete defeat." That is the gist of what the Czech Republic and five other former communist nations - Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia - said in a recent statement. They billed the new US visa rules a step in the right...