Silicon Valley Immigration Lawyer Blog

Google, Oracle, Intel, and Fujitsu America led Silicon Valley Labor Condition Application filings for 2010. Filing a Labor Condition Application for Nonimmigrant Workers (an LCA) with the U.S. Department of Labor, and getting it certified, is a prerequisite to filing an H-1B application. The chart below is created by this immigration law office, based upon the Department of Labor's Disclosure Data for FY 2010. It shows the number of LCA filings for major Silicon Valley employers.

As shown on the chart, Fujitsu America led the way on LCA filings with 1,714. Google was a distant second with 900. Thereafter, it dropped down to 521 LCA filings by Oracle, and Intel, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco all breaking 400.

H-1B LCA's filed in the Silicon Valley 2010

The chart, and the LCA data, DOES NOT SHOW THE NUMBER OF H-1B'S FILED by an employer. Although a certified LCA is required by an employer to submit an H-1B application, obtaining a certified LCA does not mean that an employer actually filed an H-1B petition. According to the Department of Labor, it usually certifies over three times the LCA requests as the number of H-1B visas petitions approved by the USCIS.

Continue reading "Silicon Valley H-1B Labor Condition Application Filings for 2010" »

The Federal government is about to start knocking on the doors of employers, demanding to see I-9 records and more. The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 1,000 audit notices, or notices of inspection, are to be sent out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the Department of Homeland Security, within the next few days. These "audit notices" are actually subpoenas, requiring employers to present original I-9 employment verification forms and payroll documentation. An employer is usually required to produce this documentation within three days. A sample I-9 subpoena is below.

Sample I-9 Subpoena (2-2011)

The second page of this subpoena shows that ICE demands more than I-9 forms. They request records of all employees hired within the past three years, copies of the documents the employee provided when completing the I-9, detailed information about independent contractors, any Social Security no-match letters, and detailed payroll filings.

Employers should realize that these I-9 audits can target any employer, of any size and in any sector, whether or not the employer has H-1B workers, L-1 workers, or sponsors foreign nationals for employment-based green cards. As all employers must complete I-9's for new hires and maintain payroll records, all employers should be prepared for an audit. Fines for uncorrected technical and substantive errors on the I-9 forms range from $110 to $1,100. If an employer had technical or substantive errors on their I-9 forms, they might not necessarily realize this and could be exposing themselves to substantial fines.

These audits come as ICE has created an Employment Compliance Inspection Center. The Head of ICE recently explained that this new center would "address a need to conduct audits even of the largest employers with a very large number of employees." The center is supposed to be staffed with specialists to pore over I-9 employee files of targeted companies.