ISSS News 08 June 2009

An electronic news service for international students and scholars, owned by the Office of International Student and Scholar Services at Binghamton University, State University of New York

Editor’s Note: Staff in the Office of International Student and Scholar Services will be unavailable all day Tuesday, June 9, while they attend a planning retreat. Also, walk-in appointments for employment questions, normally held on Tuesdays from 1:30pm to 3:15pm, are cancelled for June 9 and will resume on June 16. ISSS staff apologize for any inconvenience.

Have you moved recently? Do you have a new address? International Students in F and J status are reminded that reporting your change of address to the ISSS is a requirement under federal SEVIS regulations. The ISSS makes this requirement easy for you by providing a web form where you can easily report this information. Just visit: http://isss.binghamton.edu/forms/addrChange.html for an easy-to-complete fillable form.

Staff in the ISSS are sometimes asked about the rules for getting married in New York State. The rules are the same whether two foreign nationals are marrying each other, or whether a foreign national is marrying a US citizen or US permanent resident.

USCIS reports that applications continue to be processed, but there has been little change to the numbers reported a week ago. Approximately 45,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions and approximately 20,000 petitions qualifying for the advanced degree cap exemption had been filed. USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn.

USCIS will provide regular updates on the processing of Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 H-1B petitions. The updates can be found on the USCIS’ Web site at www.uscis.gov/h-1b_count

4. Don't Place Your Immigration Status At Risk: Some Consequences of Illegal Employment

The vast majority of Binghamton University international students have a good understanding of the federal immigration regulations with which they must comply* and cannot imagine violating any of them, as the risks are so great. This is especially true of F-1 student employment regulations, including practical training (which is limited to off campus employment that is directly related to a student's field of study) and authorized employment based on documented economic hardship.

But at one time or another, a student might wonder to himself or herself "Would anyone find out if I worked off campus without authorization, or took a job under authorized practical training that was not related to my field of study, or before I received my work authorization card?"

Any employment that is in violation of your F-1 status is a deportable offense if it comes to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.

An employer who hires you for a position that does not comply with the limitations set by your employment authorization category can be subject to civil penalties and in some cases, criminal penalties.

Your employer is required to report your earnings to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service, and you are required to file an income tax return reporting those earnings and paying any taxes due on them, even if the employment was not authorized.

If at some point in the future, you decide to apply for U.S. permanent residency (either through an employment petition, a petition filed by an immediate relative, or through the diversity visa lottery), you are required to submit copies of your past U.S. federal income tax returns as part of the application. If previous employment is indicated on your tax returns, the immigration officer can require that you present proof of work authorization for those jobs.

Regardless of whether you are applying for permanent residency or some other non-immigrant status (such as H-1B), if previous employment is indicated on your immigration paperwork (such as an endorsement for optional practical training on an I-20, an internship on a resume, or some other evidence of work authorization) the immigration officer adjudicating the new application may request specific information regarding the previous employment and its applicability to the work authorization you held.

As students, you have worked very hard to achieve a U.S. college degree. Don't risk all the time and money you have invested in that goal. Do not rely on your employer to determine whether your job meets the requirements for your employment authorization. Remember that compliance with federal immigration regulations is your responsibility, and the consequences for non-compliance are punitive.

The article on which this news item is based was first written in Fall 2003 by Ellen Badger, Director of International Student and Scholar Services. Stephen Yale-Loehr, nationally known immigration attorney with the law firm of Miller Mayer in Ithaca, New York, and an adjunct faculty member of Cornell University Law School, consulted on the original article's content.

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