The H-1B Visa Blog by Siliato and Malyk

Obama: Friend Or Foe To The H-1B Program?

On the heels of this administration’s heightened immigration enforcement through the inconsistent application of “prosecutorial discretion”, USCIS’ increased reliance upon unannounced H-1B audits and ICE’s I-9 audit money making machine, now comes President Obama’s recent online forum pronouncement that “the H-1B [program] should be reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field."  

Is this truly the belief of our President or perhaps just a misguided attempt to placate the unemployed U.S. workforce?

To be sure, even a recently reduced 8.3% unemployment rate in the U.S. is unacceptable and must improve before the economy will respond accordingly. With that unfortunate reality, comprehensive immigration reform to address, among other things, job creation and expansion appears to be unattainable any time soon.  But to completely undermine one of the few work visa categories available that can attract highly skilled foreign nationals to the U.S., is nothing but shortsighted. 

For the time being, the question posed will remain unanswered as, apart from President Obama’s seemingly off-the-cuff pronouncement above, to date, the President has not offered any specifics about what changes he would like to see in the H-1B program.  Perhaps we should refrain from reading too much into such ill-advised remarks as it is, of course, campaign season whether we like it or not.  For example, we have yet to hear the President’s thoughts on the arbitrary cap set by Congress which currently has left U.S. employers without the option of hiring new H-1B workers for more than 8 months to come. 

Perhaps most troubling is that the President’s latest pronouncement may underscore his lack of vision for true immigration reform—reform that would provide workable solutions that, when applied together, would fix the totality of our broken, outdated, and inadequate immigration system. A fix that would exponentially increase the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, increase wages for all workers, and grow the American economy for all.

Obama: Friend or foe to the H-1B program? The jury will most likely remain out for awhile.

 

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

WHERE HAVE ALL THE COLLEGE-EDUCATED GONE?

LONG TIME PASSING

Perhaps this is old news, but the U.S. appears to be losing its edge in attracting and retaining not only the best and the brightest, but even those who possess a minimum of an undergraduate degree.  According to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) at present, 25% of the 255 million people worldwide with a bachelor's degree or higher currently reside in the United States. But that share is expected to shrink in the coming years, as developing countries such as Korea and China push more and more of their citizens into college. China already accounts for 12% of the world's college-educated working population and, among young workers aged 25-35, China accounts for 18% of the college-educated. 

For reasons unclear to the authors of this blog (other than that the United States charges more in tuition than any other country in the survey), the United States is showing no growth in the share of young people who go to college compared to a generation ago.  According to the OECD study’s author, the United States is quite alone in that young people entering the labor market are not better educated than people leaving the labor market. Indeed, as the OECD writes, “the expansion of tertiary education in many countries has narrowed the advantage of the United States both in overall levels of attainment and in the sheer number of individuals with tertiary education.”

While a meaningful reduction in U.S. college tuition across the board is, of course, not in the cards, there are other avenues available to attract and retain the college educated.  A step in the right direction would be to eliminate altogether the H-1B cap that has been arbitrarily set by Congress.  The U.S. caps the H-1B “specialty occupation” visa at 85,000 per year. As of September 9th, USCIS advised that it has received 32,200 regular cap cases and 16,700 against the U.S. advanced degree cap. Based on current projections (with usage about the same as that of the last fiscal year), this year’s limit is likely to be exhausted in January 2012—which means that, after such date, employers will be unable to hire new H-1B workers who are subject to the cap until October 1, 2012.

Another option would be to implement a plan proposed by Mitt Romney—one in which foreign nationals with a foreign master’s degree in science, engineering or math (rather than an advanced U.S. degree) would not only be exempt from the H-1B cap, but also be eligible for a green card.  The latter green card plan is one that has been proposed previously by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle without success.

In today’s economic environment, no doubt it may seem counterintuitive to some to implement any plan that enables more foreign nationals to work either temporarily or permanently in the U.S.  A futuristic view, however, of the continued shrinking of our college-educated population certainly does not seem to be a good alternative.

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Cutting Off Our Flow To Spite Our Pace?

As espoused by these authors previously (as most rcently in our last blog entry) it is no secret that the H-1B visa is not the hot commodity it once was.  Whether it be the state of the economy, increasing awareness by prospective H-1B candidates that more attractive opportunities may exist abroad, U.S. employers’ aversion to the increased fees and other liabilities of the H-1B program or just the general malaise of our government leaders in attracting the best and brightest from around the world to our shores, make no doubt about it – the H-1B visa is being under-utilized. 

To opponents of the H-1B program, such a recent phenomenon is good news (as such “specialty occupations” are now being purportedly being filled by U.S. workers and not immigrants); to proponents of the program, a cause for concern?  Is such decreased usage actually a foreboding?

A recent report by the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy, found that about two-thirds of the finalists at this year’s Intel Science Talent Search (a national contest based on solutions to scientific problems -- known as the “Nobel Prize” of high school science), were born to parents born in either China or India. Only 12 of the 40 finalists had parents who were U.S. born; 16 had parents from China, 10 were born to Indian parents, one to parents from Iran, and another from South Korea.  Of important note, almost all of the finalists' immigrant parents came to the United States on H-1B visas.

I suppose one could opine that such a disproportionate number of nascent “Nobel Prize worthy” finalists being offspring of H-1B workers is merely happenstance.  On the other hand, one can look at a recent list of actual Nobel Prize winners and draw a completely opposite conclusion -- that preventing or discouraging the entry of H-1B visa holders, skilled immigrants and family-sponsored immigrants would shut off the flow of a key segment of America’s next generation of scientists and engineers.

Let our leaders be the judge.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

 

Where has all the luster gone?

For the third year in a row, the demand for a “coveted” H-1B visa number has dwindled. Coincidently, the Wall Street Journal reported this lack of demand at the same time it highlighted U.S. investors’ recent about-face for silver's luster. While a tangible connection between the two is tenuous at best, the H-1B program, much like the commodities markets, appears to have lost its cachet. 

Whereas, in both April 2007 and April 2008, demand far outweighed supply and the available H-1B visa numbers were used up in a matter of 24 to 48 hours, this April only 8,000 of the available 65,000 numbers were scooped up in the first five days of opening the cap to qualified candidates. The Wall Street Journal article linked above only serves to reinforce what has become a disturbing trend largely caused by the isolationist immigration policy in the United States.  While the slow pace of the U.S. recovery is certainly another factor in the declining luster of the H-1B visa, the article describes several other key factors are in play, including  increased opportunities for skilled workers in their respective home countries, increased fees for high users of the “specialty worker” visas, attacks on the H-1B program by congressional foes of the program and the recognition by U.S. employers that it has become somewhat of a liability to hire H-1B workers.

It is indeed alarming that, despite a well-documented shortage of homegrown engineering and scientific talent in the United States, our country’s anti-immigrant climate is still alive and well and clearly serving to drive some of the best and brightest from around the world back to their home countries after they have been  educated by our universities.  Is it no wonder that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has referred to the current immigration policy in the United States as a form of “national suicide?"

In addition to the largely isolationist immigration policies in this country, perhaps one of the ways in which the United States is committing the so-called  “national suicide” is through its opaque system of security checks.  Through a euphemism known as “administrative processing,” countless H-1B visa applicants (who have already received approval of the classification from DHS and some of whom have spent several years in the U.S. as students or on previous work visas) are delayed abroad for several months – and in some cases for more than a year – awaiting clearance by the State Department from one or more of the “animal farm” reviews (Condor, Donkey and Mantis).  These interminable bureaucratic delays in making a decision exist even though government officials acknowledge that less than 1 percent of those screened raise any legitimate security concerns.

The foregoing offers this troubling conclusion: the United States, a country built by generations of ambitious, hardworking newcomers, seems no longer interested in attracting and keeping skilled immigrants.  Our nation is experiencing a “brain drain” for the first time in its history.  The silver – let alone the gold – luster of our shores is diminishing, yet our leaders do not appear to connect the dots to our broken immigration system.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Early Season H-1B Musings

The early returns are in and projections for when the  H-1B cap will be reached for the 2011 season (FY 2012) have already begun.

Unlike the April filings in 2007 and 2008, when the H-1B cap was reached during the first week (if not the first days), the last three (3) H-1B cap filing seasons (April 2009, 2010 and 2011) have seen a steady drop in early filings.  Indeed, in the first week of April 2009 there were approximately 42,000 cap subject petitions filed; in 2010, approximately 13,500; and this year, only 10,400 were filed in the first week.

So, this begs the question of when will the FY 2102 cap be reached?  Based on the number of filings in the previous two (2) years, unless there is a dramatic economic turnaround in the U.S., a best guess would be sometime in February or March 2012. 

Of course, the rate of cap subject filings over the last several years signifies that there is no real need for an H-1B cap in the first place. Outside forces, other than an arbitrary cap set by Congress years ago, now drive new H-1B usage, e.g. the fragile status of the U.S. economy and its direct effect on the high unemployment rate; increased scrutiny by USCIS regarding IT consulting companies who place H-1B workers at client sites (as a result of the “Neufeld Memo”); recent amendments to the H-1B regulations which have increased the fees for high users of the H-1B program; the limited period of authorized stay in such classification; the increased outsourcing of work from the United States to elsewhere abroad; increased opportunities to prosper in growing economies like India and China which have traditionally used large numbers of H-1B visas in the past; increased enforcement against those who do not abide by the rules of the H-1B program; and, of course, the increased availability of U.S. workers due to the steady 8 to 9% unemployment rate in the United States.

As has been furthered by the authors of this blog on many occasions, as well as by many others far more erudite, the H-1B cap should be eliminated.  Of course, in today’s political climate where Congress cannot even agree that passage of the Dream Act would be a sensible and compassionate form of relief for thousands of young foreign nationals of college age with nowhere to turn, it is more than wishful thinking that the H-1B cap will be eliminated anytime soon.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Need a new H-1B? Come and Get Some Now – Before it’s too late!

USCIS has advised that, as of December 31, 2010, the total number of new H-1B visas still available in the general H-1B pool for FY2011 is 7,250. This takes into account unused H-1B1 numbers reserved for natives of Singapore and Chile.  Given that (i) the 20,000 visa numbers allocated for those with U.S. Master’s degree have been exhausted and (ii) the average general usage of new H-1B numbers per week during the last month, we anticipate that the H-1B cap for the current fiscal year may be reached by the end of January. 

As such, employers who regularly make use of the H-1B program should capture (as soon as practicable) the remaining H-1B visa numbers before the quota is reached. Otherwise, such employers will be left to wait until October 1, 2011 before new H-1B visa numbers become available.

Please note that H-1B visa extensions of stay and H-1B visa transfers (from one eligible U.S. employer to another) are not subject to the annual H-1B cap and, therefore, will continue to be regularly accepted by USCIS.  Likewise, H-1B nonimmigrants who work at (but not necessarily for) eligible research institutions, universities and other qualifying non-profit facilities may also be excluded from the numerical H-1B visa cap.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

 

H-1B Petitioners Beware! New Affirmation Requirement Regarding Release of Controlled Technology or Technical Data to Foreign Nationals

Just when we thought that USCIS could not make H-1B compliance any more difficult, a new twist has been added. Now, aside from (a) the complexities of LCA and public access file compliance, (b) the evidentiary hurdles in placing an H-1B worker at a third party site; and (c) dealing with the H-1B cap, H-1B petitioners now must familiarize themselves with what is and what is not a “deemed export” of certain technologies at the risk of subjecting themselves to potentially severe consequences including those attendant to a finding of perjury.

On November 23^rd, USCIS published a revised version of Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker.  The new form requires petitioners to take additional steps to ensure that federal export compliance is properly evaluated and that petitioner’s attestations are accurate.

With regard to export compliance, the new Form I-129 includes a new Part 6, entitled “Certification Regarding the Release of Controlled Technology or Technical Data to Foreign Persons in the United States” which requires petitioners that seek to employ foreign nationals in H, L, and O nonimmigrant visa status to certify that the company (i) has reviewed the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”), and (ii) made a determination as to whether or not an export control license is required to release any controlled technology or technical data to the foreign national.

More specifically, the revised form contains explicit language in Part 6 that requires the petitioner to affirm that, with respect to technology or technical data that the petitioner will release or otherwise provide access to the beneficiary:

(i) A license is not required from the Department of Commerce or the Department of State to release such technology or technical data to the foreign person; OR

(ii) A license is required from the Department of Commerce or the Department of State to release such technology or technological data to the beneficiary and the petitioner will prevent access to controlled technology or technical data by the beneficiary unless and until the petitioner has received the required license or other authorization to release it to the beneficiary.

Clearly, the affirmations in Part 6 require some due diligence which includes the review of the beneficiary’s job duties to make sure such position does not require a license (which the employer will otherwise need to obtain) before the beneficiary may commence the position for which he/she is being hired.

If, in fact, an export license is required before making such a release, the employer must attest that the foreign worker will not be exposed to any covered “technologies” without first obtaining the requisite license to cover the foreign worker.  It is very important that petitioners not make a misrepresentation on Form I-129 in this regard, which in itself could be construed as a violation of federal law. 

Petitioners should consider reviewing the new Form I-129 and its instructions with export counsel to determine whether an export license is required before signing the attestations on Form I-129 under penalty of perjury.

While the new form is effective now, petitioners may continue using the former version of the form (which does not include the reference to export license requirements) until December 23, 2010.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Googling up H-1Bs?

Perhaps indicating an upturn in economic news and a sign of good things to come, Google has recently announced that it plans to hire more than 2,000 people around the globe, as it expands into new markets and “wages a war for talent” with its rivals.

According to a Google spokesperson, the world’s largest search engine company is looking for new opportunities to grow by branching out into a variety of markets, including Android smartphone software, online display advertising and Web-based productivity software. Moreover, according to some media reports, Google internally announced plans to give all of its employees a 10% salary increase in 2011, a move that many in the industry interpreted as an attempt to retain its best workers.  Could this portend into increased usage (indeed, an imminent exhaustion) of the remaining H-1B visa numbers?

According to USCIS’s most recent count, as of November 12, 2010, approximately 47,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted. Additionally, USCIS has receipted 17,400 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

The current annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000 although not all H-1B non-immigrants are subject to this cap. Up to 6,800 of these visa numbers, however, may be set aside from the cap of 65,000 during each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the U.S.-Chile and U.S.- Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year.  An additional 10,000 H-1B numbers are available to foreign nationals with U.S. advanced degrees.

Google announced that its current job openings are primarily full-time positions for engineers and sales staffers, with roughly half of them in the United States. Such job openings provide a window not only into the breadth of Google’s operations across the globe, but highlights the need for large multi-national companies based in the U.S. to seek the best and the brightest professionals—many of whom are foreign nationals.

While the Google hiring is not necessarily a reflection of the overall employment picture, it may behoove employers who regularly make use of the H-1B program to capture (as soon as practicable) the remaining H-1B visa numbers before the quota is reached. Otherwise such employers will be left to wait until October 1, 2011 before the new H-1B quota becomes available.

For additional information and frequent updates on a variety of corporate and business-related immigration law issues, please click here to navigate to Meyner and Landis LLP's Corporate Immigration Law News Blog.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Additional Fees For H-1B and L-1 Petitions Filed By Qualifying Employers

On August 13, President Obama signed into law Public Law 111-230 which requires the submission of an additional $2,000 in filing fees for some H-1B petitions and an additional $2,250 for certain L-1A/L-1B petitions. The fee increase applies to covered petitions with a postmark date of August 14, 2010 or later.

The additional fee applies to H-1B or L-1 petitioners that employ 50 or more employees in the United States with more than 50 percent of those employees working in the United States pursuant to H-1B, L-1A or L-1B nonimmigrant status.

H-1B petitioners subject to this new fee are required to submit the fee with any H-1B petition filed (i) to request initial nonimmigrant status for a foreign national employee or (ii) to obtain authorization for a foreign national already in valid H-1B status who seeks to change employers (otherwise known as an H-1B transfer).

Similarly, L-1 petitioners subject to the new law must submit the additional fee with an L-1A or L-1B petition filed (i) to seek initial L-1 nonimmigrant status for a foreign national or (ii) to obtain authorization for a foreign national already in valid L-1 status who seeks to change employers.

USCIS recently advised that the petitioner, not the beneficiary, should pay the additional fee, in cases where the additional fee is required.

How To Determine Whether Your Business Qualifies For The Additional Fees Required By Public Law 111-230:

USCIS has advised that all employees, whether full-time or part-time, will count towards the calculation of whether your business is subject to the new fee.

When calculating the percentage of employees in H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant status, USCIS will calculate the percentage of nonimmigrant workers in the petitioning employer’s workforce to the number of employees in the United States, not by the number of employees worldwide. 

USCIS further advised that all employees in the United States, regardless of whether they are paid through a U.S. or foreign payroll, will count toward this calculation.

Finally, USCIS advised that the new fee does not apply to derivatives of H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant workers.

For additional information and frequent updates on a variety of corporate and business-related immigration law issues, please click here to navigate to Meyner and Landis LLP's Corporate Immigration Law News Blog.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE “SOMEWHAT” UGLY NEWS ON THE H-1B VISA PROGRAM

The GOOD:

(1) H-1B visa numbers are still available!

USCIS recently advised that, as of September 3, 2010, approximately 36,600 H-1B cap-subject petitions were receipted.  Additionally, USCIS has reported receipting 13,400 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.  Therefore, more than 35,000 new H-1B visas are still available for fiscal year 2011 (which ends September 30, 2011).  Given the current usage and demand, it is anticipated that the H-1B cap will be reached sometime in the first quarter of 2011 (with no new visa numbers available until October 1, 2011).

(2) China Reciprocity schedule amendment!

Effective July 9, 2010, the Department of State's reciprocity schedule for China has been amended to allow for a 12 month multiple entry visa for qualifying H visa applicants.  This is certainly welcome news to Chinese nationals who, on account of the pre-existing reciprocity schedule that has been effect for years, were given only single entry visas valid for 3 months—severely restricting travel of Chinese nationals on H-1B visas.  

The BAD:

USCIS implements fee increase for certain H-1Bs and L-1s

On August 13, 2010, President Obama signed into law  Public Law 111-230 to enhance our border security. The new law contains provisions that require petitioners to pay an additional $2,000 for certain H-1B petitions and an additional $2,250 for certain L-1 petitions postmarked on or after August 14, 2010.  These additional fees apply to petitioners who employ 50 or more employees in the United States with more than 50 percent of its employees in the United States in H-1B or L (including L-1A, L-1B and L-2) nonimmigrant status.  Petitioners meeting these criteria must submit the fee with an H-1B or L-1 petition filed for a new H-1B worker and one changing H-1B employers. USCIS has indicated it expects this additional fee to be paid by the employer.

The Administration claims that said fee increase will help raise nearly $550 million out of the proposed expenditure of $600 million on increasing security along the U.S.-Mexico border. As you can imagine, such fee hike will severely impact Indian IT companies doing business in the United States.

THE "SOMEWHAT" UGLY:

DOL obtains nearly $1 million in back wages and interest for H-1B workers due to alleged violations of the H-1B Program

A computer consulting company based in Suwanee, Georgia, Smartsoft International Inc., has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back wages and interest to 135 nonimmigrant workers temporarily employed by the company under the H-1B visa program. DOL reached this agreement following a determination by the department's Wage and Hour Division that the company violated the H-1B program's rules.

The Wage and Hour Division investigation resulted in the following findings: (i) that some H-1B employees were not paid wages at the beginning of their employment (ii) that others were paid on a part-time basis despite being hired under a full-time employment agreement; and finally (iii) that several employees were paid less than the prevailing wage applicable to the geographic locations where such employees performed their work.

This case demonstrates the basic regulatory protections for H-1B workers inherent in the H-1B program. For example, sponsoring employers are required to attest to the DOL that they will pay wages to H-1B nonimmigrant workers that are at least equal to the actual wages paid to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the position in question, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment, whichever is greater. The program also establishes certain standards in order to protect similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the employment of the nonimmigrant workers.

With H-1B public access file audits and unannounced site inspections increasingly on the rise, it behooves H-1B employers to conduct self-audits of their public access files and insure that its H-1B workers are being paid the proper wage.

For additional information and frequent updates on a variety of corporate and business-related immigration law issues, please click here to navigate to Meyner and Landis LLP's Corporate Immigration Law News Blog.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP

Considering Signing Up for E-Verify In Lieu of Filing an H-1B for an OPT?

There is no question that the current economic malaise is a major factor in the current demand being short of the H-1B supply.  (As of June 18, 2010, 22,900 regular cap petitions and 9,700 master’s degree exemption petitions have been received by USCIS).  But, as reported in one of the authors’ previous blogs, the state of our economy is but one of the reasons for the decrease in H-1B usage.

Perhaps another reason is an employer’s ability to make use of a relatively recent DHS rule which permits an F-1 visa holder working pursuant to OPT to extend such OPT for seventeen (17) months beyond the normal one (1) year validity period, thereby obviating the need (or at least delaying the need) for an employer to incur the legal and filing fees, as well as comply with the public access requirements of the H-1B program.  Such 17 month extension is available to those OPT workers who have a STEM degree (an acronym for one in a designated science, technology, engineering or mathematics discipline) and work for employers who participate in the E-Verify program. 

E-Verify is an electronic method of verifying employment with DHS.  It supplements the I-9 process of employment verification.  Currently, unless the employer engages in federal government contracts or conducts business in certain states which have made E-Verify mandatory, the E-Verify program is voluntary.  Those employers who are not required to enroll, but are considering signing up for E-Verify, should carefully consider the pros vs. the cons.  The centerpiece of the E-verify program is the requirement that the employer enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DHS, which, in turn, requires, among other things, that the employer:
 
(a)     posts certain notices/posters (i.e. E-Verify Poster and the Office of the Special Counsel   anti-discrimination poster) in locations that are accessible to prospective applicants and new hires.  This applies to electronic media when practical, as well as physical locations;

(b)    agrees to allow DHS and SSA, or their authorized agents or designees, to make periodic visits to the employer for the purpose of reviewing E-Verify-related records (i.e. Forms I-9 and SSA and DHS confirmation records); and

(c)    agrees to allow DHS and SSA, or their authorized agents or designees, to interview the employer, employees handling the program (i.e. the Company’s Designated Agent), and employees hired during participation in E-Verify concerning their experience with the program.

Given the MOU requirement, coupled with the zero tolerance aspect of the program (which is not yet 100% accurate), it would behoove an employer to carefully consider whether “signing up” with DHS and SSA is a fair exchange for avoiding (temporarily) the expense and compliance aspects of the H-1B visa program.

For additional information and frequent updates on a variety of corporate and business-related immigration law issues, please click here to navigate to Meyner and Landis LLP's Corporate Immigration Law News Blog.

Post Authored By: Anthony F. Siliato, Esq. and Scott R. Malyk, Esq. of Meyner and Landis LLP