Complying with H1B to Change Status or Change Employers

Atty Michael Gurfinkel's Q&A:

I have an H-1B visa, valid for 3 years. Although I worked for the employer who petitioned me for a short while, I left for another job.

I have now found another employer who is willing to again petition me for an H-1B visa. Will I encounter any problems in changing employers or extending my H-1B visa if I’m no longer working for the original employer?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are not working for the employer who originally filed your H-1B petition, or were not being paid the wage called for in that petition, you will definitely encounter problems in either extending your H-1B visa or changing employers.

An H-1B visa is a temporary working visa for college graduates, who will be working in a college level job (“specialty occupation”). In addition, the H-1B visa holder can only work for the employer who petitioned them. Working for wages lower than the wage specified in the petition, or for another employer, could constitute a violation of status. Even if the H-1B visa is valid for up to 3 years, if you are not working for the petitioning employer, it is considered a violation of status, even if there is still time left on your H-1B visa. (It is like having a student visa, but no longer going to school. Although you have a visa, you are violating your visa status).

If a person has violated his or her H-1B visa, and then files for either an extension of H-1B status or for change of employer, the USCIS may ask for evidence (or proof) that the person had been in compliance with their initial H-1B visa. In fact, the USCIS put out a press release noting that the law “requires that an applicant for extension of status have maintained his or her nonimmigrant status. In situations where an H-1B worker is changing to an employer other than the one for which the initial H-1B was approved, USCIS will require that the worker changing employers demonstrate that he or she actually did perform meaningful work for the original petitioning employer under circumstances not reflective of fraudulent intent in the original petition.”

In other words, in seeking an extension of status or change of employer, the USCIS may ask for documents, such as your pay stubs, tax returns, etc. to make sure that you were actually working for the original petitioning employer at the wages specified in the petition. If you are no longer working for that employer, or being paid less than the wage, USCIS may consider that to be a violation of status, and thus you may be considered “out of status”. It doesn’t matter if you now have a new employer willing to petition you, or that you now intend to comply with your H-1B obligations.

When seeking immigration benefits, you must make sure that you are in full compliance with all the applicable rules, regulations, and requirements. If you are not playing by the rules (i.e. not working for the petitioning employer, working in a non-specialty occupation, and/or being paid less than the prevailing wage), then your case could be denied, which would only be the start of your immigration problems.

Taking Care on the Road

You're a healthcare traveler because you enjoy new places, faces and experiences. But at times it's still tough to maintain a positive attitude and keep your energy level high. After all, you're always the new kid on the block who has to prove yourself, and you're far from your support network of family and friends. Lynn Blissard, an ICU nurse and veteran healthcare traveler, and John-Henry Pfifferling, an expert on the well-being of healthcare professionals, offer tips on how you can take care of yourself emotionally and physically despite the rigors of your profession.


Make Yourself Comfortable
You can't create a permanent "nest" when you're on a temporary assignment, but you can carry items or symbols with you that make you feel at home anywhere. A concrete item, like your favorite bathrobe, could address your nest-building needs while you're away from home. So could colors, tastes or smells, says Pfifferling, director of the Center for Professional Well-Being, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to promoting well-being among healthcare professionals.

Make Connections
Don't be a hermit outside of work. On one of Blissard's assignments, she made friends immediately by visiting the same coffee shop every day her first week. "Because you're in an isolating situation, you have to reach out more," Pfifferling says. Visiting a church, hooking up with your college's alumni association or meeting fellow fans of your favorite sports team will bind you with an "extended family," according to Pfifferling.

Take Advantage of Your Free Time
Don't lose sight of the reason you chose to travel. During her years as a traveler, Blissard has explored South Carolina, Arizona, California and Illinois. Your days off can also be used to cultivate your hobbies. Blissard scuba dives and takes piloting lessons.

Stay Active and Eat Right
The more fit you are, the better able you'll be to handle the stress of your job, Pfifferling says. Exercise regularly, avoid too much caffeine and eat nutritiously. Shift workers should take special care to prepare healthy meals rather than indulge in readily available junk food. Try to eat with others, as people who eat alone are more vulnerable to overeating, Pfifferling says.

Say No
It's easy for healthcare travelers to become run down from overworking. "People want you to overwork -- you don't have to go home to your family so it's expected that you can work a double or triple shift," Pfifferling says. "Be very careful. Sometimes saying 'no' means saying 'yes' to your own health." You should also have realistic expectations -- you won't always be received warmly at new facilities. You must realize that "you are a guest in someone else's home," Blissard says.

Stay in Touch
Call and email your family and friends regularly. Plan to visit or host your loved ones, even if only for a few days. The holidays could be an especially rough time for novice travelers, so plan ahead for them. Pfifferling recommends sending cards, letters and emails well in advance of the holidays, guaranteeing you'll receive more correspondence the week of the actual event. If rituals are important to you, make sure you observe them by decorating or building a shrine, for example. If all else fails to ease your loneliness on a holiday, count your blessings the way Blissard does. "It's been very easy for me to get through it," she explains. "I just think as long as I'm on this side of the critical-care bed I'm OK. What can I complain about?"


by Megan Malugani
Source: Monster.com

Gadgets for Your Commute

Just board a train or bus or look in the cars next to you during rush hour, and you’ll undoubtedly witness commuters’ addiction to gadgets of every type. “I certainly fill my dead commuter time more efficiently than I used to,” says Katie Lee, editor-in-chief of online gadget guide Shiny Shiny. “I've got a tiny laptop, a smartphone and a music player so I can catch up on work, check my emails and listen to gadget podcasts, which are all things I'd have to wait to do if I didn’t have all those gadgets.” Companies continue to fuel our gadget fix with commuter-friendly wizardry. “A lot of time is wasted in traffic and on the road, and people are very busy,” says Kevin Massy, associate editor of CNET Car Tech. “There is a great deal of willingness on the part of the business world to turn that traffic time into productive time.” One group of investors says it will spend $5 million for a car computer with a keyboard in the steering wheel and a windshield that doubles as a screen, Massy notes.

Seven Hot Commuter Gadgets
If you’re looking for the hottest commuter-friendly gadgets, you’ve come to the right place. Consider these picks:

Treo 700p Smartphone: Wireless email, a Web browser and even the ability to work on Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents -- the latest Treo smartphone includes it all. With its EvDO connectivity, you’ll connect with broadband-like speed. “You can download large attachments and surf the Web with almost laptop-like performance,” says Mia Kim, editor-in-chief of personal technology hub Popgadget.

iPod 80 GB Portable Media Device: “Get yourself a music player, such as an iPod, download some podcasts, and while away your commuting time listening to some quality chat,” suggests Lee. With companies as diverse as Monster, IBM, Purina and Whirlpool offering podcasts, you will likely be able to catch up on industry news and views. The latest iPod has video capabilities that will prepare you for the next trend -- video podcasts -- and has enough room for your music library and maybe a few movies.

Olympus WS-310M Digital Voice Recorder: “If you worry about losing your million-dollar idea -- and how many of those have you really had? -- buy yourself a very high-quality, but very portable, digital voice recorder,” says Merlin Mann, editor of 43 Folders, who uses the WS-310M, which can record up to 138 hours of audio. “Just grab enough information to remind yourself of the thought later on, then stop.”

Parrot 3400 LS-GPS Bluetooth Car Kit: Need access to your phone’s features in your car? Then think about a full-featured Bluetooth car kit, like the Parrot 3400 LS-GPS, to connect to your Bluetooth-capable phone without endangering yourself. With its LCD color screen, voice recognition and address book synchronization, you’ll be able to keep your eye on the road even as you talk to your colleagues.

Sony Vaio G1 Notebook Computer: The Vaio G1 (also recommended by Kim), breaks the two-pound barrier for PCs. Weighing just 1.97 pounds, this computer won’t weigh down your backpack -- or give you back problems. Dual Wi-Fi antennas will help you get top-notch wireless reception when you need to pop into a cafe to check your email.

Bose QuietComfort 3 Noise-Canceling Headphones: Now you can hear podcasts, phone conversations -- and, yes, your tunes -- whether you’re in a noisy jet or a crowded bus. Tune out your fellow commuters, and tune into your work.

BlackBerry 7303e Handheld Device: If you want the uber-commuting device, consider a BlackBerry. The device automatically adjusts LCD and keyboard lighting levels, letting you use it whether you’re walking down the street in the sunlight or sitting in a dark limo.

A Final Word on Gadgets
Today’s gadgetry presents plenty of choices. “Try getting by with as little technology as you can tolerate, then slowly add tools only as you really need them -- and only as you have mastered the previous tool,” advises Mann, who favors a Fisher Space Pen and index cards. “Everybody respects a guy with a pad of paper.”



by Allan Hoffman
Source: Monster.com

Dual Nationality: boon or bane for America?

The enactment of the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 (also known as Philippine Dual Citizenship Law) that allows former Filipino citizens to reacquire their Philippine citizenship, which they renounced when they became citizens of their adopted countries, has been a welcome development among Filipino expatriates here in the United States and elsewhere.

With this new law, the Philippines joined the group of major immigrant-sending nations to the United States that have enacted laws that allow expatriates to reacquire their rights as nationals despite taking citizenship status in the United States or elsewhere. The law paves the way for Filipino expatriates from all over the world, especially from the United States, to renew their kinship and reestablish ties to their motherland. For years now, many naturalized Americans have claimed full citizenship of the countries where they were born, including Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ireland and France. A recent survey published in the immigration journal “Interpreter Releases” found that 66 out of 128 countries now permit some form of dual nationality.

Why do naturalized American citizens become dual nationals? There are myriad reasons. Some naturalized Americans maintain a sentimental attachment to their country of birth. Some like to preserve the option of retiring and spending the remaining days of their lives in their native countries. Others simply want convenience- to avoid the hassle and the bureaucratic red tape in obtaining visas when traveling and doing business abroad. In fact, the convenience of visa exemption has become attractive to many American business professionals who frequently travel abroad. For some wealthy and enterprising Americans seeking “tax havens”, dual nationality provides economic and tax advantage. This scheme is within the easy reach of certain affluent Americans who have substantial investments in other countries. Simply put, they “buy” their second nationality as an expedient way to escape tax obligations to Uncle Sam.

Unbeknownst to expatriates who embraced dual nationality, there is more to raising the right hand, reciting the oath of allegiance and applying for a foreign passport. Embracing dual nationality presents the complicated and intertwine issues of loyalties and allegiances vis-à-vis U.S. immigration and foreign policies. This issue has opened a raging debate among the expatriates themselves, attorneys, scholars, and immigration critics of whether dual nationality undercuts the true meaning of American citizenship. Each group endlessly cites the pros and cons of dual nationality.

Opponents of dual nationality say this issue is tied to the “marriage metaphor.” For example, Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer of Universal Press Syndicate has asserted that dual nationality dilutes patriotic commitments and “makes citizenship akin to bigamy.” John Fonte of the Hudson Institute, in his testimony before a congressional hearing, said that dual nationality is philosophically inconsistent with our liberal democracy. Many opponents anchor their opposition to dual nationality on the issue of loyalty and allegiance- that dual nationality begets dual loyalties and dual allegiances. They contend that an immigrant who becomes a United States citizen renounces all allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty. Undivided loyalty and allegiance, they say, is one that holds all Americans together and puts a sense of oneness to the United States as a nation. Loyalty and allegiance to this country and the ideals it represents, they contend, are powerful reasons for embracing immigrants from all over the world.

Ideally, loyalty and allegiance don’t pose any problem in time of peace where the United States is at terms with many countries. War with the Philippines, Mexico, Canada, Ireland or France is remote under the present political climate. But what if, say, 100 years from now, arises a political crisis or, worse, a military confrontation between the United States and Canada or Mexico that would force millions of dual nationals to decide where their loyalties and allegiances lie. Such a scenario would put to serious test the loyalties and allegiances of dual nationals.

Others, however, have a benign view of dual nationality. Peter Spiro, a Hofstra University law professor, says, “Dual nationality is something the United States should not only tolerate but embrace. By doing so, we would accomplish two worthy purposes: encouraging the assimilation of immigrants who otherwise would decline to become American citizens and helping to export our political ideals of liberty and democracy to countries around the globe.” Some say that the growing trend of dual nationality is a natural and healthy outgrowth of globalization and economic and cultural integration brought about by the rapid changes in today’s technology.

What does the United States government say on the on-going debate? As early as 1915, the U.S. government has looked askance at dual nationality. President Theodore Roosevelt minced no words to call dual nationality a “self evident absurdity.” Officially, the U.S. government maintains that it does not favor dual nationality because of the complication it presents. The U.S. Supreme Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Douglas, in a 1952 case of Kawakita v. United States, said, “One who has dual nationality will be subject to claims from both nations, claims which may at times be competing or conflicting, and that circumstances may compel one who has a dual nationality to do acts which otherwise would not be compatible with the obligations of American citizenship.”

But the position of the U.S. government on paper is a far cry from what happens in practice. The U.S. Department of State says it recognizes that dual nationality exists. It however does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. This notwithstanding, the U.S. Department of State imposes no sanctions on naturalized American citizens who become dual nationals. This leads critics to say that naturalizing American citizens who take the renunciation oath that they have no intention of respecting by becoming dual nationals make a mockery of the U.S. citizenship process. And because the renunciation oath has never been enforced, many believe that dual nationality has become, as a practical matter, almost completely tolerated under U.S. law.

Thus far, no U.S. law exists that strictly bans or limits dual nationality. Until a law is passed banning naturalized American citizens from retaining or reacquiring their original nationality, and sanctions imposed on them for violating their renunciation oaths, the dual nationality trend will continue in an era of growing global migration.

Mandy M. Dornagon, Esq.
*Attorney at LawWebsite- http://www.attydornagon.com
*Author, A Guide to U.S. Visas for Filipino Professionals

Thanks for this article reposting!

Working Parent's Guide to Weekend Fun

With busy weekdays eating up precious time together, weekends may be the only time your family has a chance to reconnect. Here's how to make the most of your weekend time — and how to prevent those unavoidable errands from turning Saturdays and Sundays into all work (and no play) days:

Complete a few critical chores during the week, and come Saturday morning you'll both have breathing room and be grateful for it.


Tackle some tasks during the week
* Schedule certain tasks to occur on certain days every week.
Jonathan Yackel, a computer science professor in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and father to three young children, does the weekly grocery shopping for the family on his way home from work every Monday. "I do it by myself, so it's a lot faster than doing it with the kids," he says. He gets home later on Mondays as a result, but it frees him and his wife Lisa, a veterinarian, from having to fit this task into the weekend.

* Take advantage of delivery services. Consider having your groceries delivered to you during the week. It costs a bit more, but it may be worth it, depending on how much time grocery shopping takes each week. Many supermarkets have a Web site where you can place your order — some exclusively Web-based services are available. Also consider taking advantage of locally owned farms that deliver fresh, often organic produce to your doorstep each week or every other week.

* Work the Web. In addition to ordering groceries online, you can take care of a number of tasks and errands from the comfort of your desk chair, including consolidating and paying all your bills; banking; ordering drugstore items; and keeping an electronic calendar with e-mail reminders. Typing in a key word in a search engine will pull up a number of options.



Involve kids in weekend chores
Chores that must get done on the weekends can, with a little incentive, get done with your child in tow. Even young kids can play a significant role in keeping the household running. Your young child can toss things into the washing machine with you; a preschooler can help pair up clean socks.

"Family time doing household activities is important," says Joan Wenters, clinical and developmental psychologist at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California. "Children need to learn that this is part of life and they need to grow up learning the skills to manage a household. As for the parents, if chores are joint projects with the kids, the weekend doesn't have to be so much of an either/or proposition."

The key to success here is limiting the number of tasks on a given day and building in some kid fun. Going to the dry cleaners where they get a lollipop won't seem like a chore to your child. Neither will picking up a few things at the corner market if they know they'll be able to choose a treat or get to peek in the pet store window afterward.


Set a weekend agenda
Each week on a specific day (like Wednesday), check in with your spouse about the upcoming weekend to avoid miscommunications and unrealistic expectations, both of which can eat up precious time. Review scheduled appointments or activities (Saturday morning haircut, Saturday night dinner party, Sunday afternoon birthday party your child will be attending on Sunday), and talk about what else would be nice to fit in, such as a bike ride, cleaning out the garage, or taking your child to the library.

Make sure you're both clear on details like confirming with the sitter, directions to dinner, which of you is going to shop for and wrap the birthday child's gift and take your child to the party, and the library's weekend hours. Better yet, post a large wall calendar in the kitchen and be sure to fill in appointments, social dates, and children's activities where everyone can see them — and know what to expect.


Establish weekend family rituals
Do something every weekend that involves the entire family. This can be challenging if one parent has to work weekends or you have kids of different ages and interests, but the payoff goes beyond just developing an archive of family memories. Getting children used to family activities also helps in raising cooperative kids.

"It's important to develop the expectation that you do things as a family — that certain times are family time," says Wenters. And part of family time involves a little compromise. "Kids also need to learn that you don't always get to do your first-choice thing," she adds. Wenters recommends giving kids input on what the family activities will be.

"Offer several different activities, or rotate who gets to choose — one child this time, the other child next time, then maybe Mom or Dad's turn." Or have each family member write down three activities on separate slips of paper and put them all into a family fun jar. When you're stumped for ideas or can't agree on what to do, someone chooses randomly from the jar.

Establishing family rituals needn't be an exercise in rigidity. Often, activities you already do as a family, or even the downtime you spend together, if done routinely, can constitute a family ritual. Some possibilities:

Attend religious services. Aside from the spiritual and community benefits of belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque, busy families may also find this becomes their principal and most reliable weekly group activity.

Make mealtimes special. The Yackels have a weekly Friday night dinner out, alternating among the inexpensive family-friendly eateries in their area. Another nice tradition to build into a hectic schedule is a leisurely Saturday or Sunday breakfast. After a week of cold cereal and bagels wolfed down in the car, it's a special treat to be able to make and enjoy a plate of homemade French toast or pancakes in the shapes of animals or letters. Preschoolers can help out too — measuring flour, stirring the batter — which makes the preparation part of the ritual.

Settle in for some screen time. A family movie night is always a hit. Rent a family video, serve up some popcorn, and get cozy together. Or make Fridays dinner-and-a-movie night: Order pizza and have it in front of the TV while you all watch a video — the sillier the better.


Have a few fun activities ready to go
What do you do when it's 3 o'clock on a cloudy Sunday afternoon and your kids are in the grip of cabin fever? Here are some options:

Take advantage of local happenings. Memberships to your local zoo, science museum, or children's museum will pay for themselves. Keep notes about special local events in a handy place like the kitchen bulletin board. "Hey, if we leave right now we'll catch the penguin-feeding at the zoo!" can get even the grumpiest kid moving. Need ideas? Consider these options for great day trips .

Do an art project. Choose a corner of the kids' playroom, the kitchen table, or a section of the basement, and lay down a drop cloth or old sheet to protect the floors. Line up a variety of crayons, markers, paints, clay, glue, beads, buttons, and paper, and let the kids loose. Or suggest a specific project, like decorating a "treasure" box with photos cut out of magazines or making play food out of Sculpey or Fimo clay, which you can then bake in the oven until it hardens.

Have fun for all ages. For families with children of different ages, develop projects that include age-specific tasks for everyone, like a family scrapbook: A preschooler can sort pictures, while an older sibling can glue them on the pages, and you can write the captions. Or break out the video camera and make a family movie or your own music video — younger children can star in the film, while older ones can direct or operate the camera.


Schedule downtime
Having at least one weekend morning free of any scheduled activities is important for both relaxation and nurturing a young child's imagination. In this age of over-scheduling, kids get less and less time to just let their minds wander, explore their surroundings, kick a ball, or create their own arts and crafts projects free of adult supervision.

Of course, downtime is just as important for the grown-ups as it is for the kids. So, even if your children are happily coloring away in the playroom, avoid the temptation to try to squeeze in one more chore while they're occupied. Some of the most relaxing and enjoyable family moments are those in which family members are together, but engaged in their own activities — Mom and Dad reading the newspaper next to a child contentedly drawing a picture. But downtime doesn't just happen on its own; you have to make room for it on your schedule.

Your child will come to expect weekends that are great — not just because Mom and Dad are more available to them, but because they get unfettered time to make their own fun.



Source: Parentcenter.com

Types of Mortgages and Loans

When considering a mortgage, there are a lot of different types of loans to consider. Here’s a rundown:

Federal Housing Administration Loans: The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a federal agency within the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). FHA's primary objective is to assist in providing housing opportunities for low- to moderate-income families. FHA has both single-family (one to four units) and multifamily (five or more units) mortgage-lending programs. The agency does not generally provide the funds for the mortgages but rather insures home mortgage loans made by private-industry lenders such as mortgage bankers, banks and savings and loans.

Homeowners with FHA loans usually have to make only a small down payment (about 3 percent of the value of the home). They also enjoy a lower interest rate -- between 0.5 percent and 1 percent below the interest rates on other mortgages. The downside is that they do indeed have to purchase private mortgage insurance, or as it's called under these loans, mortgage insurance premium (MIP).

Rural Homebuyers: Special loans also exist for people choosing to locate in a rural area. These loans are given to encourage economic development in depressed regions. The specifics of the program are similar to the FHA loan program but may not be as stringent with the income qualifications.

But you'd be surprised at what's considered a "depressed region." You can sometimes find these loans available in very nice areas that for one reason or another have managed to qualify. Be sure to ask if such a program exists in your area.

No matter what kind of loan you end up getting, though, there will be tax implications -- generally positive ones.

Fixed-Rate Mortgage: This is the plain-vanilla loan most people think of when considering a mortgage. You will owe a certain percentage of the loan as interest to the lender. This amount never changes, and your monthly payment will remain the same over the life of your loan. Loans for homes are usually 15 or 30 years.

Adjustable-Rate Mortgage: With an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), the interest rate changes to reflect changes in the credit market out in the great, wide world. The first-year rate (otherwise known as the teaser rate) is generally a couple of percentage points below the market rate. There are also upward limits above which the interest rate isn't allowed to go -- this is called the cap. If your teaser rate is 4 percent and you have a five-point cap, then the highest that your interest rate could go would be 9 percent.

What's more, the amount that the interest rate can rise each year is limited, usually to one or two percentage points per year. The frequency at which the rate adjusts may vary; make sure you know these features.

If you're considering an ARM, think about the worst-case scenario. What if interest rates go up and your ARM adjusts to its maximum? What will that maximum be, and when will it kick in? Will you be able to afford the payments?

Cost of Funds Index: One type of ARM is a cost of funds index (COFI) loan. This loan doesn't have any caps and adjusts monthly. It is, in a sense, the most adjustable ARM, since it isn't fixed for a certain time. But the index it’s tied to is the most stable index of them all: The rate banks have to pay their depositors to keep their money (e.g., checking accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit). It tends to be a slow-moving index. The COFI loan has certain advantages in that you can vary the amount of your payments as you wish (paying off more or less each month).

Hybrid Loan: Typically, a hybrid loan is fixed for one, three, five, seven or 10 years and then converts to an ARM. This means you get stability for a given amount of time, and then your fate is cast to the winds of the prevailing interest rates.

Two-Step Loans: These loans attempt to have the best of both worlds: The stability of a fixed loan with the lower rates of an ARM.

They appear in their most common forms as 5/25 or 7/23 loans. Math buffs among you will note that the numbers straddling those slashes add up to 30, as in a 30-year loan. This means your interest rate will be fixed for the first five or seven years, then the loan adjusts in one of two ways: It will either become an ARM, adjusting annually, or a fixed-rate loan. The beginning interest rate for these loans is generally lower than that of a standard 30-year fixed loan.

Balloon Loans: These tend to be short-term loans. You borrow money for, say, three or seven years, and the loan is amortized as though it were a 30-year loan. At the end of the three- or seven-year period, you owe the remaining principal in one lump sum. Again, these loans tend to have lower interest rates than the standard 30-year mortgage. If you're not planning to stay too long in your house, you might be interested in such a loan. The reason: You pay less in interest -- saving potentially thousands of dollars -- over the course of the loan than you would with a 30-year fixed. So you're less out-of-pocket when it comes time to sell.

Keep in mind that if your plans change and you want to stay in the house, you're going to have to pay off the loan in full -- by getting another loan, at the prevailing interest rates, and with the attendant costs of getting that new loan. So it isn't for the faint of heart or irresolute of mind.

Veterans Administration Loans: The more you know about loan programs, the more you will realize how little red tape there is in getting a Veterans Administration (VA) loan. These loans are often made without any down payment and frequently offer lower interest rates than what’s ordinarily available. Aside from the veteran's certificate of eligibility and the VA-assigned appraisal, the application process is not much different from any other type of mortgage loan. What's more, if the lender is approved for automatic processing, as more and more lenders are, a buyer's loan can be processed and closed by the lender without waiting for the VA's approval of the credit application.



Source: Monster.com