In filing an application for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS, there are many questions that are posed for the person who is just being introduced to the concept of potentially filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS, and many of the sub-topical concepts are often “counter-intuitive”.
Posted by great scott! Sure, you use Twitter as a social media tool, but have you ever considered it as an SEO research tool? No? Well watch and learn this week to find out how you can harness it in a whole new way. Now that social signals (particularly Twitter) are becoming more important in the engines, they can help you pinpoint when a keyword is going to trip the ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ switch. If you can figure that out, you can gain a big competitive advantage by publishing fresh content in a targeted, timely manner. Rand mentions a couple of tools for using Twitter to target and time your content. One is Trendistic , which helps you see trends in Twitter; another is our very own Blogscape Social Media Monitoring prototype (inside PRO Labs), which monitors and analyzes a few million key content providers across the fresh web, including over 250,000 influential Twitter accounts. Do you like this post? Yes No
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Whiteboard Friday – Twitter as an SEO Research Tool
Brought to you by Equus, providers of expatriate software and assignment management software Social Security’s Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program limits the amount of earnings subject to taxation for a given year. The same annual limit also applies when those earnings are used in a benefit computation [such as relocation].
Posted by great scott! This week we take a look at how shifts in the engines over the last year have made it more important than ever to really pay attention to brand-based marketing. A year or so ago, the engines started giving more weight to established brands, but things have become more interesting: With enhanced attention to personalized search, click patterns, and brand preferences emerging through individual search history, having an identifiable brand is a huge asset.
Posted by great scott! This week Rand discusses recent changes that seem to signal the coming of another big shift in how the engines determine results. With the incorporation of social networks into results, increased personalized search, and even Google Buzz , the social graph is clearly becoming a more and more important factor for the engines. What will these changes mean for online marketers and how can you take advantage of them? Watch this week’s Whiteboard Friday and find out… And here, for your browsing pleasure, are some of the resources Rand mentioned in the video… Video intro to Google Buzz: Royal Pingdom says Twitter now processing more than one billion tweets per month . The New York Times analyzes the sharing of articles online . Mashable reports Facebook passes 400 million users . Search Engine Land looks at Google’s social search features. Do you like this post? Yes No
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Whiteboard Friday – How Search is Changing
Posted by Gil Reich This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation. How many people use Q&A sites? In a recent Business.com study , 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn’t even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging. Answers.com (where I work) is now ranked (by comScore) as the 17th most visited site in the US. The vast majority of Answers.com’s traffic is to user generated Q&A pages. Yahoo! Answers gets even more traffic. Much of your potential market is already getting their answers from these sites. Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com, December 14, 2009, http://www.business.com/info/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a What’s in it for me? Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways: Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product. Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads. Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value. How do I use these sites? The general rules of social media apply here too: Help others Build relationships Push your products and services when they answer somebody’s question or request. Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you’re answering. Specifically: Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories. Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site. Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer. Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile. In the example below, notice how the user provided a quality answer (much of which follows a template he uses in other answers as well) and adds a relevant link to his site.
Inadmissibility refers to those individuals not permitted to enter the United States. Applicants for adjustment of status to permanent resident (Form I-485, or “green card”) are regarded as applicants for admission, even though they are physically in the United States. Concerns over immigration-related consequences are raised when a non-citizen applies for certain pubic benefit programs, even though otherwise eligible to do so. Public charge inadmissibility applies to non-citizens who receive only certain public benefits. Non-citizens may receive certain public benefits without being a “public charge”. Some non-citizens and their families are eligible for public benefits, including disaster relief, treatment of communicable diseases, immunizations, and children’s nutrition and health care programs, without being found to be a public charge.(Public charge inadmissibility is addressed in the Affidavit of Support, Form I-864.) In my practice as a North Carolina immigration lawyer (with clients throughout the U.S. and the world) I frequently counsel clients about the public benefits that do not trigger ”public charge” inadmissibility. Many public assistance programs do have immigration-related consequences on eligibility. Definition of Public Charge The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) United States Citizenship and Immigration services (USCIS) Adjudicator’s Manual defines ‘public charge’ as “an individual who is likely to become “primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance, or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.” The Department of State applies a similar definition of public charge inadmissibility. Because the inadmissibility is based on whether the non-citizen is “likely” to become a public charge, a number of factors must be considered, including age, health, family status, assets, resources, financial status, education, and skills. No single factor, other than the lack of an affidavit of support if required, determines whether an individual is a public charge. Benefits Subject to Public Charge Consideration A non-citizen’s receipt of the following cash assistance for income maintenance programs may establish the public charge inadmissibility: Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); State or local cash assistance programs for income maintenance, often called “General Assistance” programs; and, Medicaid used to support aliens residing in an institution for long-term care (and not short-term care), for example a nursing home or mental health institution, may be determined to be general assistance. If a non-citizen accepts these forms of public cash assistance it could make the non-citizen inadmissible as a public charge, if all other criteria are met. Receipt of these public benefits will certainly raise issues in an application to adjust status to permanent resident (“green card”). However, the mere receipt of these benefits does not automatically make an individual inadmissible, ineligible to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, or deportable on public charge grounds. The determination is required to be made on a case-by-case basis in the context of the totality of the circumstances. Benefits Not Subject to Public Charge Consideration Non-cash benefits and special-purpose cash benefits that are not intended for income maintenance are not subject to public charge consideration; these include: Such benefits include: Medicaid and other health insurance and health services (including public assistance for immunizations and for testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases, use of health clinics, short-term rehabilitation services, prenatal care, and emergency medical services) other than support for long-term institutional care Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); Nutrition programs, including Food Stamps, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program, and other supplementary and emergency food assistance programs Housing benefits; Child care services; Energy assistance, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); Emergency disaster relief; Foster care and adoption assistance; Educational assistance (such as attending public school), including benefits under the Head Start Act and aid for elementary, secondary, or higher education; Job training programs; In-kind, community-based programs, services, or assistance (such as soup kitchens, crisis counseling and intervention, and short-term shelter); Non-cash benefits under TANF such as subsidized child care or transit subsidies; Cash payments that have been earned, such as Title II Social Security benefits, government pensions, and veterans’ benefits, among other forms of earned benefits, do not support a public charge determination; Unemployment compensation is also not considered for public charge purposes. The key distinction between programs and create public charge inadmissibility and those that do not is the purpose of the benefit. Public benefits that are not for income maintenance but rather to avoid the need for on-going cash assistance for income maintenance, do not give rise to the public charge inadmissibility. The fact that a non-citizen may have experienced a temporary need does not necessarily indicate that s/he is likely to become primarily dependent upon the U.S. government for subsistence. Each application is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, using a totality of circumstances analysis. Gerald Goulder is a North Carolina immigration lawyer who practices exclusively immigration law. He represents clients in North Carolina, and throughout the United States and the world because immigration law is a federal law practice not limited attorneys in a particular state. Goulder has been a licensed attorney and counselor at law for 30 years and guarantees personal service to every client. Clients receive one-on-one direct access to immigration attorney Gerald Goulder on phone calls, emails, or letters. If you are seeking guidance, experience and knowledge of immigration and visa laws involving family-based or employment-based permanent residence and green cards, visas, or citizenship, do not hesitate to contact Goulder Immigration Law Firm through the website or by phone toll free at 1-866-US VISAS. Continue reading “What is a “Public Charge” for Purposes of Immigration Law and Green Cards?”
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What is a "Public Charge" for Purposes of Immigration Law and Green Cards?
The lack of cooperation from a treating doctor, who is asked to provide a medical narrative report for a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, may be based upon one of several factors: