September 2000 Newsletter
**U.S. IMMIGRATION NEWS**
September
1, 2000
Published by:
ImmigrationLinks.com,
Inc.
“Your Immigration Link to the World”
Copyright © 2000, ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is
provided for general information only. It
is NOT legal advice, and should not be relied upon as such. For legal
services such as representation, please contact an attorney who specializes in
the area of Immigration Law, such as one of our attorney “Service Providers” whose
businesses are promoted on our site.
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Welcome to
ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc., “Your Immigration Link to the World”.
With the phenomenal growth of the Internet, nearly everything you need or
want to know about US Immigration law is available at the touch of a button.
We want to be at the forefront of this new technology and be able to
provide instantaneous news and information on the immigration topics that affect
those persons wishing to visit, live, or work in the United States.
One way is through our monthly newsletters.
The purpose of these newsletters is to provide useful and timely
information about immigration-related topics that affect persons who come in
contact with US Immigration laws. In
conjunction with our News, Immigration Hints & Tips, and Legal Research
pages, we want to provide you with extensive, up-to-date, and FREE information
on US immigration laws and procedures. Soon,
just about anything you need to prepare and process your immigration case will
be available online. This includes
access to immigration forms and information, as well as direct contact with
attorneys and other service providers. For
example, our Bulletin Board provides you with free answers to your immigration
questions from some of the finest immigration attorneys in the country.
Our goal is to be "The Portal Site" for everything having to do with US
immigration law. We want to provide
you with every service possible to increase your knowledge of the law and to
make your online experience more useful and rewarding. We are constantly growing and expanding in order to meet your
immigration needs.
How to Use Our Site?
- Immigration
News Page: To get the latest
immigration news, updated on a daily basis, go to this page.
We have thousands of news articles covering every type of immigration
petition or application. You
can download free immigration and state department forms, get the latest fee
schedules, list of immigration doctors, addresses and telephone numbers of
immigration offices, the latest priority dates, current processing times,
and much, much more. Check out
the “NEWS FLASH” area for late-breaking
immigration developments.
- Immigration
Hints & Tips Page: Get useful immigration hints and tips that will make the
filing of your immigration case easier and faster. Have access to
forms and sample briefs and legal memorandum especially prepared by
immigration attorneys that you can use with your applications.
Attorneys listed in The Best Lawyers in America have prepared many of
these documents.
- Immigration
Research Page: Go here to get
connected to thousands of public and private agencies and businesses related
to US immigration law. You will
have free access to copies of all of the immigration laws, all court
decisions, agency memos and field instructions, forms, addresses and
telephone numbers, and a lot more. We
are constantly adding new links. No
other immigration site has as many links as we have. (Feel free to look at all of our links and send us
suggestions for any others that you believe are important).
- Immigration
Services: These are the businesses
that provide valuable products and services to assist the immigrant
community. Let us promote your
company’s business on our site for as little as $25.00 per year.
You can also have our free banner placed on your business’s web
site as a service for your customers.
- Languages:
Spanish, French,
German, Italian, and Portuguese translations of our site are now
available. Simply click on the
appropriate language button on our Home Page.
Other languages coming in the future.
- New
Bulletin Board and Chat Room: Post your immigration questions on our Bulletin Board and get
answers from others who have faced the same types of problems, including free
advice from some of the finest immigration attorneys in the country.
Chat live online with others, including immigration law experts.
Tune in for other special features and programs.
- Other
Services: Sign up for our free monthly newsletter, including
urgent updates as necessary. Look
for free downloads of immigration materials including
specially prepared forms, articles, and insider tips written for
ImmigrationLinks.com by some of the finest immigration attorneys in the
country.
- Banner Exchange Program: If you have a web site and would like to exchange banner links with us, please send e-mail to info@immigrationlinks.com. We will contact you to discuss your site’s inclusion in our program.
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Top
Immigration Attorneys Answer Your Immigration Questions for FREE
ImmigrationLinks.com is pleased to announce that some of the top immigration attorneys in the country will be answering your “general” immigration questions for free on our “Bulletin Board” page. Our guest moderators this month will be Nicolas J. Watkins of the law firm of Howe, Robinson & Watkins, LLP, in Miami, Florida and Fredrick Voigtmann of the law firm of Inman & Associates, P.C., located in Beverly Hills, California. Many of you will recall that the firm’s Managing Partner, Maurice Inman, served as General Counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years.
Mr. Watkins will be answering your questions until September 6, and Mr.
Voigtmann will answer questions through September 30. These
are two of the finest immigration practitioners in the country.
Post your questions on our bulletin board and Messers. Watkins or
Voigtmann will answer them during the following month.
You can contact Mr. Watkins at his e-mail address of: njwatkins@aol.com.
Mr. Voigtmann can be contacted at his e-mail address of: fredrick@usvisas.net
or you may visit his web site at www.usvisas.net.
We plan on having guest attorneys available to
answer your questions at least once a month. This service, as are all other services on our site, is
completely free. We
hope you will take this opportunity to ask the questions that are important to
you.
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Get
Ready for the DV-2002 Visa Lottery
Complete
Information, Forms, Instructions, and Useful Tips can be found on our “Visa
Lottery Home Page” at www.immigrationlinks.com/dvlotterylink.htm
The mail-in period for the next Diversity Visa lottery
(DV-2002) will be held between noon on October 2, 2000 and noon on November 1,
2000. There are several important
changes for DV-2002. Those who
choose to enter the DV-2002 lottery, should obtain a copy of the latest
instructions and follow them carefully. Complete
instructions for entry into the DV-2002 lottery were e-mailed to all persons on
our mailing list in early August 2000. If
you are on our FREE mailing list you will continue to receive all the latest
immigration news as well as any lottery updates.
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American
Green
Card
Lottery Registration Service
Register
for the Annual Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery
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Visit Our Sponsors Who Help Pay the Costs of Our Monthly Newsletters
and the Free Services Provided by Our Site. **
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NEW I-485 FORM REQUIRED AFTER 9/30/00
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced that any adjustment of status applications filed after September 30, 2000 will be rejected if the new version of Form I-485 is not used. The new version of the form can be found on the INS website at:
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/files/i-485.pdf.
For the complete INS Memo announcing the change, click here.
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The Doldrums of August
You can certainly tell that we just went
through the month of August, because there hasn’t been a whole lot of news to
report. For the most part,
Congress, immigration officials, immigration courts, immigration lawyers, and
even the public have been on vacation. So,
as is typical, not much in the way of immigration news typically occurs in
August. If not for the Visa
Lottery, there would be no excitement at all.
But now, as we approach the beginning of the
fiscal year on October 1, and as Congress is back in session, we should start to
see some things happening. The
problem this year is that we have a presidential election.
For that reason, Congress will probably be reluctant to pass any major
immigration legislation before the new president takes office.
However, we believe that important immigration laws will come forward
starting shortly after the New Year. It
is important that all of our readers contact their congresspersons, shortly
after the elections, to let them know your views on the important roles that
immigrants play in this country.
The American Immigration Lawyers’
Association has prepared numerous advocacy letters, which are posted on our web
site and will help you with your arguments.
Please read them and then contact your representatives.
Have a Happy and Safe Memorial
Weekend!
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INS
Sued for Failure to Timely Adjudicate
Family Unity Applications
The American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), the
National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center
(ILRC) have filed a national class action lawsuit against the Immigration and
Naturalization Service over the California Service Center's failure to
adjudicate applications for voluntary departure and employment authorization
under the Family Unity program. For
more on the lawsuit, click here.
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INS To Continue Parole Policy in Lieu
of VWPP
As we reported last month, the visa waiver pilot program has expired and has not yet been renewed by Congress. Therefore, INS has extended until September 30 its policy of paroling into the US individuals who would otherwise be eligible for the VWPP. It is expected that Congress will act on extending the program sometime before that date.
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INS
BEGINS PROCESSING OF H-1B CAP CASES
According to Fujie Ohata, INS Director of Service Center Operations, as of August 15, each of the four Service Centers was processing H-1B cases subject to the cap for fiscal year 2001 filed on or before the following dates:
California Service Center 5/1/00
Vermont Service Center 4/7/00
Nebraska Service Center 6/26/00
Texas Service Center 4/20/00
For the time being, the Service Centers have been given permission to move forward through the fiscal year 2001 H-1B cases at their discretion, rather than being required to stay within the same date range.
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INS to Expedite Religious Worker Cases
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued a signed memorandum, which was distributed to all Service Centers, directing Service Centers to expedite I-360 and I-485 applications for religious worker cases, in anticipation of the September 30, 2000 sunset of the religious worker provisions.
Persons with pending applications will need to notify the Service Center where the file is located so that cases can be pulled for expediting.
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H-1B CAP IS REACHED
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has advised that it has reached the 115,000 H-1B limit for fiscal year 2000. Only cases filed March 17, 2000 or earlier would have been included in the adjudications for the current fiscal year. INS indicates that 29,500 cap-subject H-1Bs remain to be applied against fiscal year 2001, and that INS will announce procedures to begin adjudication of those cases with an October 1, 2000 start date.
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INS Issues Memo Instructing its Officers NOT to Deport
Soriano Eligible Aliens
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued a memorandum to its officers in the field not to deport persons whose proceedings commenced before April 24, 1996, who were eligible for or were denied a 212(c) waiver on Soriano grounds, who are eligible for 212(c) relief under pre-AEDPA law, and who have not been physically deported.
To read the two-page memo, in pdf format, click here.
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Thank you for taking the time to read through this month's mailing. We hope you have picked up at least a few important pointers. Please feel free to send us your immigration-related article that you want us to include in our next monthly mailing. Click here for instructions. Your article will be sent out at the beginning of next month to all of our subscribers, and it can be viewed online by millions of prospective immigration applicants around the world.
We would also like to hear from anyone who has had either
a positive or negative experience with the US Immigration Service, Immigration
Court, or a US Consulate, as we would like to share these thoughts with our
readers. Appropriate articles will
be published in our monthly newsletters. We
do need your name and e-mail address in order to obtain additional information
if necessary, however this information will not be disclosed without your
specific consent.
As mentioned above, there are many proposals currently
before Congress that will restore rights and benefits that were taken away under
the 1996 law. It is important that
everyone contact their Senators and Representatives to let them know that we
want fairness and justice when dealing with those seeking to join their family
members, or prospective employers, in the United States.
With your help, the rights of immigrants and their family members will be
greatly enhanced.
The entire staff of ImmigrationLinks.com
would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you the best in dealing with
your immigration case.
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