February 2001 Newsletter
**U.S.
IMMIGRATION NEWS**
February 1, 2001
Published by:
ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc.
“Your Immigration Link to the World”
Copyright © 2001, ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc.
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Welcome
to ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc., “Your
Immigration Link to the World”; and welcome to a New Year and a New
Century. Much has happened this
past year with new immigration laws and with a new President and a new Congress.
As the months pass, we can expect many more changes, and new and exciting
developments in the field of immigration law.
ImmigrationLinks.com has also grown tremendously since its beginning just
nine months ago. In this short time
we have become one of the top immigration news and information providers on the
Internet, servicing hundreds of thousands of viewers each month.
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, and many more features are coming soon.
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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. This month the law staff of ImmigrationLinks.com will be answering your questions.
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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New
LIFE and LIFE Act Amendments
For all the latest information on the new immigration laws, click on the appropriate link(s) below. Remember, now that the law has passed, we still need to know how the Immigration Service and the State Department will interpret the specific provisions of the law. As memoranda are issued, and new regulations proposed, we will immediately post all of this information to our site. If you check back on a daily basis, you will always have the most current information available on the new law.
Full
Text of Immigration Bill
INS Implements Procedures to
Handle Section 245(i) Cases (01/26/01)
State
Department Notice to Consuls on V Visa Workload (01/19/01)
INS Publishes Advisory on New LIFE
Act (01/15/01)
Questions
and Answers on the New V Visa and the New K Visa Rules
(01/12/01)
LIFE
Act -- Final Summary from AILA (01/04/01)
Late Amnesty
Cases--Memo from the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional
Law (12/30/00)
Late Amnesty
Cases--Background Information from the Center for Human Rights
and Constitutional Law Foundation (12/30/00)
President
Signs LIFE Act and LIFE Act Amendments (12/21/00)
Extension of Section
245(i)--Frequently Asked Questions (12/21/00)
Diez
Preguntas Y Respuestas Sobre la Nueva 245(i) (12/21/00)
INS Publishes
Brief Summary of LIFE Legislation (12/21/00)
Information
on § 245(i) Provisions In New Immigration Bill (12/18/00)
AILA
Press Release on the Immigration Deal (12/15/00)
Immigration
Deal Reached -- Summary of the Key Provisions (12/15/00)
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INS Implements Procedures to Handle Section 245(i) Cases
January 26, 2001
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued instructions to its field offices on the procedures and standards for accepting and processing petitions and applications under Section 245(i), as recently extended by the LIFE Act.
The memo also discusses the evidence that is needed to prove physical presence on December 21, 2001, as required by the Act.
To view the entire memorandum, click here. 
Please Note: This is a very large PDF file and may take several
minutes to download. *********************************************************
Section
245(i) Misconceptions Section
245(i) is not an amnesty for all persons unlawfully in the US.
It benefits only those who are out of status and residing in the US
who have the requisite family or employer relationship, are otherwise eligible
for an immigrant visa, and are barred currently from adjusting their status in
this country. It allows such
persons to adjust their status here rather than having to return to their home
countries to acquire their visa, and there face the likelihood of the three and
ten year bars. To
preserve eligibility to file for adjustment of status under Section 245(i), an
individual must be the beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition (Form I-130,
Form I-140 or Form I-360) or an application for labor certification filed by
April 30, 2001. If the petition or
application was filed after January 14, 1998, the beneficiary must demonstrate
physical presence in the United States on December 21, 2000.
Although the deadline for filing these applications is quickly
approaching, INS has yet to indicate how it will interpret this new physical
presence requirement. ********************************************************* INS
Discusses Premium-Processing Program January 25, 2001 The following is a summary of a recent meeting at which
immigration personnel described their anticipated plans for a program to provide
expedited processing of certain employment-based petitions in exchange for a
$1,000.00 additional fee. The summary is provided by AILA, and appears
below: *************************** INS PREMIUM PROCESSING PROGRAM Following
is a summary of the information provided by the INS at a “focus group”
meeting to discuss implementation of a premium-processing fee for expedited
processing of petitions. Much of
what was discussed is a medium and long-term "wish list" with no
certainty when or if any particular feature will be included. It represents
merely preliminary planning on the part of INS. When
It Might Start INS
currently plans to introduce its premium-processing program sometime during the
third quarter of fiscal year 2001 (namely, April 1, 2001 to June 30, 2001). Price
Tag $1,000
per petition (above and beyond any other fees) Anticipated
Service to be Provided Phase-In
of Program Program
Details Running
the Premium Processing Program *********************************************************
The
Department of Labor has announced that, starting January 19, 2001, the current
LCA forms may no longer be used, and the new 3-page LCA form will take effect.
Between January 19, 2001 and January 25, 2001 the faxback system will be down
and only mail-ins will be accepted. The
complete announcement appears below: ****************** IMPORTANT NOTICE - CHANGES TO
H-1B FILING Beginning January 19, 2001, ETA Regional Offices will no longer accept the
currently used Labor Condition Application Forms (LCAs). A new H-1B
regulation was published on December 20, 2000. This regulation changed both the
Labor Condition Application Form and where it is to be filed. Effective January 19, 2001, neither the one-page Form ETA 9035 initially
published in the Federal Register of December 1994, nor the two-page form (ETA
9035) used by the LCA Faxback system will be accepted by ETA for processing. On February 5, 2001, ETA will begin accepting for automated processing the
new three-page ETA 9035 either by facsimile or by mail sent to the PO Box shown
below. This will allow ETA time to process LCAs received prior to January
19, and to retool the system to process the new form. LCAs that must be
processed during the period January 19 - February 5 must be submitted on the new
three-page form, and mailed to the appropriate ETA Regional Office, or may be
mailed to the Philadelphia PO Box shown below, where they will be manually
reviewed. For expeditious
processing, ETA strongly encourages employers and their representatives to wait
until after February 5, 2001 before submitting, and then to file LCAs by fax. For further information regarding the new application process and to see the
new Form ETA 9035 and ETA 9035CP, please view the web site: OWS.DOLETA.GOV. For
information regarding changes in H-1B compliance, please visit: www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs42.htm WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FILE Electronic Process Manual Process HOW TO COMPLETE AND SUBMIT To send by Facsimile To send by Mail Note:
Beginning Feb 5, 2001, employer representatives will receive the approved LCA
only by fax. ***************************************************** LCA Faxback News: New LCA Form
Required; Effective January 19, 2001, only the new 3-page version of the H-1B Labor
Condition Application ("LCA") will be accepted. To obtain a copy
of the form click on the link below: http://ows.doleta.gov/foreign/pdf/h1bform.pdf
The cover pages required for the public access file and postings are located
at: http://ows.doleta.gov/foreign/pdf/h1bcl.pdf From January 19, 2001 through February 5, 2001, the LCA faxback system will
be taken out of commission to be retooled to accept the new forms.
Therefore, during that period, LCAs (using the new form) should be mailed
either to the appropriate ETA Regional Office, or (regardless of the location of
the job) to ETA-H1B, P.O. Box 13640, Philadelphia, PA, 19101. On February 5, 2001, ETA will accept for automated processing the new
three-page ETA 9035, either by facsimile or by mail, sent to the Philadelphia PO
Box indicated above. The Department of Labor has advised that, "for expeditious processing,
ETA strongly encourages employers and their representatives to wait until after
February 5, 2001 before submitting the application, and then to file LCAs by
fax." Click
here for the full text of DOL's notice on this subject. DOL has advised that all labor condition applications
filed on the old, 2-page, form using the faxback system have now been returned.
If you filed an LCA using the faxback system and have not yet received it
back, you should assume that it is lost. Unfortunately,
DOL also advises that it has no means of retrieving lost forms, so that the LCA
will have to be filed again, and now will have to be filed using the new form.
Until February 5, that form can be filed only on a mail-in basis to P.O.
Box 13640, Philadelphia, PA 19101. DOL also indicates that most of the old, 1-page,
mail-in LCAs have been returned, but that there may still be regional offices
that have not completed their backlogs. ***************************************************** Bush
Administration Delays Clinton Regulations for Review January
26, 2001 Shortly after President Bush took office, his administration took steps to
initiate a review of last-minute regulations drafted by the Clinton White House.
In a memorandum to all heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card announced a hold on all new and pending
regulations to allow new Bush appointees or their designates time to review
them. Covered under this memorandum are all proposed or final
regulations not yet published in the Federal Register, and regulations published
but not yet effective. In the
latter case, the effective date is to be postponed for at least 60 days to allow
for review. The order does not affect the new H-1B regulations published by the
Department of Labor, which became effective January 19, 2001.
However, other pending regulations are affected, including DOL’s labor
certification “RIR conversion” regulation, INS’ anticipated regulation on
concurrent I-140 and adjustment filings, and the asylum regulation reversing Matter
of R-A-. The Executive
Office for Immigration Review has indicated that it does not believe that the
memorandum affects the final Soriano regulation. While it is not clear whether the new administration will object to any of
these regulations, the delay will undoubtedly cause difficulties for those who
were awaiting the relief that these regulations may have granted.
As more information becomes available, it will be posted immediately to
this web site. To read the entire memo, click
here. ***************************************************** Department of Labor: Processing Times
and More Now, get the latest information and
processing times for Labor Certification applications from many of the labor
offices around the country. Just
click on the link below. ***************************************************** Find
out what’s going on in Congress, and around the country, with prospects for
new legislation, in the latest AILA Advocacy Update.
Click
here for all the details. ***************************************************** Department
of State's Affidavit of Support Website The State Department has established a website for assistance with completing
I-864 Affidavits of Support. It can be found at: http://travel.state.gov/aos.html ****************************************************** Have a Great Month,
and Keep Checking Back for All the Latest Immigration News and Information 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. Even though Congress has remedied some of the harsh
consequences of the 1996 Act, it has not gone far enough, and there is still
much more that has to be accomplished. We
will provide our readers with updates on what is still needed to bring fairness
and equity to US immigration 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. ******************************************************** How
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SUMMARY OF CURRENT PLANS
AS INDICATED IN 1/12/01 FOCUS GROUP MEETING
Department of Labor
Requires New LCA Form Starting January 19, 2001
More
Information on the New LCA Form
and Backlog ReportLatest
Congressional News
e-mail. **
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