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July 2002 Newsletter
**U.S.
IMMIGRATION NEWS**
July
1, 2002
Published
by:
ImmigrationLinks.com,
Inc.
“Your
Immigration Link to the World”
Copyright
© 2002, ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc.
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info@immigrationlinks.com
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Welcome
to ImmigrationLinks.com, Inc., “Your
Immigration Link to the World”. Again, this has been a bad month for
those hoping for some meaningful immigration reform and for improvements on the
"service" side of Immigration. Apparently, Congress has
forgotten that INS stands for Immigration and Naturalization SERVICE, as
nothing is being done to provide better and faster "service" to the
millions of persons waiting to have their petitions and applications decided
upon. Just as in the
past few months, most of the news lately has to do with INS enforcement rather
than any meaningful attempts to improve the processing of immigration
applications. It is evident that immigration has become a political issue
and that anti-immigrant groups are continuing to seize on the after-effects of
September 11 to punish legitimate immigrants and non-immigrants seeking entry to
the US. New, restrictive, legislation and regulations are being
introduced nearly every week. Fortunately, there are a lot of immigrant
aid organizations that continue to fight for the legitimate rights of those
seeking immigration benefits in this country.
We
are confident that as the anti-immigration hysteria subsides, we will see new
laws that provide better service and benefits for immigrants in the near
future. In the meantime, it
is vital that we let Congress know how important these issues are for the benefit of
families and businesses in this country. We urge you to contact
your Senators and Representatives asking them to support legislation that
benefits those with close family or business ties to the US.
As usual, we will be at the forefront to express these views to our lawmakers
and, as always, we will keep you up to date with all of the latest developments
in US immigration law.
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***Coming
Soon***
ImmigrationLinks.com
is known for its high quality news, information, and research services. It
is recognized internationally for one of the top Immigration Law Manuals
available on the Internet. Soon, we will be releasing a brand new version
of our Do-it-Yourself Processing Kit for Marriage Cases. In keeping with
the high quality of all of our products, this will be the finest Immigration Kit
available anywhere. It will contain features not available in other
do-it-yourself products, and it will be authored by an attorney listed in The
Best Lawyers in America, and Law and Leading Attorneys in America.
It will prove to be an invaluable resource for those wishing to file their own
petition and/or application based upon marriage to a US citizen or lawful
permanent resident alien.
The
kit will allow persons to file for conditional and permanent residence based on
marriage to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident alien, including full
information on affidavit of support requirements. It will allow US
citizens to petition for their fiancées, and to apply for the new K-3 visa at
consulates outside of the US. Spouses and minor children of permanent
resident aliens who qualify for the new V visa will be able to use these kits to
obtain V visas or status, work permission, and then permanent residence when
their priority dates become current. Also, this kit will have everything
needed to file for removal of conditional residence for those who need to do so.
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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.
This service, as with most 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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INS Issues Final Rule for
Adjustment of Status Under the LIFE Act
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued a final rule
implementing the adjustment of status application provisions under the LIFE Act.
The rule also extends the filing deadline to June 4, 2003, and makes other
changes.
To view the entire rule, click the following link: INS
Issues Final Rule for Adjustment of Status Under the LIFE Act
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AILA's Recommended Comments
on the DOL's PERM Regulations
The American Immigration Lawyer's Association recommends that
the following draft be used as the basis of a comment letter by persons
interested in the Labor Department's PERM regulation.
Please note that all comments must be received by July 5, 2002.
Copyright
© 2002, American Immigration Lawyers Association
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room C-4318
Washington, D.C. 20210
Attn: Dale Ziegler, Chief, Division of Foreign Labor Certification
RE: Comments on "Labor Certification for the Permanent Employment
of Aliens in the United States; Implementation of New System" 67
Fed. Reg. 30466 (May 6, 2002)
Dear Mr. Ziegler:
We are writing to comment on the Notice of Proposed Rule Making issued
by the Department of Labor (DOL) in the Federal Register on May 6,
2002. These comments are being submitted by the July 5, 2002 deadline,
as indicated in the Federal Register.
Although the proposed changes to 20 C.F.R. Sections 655 and 656 (PERM)
include some positive steps toward creating an improved framework to
process labor certifications quickly and reduce application backlogs,
we are concerned that the following provisions do not reflect
contemporary business practices and may promote instability in the job
market.
- In order to meet the demands of business, employers must be able
to recruit for the actual position needed and list all skills and
applicable experience required for the position. This proposal
would severely limit employers' ability to designate specific
skills needed for a position and would completely eliminate the
business necessity rule. These restrictions would limit employers
to the generic DOT/O*NET job descriptions and leave them incapable
of revising job duties in accordance with changes in technology,
future advancements and specialization, or even in accordance with
their own, current business realities.
- The proposal would limit employers' ability to list experience
from related occupations that may serve as qualifying experience
for the position offered. Employers would not be able to consider
an applicant with alternative experience although that candidate
clearly could be qualified for the position. Eliminating the
alternative experience requirement would prevent employers from
staffing in accordance with real-world business practices.
- Under this proposed rule, employers would not be able use short,
generic advertisements for multiple positions; this would result
in a substantial increase in costs for employers who currently
file Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) labor certifications.
Requirements that employers list their names on advertisements
would conflict with standard practice in many industries, and
could lead to disclosure of confidential company information.
- The proposed regulation would not allow any experience to be
considered that was acquired by a foreign national who worked for
any entity that was subsequently acquired by the employer. This
proposal would also eliminate employers' ability to count specific
instances of the foreign worker's occupational experience if the
experience was gained while working for the employer, even if
experience was gained while working in a different position than
the one described in the labor certification application.
Elimination of the ability to "count" this experience
could encourage good employees to leave a long-time employer
because of the impossibility of gaining approval of a labor
certification with the employer, thus creating inefficiency for
businesses and instability in the job market.
- The proposal would not let employers reject U.S. applicants who
are not even qualified for the position as advertised, if they
would be able to eventually acquire the skills in which they are
deficient through on-the-job training. This, combined with the
fact that businesses would be unable to recruit for the actual
positions needed, is a one-two punch that would serve to severely
restrict employers' ability to hire a qualified candidate for the
job. The result would be time and money spent on extra training,
and therefore considerable amounts of productivity would be lost
for U.S. companies.
- The current regulations allow the actual wage to be within 95
percent of the prevailing wage as determined by the DOL. Allowing
a 5 percent variance is a longstanding practice for the DOL, based
on the fact that wage surveys are not an exact science. The
proposed rule would remove this margin, and introduce to the
process a myth that the information being relied upon is more
precise than it actually is.
- The proposed regulations would allow the DOL to revoke a labor
certification for cause if the certification occurred less than
one year from the date of revocation or for an application that
hasn't received a visa number, whichever comes first. There is no
standard laid out in the regulations that indicates the criteria
by which labor certifications would be revoked. If employers are
to have certainty in the workplace, they need to have a standard
by which this provision would be enforced.
We urge you to revise 20 CFR Sections 655 and 656 to address the
above concerns.
Sincerely,
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Proposed Rule
Regarding Registration Requirements for Certain Non-immigrants
This proposed rule seeks to modify the existing requirements to require certain
nonimmigrant aliens to make specific
reports to the Immigration and Naturalization Service: upon arrival;
approximately 30 days after arrival; every twelve months after
arrival; upon certain events, such as a change of address,
employment, or school; and at the time of departure from the United States.
Proposed
Rule Regarding Registration Requirements for Certain Non-immigrants
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AILA Statement in Opposition
to Proposal to Register Aliens
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American Immigration Lawyers Association
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 6, 2002
CONTACT: Amanda Carufel, (202) 216-2404
acarufel@aila.org
Statement of the American Immigration Lawyers
Association
In Opposition to the Department of Justice Registration Proposal
The American Immigration Lawyers Association strongly opposes the
Department of Justice’s recently announced proposal that would
require fingerprinting, photographing, and registering of nationals of
certain countries. This measure is a false solution to a real problem.
It offers little protection against terrorism while subjecting
individuals who come to this country to a lengthy and complicated
procedure that will not make us safer. In fact, it will subject
innocent people to arrest and deportation for failure to report on
time to the authorities. It also will waste precious resources because
it would be applied to people who already have been screened and
determined to be admissible to the United States.
Without consulting Congress, the Department of Justice has moved ahead
on this ill-conceived plan that would rely on secret criteria and
racial profiling, rather than on any accurate intelligence gathered on
individuals. Reports indicate that Muslim and Arab nationals are to be
targeted, thus stigmatizing these nationalities and negatively
stereotyping these communities here and abroad.
America certainly needs to continue efforts to enhance our security.
We have come to a fork in the road; this measure leads us down the
wrong path. Immigration is not the problem, terrorism is. To defeat
terrorism we need to follow the path blazed by the recently enacted
Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act which AILA helped to
develop and strongly supports, and which President Bush signed into
law less than one month ago. This new law will enhance our security
while recognizing that we are a nation of immigrants, with due process
protections and important economic considerations that mandate the
continued flow of people and goods. Without a strong economy, we will
be unable to fund our security needs.
The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act offers us the right
path to enhance our security by harnessing our technological and
intelligence capabilities. The Justice Department’s proposed rule
does not. Rather than focusing on implementing a law written for the
21st century, the Justice Department is diverting valuable resources
to resurrect a failed 1940s policy. It offers nationality profiling,
secret criteria, unfettered discretion of government officials, data
bases that will yield little useful information, an ineffective use of
resources, and possible reciprocal treatment of Americans by other
countries.
The Justice Department’s registration proposal is fundamentally
flawed. The people who mean to do us harm will not participate in it
and it will divert resources away from effective efforts to the
creation of a huge database of useless information within which
important intelligence will remain undiscovered. This measure also
will chill relationships with the very communities with whom
cooperation is being sought.
We strongly urge the Administration to abandon this regulation and
work with Congress in thoughtful ways to enhance our security.
###
Founded in 1946, AILA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that
provides its Members with continuing legal education, information, and
professional services. AILA advocates before Congress and the
Administration and provides liaison with the INS and other government
agencies in support of pro-immigration initiatives. AILA is an
Affiliated Organization of the American Bar Association.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
918 F Street NW, Washington, DC, 20009
Phone (202) 216-2400; Fax (202) 783-7853
28ad2034
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DV-2003 Update
State
Department Announces DV-2003 Results
State
Department Sets DV-2003 Processing Fee
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Sample
245(i) Letter to Congress
Use this letter as a model to send to your
Representative or Senator: (You may wish to mention in the
letter that you support the proposal of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle)
The Honorable (Full Name)
__ (Rm #) __ (name of) House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Representative ___________:
Or:
The Honorable (Full Name)
__ (Rm #) __ (name of) Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator ___________:
I am writing to urge you to support a
vital provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that would permit
immigrants on the brink of becoming permanent residents to stay in the United
States while the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) considers their
applications. This provision is
commonly known as Section 245(i). It
permits individuals to qualify for permanent residence in the US without the
need to return to their home countries to receive their visas.
In return, they must pay a $1,000.00 penalty fee, which greatly assists
the Immigration Service in providing services, without the need to seek these
funds from the US Treasury.
Without Section 245(i), affected
immigrants must return to their home countries, thereby disrupting their
families and work lives, to apply abroad for U.S. residency.
In many cases, they must remain outside of the United States for 10 years
or more.
Last year, Congress extended Section
245(i), to allow certain immigrants who filed preliminary paperwork by April 30,
2001 to adjust to permanent resident status here in this country.
Unfortunately, this four-month period of time was not long enough to
allow many qualified applicants from filing for adjustment based on their family
relationships, or through a bona fide offer of employment.
I urge you to support a workable
extension of the Section 245(i) deadline of at least one year, without any new
requirements. We need an extension
of Section 245(i) that will prevent the separation of families, allow businesses
to retain valued employees, and provide much-needed income for the Immigration
and Naturalization Service.
Sincerely,
Your Name, Address, and Phone #
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Missouri Service Center
Lists Top Ten Filing Problems
The Missouri Service Center has issued a memo
describing the top ten problems that it encounters with applications received at
the INS Chicago Filing facility. Click the link below to view the entire
memo:
Missouri
Service Center Lists Top Ten Filing Problems
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Have a Happy 4th of
July
from the Staff of ImmigrationLinks.com;
Now Your #1 Source for Information on US Immigration Law
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 and the Courts have remedied some of
the harsh consequences of the 1996 Act, they have not gone far enough, and there
is still much more that has to be accomplished.
We will continue to provide our readers with updates on what is still
needed to bring fairness and equity to US immigration law.
As we can see in this
month's mailing, INS is making it even more difficult for bona fide tourists and
students to visit and study in this country. 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 visit and study in
the US, or 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, and with warm wishes to you and your families during the
year.
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