Recently we reported that the Conrad State 20 waiver program for J-1 physicians was extended and expanded to allow state health departments to sponsor 30 physicians per year instead of 20. The State Department has just informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association that could permit states to receive an extra ten waiver slots this fiscal year ON TOP of the thirty slots already available.

The new law says that the legislation extending the waiver program was effective as of May 31, 2002. The State Department believes that this means that states were entitled to have 30 waiver slots for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2002. Consequently, states will be able to use the ten extra slots during the current fiscal year which ends on September 30, 2003. The main catch is that the application must have been submitted to the particular state's waiver program during the 2002 fiscal year. The State Department issued the following memorandum outlining the policy:

To: Conrad/State 30 Program
From: U.S. Department of State, J-1 Visa Waiver Division
Re: Amendments to the Conrad/State 20 Program
Date: December 3, 2002

The President signed the Justice Authorization bill on November 2, 2002. (Pub. L.107-273). This law is organized into several divisions, incorporating numerous previously enacted legislation. The Law Enforcement Tribute Act is incorporated under a division of this law and amends the Conrad State 20 Program at section 11018 by increasing the number of visa waiver requests for each state per fiscal year from 20 to 30. This section also authorizes the extension of the Program to 2004.

Section 11018(d) makes the amendments to the Program effective as of May 31, 2002. The Department interprets this to permit states that have reached the numerical limitation of 20 requests for 2002 to submit up to 10 additional visa waiver requests for fiscal year 2002. It is contemplated that these additional cases originated in FY’ 02 with the State. The Department will accept such cases with that understanding. If you plan to submit additional requests for fiscal year 2002, the Department would appreciate your doing so as expeditiously as possible to facilitate the processing of your applications by the Visa Waiver Division. The Waiver Division will not accept applications postmarked after September 30, 2003. Also, the applications must be numbered sequentially and for the fiscal year for which it is being submitted.

Applications for fiscal year 2003 are to be submitted in compliance with normal regulatory requirements and must be postmarked no later than September 30, 2003.