Dear Readers:

As an author of one of the only books published on the subject of J-1 visas, I have a special interest in that particular topic. While there are steady changes to report on this topic, particularly on J-1 waiver applications, I usually do not have multiple J-1 stories to report in one newsletter issue. This week we do. First, a new State Department policy will allow states to add up to ten additional slots to the number of physician waivers they can file in this fiscal year. Basically, the State Department believes that the new law expanding the State 20 program for physicians applies retroactively to last May, and, if a state waiver program had applications received in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2002 that could not be approved because the state was out of slots, then they can reclaim those numbers for this year. AILA member George Newman deserves a thank you for his work on this.

This week the State Department informed NAFSA, the international student advisor organization, that institutions with J visa programs will need to electronically submit an Exchange Visitor Program Application (Form DS-3036) by December 16 to ensure that the program is properly enrolled in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) by the January 30, 2003 deadline. The SEVIS program is the new online information system designed to keep track of F-1 and J-1 visa holders in the US. The next two months will present colleges and universities around the country with a serious challenge while they attempt to meet this implementation deadline.

Many J-1 doctors eventually go on to seek permanent residency through a National Interest Waiver. Physicians in nine states filed suit against the INS this week challenging a number of aspects of the NIW regulations for physicians. They include limits on specialists and restrictions on the timing of regulations. Carl Shusterman, a friend and colleague on the west coast deserves thanks for leading the charge on this and for filing the suit on behalf of the doctors. Well done Carl!

We report on these stories, the rest of the news as well as our regular features this week. One new item we hope you like. We're having fun with our new flow chart software and have decided to begin posting flow charts in our ABCs feature to illustrate how cases progress. We hope you find this first one on H-1B visas useful.

As always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind