Dear Readers:

We were pleasantly surprised this week when we learned that two very important provisions were added into the Department of Justice budget authorization bill that will have a positive impact on immigrants. First, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), the former chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee who has a reputation for not being a friend of immigrants, pushed through a measure that will allow H-1B visa holders to apply for an extension of their H-1B visa beyond the six year limit when a labor certification has been pending for more than a year. This is hugely beneficial to a number of applicants who have been stuck waiting for their labor certifications to clear. The current law requires an I-140 to be on file before the H-1B can be extended and an I-140 cannot be filed until a labor certification is approved.

The second change is a measure to provide relief to a number of individuals who received conditional permanent residency in the mid-90s through the EB-5 immigrant investor green card program. The INS had initially granted permanent residency and then decided to retroactively change their position on what constituted an acceptable investment under the program. We describe what the changes will be in our ABCs of Immigration article this week.

The bill should be voted on by today or tomorrow in the Senate. It passed by a wide margin in the House and should also pass easily in the Senate.

On Monday, the second edition of my best-selling book THE LAWYERS GUIDE TO MARKETING ON THE INTERNET was published. The book is published by the American Bar Association and can be purchased online at http://www.abanet.org/lpm/catalog/home.html. I wrote the first edition back in 1996 and much has changed in the world of Internet marketing since then. When I wrote the original book, I was still one of the few lawyers with a web site (our www.visalaw.com web site went online in 1994) and the book was largely based on my own experience. There are tens of thousands of law firm web sites now so there is no shortage of good examples to highlight. I believe that many of the 3000+ lawyers who subscribe to this newsletter will find the book useful and I look forward to any feedback purchasers of the book may have.

Finally, 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.

Kind regards,

Greg Siskind