Dear Readers:

This week I had one of the more interesting experiences of my immigration law career. For several years we have assisted a large nearby university with green card applications for faculty members and advised outgoing students on work visa options. We've also assisted J-1 visa holders at this university with home residency waivers. Recently, this university's international office director resigned and our firm was asked to provide temporary help in staffing the position. We happen to have an attorney who is of counsel to our firm who has several years experience in just this type of position. We have been sending him one to two days a week to this university for the past few months. But this week he was unable to go to the campus and I decided to fill in.

Most immigration lawyers have a basic understanding of F-1 and J-1 visas. But the specific rules surrounding things like curricular practical training and transferring between educational programs are usually left to others - namely, the thousands of foreign student advisors around the US. I have always had respect for foreign student advisors, but I have a new found admiration for the work they do. Schools around the US are undertaking the massive task of moving all the data for their existing students into the new SEVIS online system. They are absorbing an extensive set of new regulations governing F-1 and J-1 rules. They are dealing with special registration requirements, security clearances, and processing time delays. And they typically are understaffed to boot.

This week we report on a couple of interesting news items. H-1B usage statistics were released for the last fiscal year. About 79,000 visas counted against a cap of 195,000. The H-1B cap is set to return to its statutory limit of 65,000 in October and the battle to get the H-1B numbers up to a workable level in time for the economic recovery. The anti-H-1B forces are already lobbying hard to do nothing about the cap being lowered. Whether pro-H-1B forces will succeed in raising the cap again is hard to say. Refugee admission numbers are also way down. Only a fraction of the number of refugees authorized to be admitted to the US this year have arrived so far despite promises from the Bush Administration that it would address the problem.

This week we have many of our regular features including an ABCs article on non-immigrant visa options for athletes as well as a guest article from tax lawyer Stephen Weiser on tax issues for foreign nationals. Plus we have all of our regular features.

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.

Regards,

Greg Siskind