Dear Readers:

This week the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that studies immigration matters, released a long-awaited report on American immigration policies in the post 9-11 era. MPI's report questions not only whether the policies of this Administration are fair and uphold American values, but also whether they are even effective at stopping terrorism. One of the authors of the report is Doris Meissner, the former Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Another is Steve Yale-Loehr, the noted Cornell law professor. Steve also happens to be my co-author on the J-1 Visa Guidebook. We report on the MPI study in this week's newsletter.

Speaking of the J-1 Visa Guidebook, I'm pleased to announce that the 2003 edition of the book has just been released. The 1600+ book can be ordered online from our publisher LexisNexis by clicking on this link: http://bookstore.lexis.com/bookstore/catalog?action=product&prod_id=12991&cat_id=SR&returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Fbookstore.lexis.com%2Fbookstore%2Fsearch%3Fnull. Just about every important resource relating to J-1 visas is included in this fifth edition of the book.

This week we also include the first of two articles on Social Security numbers and immigration law. We get asked questions all the time about how to get a Social Security Number, what can be substituted if a number is not available, what so-called "Social Security mismatch" letters mean and more. So look for information on this topic in this week's ABC's of Immigration article.

I also want to take the opportunity to welcome the newest contributor to Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Megan Turngren is a law clerk at our firm and a current student at the University of Memphis Law School. She also is an experienced journalist and we're enjoying the excellent contributions she's making to our little weekly publication. Welcome Megan!

This week I'll be participating in one of my first official tasks as the Chairman of the Physicians Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. I'll be attending a Washington, DC meeting of all of the administrators of the Conrad State 30 J-1 waiver programs as well as the new HHS waiver program. We'll be discussing a variety of J-1 waiver issues in a roundtable format that will also include a few other AILA members who will be representing the thousands of members of our association. In addition to being able to express our concerns regarding the various J-1 programs, the fact that AILA members were invited to attend this meeting is a very healthy sign that program administrators are genuinely interested in keeping the lines of communication open.

Readers of this newsletter may recall my recent review of e-filing with the BCIS. I happen to be participating in the E-Filing Standards for Immigration Group (ESIG), a voluntary consortium of established U.S. immigration law firms and their electronic immigration software and online applications solution-providers. This week we are submitting a comment on the recent Federal Register e-filing notice and I am a contributor to the comment. Next week we will publish that comment. We'll also report on the new online appointment scheduling system being used on a pilot basis at the BCIS office in Miami.

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