Dear Readers: 

We are following several major developing immigration stories this week. In what will likely be one of the most important immigration stories of the year, the US Senate is debating a funding bill for the Iraq War as well as relief for tsunami victims that could have important immigration consequences. That bill is one of the “must pass” pieces of legislation that the Congress takes up each year. 

What does a spending bill have to do with immigration? As it turns out, quite a bit. The House of Representatives version of the bill contains the notorious REAL ID bill, which would toughen drivers license requirements for immigrants and also dramatically tighten asylum rules. The Senate was hoping to keep REAL ID out of their bill, but the chances of this happening are lessening. In the mean time, pro-immigration advocates are pushing for their own provisions to be included including raising the H-2B visa quota, the AgJobs bill, and a measure to allow nurses to reclaim unused EB-3 numbers. I’ve been closely involved with the third item. Nurses don’t have access to a non-immigrant visa and most are from the countries facing the recent three-year rollback of priority dates. Given the severe nursing shortage in the US, the need for these nurses is clear and many will opt for other countries also facing shortages if the Congress fails to act quickly. 

Whether these provisions will make it into the spending bill is the subject of intense debate right now. By next week, we should have a better idea of the answer. 

Majority Leader Frist has been trying to keep the immigration provisions out in order to speed up debate on the spending bill. He promised this week that immigration reform will be taken up THIS year in order to persuade his colleagues to let a “clean” version of the spending bill pass. Shortly after Frist made these comments, Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Kyl (R-AZ), announced plans to begin work on immigration reform in the Senate Immigration Subcommittee. Cornyn chairs that committee and Kyl is a member as well. The two will introduce a comprehensive immigration bill that is designed to strengthen border enforcement as well as create a work visa plan along the lines outlined by President Bush last year. 

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On April 11^th, President Bush announced that Eduardo Aguirre, Jr., the Director of USCIS, will be leaving his post to become the new US Ambassador to Spain. No word yet on who will be replacing Aguirre, but the news is a disappointment to many who have praised his achievements in reducing backlogs at the USCIS. We wish the soon-to-be ambassador good luck in his new position. 

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Another story we are still watching is the H-1B saga. USCIS was supposed to issue rules allowing for issuance of an extra 20,000 H-1Bs based on a bill President Bush signed last year. They had until March 8, 2005 to deal with this, but we are now five weeks past the deadline and USCIS has still not issued rules. In the mean time, applicants can apply for numbers for the next fiscal year beginning October 1^st. USCIS has indicated that applications filed with October 1^st start dates can be converted to earlier dates once the rules for the 20,000 visas are announced. But this does little answer many of the questions employers, applicants and lawyers have regarding the proper way to file these cases. We can only advise readers that we will pass on information as we receive it. 

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In firm news, we would like to introduce you to Deanna Helstrom, an associate attorney in our New York office. Deanna has actually been with the firm for the past three years as a law clerk and we’re pleased that she has now joined us as an attorney. Deanna adds to the firm’s legislative advocacy capabilities in addition to being a promising immigration lawyer.  She worked on Capitol Hill in the office of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and received a bachelor’s degree in political science at George Washington University. She also handled immigration matters in the New York office of Senator Hilary Clinton. Deanna attended Brooklyn Law School in New York where she graduated last year and she worked as an intern in the New York immigration court. Deanna can be reached at dhelstrom@visalaw.com. Welcome Deanna! 

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Arda Beskardes, an attorney in Siskind Susser’s Memphis office, will be a featured speaker at the Turkish American Business Conference to be held at Stanford University on May 21^st. For more information on the program, go to http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=84411 .  

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Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. 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