Attorney Greg Siskind wrote an article in the August 15 issue of Indus Business Journal explaining why it is important to take your time choosing an immigration attorney and why hiring immigration consultants in lieu of attorneys is not a wise decision. Click here to read it.

Here's the table of contents for this week's Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Click here to get to any of the articles.

1. Openers
2. The ABC's Of Immigration: Labor Certification Flowchart
3. Ask Visalaw.com
4. Border News
5. News From The Courts
6. Government Processing Times
7. News Bytes
8. International Roundup
9. Legislative Update
10. Campaign 2004
11. State Department Visa Bulletin
12. Bill Introduced to Facilitate Foreign Students’ Access to U.S. Graduate Schools
13. Certain Uncredentialed Foreign Media Representatives Will Be Granted I Status
14. DHS Updates Entry and Exit Ports for US-VISIT

Attorney Greg Siskind and Siskind Susser staff member Gilda Bollwerk co-authored an article in the August 22 issue of La Prensa Latina outlining more factors to be aware of when hiring an immigration attorney (en Espanol). Click here to read it.

Many of you have emailed me over the last few months asking about H-1B visa usage and how close we are to hitting the H-1B cap for the fiscal year that starts on October 1st. Late Friday afternoon, the American Immigration Lawyers Association reported that it is been advised by the Department of Homeland Security that as of August 4, 2004, it had received 40,000 cap-subject H-1B filings that are covered by the 2005 annual cap. 21,000 cases had actually been approved and the rest were filed, but not yet approved. Some of these cases will be denied, of course. But also keep in mind that the about 6,000 numbers are reserved for nationals of Singapore or Chile (though expect most of these numbers to be added back based on unused numbers for this year).

This pace of about 10,000 cap case applications being filed a month means that come October, there will be very few visas left. Don’t expect any help from Congress before the election. There is just no political support right now for raising the numbers. After the election, Congress is more likely to focus on the genuine merits of the H-1B program. Also, despite what President Bush says, most Americans do NOT feel good about the job situation and as long as Americans feel insecure about their jobs, members of Congress are going to be reluctant to move on H-1B legislation. Unfortunately, there are plenty of fields where there are genuine worker shortages – teachers, physicians, nurses, etc. – and our H-1B program is not flexible enough to exempt many of these professionals from the cap.

In the mean time, readers would be wise to consult with their immigration counsel to devise backup strategies in case an H-1B visa is not available.

We've posted the State Department Visa Bulletin for September 2004. Click here to read it.

Here's the table of contents from this week's Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Click here to get to any of the articles.

1. Openers
2. The ABC's Of Immigration: J-1 Visas for Exchange Visitors
3. Ask Visalaw.com
4. Border News
5. News From The Courts
6. Government Processing Times
7. News Bytes
8. International Roundup
9. Legislative Update
10. Campaign 2004
11. U.S. Will Grant Parole to Certain Visitors who Overstayed Their Last Visa
12. Department of Justice Outlines Forms of Relief from Removal
13. UN Report Shows Insensitivity to Asylum Seekers in US Airports
14. DHS Seeks to Reconcile Border Enforcement and Immigrants’ Concerns
15. DHS Authorizes Longer Temporary Visits for Mexicans with Less Paperwork

Attorney Greg Siskind and Siskind Susser staff member Gilda Bollwerk co-authored an article in the August 22 issue of La Prensa Latina outlining factors to be aware of when hiring an immigration attorney (en Espanol). Click here to read it.

We've posted the latest processing times for the Vermont and California Service Centers and the National Benefits Center in Missouri. Click here to see them.

The latest monthly issue of Siskind's Immigration Professional is now online. Click here to read it.

We've posted the latest processing times for the Nebraska, Texas and Vermont Service Centers and the National Benefits Center in Missouri. Click here to see them.

Our family’s trip up the California coast is over and I’m back in the office and glad to be back working on the newsletter and handling immigration matters. I want to thank my team – in particular Arda Beskardes who filled in as editor for the last two issues. Arda did a great job and I’m glad to call him a colleague.



Many of you are watching the Olympics this week and the American team is, as always, a great example of how proud this country can be of its immigrants. Immigrants are well represented on the US team including swimming great Lenny Krayzelburg, tennis legend Martina Navratilova, gymnast Annia Hatch and soccer phenomenon Freddy Adu. Good luck to all the athletes!



In firm news, I’m profiled this week in the Memphis Business Journal. You can read the story on our web site at www.visalaw.com/news/.

Here's the table of contents for this week's Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Click here to get to any of the articles.

1. Openers
2. The ABC's Of Immigration: P-2 Visas for Artists and Entertainers in Reciprocal Exchange Programs and P-3 Visas for Artists and Entertainers Participating in Culturally Unique Programs
3. Ask Visalaw.com
4. Border News
5. News From The Courts
6. Government Processing Times
7. News Bytes
8. International Roundup
9. Legislative Update
10. Campaign 2004
11. DHS Extends Border Patrol’s Expedited Removal Power
12. President Bush Signs Bill to Extend Requirement Deadline for Biometrics in Passports
13. USCIS Provides Clarification on Extension of Stay for Foreign Students
14. Immigration Attorney Suspended for Threatening Client
15. Immigration Official Convicted of Corruption and Violating Civil Rights

Attorney Greg Siskind was profiled in the August 13 issue of the Memphis Business Journal. Click here to read it.

This week I am writing this column from the American Bar Association’s (ABA) annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. ABA is one of the largest voluntary professional organizations in the world and is the primary stake holder in matters involving the legal profession, and legal matters in general. One of the hot-topics this year was the much-discussed detainee rights in the war against terror. ABA has taken lots of heat this year in advocating legal rights to detainees regardless of nationality.

Another interesting session I attended was about outsourcing and off-shoring. This is another hot-topic, which involves lots of immigration issues. Outsourcing is contracting out a usually non-core function of a company to an outside source. Off-shoring, on the other hand, is carrying certain functions of a business overseas by creating a new corporate entity overseas. There was intense debate about outsourcing and off-shoring in the last year and it will be a hot-topic during the elections.

One of the interesting things I learned was the definition of “deemed exports” in the context of Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Under EAR, any release of technology (software, technical data, etc.) to a foreign person, regardless of place, is an export. A foreign person is defined as someone who is not a US citizen, a dual-citizen of the US, a lawful permanent resident, or an asylee or refugee. Therefore, release of technology to a H-1b, L-1A, E-1, J-1, F-1, etc. holder in the US (the person does not have to be outside of the US) can still deemed to be an export. One of the groups that were discussed in this session were the IT administrators on H-1b visas in US businesses. If the person has unlimited access to the company’s technical data and if that data is listed under the EAR or other export licenses, then the company may have to obtain an “export license” to cover this person in all technologies and items listed under the “Commerce Control List”.

Those readers who hire foreign nationals in non-immigrant categories who have access to significant technical data of a US employer, or readers who are hired in non-immigrant categories and have unlimited or significant access to their company’s technical data, may be effected by EAR and the licensing requirements. This was news to me and found it very interesting and wanted to share it with our readers. I, as an immigration attorney, am not familiar with the details of EAR and the licenses, but if you think you may be effected, it will be a good idea to check these issues with your company’s general counsel or with a competent export and international trade attorney.

Issues like outsourcing, employment visas and other employment related immigration issues will be hot-topics in this year’s election. We will try to keep you updated on emerging issues in our weekly “Campaign 2004” section.

This week we are offering an ABC’s article on the P visas for athletes and entertainers. It is a very interesting visa category and we hope you will enjoy reading it. We are also reporting the termination of the crew list visa program and the extension of the temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalia. Also, we just received news of the termination of the TPS program for the nationals of Montserrat. Currently there are a little under 300 citizens of Montserrat in the temporary protected status in the US. TPS was granted due to volcanic activity in this island. DHS announced today that they will terminate the program by February 2005. We will have more information about this next week.

Here's the table of contents for this week's Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Click here to get to any of the articles.

1. Openers
2. The ABC’S Of Immigration: P-1 Visas for Athletes and Entertainers
3. Ask Visalaw.com
4. Border and Enforcement News
5. News From The Courts
6. Government Processing Times
7. News Bytes
8. International Roundup
9. Legislative Update
10. Campaign 2004
11. CIS Announces Policy on Transsexual Applicants
12. U.S.-Visit Exit Program Expands to 13 More Cities
13. Crew List Visas Eliminated by State Department
14. Extension of Temporary Protected Status for Nationals of Somalia

Attorney Greg Siskind and Siskind Susser staff member Gilda Bollwerk co-authored an article in the August 8 issue of La Prensa Latina explaining a new regulation to extend the validity of employment authorization documents (en Espanol). Click here to read it.

This has been a very busy summer in the immigration front. As the summer progresses, not a week passes without a major change or announcement. This week we have news about changes in the EAD processing, the implementation of the SEVIS fee rule for students and exchange visitors in the F, J, and M statuses, and the new immigration photo requirements. We also are publishing an updated version of our ABCs article on S visas. S visas, also called snitch visas, are a true rarity and we sincerely hope that our readers will not need to utilize them. They are issued to individuals who seek entry to the US to testify against criminal organizations, terrorist organizations, etc.

A new regulation was published, enabling examiners to issue EADs for periods longer than a year. This should be a life-saver in many lengthy immigration applications. Before this regulation, EADs were issued for a maximum period of one year. As you know, many immigration applications may take several years to complete and therefore applicants had to go through the motions of renewing their EADs every year, until the completion of their applications. This was not only an inconvenience for the applicants (and a major risk for falling out of status, if the EAD was not issued in a timely manner), but, also a huge administrative burden on the CIS. Under the new regulation, CIS can issue EADs for longer periods than a year. This should cut their work significantly and offer convenience to applicants.

Also, the SEVIS fee collection is now a reality. Department of State issued a cable about the fee collection and clarified who is and who is not subject to the fee. Initially the fee will be collected by the DHS, but the Department of State is also testing the feasibility of collecting the fee via the Consular posts at two pilot programs in China and India. It is no surprise that China and India were chosen for the pilot program: those are the two countries with the highest number of student and exchange visitor visa applications.

DOJ and DHS are cracking down on websites “impersonating” official government immigration websites. These websites try to create the impression that they are official US government websites and attempt to use this impression for financial gain. Naturally they use lots of red, blue, and white, US flags and real links to official US government websites, but actually are fraudulent operations. We advise our readers to keep in mind that most official US government sites end with “.gov”. Websites ending with “.com”, “.us”, “.org”, “.net”, “.cc”, etc. are almost never official US government websites. So, please exercise caution and don’t be a victim of these impersonators.

Additionally, we are printing interesting data on the decreasing number of nonimmigrant visas being issued. In the last couple of years, the number of visas issued decreased significantly. The major decrease was in B (business and tourism) visas. Especially the decrease in tourism visas is bound to have a significant impact on the US economy.

We've posted the latest processing times for the Nebraska and California Service Centers. Click here to see them.

Attorney Greg Siskind and Siskind Susser staff member Gilda Bollwerk co-authored an article in the August 1 issue of La Prensa Latina continuing to explain how to determine whether or not you need an immigration lawyer (en Espanol). Click here to read it.

Here's the table of contents for this week's Siskind's Immigration Bulletin. Click here to get to any of the articles.

1. Openers
2. The ABC’S Of Immigration: S Visas for Aliens Assisting Law Enforcement
3. Ask Visalaw.com
4. Border and Enforcement News
5. News From The Courts
6. Government Processing Times
7. News Bytes
8. International Roundup
9. Legislative Update
10. New Regulation to Extend Validity of Employment Authorization Documents
11. Department of Agriculture Employee Arrested for Visa Fraud
12. USCIS Changes to Passport-Style Photographs Effective 9/1/04
13. SEVIS Fee Required Before Applying for Visas
14. Astounding Drop in the Issuance of Non-Immigrant Visas

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