A MESSAGE FROM SISKIND, SUSSER, HAAS & CHANG

With all of the hoopla surrounding the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, we thought it would be interesting to point out that immigration law and procedure does play many roles in this event. First and foremost, with more than 2,000,000 visitors coming to the Atlanta area, many from outside the US, substantial resources are being devoted by US Consulates and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to handling the flow. We have heard, for example, reports that numerous INS officials from around the region have been temporarily reassigned to Atlanta. No official word has come out regarding inevitable backlogs that will be created. Its also interesting to see how many USA athletes are immigrants - 47! Just up the coast in Washington, Congress is planning on overhauling the welfare system to preclude legal immigrants from applying for government assistance during times of need. That's an interesting message to send to the communities of legal immigrants who, like the immigrant athletes in Atlanta, make a massive contribution to our country's well-being.

We are pleased to report on a number of exciting developments at Siskind, Susser, Haas & Chang. Greg Siskind's new book, THE LAWYERS GUIDE TO MARKETING ON THE INTERNET, has been published by the American Bar Association. The ABA has high hopes that this will become one of their all-time bestsellers. Want more information? Visit the book's web site at http://www.lawmarketing.com/~law.

We are also pleased to announce that our firm has recently won several major awards for the quality of our Web site. THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, the American legal profession's leading newspaper, named our home page the fourth best web site in the country. LEGAL.ONLINE, a newsletter covering the Internet and the Legal Profession recently awarded us as one of the country's best law firm web sites. And Webcounsel Connect, a national legal profession Internet consulting firm awarded us its Platinum award as the best law firm web site. See our web site at http://www.visalaw.com/~gsiskind for more information.

Now on to this month's issue. After months of delay, we should finally see some movement on the immigration reform bill that will overhaul much of the immigration system. It should either die or become law in the next few weeks. As might be expected, election year politics are playing a role. Look for analysis of the bill's prospects in our "Legislative Update." We report in this month's issue on a major court decision which invalidates a number of new regulations regarding H-1B visas and Labor Condition Applications. We also discuss problems with the new 900 number telephone system being used by US Consulates in Mexico and Canada. The government agencies have issued new rules covering many items such as including Argentina and Australia in the Visa Waiver Program, setting rules for US citizen women to confer citizenship on children born outside the US before 1934 and removing the old I-151 Green Card from the list of items recognized as proof of permanent residency. Finally, we include our usual features such as processing time reports, Visa Spotlight, University Corner and Consular Focus.

Finally, we apologize for those of you who accidentally received multiple copies of our last newsletter. Our Internet Service Provider has been making changes on the listserv and inadvertently sent out additional copies of our last issue. We are told the problem has been corrected.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.