As the month of September closed, our firm watched anxiously along with many of our readers as the so-called "double deadline" for illegal aliens came and went. Those of you who have followed this issue in our newsletter or elsewhere in the media will recall that the new three and ten year bars went into effect September 27th right around the same time that Section 245i of the Immigration and Nationality Act was scheduled to expire. Many panicked people had to make the sometimes awful choice of leaving their families, jobs, friends behind and leave the country, possibly for years, or take their chances that Congress would extend Section 245i and they would eventually be able to apply for permanent residency here in the US. Unfortunately, even though Section 245i was extended for three weeks, those without immediate prospects for adjusting status to permanent residency were forced to make a choice.

In order to best serve our readers, Siskind, Susser, Haas & Chang set up a New Law Emergency Update Page on our web site (http://www.visalaw.com). As news developed, we were able to immediately pass the information on to the public. Though we did not publicize the existence of this page, it quickly became the most read document on our web site. In fact, interest in the new law resulted in our US and Canadian sites receiving close to 500,000 hits in September, the most ever.

With this issue, we are very happy to announce the addition of Cynthia Ryan to our New York City office. Cynthia, a graduate of Pace University School of Law, has been practicing immigration law since the 1980s. Prior to joining our firm, Cynthia had a solo law practice focusing exclusively in the area of immigration law. We are pleased she has joined our team and invite our readers to contact her at 212-349-7708 or via email at cdryan@visalaw.com.

In the awards and accolades department, SSHC is proud that the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service has listed the SSHC Visalaw web site in its report for Congress on the ten best sites on the Internet for immigration information. In fact, the SSHC home page was the only law firm to make the list. For those interested in bookmarking these sites, the are the following:

- Immigration and Naturalization Service

- Department of State

- US Information Agency

- The American Immigration Lawyers Association Home Page

- Federal Publications

- Siskind, Susser, Haas & Chang

- National Association of Foreign Student Advisors

- American Immigration Center

- Information Technology Associates

- Yahoo Immigration Information

In this month's issue, we provide our usual coverage of the latest immigration information including indepth coverage of the implementation of the new immigration bars. We also include our regular features - Consular Focus, Immigration and the Internet, Visa Spotlight, Agency Processing Times and State Department Visa Numbers.

Finally, as always we remind readers that our twelve lawyers are able to serve immigration clients in any state or province in the US or Canada. You are always welcome to call us toll free at 800-748-3819. We also provide full-scale consultations via telephone. Just complete the appointment request questionnaire at http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html.